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 shifted 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 #138
POLO GROUNDS
Giants Complete Two-Game Sweep Over Defending National League Champs; Maintain Half-Game Edge Over Bucs
Jesse Barnes gives John McGraw the final say over rival Wilbert Robinson and last season's National League champion Brooklyn Robins. Facing 21-game winner Burleigh Grimes, the Giants strike for three runs on four hits in the first inning. Ross Youngs, High Pockets Kelly, and Irish Meusel drive in runs, and Jesse Barnes makes them stand. The Giants' right-hander limits Brooklyn to just one run on nine hits and no walks for his fourteenth victory against nine losses with a representative 2.85 ERA. Second baseman Pete Kilduff ruins the shutout in the second with a home run. The score remains unchanged through the ninth as 28,000 fans attending the final regular-season game at the Polo Grounds rise to their feet and show Jesse Barnes and his teammates appreciation. The Giants have played five more games than Pittsburgh, who today defeated the Cubs, thus maintaining a half-game lead in the standings. They must now defend and, with requisite effort, build upon this slimmest of leads entirely on the road. Their trek begins tomorrow at Ebbets Field. Afterwhich, it's off to Cincinnati, then back to Pittsburgh for another showdown versus the Pirates. Games at Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and back in Brooklyn round out the schedule.
- FINAL: BRK 1; NYG 3
- RECORD: 84-49 (.609); First Place, 0.5 GA of Pittsburgh
"In a close race like the present one, we don't intend to be beaten out by a technicality as we were in 1908." - John McGraw, Vice President, New York Giants
GAME #133
Shibe Park
Carl Mays Wins Number 24; Athletics Routed in Rubber Game
The A's jump out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. But the Athletics would score no more. Yankee starter Carl Mays shuts out Philadelphia over the final eight innings en route to his 24th victory this season. Also helping himself out at the plate, Mays goes 3 for 6 with a double and two runs batted in. In a second straight walloping of the Athletics, the Yankees amass 19 runs on 24 hits against three different pitchers. Wally Schang lifts his average to .315 by going 5 for 6 with two runs batted in. Babe Ruth goes 3 for 6 with a double, triple, and three runs batted in, giving him 154 to date. Ruth also lifts his average to .384, placing him third behind Harry Heilmann (.403) and Ty Cobb (.390). Getting the start at third base, Mike McNally goes 3 for 5 with three runs batted in. Roger Peckinpaugh, Wally Pipp, and Aaron Ward each drive home two. All told, the Yankees bat 16 for 24 with runners in scoring position. They take the rubber game at Shibe Park while the Indians split a twin bill at St. Louis, giving the Huggmen a full two-game lead over Cleveland.
- FINAL: NYY 19; PHI 3
- RECORD: 84-49 (.632); First Place, 2.0 GA of Cleveland
No comments:
Post a Comment
Say what you feel. The worse comment you can make is the one you do not make.