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 #124
POLO GROUNDS
Babe Ruth Hits Number Forty-Nine; Yanks Continue Dominance Over Senators
If you include the last two games earlier this week at Washington, today's victory marks the Yankees' fifth straight victory over the Senators, and they continue running up the score. With nine more runs today, New York has scored exactly fifty runs over their last five games. But it is Washington who jumps out to a 3-0 lead in the visitor's first. Starting pitcher Waite Hoyt yields two hits but commits an error, as does Aaron Ward, resulting in two unearned runs. Undeterred, Hoyt accounts for his misplay by keeping the Senators scoreless over the final eight innings, allowing just two more hits and two walks with six strikeouts for the win. Babe Ruth hits his first home after a nine-day drought, number 49 this season. He is now just six home runs away from breaking his own record set last season with just under thirty games left in the regular season to get it done. Bob Meusel drives home his 110th run this season with a seventh-inning home run, and Roger Peckinpaugh also homers and drives home a team-high three runs. Washington starter Eric Erickson allows all nine New York runs on ten hits for the loss. Meanwhile, the Tigers are routed by the Indians at Detroit, and so the Yankees maintain their one-game lead over Cleveland.
- FINAL: WAS 3; NYY 9
- RECORD: 78-46 (.619); First Place, 1.0 GA of Cleveland
⚾
OFF DAY: SCHEDULE CHANGE
Next Game: Saturday, September 3, 1921
Ebbets Field
Probable Pitchers:
Jesse Barnes (13-8, 2.82) vs. Dutch Ruether (10-12, 4.12)
In a tightly contested game, the third-place St. Louis Cardinals shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates, 1 to 0, at Forbes Field. Thus, the idle Giants gain one-half game in the standings. They will enter tomorrow's game against the Robins a mere half-game behind the Bucs in the National League race. The McGrawmen have twenty-four games remaining on the schedule. Among the pundits, Pittsburgh is still favored to capture the pennant. However, reinforced by John McGraw's savvy acquisitions the likes of Irish Meusel, Johnny Rawlings, and Red Shea, the Giants are demonstrating themselves to be the senior circuit's most balanced team.
Art Nehf, Dave Bancroft and Frankie Frisch, John McGraw, High Pockets Kelly
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