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 #95
POLO GROUNDS
Ty Cobb Leads Tigers Hitting Attack Versus Yankees
After yesterday's series-opening postponement, the Tigers pounce all over Bob Shawkey and the Yanks. Shawkey yields a leadoff double to first baseman Lu Blue then loses his touch. Perhaps the home plate umpire didn't rub enough baseball's new white powder on the ball because Shawkey walks Ty Cobb to load the bases, then walks Bobby Veach to force home the Tigers' first run. Right fielder Harry Heilmann's fly center scores Donnie Bush, and Bob Jones' fly to right scores Cobb for a 3-0 first-inning lead. Ty Cobb in the fifth gives Babe Ruth a glimpse of his own home run capabilities, with his tenth clout this season giving Detroit a 4-0 lead. The Yankees finally score off Dutch Leonard in the fourth when Wally Pipp's sacrifice fly to center field scores Ruth from third. The score remains unchanged through the seventh. Manager Ty Cobb again leads by example in the eighth tripling home Donnie Bush and scoring on Bobby Veach's fly ball to right. Home Run Baker drives home Roger Peckinpaugh and Ruth in the visiting eighth, but third baseman Bobby Jones takes exception with a leadoff home run in the bottom of the frame, after which Dutch Leonard helps himself with a hit and run batted in. Dutch Leonard limits the Yankees to three runs on seven hits and four walks for the win. Bob Shawkey allows all eight runs on eight hits, including two home runs and three walks for the loss. However, there's good news out of the nation's capital, where the Senators swept both games of a twin bill against the Cleveland Indians. Thus, despite today's loss against Detroit, the Yankees actually gain a half-game on the Indians.
- FINAL: DET 8; NYY 3
- RECORD: 59-36 (.621); second place, 0.5 GB of Cleveland
⚾
GAME #101
Sportsman's Park
Giants Befuddled by Rookie Bill Pertica; Cards Win Third Straight
In one of the more ponderous losses this season, the Giants bow to the Cardinals for a third consecutive game at Sportsman's Park. St. Louis right-hander Bill Pertica, who as a rookie pitched just one game in 1918, then completely missed the last two seasons, making his 24th appearance this season, limits New York to just six hits and no walks with a season-high six strikeouts over nine scoreless innings for a complete-game shutout victory. Ross Youngs accounts for half of Gotham's hits including a triple. Art Nehf, who pitches very effectively, is the hard-luck loser. He allows seven hits and one walk but eventually yields. Second baseman Rogers Hornsby with a hit in the sixth drives him the only run of the game. Don't look now, but the Boston Braves trail the Giants by three games.
- FINAL: NYG 0; STL 1
- RECORD: 61-40 (.604); second place, 3.5 GB of Pittsburgh
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