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Tuesday, April 20, 2021

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 4/20/1921: Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel Power Yanks Past Red Sox; Braves Receive Similar Treatment From Visiting Giants

From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD


100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds: 
New York Giants & New York Yankees 
1921 Seasons Revisited

In their last season at Hilltop Park, the now formerly known New York Highlanders lost 102 games.  Rebranded as the Yankees, in 1913, they moved just a few blocks away into the Polo Grounds as tenants of the Senior Circuit's New York Giants.  To the chagrin of Giants manager John McGraw, the Americans proceeded to lose another 94 games.  

Known to hold a grudge, McGraw, two full decades later, still harbored much animosity not only towards Ban Johnson and his rebel circuit (unkept promises included) but more so towards the Yankees themselves who were founded at the expense of his rendered defunct Baltimore Orioles.  

For as long as the Yankees paid their rent, the tenant/landlord relationship with the Giants remained amicably strained.  Mainly because the middling Americans, except for one season in 1916, never elevated themselves above the ranks of Junior Circuit also-rans.  But that changed in 1919 when they briefly vied for the pennant but tuckered out down the stretch to finish third.  A franchise-record 619,164 fans showed up to root for the American League contenders.  However, the Yankees' burgeoning success was not yet a pressing issue, per see, for the Giants, who were coming off a second-place finish and their best season in a decade at the turnstile.

Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates along the New York/New England fault shifted.  The Yankees' purchase of George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox sent seismic waves reverberating throughout the baseball world but none more intense than in Washington Heights.  Ruth's earth-shattering record of 54 home runs was something never experienced before in the history of baseball but an accomplishment for which John McGraw had little appreciation as one who believed players worked too hard and earnestly only to have their skills disrespected by some miscreant's lone swing of the bat.

Gotham's citizenry never before descended from Coogan's Bluff in such quantity and spectacle than in 1920 as the Giants would set a franchise record with 929,609 reported attendance.  However, the New York Nationals faced an economic dilemma of Ruthian proportions.  McGraw's disdain for his tenants was further heightened when the Yankees outdrew the host Giants in their own home for the first time in each franchise's history.  Headlined by Babe Ruth, the Yankees seized the city's attention, evidenced by an all-time major league record of 1,289,422 in attendance.

In 1921, over two million fans would again pack the Polo Grounds.  Babe Ruth would continue forward accomplishing the unimaginable, and if that wasn't surreal enough, he proceeds to top it - all the while with each passing day, John McGraw grows more incensed.  Lest we forget, New York City is still Little Napoleon's empire.  

Sharing a ballpark for both teams is becoming an insufferable condition.  A resolution lies not too far away ...  

In the meantime, two major league titans charge headlong into a season-ending October clash at the Polo Grounds.  It is New York City's first-ever World's Championship Subway Series.  All games are played at the Polo Grounds, making Coogan's Bluff the center of the baseball universe. 

This is my replay of that season.  I'll be exercising my creative license whenever and wherever ever possible.  More than anything, this is about having fun and celebrating New York City's baseball history.  
Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!

GAME #5
Boston Red Sox @ NEW YORK YANKEES
POLO GROUNDS

Home Runs By Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel Propel Yankees Past Red Sox

Back on the field after consecutive rainouts, the Red Sox and Yankees duel to a 1-1 tie through the first six innings.  Yankees starter Jack Quinn helps his own cause in the second inning with a hit and run batted in.  But Boston catcher Muddy Ruel's hit in the fifth scores Stuffy McInnis with the tying run.  Still facing Sox starter Allen Russell in the sixth, Roger Peckinpaugh draws a lead-off walk and scored on Babe Ruth's home run to deep right field; with two outs, Aaron Ward's hit scores Bob Meusel for a 4-1 Yankees lead.  Still not done, in the seventh, Babe Ruth drives home Chick Fewster, and Bob Meusel connects for a three-run home run to left field.  Boston musters three runs in the top of the ninth, but it's too little too late.  Jack Quinn goes the distance yielding four runs, three earned, nine hits, and one walk with four strikeouts to earn his first victory of the season.  Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel join together for five hits, two home runs, and six runs batted in.  Ruth also had an outfield assist, throwing out baserunner Everett Scott at third base.
  • FINAL: BOS 4; NYY 8
  • RECORD:  4-1; first-place tie w/ Washington

GAME #5
New York Giants @ BOSTON BRAVES
Braves Field

Art Nehf is Good Enough as Giants Continue Weilding Hot Bats in Boston

The slugging Giants have now scored no less than nine runs in four of their first five games in all manners early, often, and late.  The lineup more than covered for starter Art Nehf who yielded five earned runs on eleven hits and a walk in 7.2 innings pitched.  Jesse Barnes took care of the rest with 1.1 innings of scoreless relief.  Braves starter Jack Scott pitched himself into instant trouble, walking four of the first six batters faced.  Center fielder Eddie Brown tripled home High Pockets Kelly in the third for a 2-0 lead.  In the Giants fourth, an error by shortstop Walter Barbare paved the way for three unearned runs crossing the plate.  Braves left fielder Fred Nicholson got one back with an inside-the-park home run to straightaway center field in the fourth.  Boston would score four more runs, but so would the Giants en route to a 9-5 victory at Braves Field.  Frankie Frisch, Frank Snyder, Eddie Brown, and High Pockets all drove in two runs apiece; Snyder and Brown led the team with three hits each.  Dave Bancroft accounts for the Giants' ninth run batted in.
  • FINAL: NYG 9; BOS 5
  • RECORD:  4-1; first-place tie w/ Pittsburgh


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