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 #73
POLO GROUNDS
Art Nehf Outduels Grover Cleveland Alexander For Series Opening Victory Over Cubs
In what is undoubtedly the most tightly contested match this season, a rather small gathering in hot and humid conditions witness Art Nehf and The Great Alexander brilliantly negotiate eight scoreless frames during Friday's series opener at the Polo Grounds. Old Pete, Grover Cleveland Alexander, allows the Giants no runs on six hits and one walk, and Art Nehf limits the Cubs to just two hits and no walks. Then, into the ninth, they go. After striking out Pete Alexander leading off the top half of the frame, right fielder Max Flack connects for just the third Chicago hit against Nehf. With one out in the home half of the ninth, Frankie Frisch draws a base on balls, and Ross Youngs singles back through the middle, putting runners on the corners. Alexander then issues pinch hitter Casey Stengel an intentional walk loading the bases. Into the box steps Curt Walker and laces a grounder to second baseman John Kelleher, whose misplay permits Frankie Frisch to score from third with the game-winning run. Frisch and catcher Earl Smith lead the Giants with two hits apiece. Recent acquisition Johnny Rawlings continues making Mister McGraw look smart with another hit in three trips to the plate. All told, the soon-to-be 28-year old Art Nehf faces three batters over the minimum, yielding just three hits and no walks with three strikeouts and flawless fielding behind him. He improves his record to 10-4 with a descending 4.19 ERA.
- FINAL: CHI 0; NYG 1
- RECORD: 45-28 (.616); second place, 4.5 GB of Pittsburgh
Meanwhile, after the game, catcher Earl Smith challenges a New York City police detective to a fight, who gladly accepts ...
GAME #75
Comiskey Park
Yankees Subdued By Dickey Kerr In Series Opener at Comiskey Park
The Highlander's road trip does not begin well. With Jupiter Pluvius postponing a key American League contest at Dunn Field, the visiting New York Yankees bow to the White Sox at Comiskey Park and thus fail to gain ground on the idle Cleveland Indians. Home Run Baker drives home the game's opening run in the first. Afterwhich last year's 21-game winner Dickey Kerr shuts out New York over the final eight innings of play, allowing ten total hits and two walks for his ninth victory. Kerr also helps his own cause at the plate with a hit and run batted in. Starter Bob Shawkey falls to 6-5 after yielding his standard four runs on nine hits and two walks. Babe Ruth lifts his average to .382 with two hits in three at-bats and steals his ninth base this season.
- FINAL: NYY 1; CHI 4
- RECORD: 46-29 (.613); second place, 2.0 GB of Cleveland
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