May 30, 1962 - The creaking old Polo Grounds rocked today with the cheers of the largest baseball crowd it has housed in 20 years. Demonstrating New York’s unquenched thirst for the National League baseball it used to know, 55,704 fans paid their way into the historic Harlem horseshoe to watch the Mets play a doubleheader against the Dodgers. Welcomed noisily in their first local appearance since they abandoned Brooklyn for Los Angeles five years ago, the Dodgers made a triumphant return. Behind Sandy Koufax’s 10-strikeout pitching, they routed the Mets, 13-6, in the opener. They took the see-saw second game too, 6-5, on a ninth-inning home run by Willie Davis. Manager Walter Alston’s Dodgers, challenging the league-leading Giants, who will revisit their old ballpark and play before more big crowds over the weekend, have reeled off 10 straight victories. Manager Casey Stengel’s hapless Mets, again in 10th place, have lost 10 in a row.
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