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 #70
POLO GROUNDS
Make-Up: April 19, 1921
Yankees Take Opener as Babe Ruth Steals the Show
After sitting idle through two straight days of rain, the Red Sox and Yankees finally take the field before a baseball starved crowd of 36,000 at the Polo Grounds. Facing former teammate Allen Russel, the Yankees stake Rip Collins to an early 3-0 lead on Home Run Baker's first-inning run batted in and runs driven in by Rip Collins and Roger Peckinpaugh in the second. The score remains unchanged until the fifth inning when Boston's Everett Scott scores on a wild pitch in the top half and Babe Ruth scores an unearned run in the bottom of the frame. Babe Ruth brings the crowd to its feet in the home seventh with his 29th home run this season to deepest right field. Boston scores single runs in the eighth and ninth innings to no avail. Rip Collins allows three runs on seven hits and four walks with three strikeouts for the win. Former Yankee Allen Russell, traded to Boston in exchange for Carl Mays, takes the loss.
- FINAL: BOS 3; NYY 5
GAME #71
POLO GROUNDS
Yankees Sweep Twin Bill; Bambino Hits Number 30, Just Five Away From Roger Connor
The Brooklynite Waite Hoyt hurls a gem at his former team, allowing just one run on seven hits and one walk for his eighth victory. Boston ruins the shutout in the eighth when third baseman Eddie Foster drives home catcher Muddy Ruel. First baseman Stuffy McInnis accounts for three of the Sox hits. Roger Peckinpaugh continues wielding a hot bat, hitting his third home run in his last four games, and Babe Ruth again brings the crowd to its feet when he belts home run number thirty. With two round-trippers on the day, the Sultan of Swat now stands just five home runs away from tying Roger Connor for baseball's all-time mark. The Indians fall to the Tigers at Cleveland; thus, New York gains a full game on the league leaders.
- FINAL: BOS 1; NYY 5
- RECORD: 42-28 (.606); second place, 1.5 GB of Cleveland
⚾
The Giants and Braves remain idle for a third consecutive day. In order to subvert Jupiter Pluvius, the teams are en route to New York where the Giants tomorrow will host the Braves in a twin bill at the Polo Grounds.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Say what you feel. The worse comment you can make is the one you do not make.