Displayed is almost a complete run of 1938-57 New York Giants Polo Grounds season passes (18). The collection is only missing 1949 and 1955. The passes are all issued to the same person, a Mrs. Mary La Vecchia, except for the 1940 season pass, which was issued to Nicholas La Vecchia. There were actually four (or five, depending on semantics) different stadia called the Polo Grounds. The offered season tickets are for the Polo Grounds IV, which was the home of the New York Giants from 1911 until the end of the 1957 season, after which the team moved to San Francisco. There were a number of landmark moments for the Giants during 1938-57, the years encompassing the season passes in the offered collection. On August 1, 1945, Mel Ott, Hall of Fame outfielder and one of the favorite Giants of all time, hit his 500th home run in a 9-2 Giants' win over the Boston Braves. When Ott hit this homer, only Babe Ruth (with 714) and Jimmie Foxx (with 531 at that point in the season) had hit more. On May 28, 1951, Hall of Famer Willie Mays played his first game in the Polo Grounds. As a rookie making his MLB debut in the preceding series, he had gone 0-for-12 in three away games against the Philadelphia Phillies, but in his Polo Grounds debut, on an 0-2 count, he hit a solo homer off Hall of Famer Warren Spahn, to deep left field, in the Giants' 4-2 loss to the Boston Braves. On Oct. 3, 1951, Bobby Thomson hit a three-run home run, "The Shot Heard 'Round the World," to defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the final game of a best-of-three playoff for the National League Championship. Of course, in 1954, the Polo Grounds was the setting for "The Catch," the tremendous over-the-shoulder catch by Willie Mays in deep center field to save two runs and help the Giants to win Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, which they would sweep from the Cleveland Indians. In a few years, the Giants' reign at the Polo Grounds would be over. In 1957, the Giants announced on August 1st that the team would move to San Francisco. In the New York Giants' last home game, held at the Polo Grounds on Sept. 29, 1957, the Giants hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates before 11,606 fans who almost felt they were attending a funeral. The Pirates' Bob Friend went the distance to beat the Giants 9-1. Mays had two hits, both singles. Many former Giants and Hall of Fame manager John McGraw's widow, Blanche, attended. After the game ended, fans stormed the field, tore apart a wooden bullpen shelter, and took sod from the outfield and dirt from the infield, as souvenirs. Of the loss of the Giants to San Francisco, McGraw's widow said, "It would have broken John's heart." The season passes measure 2.1x3.9" each. Although the language on the passes varies slightly at times, the passes generally read, "'The Giants' NEW YORK BASE BALL CLUB Season Pass (year)/Extends to Mary La Vecchia The Courtesy of Polo Grounds/service Charge 48c/Tax 02c/Total 50c/Good at Press Gate Only/Non-Transferable." The condition of the passes averages EX to EX-MT, with only a few lesser. The 18 passes hold a flood of New York Giants Polo Grounds memories.