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.
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 #114
POLO GROUNDS
The Great Red Shea Earns His First Major League Victory
Facing former fan-favorite turned chief nemesis, Rube Marquard, first baseman High Pockets Kelly hits a first-inning grand slam home run to left field. Dave Bancroft then connects on a two-run home run in the second, giving the Giants a 6-1 lead. When Fred Toney yields two runs in the fourth, Mister McGraw removes him with haste. Right-hander Red Shea comes into the game, making only his second appearance this season and the fifth of his career. Back in 1918, he appeared in three games and totaled nine innings for the Philadelphia Athletics. He was recently purchased from Toronto of the International League, and by all indications, it seems as if John McGraw has invested wisely. Red Shea, the 23-year old Massachusetts native, faces 16 batters, allows no hits, and no walks over 5.1 scoreless innings pitched to earn his first-ever major league victory.
- FINAL: CIN 3; NYG 6
- RECORD: 68-46 (.596); second place, 5.0 GB of Pittsburgh
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GAME #107
Comiskey Park
Yankees Jump Back Into American League Action at Chicago; Remain Hot On Cleveland's Trail
On the heels of their failed American Association tour, the Yankees return to the real business at hand, pursuing the American League pennant. After entertaining a one-run deficit, the Yankees manufacture six runs in the third on four hits, three walks, a fielder's choice, and a wild pitch. Not yet done, the Highlanders strike for two more runs in the fourth and one in the fifth. Leading 9-3 entering the sixth, Babe Ruth cracks his 45th home run this season with a runner on giving the Yankees an 11-3 lead and their final margin of victory. The game is called after the seventh due to rain. Babe Ruth drives home three giving him 121 runs batted in. Aaron Ward drives home two runs. Bob Shawkey helps his own cause going 3 for 4 at the plate, scoring two runs, and driving home one. On the mound, Shawkey allows three runs, two earned, on six hits, and one walk through seven innings for the win. He improves his record to 13-8 with a 3.75 ERA. Babe Ruth's home run, which clears the right/center field bleachers and leaves Comiskey Park, is estimated to have landed 475 feet away from home plate. Ruth is now just two home runs shy of reaching a once thought unattainable 150 for his career.
- FINAL: NYY 11; CHI 3
- RECORD: 67-40 (.626); second place, 0.5 GB of Cleveland
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Sadly, this day marks the one-year anniversary of the passing away of Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman. Regrettably, it was Carl Mays who delivered the fateful pitch.
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