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 CALLED: RAIN
Friday, July 29, 1921
POLO GROUNDS
NEXT: 7/30/1921
CLEVELAND INDIANS
* * 100 Years Later, in 2021, Cleveland Changes Their Name to the Guardians * *
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GAME #93
Redland Field
With Series Opening Win Over Reds, Giants Pull Within Half-Game Of First Place
In a back and forth affair, the Giants and Reds play to a seven-all tie through nine. Starting pitchers Rosy Ryan and Cincinnati's Pete Donohue both fail to register even one out. Donohue faces five batters, allows two hits, issued two walks, and makes an errant throw on Frankie Frisch's attempted sacrifice bunt. At which point, Manager Moran replaces Donohue with Cliffe Markle. Ryan is no better. After Dave Bancroft's error, Ryan allows three straight hits, including a triple by Edd Roush, giving the Reds a 3-2 lead. Four batters in, Slim Salle, is summoned to relieve Rosy Ryan and yields a fourth run charged to Ryan. With two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the fourth, and Ross Youngs at the bat, catcher Ivy Wingo's errant throw to first base clears the bases, tying the game at five; Cincinnati commits six costly errors overall. The Reds score in the sixth, but the Giants answer with two in the seventh. With Slim Salle still toeing the slab in the ninth, second baseman Sam Bohne triples home the game-tying run. Into extra innings, they go. In the top of the tenth, the Giants bunch together three hits for a run, and, after another pitching change, Frankie Frisch doubles home two runs giving the Giants a 10-7 lead. With two outs in the home tenth, Pat Duncan triples to center field, but in his attempt to score is thrown out at home, Ross Youngs, to Johnny Rawlings, to Frank Snyder to end the game. Slim Salle puts forth a representative effort, allowing three runs on twelve hits and one walk with three strikeouts over tenth innings for the win. The Giants win their fourth in a row and seven of their last eight in taking the series opener. Pittsburgh is idle, and thus the Giants gain another half-game in the standings.
- FINAL: NYG 10; CIN 7
- RECORD: 59-34 (.634); second place, 0.5 GB of Pittsburgh
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