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 still harbored much animosity two full decades later, not only towards Ban Johnson and his rebel circuit (unkept promises included) but more so towards the Yankees. As they 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 of 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. However, it was an accomplishment for which John McGraw had little appreciation. He believes players work too hard and earnestly 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 as 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 before the start of 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. Of course, I'll be exercising my creative license whenever and wherever ever possible. But, more than anything, this is about having fun and celebrating New York City's baseball history.
- Stats: BASEBALL REFERENCE
Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!
GAME #60
POLO GROUNDS
Braves Take Second Straight at the Polo Grounds
Boston's Dana Fillingim wins his second start against the Giants this season as the Braves take a 2-0 series lead at the Polo Grounds. Giant starter Phil Douglas is removed after eight runs, six earned, nine hits, and two walks in just five innings pitched. There was no taming Braves' first baseman Walter Holke, who goes 4 for 4 with a double, home run, three runs batted in, and three runs scored. Second baseman Hod Ford knocks home two runs with a double in the sixth, giving Boston at that time a commanding 8-3 lead. Fillingim earns his seventh win but not before yielding five runs on eight hits. With Dave Bancroft on base, Frankie Frisch laces an inside-the-park home run into the right/center gap. High Pockets Kelly drives home his 59th run this season. Getting the start again at third base, Pat Patterson goes 2 for 3 with a run batted in; he is 7 for 14 in his last four games. With their victory over the Reds at Cincinnati, the first-place Pirates extend their lead by another full game over the Giants.
- FINAL: BOS 9; NYG 5
- RECORD: 36-24 (.600); second place, 5.5 GB of Pittsburgh
⚾ ⚾ ⚾
GAME #62
Fenway Park
The Makeup of April 30, 1921
Jack Quinn Turns Tables on Sad Sam Jones
In what is arguably Jack Quinn's finest performance this season to date, the Yankees stride to a confident 8-2 victory while evening the series at two. Quinn surrenders just four scattered hits through the first seven innings. Although the Yankee right-hander yields a single and double leading off the eighth, Boston barely manages to score on a grounder to first and a sacrifice fly to center field. Sad Sam Jones, who allowed the Yankees just one run on seven hits in his previous start against New York, this time surrenders eight runs, five earned, on 14 hits and two walks through 6.2 innings pitched for the loss. Babe Ruth singles three times in five at-bats with a run batted in. Bob Meusel also wields three hits with a double and two runs batted in. Aaron Ward also drives home two.
- FINAL: NYY 8; BOS 2
⚾
GAME #63
Fenway Park
Red Sox Salvage Twin Bill Split Behind Allen Russell's Fine Effort
Harkening back to Sad Sam Jones' May 2 start against the Yankees, Boston right-hander and former Yankee Allen "Rubberarm" Russell limits New York to just one run on six hits and three walks with four strikeouts. Batting cleanup this game, Home Run Baker's double drives home Babe Ruth in the fourth for the Yankees' lone run. Bill Piercy allows the Red Sox five runs, four earned, eight hits, and four walks in a losing effort. Boston second baseman Del Pratt leads the Red Sox with a triple and four runs batted in.
- FINAL: NYY 1; BOS 5
- RECORD: 36-27 (.571), second place, 4.0 GB of Cleveland
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