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 #137
POLO GROUNDS
Bob Meusel Powers Yankees Comeback; Hugmen Salvage Two-Game Split With Chicago
The afternoon does not start well for the Hugmen. Roger Peckinpaugh's error at short leads to a first-inning run. Bob Shawkey yeilds two more in the second. After recovering a run in the bottom half of the second, Shawkey surrenders a leadoff triple to Eddie Collins and a single to Earl Sheely; Collins stays at third, but not for long. With left fielder Bibb Falk at the plate, Shawkey unleashes a wild pitch allowing Collins to score, then surrenders a home run, and off to the showers, he goes. Rip Collins enters the game and promptly surrenders a triple and base hit, giving the White Sox a 7-1 lead. Bob Meusel homers, leading off the home fifth off Chicago starter John Russell. But Ernie Johnson's home run off Rip Collins in the visitor's sixth gives the White Sox an 8-2 lead. With two outs in the sixth, Bob Meusel connects for a three-run home run. Then after issuing two walks to open the home seventh, manager Kid Gleason had enough and removed John Russell in favor of Shovel Hodge, who hits two straight batters forcing home a run. Hodge then walks Elmer Miller to force in another. Shovel Hodge is hastily replaced with Sarge Connally, who surrenders a two-run single to Peckinpaugh, and Elmer Miller scored on Babe Ruth's fielder's choice for a 10-8 Yankees advantage. Elmer Miller drives home one last run in the ninth, giving this game its final score. Bob Shawkey is taken off the hook, and Rip Collins earns the win in relief. Waite Hoyt twirls two scoreless innings to close out the victory. Bob Meusel drives home four runs giving him 125 this season, and Elmer Smith knocks in three. This makes five straight games the Bambino has failed to hit for the circuit. He is stuck at 54 home runs, one shy of breaking his own all-time single-season record set last season. Meanwhile, sixteen regular-season games still remain to be played. The Indians win at Philadelphia, and so the Yankees gain no separation in the standing from Cleveland.
- FINAL: CHI 8; NYY 11
- RECORD: 86-51 (.628); First Place, 0.5 GA of Cleveland
⚾
GAME #141
Redland Field
Phil Douglas Puts Forth Stellar Effort; Reds Routed by McGrawmen
It's the Gothams who offer Reds' pitchers no quarter. The McGrawmen score early and late, en route to a commanding 10-1 victory and their second straight at Redland Field. With Phil Douglas opposed by old foe Eppa Rixley, both teams manufacture single runs in the second. In the fifth, Irish Meusel singles home Frankie Frisch and Frank Snyder drives in Meusel, giving the Giants a 3-1 lead. Phil Douglas makes it stand. He yields no runs on just four hits over the final seven innings of the game. The Giants' bats, however, were not yet done. Three straight hits leading off the seventh knock Reds' starter Eppa Rixey out of the box. Afterwhich, the Giants greet incoming reliever Cliff Markle with four more hits as part of a seven-run eighth inning and a 10-1 final margin of victory. Phil Douglas allows just one run on six hits and four walks for his fourteenth win against eight losses, with a 4.19 ERA. Eppa Rixey is denied his nineteenth victory. Seven of eight position starters in the Giant lineup this game were all batting above the .300 mark. Pittsburgh again defeated the Braves at Forbes Field.
- FINAL: NYG 10; CIN 1
- RECORD: 87-54 (.617); First Place, 1.5 GA of Pittsburgh
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