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 #117
POLO GROUNDS
Giants Fall a Season-High Seven Games Back of the Pirates With Less Than 40 Games Left To Play
The Giants' woes continue. With a series-opening 10-1 thrashing handed them by the visiting St. Louis Cardinals, McGraw's men drop their eleventh game in August and fall to a season-high seven games out of first place. Last season's 20-game winner, Bill Doak, limits the Giants to just one run in the first on Ross Youngs' fielder's choice to second base plating George Burns. Otherwise, Doak allows eight hits and one walk with four strikeouts for his eleventh win this season. New York starter Art Nehf surrenders six runs on eight hits, including home runs by first baseman Jack Fournier and right fielder Joe Schultz through 4.2 innings for the loss. Slim Salle yields another four runs on seven hits, including Milt Stock's eighth-inning home run. Catcher Earl Smith is the lone Giant to wield multiple hits. For Ross Youngs, his 83rd run batted in. Up in Boston, the Pirates defeated the Braves, who trail the Giants by a mere 2.5 games with just 37 games left on the regular season schedule.
- FINAL: STL 10; NYG 1
- RECORD: 69-48 (.590); second place, 7.0 GB of Pittsburgh
GAME #110
Sportsman's Park
Yanks Take Series Opener at Sportsman's Park
Waite Hoyt hurls the Yankees to a series-opening win at St. Louis. The right-hander from Brooklyn holds the Browns scoreless through the first five, then yields single runs in the sixth and eighth innings en route to his 14th win against ten losses with a 3.44 ERA. Yankee center fielder Elmer Miller shines at the top of the lineup, going 3 for 5 with two runs scored. He opens the game with a triple and Babe Ruth drives him home on a fielder's choice. Wally Schang drives home a run in the fourth. Ruth goes 2 for 4 with a double, triple, and two runs batted in giving him 130 for the season. Subbing in at third base for Home Run Baker, Mike McNally goes 3 for 4 with two runs batted in. Of the Yankees' 14 hits half go for extra bases. St. Louis right-hander Dixie Davis surrenders all five runs in the loss. The Yankees gain no ground as the Indians defeated the Red Sox at Cleveland.
- FINAL: NYY 5; STL 2
- RECORD: 68-42 (.618); second place, 1.0 GB of Cleveland
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