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 lose 102 games. Rebranded in 1913 as the Yankees, they move 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 proceed to lose another 94 games.
Known to hold a grudge, McGraw two full decades later still harbors much animosity 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 remains 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 at the turnstile in a decade.
Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates shift along the New York/New England fault. 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 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 - if the preceding season 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 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 #90
Forbes Field
Giants Score Tenth Inning Knock Out Over First Place Pirates
Like a heavyweight prizefight, the home team takes the early rounds. The visitors regroup and forge ahead in the later rounds. However, in the bottom of the ninth, the home team refuses to lose. Afterwhich, a victor emerges in the tenth.
By the fourth inning, Pittsburgh builds a four-run lead; Max Carey drives home a run in the third, and Charlie Grimm's inside the park home run in the fourth is worth three. The score remains unchanged through the sixth. Pirate starter Earl Hamilton through the first six innings, limits New York to no runs on just two hits and two walks with a strikeout. Starting with the fourth inning, he retires nine batters in a row. In the Giants' seventh, Hamilton retires Frankie Frisch and Ross Youngs to make it eleven in a row. With two outs, High Pockets Kelly connects on his 17th home run this season. But second baseman George Cutshaw cancels that out with a run batted in during the bottom half of the frame.
With two runs on four straight hits in the top of the eighth, including doubles by Frank Snyder and George Burns, New York finally knocks Hamilton out of the box. With one out and the bases loaded, Ross Youngs greets relief pitcher Hal Carlson with a bases-clearing triple to left field. A double by George Burns and a triple by Dave Bancroft in the top of the ninth gives the Giants an 8-5 lead.
However, Rosy Ryan and Jesse Barnes pitching in relief of starter Fred Toney cannot protect the lead. Back-to-back triples knock Ryan from the game. Facing Jesse Barnes, Max Carey's flyball scores Carson Bigbee from third. Rabbit Maranville lashes the third triple of the inning and goes on to score the tying run.
Into extra innings, they go at Forbes Field, with the game knotted at eight.
Leading off against reliever Whitey Glazner, Ross Youngs singles to left field. High Pockets Kelly strikes out, but new acquisition Bill Cunningham makes Mister McGraw proud with a run-scoring triple to left field. Cunningham is then thrown out at home by Carson Bigbee on Johnny Rawling's inning-ending double-play fly ball to left field.
Jesse Barnes faces four batters in the bottom half of the tenth while retiring three to preserve the victory and earn the win. The Giants even the series at one.
- FINAL: NYG 9; PIT 8 *ten innings
- RECORD: 56-34 (.622); second place, 3.0 GB of Pittsburgh
Monday, July 25, 1921
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