Not again!

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - Remember yesterday's story about Lou Brock on June 17, 1962 being only the second Major League Baseball player* to hit a home run into the center field bleachers of New York's Polo Grounds? The bleachers were 460 feet from home plate. Well, it happened again the very next day – June 18, 1962!

Henry Aaron, a more likely slugger, put one into the bleachers in center with the bases loaded as the Milwaukee Braves beat the New York Mets 7-1.

What were the odds? Just three MLB players had hit balls into the center field bleachers since the ballpark was remodeled in 1923, 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 softball-esque distance. 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.

New York's Giants, Yankees (before Yankee Stadium was built) and Mets (before Shea Stadium was built) called the Polo Grounds home, as did the NFL's Giants and AFL's Titans (today's New York Jets).

*Luke Easter did it in a Negro League game in 1948

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
New York Times, June 19, 1962
New York Polo Grounds
June 18, 1962 box score/play-by-play

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