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 se, 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.
- Stats: BASEBALL REFERENCE
Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!
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GAME #6
Philadelphia Phillies @ NEW YORK GIANTS
POLO GROUNDS
Giants Bow to Phillies in Polo Grounds Opener
A more livid mind cannot be found up or down the East Coast than that boiling inside the head of John McGraw. Yielding a run in the eighth inning and ultimately losing to visiting Philadelphia on Opening Day is only partly the issue. After all, that's baseball and within his control. However, the Yankees outdrawing his Giants by upwards of 12,000 patrons in their respective first home games of the season is largely his matter and something disturbingly beyond his managerial authority. Be that as it may, 25,000 watched in dismay as the Phillies jump starter Fred Toney for two runs in the first and two more in the second. With one out in the bottom of the second, High Pockets Kelly connects off Phillies starter Bill Hubbell for his third home run of the season. The Giants continue chipping away with runs in the fourth and fifth innings, then knot the game at five when High Pockets Kelly triples home Curt Walker and scores on Eddie Brown's sacrifice fly to left field. But with two outs and the bases loaded with Phillies in the eighth, Dave Bancroft mishandles Bevo LeBourveau's grounder to short, allowing the decisive run to score. Jimmie Keenan earns the victory with two scoreless innings in relief of Bill Hubbell. Huck Betts closes out the eighth and ninth innings.
- FINAL: PHI 6; NYG 5
- RECORD: 4-2; second place, 1.0 GB of Pittsburgh
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GAME #6
New York Yankees @ PHILADELPHIA ATHLETICS
Shibe Park
The Babe Ruth Show Hits The Road; Carl Mays Earns Third Victory
The Highlanders' first venture this season away from the Polo Grounds is a successful one. Right-hander Carl Mays wins his third decision in as many starts, limiting the host Athletics to one earned run on 13 hits and one walk. Just as they did back on Opening Day at the Polo Grounds, Philadelphia spoils Mays' shutout effort with a late-inning run and an inconsequential one at that. Facing southpaw Roy Moore, Babe Ruth doubles home Roger Peckinpaugh for an early first-inning lead. In the fourth, Bob Meusel doubles home Ruth and Wally Pipp, and Aaron Ward's run-scoring single in the sixth gives the Yankees a four-run advantage. For good measure in the ninth, Babe Ruth connects on his third home run of the season scoring Chick Fewster for a final 6-1 margin of victory, the Yankees' fourth win in a row.
- FINAL: NYY 6; PHI 1
- RECORD: 5-1; first place, 1 GA of Washington
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