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 previous 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 #145
POLO GROUNDS
Waite Hoyt Outduels Stan Coveleski in Series Opener; Yankees Lead By One
Occupying the first base dugout, the challengers from the highlands of upper Manhattan, and hosts of this weekend's American League showdown, the New York Yankees. In the visiting dugout, hailing from the lakeshore of Ohio, the defending World Series champion, Cleveland Indians. With both teams locked in a tie for first place, the Brooklynite Waite Hoyt is opposed by 22-game winner Stan Coveleski for Cleveland. Three innings go by before the Indians open the scoring in the fourth on Joe Sewell's run-scoring triple and a wild pitch. The Yankees get one back on doubles from Babe Ruth and Wally Pipp, then pull ahead in the sixth on consecutive doubles from Ruth and Bob Meusel and another run batted in by Wally Pipp. After a scoreless seventh, Wally Pipp drives home his third run, giving the Hugmen a 4-2 lead and the final margin of victory. Waite Hoyt holds Cleveland to a pair of runs on six hits and three walks with a season-high seven strikeouts for the win. He improves to 18-13 with a 3.11 ERA. Amid his fourth consecutive 20-win season, Yankee nemesis Stan Coveleski allows four earned runs on six hits and four walks in the loss as Cleveland slides back into second place.
- FINAL: CLE 2; NYY 4
- RECORD: 92-53 (.634); First Place, 1.0 GA of Cleveland
⚾
GAME CALLED: RAINED OUT
Next Game: Saturday, September 24, 1921
SPORTSMAN'S PARK
A second straight day of idleness has harmed the McGrawmen as the Pirates defeated the hapless Philadelphia Phillies at Forbes Field to close within 3.5 games of the Giants. The latter tomorrow open a series against the third-place Cardinals at St. Louis on Saturday.
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