It is jarring. You don't expect it. You're watching the ball jump off the bat and your brain is conditioned to think it is a routine flyball. As the camera pans to the right, it just appears. The right field stands at the Polo Grounds. That is where Duke Snider's 399th career homerun landed in an unearthed video clip from MLB.com.
This isn't the only homerun we've ever seen in the Polo Grounds, however (to my knowledge) it is the only broadcast footage of a homerun in the iconic stadium. The Polo Grounds was the home of the New York Yankees until 1922, the Giants until 1957 and the Mets for the 1962 and 1963 seasons. The ballpark hosted two All-Star games, neither televised and the 1951 and 1954 World Series, both of which were televised but no broadcast material survives. Probably the most famous game ever played at The Grounds was Game 3 of the 1951 NL Playoff. Despite the WPIX broadcast being transmitted coast-to-coast by NBC, no broadcast footage from this game survives either.
After the jump, we will talk about the game, the call and the true star of the clip: the ballpark.
This now marks the THIRD reference to Bob Moose on this blog. When we reached the 2nd reference, I remarked how improbable even that instance was.
Bob Moose, who tragically died in an automobile accident on his 29th birthday, authored the 2nd No Hitter in Shea Stadium history. This achievement came on September 20, 1969.
I really didn't think any footage from this game existed, however I was watching a Pirates/Cubs game on Memorial Day when this clip was shown during a commercial break.
