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 Season 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 1921 season 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 #91
POLO GROUNDS
Waite Hoyt Hurls Gem Against St. Louis Browns
Leave it up to the kid from Brooklyn to show 'em how it's done. The Yankees rebound from yesterday's defeat to tie their series with St. Louis at one. Browns' starter Dixie Davis comes apart like wet paper in the third inning, yielding four runs on four hits, two walks, and a wild pitch. In his first season with the Yankees, Erasmus High School graduate Waite Hoyt, undeniably having his finest campaign to date, makes it stand, limiting the Browns to just four scattered hits and four walks with five strikeouts over nine scoreless innings for his twelfth win against eight losses with a 3.25 ERA. In fact, Hoyt drives in the first and decisive run for the Yankees. Babe Ruth delivers home two runs giving him a major league-leading 97 RBI, and Bob Meusel goes 3 for 4 with two runs batted in. St. Louis Browns' first baseman George Sisler sat out his fourth straight game with an injury.
- FINAL: STL 0; NYY 6
- RECORD: 57-34 (.626); second place, 1.5 GB of Cleveland
⚾
GAME #92
Forbes Field
Giants Take Three of Four Against the First-Place Pirates
The Giants have their say in Pittsburgh and punctuate their departure with a four-run rally in the ninth. New York opens the scoring in the second; High Pockets Kelly scores on a Johnny Rawlings sacrifice fly, and Rabbit Maranville's misplay at short leads to a second run. However, the Pirates struck for three runs on five hits in the third, inspiring John McGraw to remove starter Jesse Barnes in favor of Phil Douglas, who ends the threat. That is until Max Carey gives Pittsburgh a 4-2 lead in the fourth. The score remains unchanged through the eighth. Pirates' rookie Whitey Glazner returns to the hill for the top of the ninth and promptly issues a walk to Earl Smith. Consecutive hits by Eddie Brown and George Burns load the bases. Pinch-runner Bill Cunningham scores on Dave Bancroft's fly to left field. Frankie Frisch then cleared the bases with a double to center field and scored on second baseman George Cutshaw's errant throw. Rosy Ryan is called upon to close out the ninth and retires the Bucs in order. Max Carey ends the game on a pop-up to Dave Bancroft. This gives the Giants three straight wins against the Pirates and a 3-1 series victory. McGraw's Men are now just two games out of first place.
- FINAL: NYG 6; PIT 4
- RECORD: 58-34 (.626); second place, 1.5 GB of Cleveland
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