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 #74
POLO GROUNDS
Frank Snyder's Grand Slam Lifts Giants Over Cubs
Despite Chicago jumping out to an early 2-0 lead, the Giants strike for one run in the third and five more runs in the fourth. Pounded for 17 hits, the trio of starter Phil Douglas, Rube Benton, and Jesse Barnes still manage to outlast veteran Hippo Vaughn and the Cubs. When Phil Douglas yields two runs on four consecutive hits in the fifth, John McGraw replaces him with Rube Benton, who ends the threat by inducing center fielder George Maisel into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double-play. Jesse Barnes closes out the game with two scoreless innings in relief of Benton. First baseman Ray Grimes highlights the Chicago effort with four hits and two runs batted in. Frank Snyder's grand slam home run is promptly followed by Phil Douglas' first home run this season in the home fourth. Douglas, in turn, escapes with his seventh win against three losses and a 4.75 ERA.
- FINAL: CHI 5; NYG 6
- RECORD: 46-28 (.622); second place, 4.5 GB of Pittsburgh
⚾ ⚾ ⚾
GAME #76
Comiskey Park
Yankees Fall In 16th Inning; All Eyes Back On Miller Huggins
The Yankees again fail to gain ground on the first-place Indians defeated by the Athletics at Cleveland, and Miller Huggins once again finds himself under intense scrutiny for being a potential cause. With the Yankees leading by a commanding 8-0 margin through six and a half innings. Consider the Yankees lucky to have scored a run in the eighth as Miller Hugging permits starter Carl Mays to yield three runs in the seventh, two runs in the eighth, and three more in the ninth. Waite Hoyt is finally brought in to pick up the pieces and surrenders the tying run, and into extra-innings, they go. Hoyt and Chicago's Shovel Hodge engage in a scoreless duel through the fifteenth inning. First baseman Earl Sheely drives home the tying run back in the ninth and proceeds to drive home the winning run in the home sixteenth. Shame on Miller Huggins insofar as Waite Hoyt being charged with the loss. Each team strikes for 19 hits apiece. However, five hits by Aaron Ward, four by Wally Schang, and three hits by Home Run Baker all go for naught.
- FINAL: NYY 9; CHI 10 *16 innings
- RECORD: 46-30 (.605); second place, 2.0 GB of Cleveland
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