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 #11
Washington Senators @ NEW YORK YANKEES
POLO GROUNDS
Washington Senators Take Over First Place at Yankees Expense
Back-to-back twenty-game winner and last season's ERA champ, Bob Shawkey, makes his season debut and is opposed by the familiar Senators right-hander Jim Shaw.
Washington scores right away when leadoff hitter Joe Judge singles, advances, and scores on left fielder Duffy Lewis' grounder to second. But Shaw likewise hurls himself into first-inning trouble upon yielding a one-out single to Roger Peckinpaugh, then issuing consecutive bases on balls to Babe Ruth and Wally Pipp. Bob Meusel's sacrifice flyball to center field scores Peckinpaugh, and an error by second baseman Bucky Harris on the relay permits Ruth to score the go-ahead run. Later with two outs in the third and Babe Ruth stationed at third, Bob Meusel's single to right field gives the Yankees a 3-1 lead.
Having shaken off that first inning rust, Bob Shawkey continues turning away Washington batters, that is until he issues the dreaded base on balls to Sam Rice leading off the eighth - for experience tells us over, and again the odds of that base runner scoring are quite good. Sure enough, Duffy Lewis reaches safely on a fielder's choice when Chick Fewster mishandles the throw from third baseman Aaron Ward, and with one out, third baseman Howie Shanks triples home both base runners tying the game at three.
Pitching his second inning in relief of Jim Shaw, George Mogridge initiates an inning-ending 1-4-3 double play to end the Yankees eighth. With one out in the top of the ninth, Joe Judge singles up the middle, and Bob Shawkey walks right fielder Clyde Milan. Then just as he had done in the previous game, Miller Huggins, in an obvious temp of fate, summons from the bullpen another right-hander to again face the lefty-swinging Sam Rice. In relief of Shawkey, Carl Mays this time induces a groundball to first, and the runners advance. But Hug's vindication is short-lived when with two outs, some 15,000 dejected onlookers witness Carl Mays surrender a bases-emptying double to left field off the bat of Duffy Lewis. Afterwhich, George Mogridge closes out the game with a third scoreless inning in relief of Shaw to earn his first win this season. Bob Shawkey is tagged with his first loss.
The Senators take their fourth straight from the Yankees, the first back at Griffith Stadium, and now three straight here at the Polo Grounds with one game still left to play. As a result of today's outcome, Washington moves into first place, one half-game ahead of Cleveland. Locally, it marks the Yankees' fifth straight loss and their sixth of the season, dropping them one game under .500 with a 5-6 record.
- FINAL: WAS 5; NYY 3
- RECORD: 5-6 (.455); fourth place, 3.5 GB of Washington
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GAME #11
New York Giants @ BROOKLYN DODGERS
Ebbets Field
Giants Drop Third Straight at Ebbets Field
You'd never know it by simply observing John McGraw. Looking on as Brooklyn plates both the tying and winning runs in the ninth, he remains stone-faced throughout. However, anyone within close proximity could always sense Little Napoleon's loath towards perceived turncoat Wilbert Robinson. Uncle Robbie knows this well. After all, the feeling is mutual, and on Wednesday, he provides his once dear friend a third consecutive reminder where the defending National League champions are to be found.
Making his third start, Jesse Barnes is opposed by Brooklyn's quietly effective southpaw Clarence Mitchell who gets staked to a 1-0 lead in the first on Zack Wheat's two-out hit scoring Jimmy Johnston from third. The score remains unchanged through the fifth. But High Pocket Kelly's Bedford Avenue-bound two-run home run in the sixth, along with Frankie Frisch's single plating George Burns in the seventh, gives Jesse Barnes and the Giants a 3-1 lead. With two out in the bottom half of the frame and a pair of runners in scoring position, Clarence Mitchell helps his own cause with a single to center field, scoring both Hi Myers and Pete Kilduff, tying the game at three.
When center fielder Eddie Brown opens the eighth with a single and third baseman Goldie Rapp follows with a double, manager Robinson replaces Mitchell with Al Mamaux, who immediately unleashes a wild pitch permitting Brown to score the go-ahead run. Mamaux retires the Giants in order in the top half of the ninth. Still facing Jesse Barnes, Robins' second baseman Pete Kilduff leads off with a single, advances, and scores on Bernie Neis's base hit to left. After advancing to second, Neis scores on Jimmy Johnston's two-out game-winning hit to left field.
Al Mamaux earns the win in relief, improving his record to 3-0 with a 1.50 earned run average. Brooklyn's third baseman Jimmy Johnston finishes 3 for 4 with a double and a run batted in. Jesse Barnes falls to 1-1 with a 1.88 ERA after allowing five earned runs on twelve hits through 8.2 innings pitched. Third baseman Goldie Rapp goes 3 for 4 with two doubles.
- FINAL: NYG 4; BKN 5
- RECORD: 6-5 (.545); fourth place, 3 GB of Pittsburgh
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