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 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 #148
POLO GROUNDS
Yankees Win Finale, Take Series from Cleveland, Seize Two-Game Lead Over Indians
BABE RUTH HITS HOME RUNS 57 & 58
Miller Huggins has altered his tact, indeed. Leaving nothing to chance, he pulls Jack Quinn before the Yankee starter can complete the first, but not before Cleveland scores three unearned and brings the crowd of 30,000 to an abrupt hush. Yankee third sacker Mike McNally's errant throw to first base helped clear the way. Playing on a bum leg and working out a wrist injury, Babe Ruth connects in the bottom of the first against old nemesis Stan Coveleski for his 57th home run this season. After a scoreless second, Babe Ruth doubles home Roger Peckinpaugh; Wally Pipp then singles home both Ruth and Bob Meusel, knocking Coveleski out of the box before the 22-game winner can finish the third. A reanimated crowd bids the Tribe starter a New York-style farewell. With George Uhle pitching on just two days' rest, Babe Ruth swats another home run in the fifth inning, Roger Peckinpaugh scores, and the already uproarious Polo Grounds shake. Facing the Brooklynite Waite Hoyt, pitching in his fifth inning in relief of Quinn, first baseman George Burns tripled home Joe Sewell and scored on a fielder's choice cutting Cleveland's deficit to one. That is until catcher Wally Schang's two-run home run off Uhle widens the Hugman's lead to three. Miller Huggins again dispatches Waite Hoyt in the seventh, and the defending champions rally for three. With one out, Tris Speaker singles; Hoyt walks Elmer Smith, and Speaker trades places with Larry Gardner on a fielder's choice at third. Joe Sewell draws another walk to load the bases. George Burns then singles to center, scoring Smith and Gardner with two outs, but Joe Sewell is thrown out at third, Elmer Smith to Mike McNally. Despite Smith's game-saving play, Miller Huggins is afforded one more opportunity to ruin everything. He sends out Waite Hoyt to pitch his 17th inning in three days. Catcher Steve O'Neill is retired on a hard liner to right field. Pinch-hitter Jack Graney draws a walk, and with two outs, second baseman Bill Wambsganss doubles to right. Huggins finally calls upon Carl Mays, who induces Tris Speaker into a shallow fly to center field caught on the run by Elmer Miller. The Yankee submariner then hurled a scoreless ninth, ending the game by striking out Steve O'Neill to preserve the win. As the Yankees assembled together in a congratulatory bunch, the crowd swarmed the field. The Hugmen's lead is now two with five games to play; the Indians have only four.
- FINAL: CLE 7; NYY 8
- RECORD: 94-54 (.635); First Place, 2.0 GA of Cleveland
GAME #150
Sportsman's Park
Giants Poke Pirates Further Out On The Plank
After a loss on Aug. 23 to these very Cardinals, the Giants found themselves 7.5 games behind the first-place Pirates. They go on to win twelve of their next sixteen games. Then with two consecutive victories against Brooklyn at the Polo Grounds, Gotham on Sept. 9 achieved a half-game lead ahead of then favored Pittsburgh Pirates. Afterwhich, the schedule makers forced the Giants into defending, if not building upon that lead on the road. Twelve games, nine more victories, and over 1,700 miles later, the McGrawmen are coming home with a four-game advantage over Pittsburgh. Art Nehf hurls a gem as the Giants capture the series finale at St. Louis. A pair of singles and Doc Lavan's sacrifice fly in the fifth inning spoils the shutout. Nehf limits the Cardinals to just three other hits, and no walks with three strikeouts for his 20th win this season against ten losses with a 3.58 ERA; this marks his second consecutive milestone season. Right-hander Bill Pertica takes the loss. Dave Bancroft tripled, scored, and drove in a run. High Pockets Kelly increased his total to 133 runs batted in with a seventh-inning hit, and Frankie Frisch was 3 for 4 with a double. The Giants are off the schedule until Oct. 1, when they open a two-game series at Philadelphia. However, there will be no rest. Mister McGraw will march them through the appropriate drills. Whereas the Giants have three games left, the Pirates still have six.
- FINAL: NYG 4; STL 1
- RECORD: 93-57 (.620); First Place, 4.0 GA of Pittsburgh
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