Word: polos
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Even then, Willie had a style of his own. The long hours of rolling a rubber ball with his father had taught him the spectacular "breadbasket" catch that still thrills fans in the Polo Grounds. With his hands held low, the big glove deceptively casual somewhere around his belt, he grabbed fly balls and got them away fast-flinging them in with a whipping sidearm motion...
Crowning this dismal landscape, a great, curved, steel-and-stone shrine called the Polo Grounds beckons to the faithful all summer long. By the tens of thousands they respond. They are a special, indestructible breed called Giant fans. Unprotestingly, they submit to the nerve-jangling rites of entrance: the steaming subway ride or the stuffy taxi crawling across Harlem, the foul-tempered guards who herd them through turnstiles at the gate. Inside, the vast stands sprawl in the sun, the carefully tended ball field is green and trim, ready for the game...
...this inviting sight, the hearts of Giant fans quicken and their eyes gleam. In the big world outside, the pitchers are throwing bean balls, and there seems to be little but trouble. But inside the small, noisy world of the Polo Grounds, all is well. The Giants are winning. They are taking ball games at a better than two-to-one clip, and they have battered the second-place Brooklyn Dodgers into a temporary state of slack-jawed apprehension. This week they were on top of the National League with a handsome six-game lead after Sunday's games...
...Wait Till Next Year." From then on, Willie was on fire. Up against Boston's Speedballer Warren Spahn for the first time in the Polo Grounds, he teed off on a three-and-one pitch and lofted it over the leftfield roof for a homer. His batting average started to climb. In the field he could do no wrong, did much that was phenomenal. He had an unconscious knack for doing the spectacular, an uncanny instinct for anticipating batters and baserunners. Once, when he dove out from under his cap (Mays frequently loses his cap) to catch a sinking...
...area's magnificent scenery (Pike's Peak, Garden of the Gods, etc.) and climate (69° average in summer, 29° in winter), promoted a swank resort. So many young Englishmen came that Colorado Springs was called "Little Lunnon." Amidst the Rockies they played cricket and polo; one wrote that the city was civilized because "wherever you find polo, you find good clubs, good society and, usually, good tea." Nowadays, Colorado Springs (pop. 46,000) mixes manicured elegance with Western hospitality. Chuckwagon barbecues are more popular than polo, and uniformed men (from nearby Camp Carson and the Continental...