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. 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!
GAME #49
POLO GROUNDS
Defending Champions Unleash 16-Hit Attack Against Yankees Hurlers
After two straight defeats, the defending World Series champions unleash their frustrations with double-digit runs against Yankees hurlers; four in all, none exits unscathed. Jack Quinn fails to make it out of the first inning, yielding four runs on four hits and a walk before recording a second out. Alex Ferguson is summoned to put out the fire. In the third inning, shortstop Joe Sewell homers against Ferguson, and in the fourth, Tris Speaker again takes Ferguson deep for a 7-0 Indians lead through three and a half innings. The Yankees finally get on the scoring ledger in the bottom half of the frame when Home Run Baker goes deep against Cleveland starter Ray Caldwell. The Indians responded with six more runs on five hits and four Yankees errors. Relievers Rip Collins and Tom Sheehan take their lumps. Wally Pipp homers in the sixth, making it a 13-4 game. But in the top of the ninth, Cleveland scores on New York's fifth error of the game for a 14-4 final margin of victory. Ray Caldwell faces three batters in the home ninth to end the game. This may have been the worst trouncing suffered by the Yankees to date, but that May 17 loss at Cleveland remains a hurtful thorn in Miller Huggins' side.
- FINAL: CLE 14; NYY 4
- RECORD: 29-20 (.592); second place, 1.5 GB of Cleveland
- r. FRANK BAKER, Daily News (New York, New York)
GAME CALLED: Rain
Thursday, June 9, 1921
Redland Field
This makes two consecutive days Jupiter Pluvius has postponed the Giants and Reds, and the tenth time this season, the Giants have been rained out. These latest two incidences have cost the Giants a full game in the standings, as the first-place Pirates take two of three from the Braves at Forbes Field.
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