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 #150
Shibe Park
Shawkey Blanks A's; Yankees One Game Away from First-Ever Pennant
Making his 38th and final start of the regular season, Bob Shawkey hurls a gem to close out one of his more rumbustious campaigns to date. He and other pitchers were openly critical of the new baseballs and a diminished ability to effectively grip them. But on this day, Shawkey demonstrated no such issue. The former Athletic held Philadelphia to just four hits and four walks with six strikeouts in a complete-game shutout effort. A three-time 20-game winner, Shawkey finishes with an 18-12 record and an uncommon 4.28 ERA. After playing through aches and pains in his leg and wrist, Babe Ruth missed his first game this season due to a mild case of the flu. In his place, Chick Fewster, Braggo Roth, and Home Run Baker all see action. Roger Peckinpaugh picks up the slack with a home run and two runs batted in, Bob Meusel drives in his 138th run, and Bob Shawkey helps his cause with two hits and a run batted in. White Sox southpaw Dickey Kerr wins his 19th game at Chicago's Comisky Park, limiting Cleveland to just six hits and one walk in a complete-game shutout. Any combination of another Yankee win or Indians loss gives the Hugmen the pennant.
- FINAL: NYY 4; PHI 0
- RECORD: 95-55 (.633); First Place, 2.5 GA of Cleveland
⚾ ⚾ ⚾ ⚾ ⚾ ⚾ ⚾
NOT SCHEDULED
Next Game: Saturday, October 1, 1921
Baker Bowl
Instead of preparing to play the Phillies, John McGraw will now be putting his team through practice drills for the World Series. With help from the Cardinals, who kindly swept the Pirates in a doubleheader at Sportsman's Park, the Giants clinch the eighth National League pennant during their illustrious 39-year history. For Little Napoleon, his seventh flag as manager. Aside from a 21-year old George Kelly who saw action in just eleven games, outfielder George Burns is the only notable holdover from McGraw's 1917 champions. Otherwise, Dave Bancroft, Frank Snyder, Johnny Rawlings, Irish Meusel, and pitchers Art Nehf, Fred Toney, Jesse Barnes, and Phil Douglas are all John McGraw imports added to Giants' homegrown regulars Ross Youngs, Frankie Frisch, and a now 25-years old George "High Pockets" Kelly. Trailing Pittsburgh by 7.5 games on Aug. 23, the Giants effectively won the pennant by sweeping a five-game series against the Pirates at the Polo Grounds. Afterwhich, they never again dropped out of first place. In their final showdown against the Pirates earlier this month, the McGrawmen punctuated their standing by taking two of three at Forbes Field.
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