Not again!

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK • JUNE 18, 1962 – Remember yesterday’s story in this spot about Lou Brock being only the second major league player to hit a home run into the center field bleachers in the Polo Grounds? The bleachers were 475 feet from home plate. Well, it happened again “today”; Henry Aaron, a more likely slugger, put one into the bleachers in center as the Milwaukee Braves beat the Giants 7-1. What were the odds? Just three players had hit balls into the center field bleachers in the 52-year history of the Polo Grounds, two of them on consecutives days.

The Polo Grounds had some interesting quirks. While the center field fence was a great distance away. The left and right field lines were short. The distance down the left field line varied over the years, but was usually 270 or 280 feet away, never more than 300 feet away, the right field line was even shorter. The upper deck in left hung over the lower deck, meaning a ball that could be caught if it fell all the way to the ground, could end up in the upper deck and be a home run.

Read on:

http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/national/pologr.htm

http://www.retrosheet.org/

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