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 #149
POLO GROUNDS
Urban Shocker Wins Number 27; Idle Cleveland Indians Gain Half Game on Yankees
With a deflating and costly loss against the St. Louis Browns, the hungover Yankees deliver chance and opportunity at Cleveland's doorstep. Starter Harry Harper puts forth a representative effort. He surrenders a first-inning triple to second baseman Frank Ellerbe, followed by George Sisler's home run over the right/center field wall, but nothing more. However, the former Yankee Urban Shocker makes it stand. The two starters enter into a scoreless duel over the final eight and a half innings. Beginning in the third and through the eighth, Shocker faces a minimum of eighteen batters assisted by two double plays in the field. With two runners aboard and two outs in the ninth, Shocker intentionally walks Babe Ruth to load the bases. He then induces Bob Meusel into a harmless fly to center field, ending the game. All told, Urban Shocker holds the Yankees to just five hits and one walk with three strikeouts in a complete-game shutout effort. He wins his career-high 27th decision and his second this month against the Yankees against twelve losses with a 3.58 ERA. Only Wally Schang had Shocker figured out with two hits in three trips. Roger Peckinpaugh, Aaron Ward, and Harry Harper account for New York's three other hits. The Babe goes 0 for 3 with a strikeout. Home Run Baker, along with Chick Fewster, lost his starting role, appeared as a pinch-hitter in his first game in eleven days. The idle Cleveland Indians gain a half-game in the standings. New York's lead is less than two.
- FINAL: STL 2; NYY 0
- RECORD: 94-55 (.631); First Place, 1.5 GA of Cleveland
⚾
NOT SCHEDULED
Next Game: Saturday, October 1, 1921; doubleheader
Next Game: Saturday, October 1, 1921; doubleheader
Baker Bowl
At Forbes Field, Pirate hurlers Whitey Glazner and Hal Carlson join together in defeating the Philadelphia Phillies, outlasting Jesse Winters in a 9-6 final. Former Giant Dave Robertson leads Pittsburgh, going 3 for 5 with a double, home run, and four runs batted in. Shortstop Rabbit Maranville drives home two. BOXSCORE The Pirates reduce their deficit to 3.5 games behind the idle Giants.
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