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Message: [QUOTE="Jingo, post: 3814295, member: 7136"] RUCKER PARK [from my novel]: IT IS PERHAPS the most hallowed ground in all of sports. It is the flat land just below the promontory known as Coogan’s Bluff in Manhattan. Willie Mays, the Say-Hey Kid, made his famous over-the-shoulder catch in deep center-field, on these grounds, in the ’54 Series. Sal “The Barber” Maglie routinely shaved Campy and The Duke on this very spot. And it was here, that Bobby Thomson hit “The Shot Heard Round the World”. Yes, it was baseball in all its glory. But unfortunately for denizens of The City that Never Sleeps the lights dimmed in the Polo Grounds after the Giants left N.Y. for San Francisco … and the fabled arena was torn down. But the spirit in the ground wouldn’t die. New sports legends would trod the hallowed ground but this time in sneakers rather than cleats. Basketball instead of baseball. New names like The Goat, The Stilt, The Doctor, The Hawk, The Pearl and perhaps the greatest streetballer of all time, Joe “The Destroyer” Hammond. The small triangle of real estate on the Harlem River that was once home to the Polo Grounds was now home to NBA and streetball legends. The name was Rucker Park — the world's most famous streetball arena. [/QUOTE]