St. George Cricket Grounds or St. George Grounds is a former

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

venue located on Staten Island, New York. St. George was the home park for the

New York Metropolitans The Metropolitan Club (New York Metropolitans or the Mets) was a 19th-century professional baseball team that played in New York City from 1880 to 1887. (The ''New York Metropolitan Baseball Club'' was the name chosen in 1961 for the New York ...

of the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

for the and seasons. The grounds were also a part-time home to the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

in . The Cricket Grounds were also known as Mutrie's Dump or Mutrie's Dumping Grounds, referring to

Jim Mutrie James J. Mutrie (June 13, 1851 – January 24, 1938) was an American baseball pioneer who was the co-founder and first manager of both the original New York Metropolitans and the New York Giants. He had a winning percentage of .611, the highest fo ...

, manager of the Metropolitans and the Giants. The stadium, which was built in the style of a typical horse race track

grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap a ...

, was first used as a baseball field in 1853, with the first game between the New York Knickerbockers and the Washington Club. The site later became part of the development of the then-new community of St. George, Staten Island in 1886, by Erastus Wiman. Fans were able to watch games while watching the construction of the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...

. Although the community and the

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

were successful, baseball was not. The Giants were a strong team through the latter part of the 1880s, and the Metropolitans folded after the 1887 season. The Giants played some games there from April 29 – June 14, 1889, while awaiting construction of the

Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 through 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built fo ...

; their move to Manhattan ended professional baseball at St. George. The parking lot of the current

Richmond County Bank Ballpark The Staten Island University Hospital, Community Park (SIUH Community Park) is a baseball stadium located on the north-eastern tip of Staten Island. The ballpark is the home of the Staten Island FerryHawks, a member of the Atlantic League of P ...

was the location of the former Cricket Grounds.

References

External links

New York Metropolitans Attendance, Stadiums and Park Factors page on baseball-reference.com
St. George, Staten Island Sports venues in Staten Island Defunct baseball venues in the United States Lacrosse venues in New York City Former sports venues in New York City Demolished sports venues in New York (state) Demolished buildings and structures in Staten Island Cricket grounds in New York City Baseball venues in New York City {{NYC-sport-stub

See also

References

External links