Madison Square Park (5th Ave. near 26th Street in Manhattan, approx. 1842-1845)
The first ballpark. Home of the Knickerbockers.

Elysian Fields (Hoboken, NJ, 1845-1870s)
Site of the first known baseball games (i.e.- no games were recorded at Madison Square Park).

The Brooklyn Waterfront (mid- to late 1850s)
Source of the inspiration for the curveball.

Fashion Race Course (Flushing section of Queens, 1858)
Site of the first all-star game (Brooklyn vs. New York), played on the infield of the race track located a few hundred yards from the site of today's Shea Stadium. The Dodger-Giant rivalry is most distantly rooted in this game.

Union Grounds (Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, 1862-1870s)
First enclosed ballpark (admission was charged and the players demanded a cut, leading to the ordered and skillful professional game).

Capitoline Grounds (Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, 1864-1870s)
Where the surreptitiously professional Brooklyn Atlantics ended the 91-game win streak of the openly professional Cincinnati Red Stockings. In this game switch-hitting was invented and extra innings established, and it resulted soon thereafter with the creation of the Boston Red Stockings (now the Atlanta Braves).

Polo Grounds I (5th Ave. at 110th Street in Manhattan, 1883-1888)
The Giants' first ballpark. Site of what was arguably the first world series (between the champions of the American Association and the National League). Abandoned in 1889 when city legislators ran 111th Street through the outfield in retribution for having received insufficient free tickets from Giants management in 1888.

Polo Grounds II (8th Ave. at 155th Street in Manhattan, 1890-1963)
Baseball's shrine, in part because it was the modern ballpark with the most direct connection with the Knickerbockers and with the dead ball - lively ball switch. Briefly home to the Yankees (1913-1922) and original home of the Mets (1962-1963).

Hilltop Park (Broadway at 165th Street in Manhattan, 1903-1912)
The Yankees broke in here, humbly, as the Highlanders.

Ebbets Field (Flatbush, now Crown Heights, section of Brooklyn, 1913-1957)
Judge Landis: "This doggone park is like a pinball machine." Home of the Brooklyn Dodgers and therefore baseball's temple to the bizarre.

Yankee Stadium (the Bronx, 1923 - present)
Offspring of the union between the Polo Grounds and the lively ball, between John McGraw and Babe Ruth.

Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ, 1937-1970s)
Minor league ballpark of the International League Jersey City Giants (the top NY Giants farm club) and others.

Shea Stadium (Flushing section of Queens, 1964 - present)
The name reflects the city's trauma upon its abandonment at the hands of Horace Stoneham and the unspeakable Walter O'Malley.

WORLD SERIES SITES

Total World Series games played (1903 - 2007) 601, at 50 different ballparks

*Nearly one-quarter (24.5% - 147 of 601) of all World Series games have been played at these two sites along the Harlem River within 3000 feet of one another. Almost one-third (31.3% - 188 of 601) have been played in New York City.

BASEBALL IS NEW YORK

Baseball comes from New York City.

All three major stages of baseball evolution occurred in New York City.

The game was created by gentlemen in Madison Square Park and soon changed altogether in Brooklyn, where baseball became a real contest with the object no longer to socialize but to win. This meant taking advantage of opponents' weaknesses, leading for example to the bunt, the stolen base and the curveball, and then to the first professional players. Most of baseball comes from Brooklyn.

The character of Times Square was among a series of factors along midtown and uptown Manhattan that brought about an abrupt shift in the way the game is played. The last remnant of this change in baseball philosophy is represented by the dimensions of the Yankee Stadium outfield wall. In 1947 there occurred baseball's revolution: Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, almost inevitably in Brooklyn.

Baseball is an expression of New York City.

The story of the modern game can be read through New York City's four 20th Century teams:

Baseball is from New York. Baseball is of New York. In its origins, traditions and most compelling history, baseball is New York.