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 heightened more so 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 #79
POLO GROUNDS
McGrawmen Win In Tenth; Take Third In A Row Versus Cardinals
Rosy Ryan continues to dazzle. Pitted against the journeyman and former Federal Leaguer Bill Baily, the Giants and Cardinals reach a three-all stalemate by the fifth. The score then remains unchanged through the ninth. St. Louis third baseman Milt Stock, shortstop Doc Lavan, and center fielder Burt Shotton drive in a run apiece. For the Giants, Dave Bancroft homers in the third, Johnny Rawlings helps push a run across in the fourth, and Bancroft triples and scores again in the fifth. Ryan and Baily continue their duel, and into extra-innings, they go. But it is short-lived. Rosy Ryan retires the Cardinals in order. With two outs and two runners in scoring position in the bottom of the tenth, George Burns lines a single to right field scoring Home Run Kelly from third base to end the game. The Giants are now winners of three straight against St. Louis, but despite the McGrawmen becoming the third aggregation in baseball to reach 50 wins, they still fail to gain ground on Pittsburgh.
- FINAL: STL 3; NYG 4
- RECORD: 50-29 (.633); second place, 3.0 GB of PIttsburgh
⚾
GAME CALLED: RAIN
Thursday, July 14, 1921
Sportsman's Park
Low and behold, the Yankees get assistance from their Boston rivals, which outpace the first-place Indians 5-2 and bring to a halt Cleveland's five-game win streak. Thus, the second-place Yankees, in all their idleness, gain one-half game in the standings. Meanwhile, Yankees ownership seems quite copacetic with attendance ...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Say what you feel. The worse comment you can make is the one you do not make.