A stubborn creek and an outlaw baseball league conspired to keep the Yankees from moving to a very different part of the Bronx and from playing in a stadium with a centerfield wall 900 feet from home plate. A hundred years ago this week, in the April 9, 1914 issue of The Sporting News, there’s a small piece about a potential agreement between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Superbas to play a series of exhibition games before the regular season for the next five years. This article ends saying that the agreement calls “for seven games each spring, to be played alternately at Ebbets Field and the Yankees’ new stadium at Kingsbridge”
But the Yankees never played a game in Kingsbridge. What happened?
Hilltop Park 1908 – overflow crowd on field
Prior to 1913 the Yankees were officially called the Highlanders and they were not the Yankees we know in more than just name. They played second fiddle to John McGraw’s New York Giants and while the Giants played in and won multiple World Series the Highlanders had never even won a pennant. From 1903 to 1912 the Highlanders played in cozy Hilltop Park in upper Manhattan. The Park was small and in 1912 the Highlanders even moved some games to the Polo Grounds to accommodate larger than normal crowds. The writing was on the wall and in 1913 the Highlanders abandoned Hilltop Park and the Highlander name, moving to the Polo Grounds and becoming the Yankees. The plan was to play in the Polo Grounds for just one year. Yankees’ owner Frank Farrell already had his eye on a site in Kingsbridge and had been working on the site for several years at this time. The Yankees ballpark was planned for Broadway and 225th street, which is technically now in Marble Hill just east of Broadway and now occupied by a large block of apartment buildings. The Yankees wanted their own place partly to forge their own identity but also because the Giants wanted their stay to be brief and in late 1913 the NL owners voted to prohibit stadium sharing except in extreme circumstances.
To really understand this story, we need to learn a little bit about the Kingsbridge site. The location of this proposed stadium has a fascinating history. 
Until 1895, Manhattan and The Bronx were separated in the north by the Spuyten Duyvil Creek which curved up and around a large hill called Marble Hill and was basically unnavigable (as shown in the map on left above). In 1895 a canal was built straightening the creek south of Marble Hill and turning the hill, basically, into an island (as shown in map on top right with the current map bottom right). The old creek would be filled in over time and the powers that be felt that the eastern piece of the landfilled creekbed was the perfect spot for a ballpark. But as maps show and logic would dictate, this was more than just a creek. The map below shows an old map of the creek overlaid on the current street map. I’ve rather crudely drawn the approximate site of the Kingsbridge stadium and, as you can see, the old creek basically goes right through the field. 
And this term “creek” seems a bit misleading. The Harlem River fed through this creek winding up and around to reach the Hudson River. When straightened, the new canal is much wider and calmer but likely carries nearly the same amount of water as the narrower creek carried. It’s safe to say this was not going to be an easy job.
Ironically, the first team to consider a move to Kingsbridge was the Giants. In May 1908 The Pittsburgh Press announced that “it is pretty certain that” the Giants would leave the Polo Grounds due to the rent being raised and said they “may select a park at Kingsbridge” Kingsbridge was described as “at the very end of the subway line” and “really easier to reach than the present location to which one must travel on the slow-going elevated train”. According to the Press, the Giants paid rent of $20K per year and the National League also paid $16K in rent for Manhattan Field, which adjoins the Polo Grounds, to “prevent any rival baseball organization securing the field.” There was no mention again of the Giants and Kingsbridge and the Giants stayed in the Polo Grounds until 1957.
The Yankees began working on the location in 1911 when grading and filling of the new park was announced. In February 1911 it was expected that work on the stands would begin in March but when March came around it was announced that completion of construction of the new stadium had been pushed to next year because “difficulties were found in the way of completion of the new park”.
In what would be a recurring event, in October 1911 the Highlanders announced that construction would commence on November 1 and the new stadium would be finished in time for Opening Day 1912. For the first time, actual plans for the stadium were disclosed. The grandstand would “resemble the huge affair at the Polo grounds”, would be a double-decker seating 22,000 and would be constructed entirely of steel and concrete. The rear of the stand would face Broadway and have an entrance from the subway station at 221st street. There would be no seats in the outfield except for a wing which would extend beyond the right field line. In total it would seat 33,000 with additional standing room for another 10,000 in the outfield.
Polo Grounds – 1905
But work appears to have never really begun that winter because in August 1912 it was again announced that work of filling in the site was “progressing”. It appears that the grading and filling of the old ship canal was harder than originally expected. The Times mentions that “the filling in to date has only been refuse and ashes and a vast amount of filling in remains to be done before work on the grounds can be begun”. A lot of work was going on in the vicinity as in the summer of 1912 the city completed improvements to 225th street and a rail spur was built to bring fill to the location. At this point in August 1912 the stadium was expected to be completed by the summer of 1913.
Despite the issues filling in the creek, by January of 1913, the stadium seemed to be such a foregone conclusion that Yankees President Farrell felt it was necessary to announce the extensive transportation options for the new stadium. Fans had been worried about just how far uptown the new stadium would be and it’s important to understand that in 1913 this area of New York City was quite rural. It was announced that the fastest route would be on the New York Central from Grand Central (now Metro North). The New York Central planned to erect a trainshed over six tracks at a new Kingsbridge terminal and special trains would run to and from the park. Other options included the 6th Avenue Elevated, the Broadway Subway to 225th and a number of trolley lines.
But simultaneously with this confident announcement we learn that the construction difficulties had continued. The old creek still had not been filled in! The same Times article mentioning transportation options said “the wide creek which runs through the site must first be filled in and this water will be taken through a concrete conduit which will be constructed”. This was nearly two years after it was first announced that grading was near completion. The stadium design and location remained the same, double-decker stadium with home plate at the corner of Broadway and 225th street.
A year later, in January 1914, grading was finally finished and it was believed that the new park could be finished before the 1914 season ended. The infield had been built and the ground was now being allowed to settle with work on the grand stands expected to begin in early Spring. Oh My God, it’s happening!!
The Times gives us a hint of what has been going on saying that a year ago the site was “practically under water”. The “infield is one of the most scientifically constructed diamonds in the major leagues. The foundations consist of different layers and it will be impossible for water to lodge on the infield, as the drainage is almost perfect.”
In early 1914 it was announced that the area of the new park would be the largest in the majors. With pride it’s announced that “the outfield fences will be so far from home plate that it will be impossible to bat the ball out of the park.” The distance from home plate to the center field fence would be more than 300 yards(!). That’s 300 yards, 900 feet! But despite the fact that the grading was finished, we start to see some cracks in the foundation. The stadium was downsized a bit with the double-decked grandstand being eliminated and replaced with a single story stand of concrete and steel that would extend down the lines with bleachers built beyond the extensions and total capacity still at around 30,000. This was starting to look a lot more like Hilltop Park and a lot less like the Polo Grounds. It’s likely that the Yankees ownership was experiencing some financial difficulties.
In 1914 the Federal League began play as a third major league. Players jumped to the new league, salaries rose to compete with the new league, and the overall economic future for all franchises became a little cloudy. This probably could not have come at a worse time for Farrell and Devery, the Yankees owners. Finally, in September of 2014, it was announced that the park at Kingsbridge hadbeen abandoned. After over 3 years of work and after finally succeeding in filling the creek and grading the field, Yankee ownership was giving up. The decision does not seem to have anything to do with construction, but rather, the impact of the Federal League. The new outlaw league tightened the alliance between the AL and NL and now, in a reversal of the 1913 decision against the practice, AL and NL clubs would get together wherever it was advisable.
So the Yankees new home on the shores of the Spuyten Duyvil Canal was dead due to a perfect tag-team of the ghost of the old creek and the birth of the new Federal League. The challenges filling in the creek delayed the stadium construction just enough to allow the outlaw league to put the final nail in the coffin.
So that was the end of the short story of baseball in Kingsbridge. Or was it?
Frank Farrell and Bill Devery sold the Yankees on December 1914 and the ink had hardly dried before Farrell was found to be seeking a Federal League franchise to put on the Kingsbridge site. Another report said Farrell wanted to sell the Kingsbridge site to the owner of the Brooklyn Federal league team or to the Kansas City Federal league franchise. None of this happened, Farrell faded into obscurity, the Brookfeds stayed in Brooklyn and the KCFeds moved to Newark and then the Federal League folded after the 1915 season.
Farrell and his partner Bill Devery sold the Yankees to the Colonels Ruppert and Huston. When they bought the team, Ruppert and Huston announced they had no intention of moving the Yanks to Kingsbridge but did announce that they planned to build a new stadium for at least 40,000 not far from the Polo Grounds and games would be played there in 1915. The Colonels toured Comiskey Park in Chicago taking copious notes for their new stadium. But they would not disclose the location. Yankee fans anxiously awaited the opening of their new stadium. And waited. And waited…. and waited.
It wasn’t until February 1921, more than six years later, that work finally began on Yankee Stadium when grading of the site began. When work began on the Stadium it was said that this was the original site the Yankees wanted to build on back in 1915 but they did not because they felt they needed to be in Manhattan. In the interim, other sites considered by the Yankees were 136th Street and Hamilton Place and a site on the east end of the Queensboro Bridge along with other properties throughout Manhattan. So the Yankees could have ended up in Queens! In 1915 the subways did not easily reach 161st street and River Avenue but by 1921 the transit system did extend far enough to make it easily accessible from all parts of Manhattan. Look at the picture below from Opening Day in 1923 to get a sense of how rural this area was.
Yankee Stadium – Opening Day 1923
Finally, with the Yankees secure in their new stadium, the story of Kingsbridge’s possible major league baseball stadium comes to an end. But it is interesting to wonder what might have been. If it had been a little easier to fill the creek. If the Federal League had not launched. If Farrell and Devery did not run into financial issues. If all these things didn’t happen simultaneously. We could be taking the 1 train to 225th street to watch the Yankees, a franchise historically built on pitching, speed and defense to take advantage of the huge outfield expanse that no longer extends 900 feet, just 500 feet to the center field wall.
On second thought, I like what really happened.
Things did begin to improve for the Padres, though. A few strong years in the early ’80s drove them to within 100 games of .500 in 1984 (their WS year). That’s 100 games UNDER .500. And there they have stayed. The Padres have never gone above .500 for any 10 year period in their history. Since the Padres were founded only one other franchise can say that, the Colorado Rockies, who have had only 12 ten-year periods (vs the Padres 36).
Another is Dave Winfield – another all timer. But only 4 of the 8 are even players. Of the non-players, one is an executive, Buzzie Bavasi, who led them through 1977 (that’s the 300 games under .500 period, by the way) and one is a manager, Dick Williams, who was just 26 games over .500 over 4 years and whose average finish was 3rd. Of the players, only one is a pitcher, Randy Jones, and he won only 92 games as a Padre and 100 total in his career. We can only assume that Trevor Hoffman will be inducted soon. The most wins in franchise history – 100 by Eric Show (meanwhile in 8 less years Toronto has 5 guys with 100+ wins and Seattle has 3).
all time was Winfield with a Hall Rating as a Padre of 59. The other 1969 expansion teams have 7 (Expos/Nats), 6 (Royals), and 4 (Brewers) with higher ratings than that. Of the expansion teams since 1969 only the Marlins have less players with Hall Rating greater than 59 and they don’t keep anyone long enough to get there so they have their own issues. The current Padre with the highest hall rating is Chase Headley with 31, and who knows how much longer he will even be a Padre.
The Second Division 