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!
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GAME CALLED: RAIN
Friday, July 15, 1921
POLO GROUNDS
Next Game: Saturday, 7/16/1921
Pittsburgh Pirates @ Polo Grounds
The Pirates are en route back to New York City from Philadelphia where they took two straight from the Phillies. Prior to that, the first-place Pirates and Brooklyn Robins split four games at Ebbets Field.
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BABE RUTH
CAREER HOME RUN NUMBER #138
GAME #81
Sportsman's Park
Babe Ruth hits home run number 35; it's the 138th of his career; no player in baseball history has more.
The Yankees outhit their fielding mistakes for their third straight victory at St. Louis. Erasmus High School product Waite Hoyt is deprived of a shutout when Wally Pipp's error clears the way for a run in the second, and Home Run Baker's throwing error leads to a pair of runs in the ninth. All told, Waite Hoyt yields three runs, none earned, on just six hits and no walks for his tenth victory this season. Browns' first baseman George Sisler goes 2 for 4 with a double and a run scored. Wally Pipp atones for his fielding error at the plate, going 3 for 3 with two runs batted in. Bob Meusel, Roger Peckinpaugh, and Waite Hoyt each drive in a run apiece.
With two outs in the sixth and Roger Peckinpaugh stationed at first, Babe Ruth hits his 35th home run this season completely out of Sportsman's Park. It is the 138th home run in his career, which ties Roger Connor's all-time record set in 1897, one score and three years ago. Earlier this season, Ruth broke Gavvy Cravath's 20th-century record of 119 home runs. It took Cravath, who retired just last season, 13 seasons and 1,220 games to achieve his mark, whereas Roger Connor played 1,998 games over 18 seasons.
As a rookie in 1914 through 1918, Babe Ruth is utilized by the Boston Red Sox primarily as a pitcher. He hit just 20 home runs over his first five seasons, eleven of which came in 1918 to lead both leagues. During various single-seasons in his career, Roger Connor led baseball in doubles, triples, runs batted in, and even with a .371 batting average in 1885, but he never once led the circuit in home runs. Gavvy Cravath three times led both leagues in home runs and led the National League three other times. In 1919, Boston finally unleashed Ruth at the plate. He goes on to set the single-season home run record with 29, then last year in his first year with the Yankees breaks his own record with a wondrous, almost ponderous 54 circuits. The Bambino entered this season with 103 career home runs in just 534 games. Meanwhile, 83 home runs have come in his last three seasons alone. In only his 615th career game, the Sultan of Swat ties Roger Conner. At 26-years of age, Babe Ruth, health willing, still has many more years to play. Mark this day: no baseball player in the history of baseball has hit more home runs than Babe Ruth. Every clout from here on out merely extends the Bambino's own record.
- FINAL: NYY 7; STL 3
- RECORD: 50-31 (.617); second place, 2.0 GB of Cleveland
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