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 #101
POLO GROUNDS
Meusel Hits Grand Slam But White Sox Even Series At Two
Starting for the Yankees, Carl Mays in the second inning yields four runs on four hits, a hit by pitch, and a walk; second baseman Eddie Collins drives home two. Toeing the slab for Chicago, Roy Wilkinson in the third surrenders a grand slam home run to Bob Meusel, scoring Mays, Roger Peckinpaugh, and Babe Ruth. The White Sox retake the lead in the sixth on a leadoff triple by left fielder Bibb Falk and a one-out single from Johnny Mostil. However, the score remains unchanged through the ninth as the Yankees do not answer. Rather, they go down quietly as Roy Wilkinson retires his last seven batters for the win. Carl Mays meets his eighth defeat against 17 wins with a 2.97 ERA.
- FINAL: CHI 5; NYY 4
- RECORD: 62-39 (.614); second place; 1.5 GB of Cleveland
⚾
GAME #106
Cubs Park
Giants Fall in Tenth; Cubs Salvage Series Split
Frankie Frisch opens with a first-inning two-run home run. But the lead is short-lived. With a runner on base in the second, consecutive hits by Bob O'Farrell and pitcher Elmer Bonder tie the game at two. The Giants then score three times in the third on a walk, error, and hits from George Burns, Ross Youngs, High Pockets Kelly and Johnny Rawlings. In the fourth, Ross Youngs makes it a 6-2 affair with a home run to left field. But starter Fred Toney and Phil Douglas cannot hold. Chicago musters four runs on five hits and a throwing error by Douglas, resulting in a tie game. That is until Frank Snyder homers, leading off the Giant eighth against reliever Lefty York. However, New York relinquishes the lead yet again when with two outs in the home ninth, Turner Barber triples home John Kelleher knotting the game at seven, and into extra innings, they go at Cubs Park. In the tenth, the Giants strand a runner in scoring position, but the Cubs do not. Still facing Phil Douglas, Bob O'Farrell wields a one-out double, and with two outs, Max Flack pulls a single to right field scoring O'Farrell for the win. With the victory, the Cubs salvage a series split. Coupled with the Pirates' victory over Brooklyn, the Giants lose a full game in the standings.
- FINAL: NYG 7; CHI 8 *10 innings
- RECORD: 64-42 (.604); second place, 3.0 GB of Pittsburgh
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