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 #125
POLO GROUNDS
Art Nehf Hurls Giants Fifth Consecutive Pitching Gem; Giants Complete Sweep of First-Place Bucs
Interest was waning; attendance figures said so. As such, the Giants limped into this series against Pittsburgh, sporting a subpar 10-13 record in August. Meanwhile, the Buccaneers were riding a wave of 16 victories in 22 games over the same span. Nearly counted out of the pennant race, it can safely be said the Giants over these last four games have regained Gotham's attention. The turnstiles tell no lies. Before a capacity crowd of 36,000 fans at the Polo Grounds, the Giants, who stood 7.5 games out of first place just five days ago, today completed a remarkable five-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates, closing the gap between competitors to a mere 2.5 games with 29 left to play. Art Nehf, who held the Pirates to a pair of runs in game one, this time limits the Bucs to just one run on a mere four hits and no walks for his 16th victory this season. After allowing a two-out single in the second, Art Nehf retires the next ten batters in a row. Then after allowing a leadoff single in the sixth, Nehf again sets down the next twelve batters consecutively. Pittsburgh scores their lone run in the first inning, meaning Art Nehf finishes the game with eight shutout innings. In a hard-luck loss, Pittsburgh's gamely veteran Hal Carlson surrenders only two runs (one earned) on five hits and no walks over seven innings. The Giants score late. Irish Meusel plates the game's decisive runs in the seventh, and in the eighth Frankie Frisch on a sacrifice fly drives home pinch-runner, Casey Stengel.
- FINAL: PITT 1; NYG 3
- RECORD: 75-50 (.600); second place, 2.5 GB of Pittsburgh
⚾
GAME #118
Navin Field
Yanks Keep Pressure on Cleveland With Second Straight Victory At Detroit
Facing Detroit's Red Oldham, Elmer Miller leads off the game with a home run, and with two outs, Bob Meusel follows with another. Yankee starter Rip Collings keeps the Tigers scoreless until Bobby Veach doubles home two runs in the sixth, tying the game at two. But that changes in the seventh with Bob Meusel's second home run of the game. Not yet done, Bob Meusel drives home the opening run in a four-run ninth inning; Wallp Pipp drives home two, and Mike McNally plates Pipp for a 7-2 lead. Rip Collins appears to tire in the home ninth, yielding three runs on three hits but holds on for the victory. Despite the victory and a two-game series edge over Detroit, the Yankees still fail to gain ground on Cleveland who again defeated the Senators at Dunn Field.
- FINAL: NYY 7; DET 5
- RECORD: 73-45 (.619); seond place, 0.5 GB of Cleveland
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