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 #136
POLO GROUNDS
Dickey Kerr Wins Eighteenth; Yanks Lead Cut to Half-Game
With the Yankees coming off their fourth doubleheader in eleven days, southpaw Harry Harper is again thrust into action. Making his third start this month and fourth overall, he yields five runs on eight hits and three walks while surrendering two home runs off the bat of right fielder Harry Hooper for the loss. Tom Rogers allows a run on two hits and two walks over the final two innings, making just his third appearance. A 21-game winner last season, Chicago southpaw Dickey Kerr holds the Yankees to a pair of runs on five hits and four walks with seven strikeouts for the win. Bob Meusel drives home a run in the first, and the Yankees are gifted one in the fourth with Ernie Johnson's misplay at short. With Cleveland's victory at Philadelphia, the Indians gain a full game in the standings. The Yankees lead is a mere half-game.
- FINAL: CHI 6; NYY 2
- RECORD: 85-51 (.625); First Place, 0.5 GA of Cleveland
⚾
GAME #140
Redland Field
Ninth Inning Comeback Results in Twelve Inning Triumph at Redland Field
Art Nehf walks second baseman Sam Bohne leading off the home first. Next up, shortstop Larry Kopf doubles into the left/center gap scoring Bohne. Third baseman Heinie Groh then singles, putting runners on the corners. A wild pitch advances Groh. Still, with no outs, Rube Bressler grounds to Dave Bancroft at short, who throws out Kopf at home. The Giants then turn an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play off the bat of Jake Daubert. Irish Meusel strikes out with one out and the bases loaded in the fourth, and Johnny Rawlings bounces to third. First baseman Jake Daubert accounts for himself in the home fifth with a two-run single, giving the Reds a 3-0 lead. John McGraw removes Art Nehf after the sixth. With Slim Salle now opposing Reds starter Dolf Luque, the score remains unchanged through the eighth. With High Pockets Kelly on first and one out in the visitor's ninth, Irish Meusel's grounder to second is booted by Sam Bohne. Johnny Rawlings then singles to load the bases. Base hits by Earl Smith and pinch-hitter Frank Snyder result in three runs. Pitching in relief of Slim Salle, Red Shea retires the Reds to force extra innings. Red Shea continues the dual against Dolf Luque, and the score remains unchanged through the eleventh inning. With two outs in the visitor's twelfth, Irish Meusel triples home Frankie Frisch with the go-ahead run. Shea then sets down the Reds in order to close out the victory. Art Nehf is taken off the hook, and Red Shea earns his fourth win against one loss with a 3.29 ERA. Salle and Shea together account for six scoreless innings in relief of Nehf. The Giants are now winners of six straight and own a 16-4 record over their last twenty games. Pittsburgh defeats Boston at Forbes Field.
- FINAL: NYG 4; CIN 3 12-innings
- RECORD: 86-54 (.614); First Place, 1.5 GA of Pittsburgh
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