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!
WORLD SERIES
vs.
POLO GROUNDS
Jesse Barnes Strikes Out Ten, Giants Hit Two Home Runs, McGrawmen Even Series at Three
Babe Ruth is out.
Doctors posed it very plainly to the Bambino: play at the risk of losing his left arm.
With baseball's top slugger sidelined, Miller Huggins tasks left-hander Harry Harper to pitch the most important game of his career. But the Yankees' redesigned lineup stakes Harper to a first-inning 3-0 lead in support of their starter.
Replacing Babe Ruth in left field, Chick Fewster draws a leadoff walk against Giant starter Fred Toney. After Roger Peckinpaugh pops out, Elmer Miller singles through the left side. Bob Meusel then singles up the middle to score Fewster and advances to second on George Burns' throw to third base. Wally Pipp grounds to second, and the runners hold. Afterwhich, Aaron Ward delivers a single to center field, plating both Miller and Meusel. For the second time in two starts, Fred Toney is knocked out of the box very early. John McGraw wastes no time bringing in Jesse Barnes, who secures the final out.
The Giants answered back in the next at-bat. High Pockets Kelly draws a leadoff walk, and Irish Meusel homers into the right-field stands. Then with one out, Frank Snyder homers to left field, tying the game at three. When Harry Harper yields a hit to Jesse Barnes, Miller Huggins summons Bob Shawkey, who brings the inning to an end.
Jesse Barnes catches Wally Schang looking at strike three leading off the home second. Bob Shawkey then singles to left, followed by Chick Fewster's home run in the same direction.
After a scoreless third inning, the Giants open the visitor's fourth with consecutive singles by batterymates Frank Snyder and Jesse Barnes. The bases are loaded when Mike McNally fails to cleanly handle George Burns' bunt down the third baseline. Switch-hitter Dave Bancroft then singles to left, scoring Snyder and Barnes; Burns pulls up at third. Miller Huggins makes no move. Frankie Frisch bounces into a force play at second, but Burns scores on the play. Frisch then steals second and scores on High Pockets Kelly's base hit to right field for a 7-5 Giants lead.
The score remains unchanged through the fifth.
Still facing Bob Shawkey, Bancroft singles leading off the sixth, and Frankie Frisch draws a walk. When Ross Youngs swings at strike three, Wally Schang throws out Bancroft, attempting to steal third while Frisch swipes second. High Pockets Kelly follows through with a hit to center, scoring Frisch for a three-run Giant lead.
Shawkey and Barnes continue pitching scoreless ball through the eighth. Leading off the ninth, Ross Youngs singles against Bill Piercy, pitching in relief of Shawkey. But the Giants' running game hits another roadblock when High Pockets Kelly strikes out, and Wally Schang throws out Ross Youngs attempting to steal second.
Curveball artist Jesse Barnes closes the game by inducing three consecutive pop-ups by Chick Fewster, Roger Peckinpaugh, and Elmer Miller to second baseman Johnny Rawlings.
Dave Bancroft, High Pockets Kelly, and Irish Meusel each drive two runs. But victory goes to the team with greater pitching depth. After Carl Mays and Waite Hoyt, it has become clear Miller Huggins is in a bind. Last Friday's rainout has helped him little in that respect, and the excuse of the Bambino is somewhat muted by Chick Fewster, who drives home two of the Yankees' five runs.
John McGraw has lauded his staff all season long. Game six demonstrates why. Another problematic start by Fred Toney proves only a temporary setback for John McGraw. Through two starts, Toney has now yielded seven runs on seven hits in just 2.2 innings pitched.
Just as he did in game three, Jesse Barnes steps in to earn the win in relief. Barnes enters this game with two outs in the first, allowing a pair of runs on just four hits and only two hits after the second inning. He issues four walks but registers a series-high ten strikeouts over the final 8.1 innings of the game and fanned everyone in the Yankees' lineup at least once.
The World Series is now tied at three games apiece. The first team to achieve victory in two of the three remaining games will be crowned baseball champions.
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