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
Babe Ruth Breaks His Own Single-Season Home Run Record
St. Louis Browns' starter Bill Bayne toes the rubber opposed by Carl Mays. After two scoreless innings, the teams trade four runs each in the third. First baseman George Sisler singles and scored in the Browns' half. Bob Meusel hits a three-run home run in the Yankees half. St. Louis retakes the lead with a run in the fifth. But it doesn't last. With a runner aboard in the home fifth, 25,000 fans at the Polo Grounds witness Babe Ruth swat his 55th home run this season. He broke his own single-season home run record set last season. In fact, he's now broken his own record in three consecutive years. This, after earlier this season, breaking baseball's all-time home run record. Where he'll stop, no one knows. But the Yankees are reminded about the matter at hand when Ken Williams homers leading off the sixth, tying the game at six. Afterwhich, Elmer Smith homers, leading off a four-run seventh inning en route to a 10-6 victory. Carl Mays wins his 25th decision against nine losses with a 2.96 ERA.
- FINAL: STL 6; NYY 10
GAME #139
POLO GROUNDS
Make-Up: 7/29/1921
Ruth Injured; Yankees and Indians Sweep Respective Doubleheaders
The Yankees pick up where they left off with four runs in the first inning and five more in the third en route to a 13-5 victory and twin bill sweep over the Browns. Starter Bill Piercy allows four runs on five hits, including a home run by Ken Williams and two walks over 4.1 innings pitched for the win. Waite Hoyt enters the game in relief, holding the Browns to just three hits over 3.2 scoreless innings. Despite yielding a run, Tom Rogers closes out the ninth inning. Wally Pipp hits his eighth home run and drives home two giving him 95 RBI this season. Aaron Ward goes 2 for 4 with a double and three runs batted in, and Babe Ruth goes 2 for 3 with a triple but sustains an injury in the seventh. Cleveland wins both ends of a doubleheader at Shibe Park. Thus, the Yankees gain no ground.
- FINAL: STL 5; NYY 13
- RECORD: 88-51 (.633); First Place, 0.5 GA of Cleveland
⚾
GAME #142
Redland Field
Giants Defeat Old Foe Rube Marquard to Complete Sweep of Reds; Pirates Bow to Cubs at Forbes Field
Jesse Barnes is ordered to tough it out against old foe Rube Marquard starting for Cincinnati. The Reds open with a run in the second, but two errors in the top of the third clear the way for a pair of Giants' runs. Third baseman Heinie Groh doubles home the tying run in the bottom half of the frame. After a scoreless fourth inning, the McGawmen pounce on Marquard in the fifth for six runs on eight hits, five consecutively. Dave Bancroft ignited the rally with a leadoff triple giving the Giants an 8-2 lead. Jesse Barnes makes it stand. He surrenders two runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh but yields no more. The Giants picked up a run in the top of the sixth, giving this game its 9-6 final score. Jesse Barnes allows six runs, five earned, on twelve hits and no walks with six strikeouts for the win. He improves to 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA. High Pockets Kelly leads the way going 3 for 5 with a double and three runs batted in, giving 126 for the season. Dave Bancroft and Frankie Frisch both wield three hits each. With a sweep of the Reds, the Giants are now winners of a season-high eight consecutive games, something they've accomplished this season twice before. Meanwhile, at Pittsburgh, the Cubs defeat 21-game winner Wilber Cooper at Forbes Field. Thus, the Giants add another full game of separation between them and the second-place Pirates.
- FINAL: NYG 9; CIN 6
- RECORD: 88-54 (.620); First Place, 2.5 GA of Pittsburgh
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