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 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—the Giants attempt to evict the Yankees in 1921 to no avail. But a solution lies not too far away ...
Until then, 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 #16
POLO GROUNDS
Rube Benton's First Start is a Dandy; Giants Complete Sweep of Braves
Upwards of 15,000 cranks arrive for the make-up of Friday's postponement, wherein the Giants defeat the Braves for a fourth straight game and complete the series sweep. Making his first appearance of the season, the veteran Rube Benton allows two runs, one earned, on just three hits and one walk with two strikeouts over nine complete innings for the win. Boston's first run is helped along by first baseman High Pocket Kelly's error in the second. In the ninth, center fielder Roy Howell led off with a triple and scored when Frankie Frisch mishandles the relay from George Burns. Ross Youngs starts things off for the Giants in the first inning with two runs batted in. An error by Braves second baseman Hod Ford and a hit from High Pockets Kelly gives the Giants a 4-1 lead after three. A run-scoring double struck by third baseman Goldie Rapp in the sixth knocks starter Mules Watson out of the box. Catcher Frank Snyder greets reliever Joe Oeschger with a run-scoring hit through the left side. Then with the bases loaded, Oeschger hits Dave Bancroft with a pitch plating the Giants' seventh and final run of the game. Tomorrow, the second-place Brooklyn Robins pay this season's first visit to the Polo Grounds.
- FINAL: BOS 2; NYG 7
- RECORD: 10-6 (.625), third place, 3 GB of Pittsburgh
GAME #14
Fenway Park
Billy Piercy Blanks Red Sox in Fenway Park Finale
New York salvages a win for a split in what was otherwise a washout at Boston. Two of the four scheduled games were postponed due to yet more rain. But after bowing in the ninth inning of yesterday's game, the Yankees respond this day with a cleanly orchestrated performance in an overall well-played and tightly contested affair at Fenway Park. In the midst of his triumphant return to the big leagues, righty Bill Piercy climbs the hill and is opposed by Boston southpaw and naval veteran Herb Pennock. Piercy surrenders no runs, ten hits, and two walks with two strikeouts in a complete-game shutout victory, his third of the season against one loss. Leading off the third, a single from Aaron Ward and a double by catcher Wally Schang put two runners in scoring position. Bill Piercy's hit to left plated one run, and with one out, Roger Peckinpaugh's sacrifice-fly to center scores Wally Schang for a 2-0 lead and the Giants' final margin of victory.
- FINAL: NYY 2; BOS 0
- RECORD: 7-7 (.500); fourth place, 3.5 GB of Cleveland
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