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 #124
POLO GROUNDS
Make-Up: 5/23/1921
Phil Douglas Hurls Second Gem In Two Days; Giants Win Fourth in a Row Against First Place Pirates
The Pirates receive a tighter pitching performance from veteran Earl Hamilton, who limits the Giants to just two runs on five hits and two walks over a full nine innings. Manager George Gibson's dilemma is that it still wasn't good enough. Pitching on one days' rest, Phil Douglas holds the Pirates to one run on ten hits and three walks for the win. Three double-plays helped him through the match. In two starts this series against Pittsburgh, Douglas has allowed only one earned run. In the fourth, Frankie Frisch triples home Dave Bancroft, and Ross Youngs delivers home Frisch. Douglas makes it stand. The Pirates manage their lone run on three hits in the fifth. Douglas retires the Pirates in order in the ninth to earn his twelfth victory this season. That makes four in a row against Pittsburgh, who sees their first-place standing shrink to 3.5 games ahead of the surging Giants.
- FINAL: PITT 1; NYG 2
- RECORD: 74-50 (.597); second place, 3.5 GB of Pittsburgh
⚾
GAME #117
Navin Field
Carl Mays Wins Number Twenty, But Yankees Gain No Ground
The Highlanders take out their frustrations against the Tigers with a commanding 10-2 series-opening victory at Detroit. But their effort goes for naught as the Indians defeat the Senators at Dunn Field. Thus, no ground was gained. With one out in the home sixth, the 34-year old Ty Cobb hits an inside-the-park home run to deepest center field. All told, Carl Mays allows two runs on seven hits and one walk en route to his milestone 20th win this season against nine losses with a representative 2.96 ERA. Manager Cobb allows Howard Ehmke to yield all ten Yankee runs on 15 hits for the loss. Elmer Miller leads the Yanks with four runs batted in; Roger Peckinpaugh and Wally Pipp drive home two apiece. Aaron Ward goes 3 for 5 with two doubles.
- FINAL: NYY 10; DET 2
- RECORD: 72-45 (.615); second place, 0.5 GB of Cleveland
No comments:
Post a Comment
Say what you feel. The worse comment you can make is the one you do not make.