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 shift. The Yankees' purchase of George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox sends 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 has little appreciation as one who believes players work 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 solution 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 #10
Washington Senators @ NEW YORK YANKEES
POLO GROUNDS
Washington Senators Win Third Straight at Polo Grounds
All 15,000 sets of eyes were fixed on Miller Huggins over some curious decision-making.
Babe Ruth's first-inning sacrifice fly to right field scores Chick Fewster, and with two outs in the second, catcher Wally Schang's two-out home run gives starter Jack Quinn and the Yankees a 2-0 lead. Washington recovers a run in the top of the third inning on first baseman Joe Judge's run-scoring base hit to right field. But the Yankees respond with haste as Ruth lashes a one-out double to right field, scoring Roger Peckinpaugh, and advances to third on a misplay in the outfield by Clyde Milan. Wally Pipp promptly follows with a sacrifice flyball to center field, scoring Ruth for a three-run advantage.
Washington starter Al Schacht is dispatched to the showers after allowing four runs, three earned, on five hits over three innings pitched.
Clyde Milan reaches safely, leading off the fifth when Chick Fewster mishandles his grounder to second. Jack Quinn then yields a hit by center fielder Sam Rice. That's when Miller Huggins emerges from the dugout in the retrieval of his starter. When play resumes, second-year right-hander Rip Collins fields Duffy Lewis's bunt attempt, and the runners successfully advance. After issuing a base on balls to second baseman Bucky Harris, Collins induces third baseman Howie Shanks into a textbook inning-ending 6-4-3 double-play.
However, Miller Huggins' maneuverings backfire in the sixth. Facing Rip Collins with two outs and a pair of runners in scoring position, right fielder Clyde Milan - there's that name again - empties the bases with a single to left field cutting Washington's deficit to one. But manager Miller Huggins stays put, leaving the right-handed Collins in the game to face lefty-swinging Sam Rice. Known more for his speed on the basepaths than for his power at the plate, Rice delivers the decisive hit with a long home run to right. Out of the dugout again emerges Huggins, obviously too late, and into the game enters the Brooklynite, Waite Hoyt.
Pitching in relief of Al Schacht, Cuban-born José Acosta throws six scoreless innings while allowing just three hits and two walks with a strikeout en route to his first win of the season and only the sixth victory of his brief career. The second-place Senators have now taken three straight at the Polo Grounds while the Yankees themselves are losers of four in a row. Moreover, for Miller Huggins, the second-guessing begins.
- FINAL: WAS 5; NYY 4
- RECORD: 5-5 (.500); third place, 3.0 GB of Cleveland
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GAME #10
New York Giants @ BROOKLYN ROBINS
Ebbets Field
Costly Error Underscores Giants Second Straight Loss at Ebbets Field
Foiled again! Misplays in the field continue plaguing the Giants. This time misfortune strikes in the third. George Burns' mishandling of Tommy Griffith's fly to left allows shortstop Ivy Olson and third baseman Jimmy Johnston to score all the way from first and second base, respectively, for a 2-0 Robins lead. Brooklyn starter pitcher Sherry Smith makes it stand. Making his third start, the veteran southpaw improves to 2-0 upon yielding just one run on eight hits and two walks with three strikeouts over nine innings full. New York loads the bases with one out in the fifth, only to muster a Frankie Frisch comebacker to Smith for a run-scoring fielder's choice. Otherwise, Sherry finishes strong, retiring nine of his next ten batters and 13 of his final 16 batters faced. For good measure, Robins right fielder Tommy Griffith homers off Giants starter Fred Toney leading off the eighth, giving Brooklyn a 3-1 final margin of victory and a second straight home win against the rival Manhattanites. After earning the win for a two-inning relief appearance in the season opener at Philadelphia, the Giants have since lost in each of Fred Toney's first three starting assignments. Last year's 21-game winner falls to 1-2 with a modestly uncharacteristic 3.00 ERA through 24.0 innings pitched. Fred was the lone Giants to cross home plate against his counterpart Sherry Smith for what it's worth. If nothing else, at least ruin the shutout ...
- FINAL: NYG 1; BKN 3
- RECORD: 6-4 (.600); t-third place, 2.0 GB of Pittsburgh
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