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
ART NEHF DEFEATS WAITE HOYT, 1-0; YANKEES UNDONE BY FIRST-INNING ERROR; GIANTS WIN FIVE OF LAST SIX GAMES TO CLINCH TITLE
Art Nehf and the Giants accomplish what John McGraw said would be done.
In this series's most tightly contested game, Gotham's National League club prevails against its American League counterpart.
For only the second time this series, the Giants open the scoring. George Burns leads off the game with a bouncer to third. Dave Bancroft draws a five-pitch walk, and Frankie Frisch pops foul to Wally Pipp. Waite Hoyt then issues a second walk to Ross Youngs. Afterwhich, the Fates intervene on behalf of the Giants. Roger Peckinpaugh fails to handle High Pockets Kelly's otherwise routine groundball to short. Bancroft scores from second base as the ball rolls into short left field, and Youngs pulls up at third. The Yankees escape further damage upon Irish Meusel's comebacker, Hoyt, to Wally Pipp.
Reminiscent of the idle Babe Ruth, Chick Fewster strikes out, leading off the home first. Nehf then issues a walk to Peckinpaugh, and Elmer Miller singles to right. With two outs, a wild pitch advances both runners into scoring position. But Nehf strikes out Wally Pipp to end the frame.
The Yankees withstand a Giant threat in the second. Leading off, Johnny Rawlings doubles and advances to third on Frank Snyder's sacrifice bunt. With one out, Art Nehf grounds to Peckinpaugh, who throws out Rawlings attempting to score from third. George Burns follows with a single, but Bancroft bounces out to short, handled cleanly by Peckinpaugh.
In the home second, Art Nehf consecutively retires Aaron Ward, Home Run Baker, and Wally Schang.
Ross Youngs walks with one out in the third and with two outs steals second but is left stranded when Waite Hoyt strikes out Irish Meusel. Chick Fewster draws a one-out walk in the home half, but Peckinpaugh grounds into a double-play, Bancroft, to Rawlings, to Kelly.
The Giants continue forcing the action in the fourth. Johnny Rawlings wields a leadoff double. Frank Snyder pushes him over to third. Art Nehf's flyball to right field is too shallow for Rawlings to tag up. With two outs, Waite Hoyt strikes out George Burns. With two outs in the home fourth, consecutive singles by Wally Pipp and Aaron Ward, and walk to Home Run Baker loads the bases. But Nehf retires Wally Schang on an easy flyball to George Burns in center.
Still with no change in score, the Giants pressure Hoyt again in the sixth. Irish Meusel opens with a single, but with Johnny Rawlings at the bat is caught stealing, Schang to Peckinpaugh. Rawlings' base hit then goes for naught as Hoyt strikes out Frank Snyder and retires Nehf on a pop foul to Frankie Frisch at third. In the home sixth, Art Nehf retires in consecutive order, Bob Meusel, Wally Pipp, and Aaron Ward.
Waite Hoyt tries helping his cause with a two-out single in the seventh but is forced at second on Chick Fewster's grounder to Rawlings.
In the top of the eighth, Waite Hoyt, in consecutive order, strikes out High Pockets Kelly and retires Irish Meusel and Johnny Rawlings on ground balls. In the Yankees half of the eighth, Art Nehf sets down Roger Peckinpaugh, and Elmer Miller then strikes out Bob Meusel.
With the Giants still clutching to a one-run lead, they go before 26,000 at the Polo Grounds into the ninth inning.
Waite Hoyt retires Frank Snyder on a ground ball to third, then strikes out his counterpart, Art Nehf. George Burns goes down on a comebacker, Hoyt to Pipp.
Art Nehf climbs the hill for the home ninth. Pinch-hitting for Wally Pipp, Babe Ruth grounds to High Pockets Kelly, unassisted. Aaron Ward draws a walk. Home Run Baker follows with a hot grounder to the right side, fielded by Johnny Rawlings, who throws to first base for the out. However, Aaron Ward is inspired to continue through second base and onward to third, where he is thrown out, High Pockets Kelly to Frankie Frisch,
... and just like that, the New York Giants are World Series champions.
Waite Hoyt deserved better. No one will deny him that. He limits the Giants to six hits and four walks with seven strikeouts in his only losing effort of the series. In a heroic performance, the Brooklynite does not yield an earned run in 27 innings pitched. He allows no runs in Game Two, one unearned run in Game Five, and one unearned run this Thursday afternoon.
After finding himself on the losing side of Hoyt's first two victories, the crafty Art Nehf has the final say. He holds the Yankees to a mere four hits, issued five walks, and strikes out three for his first and most significant win of the series.
The Yankees win the first two games but cannot sustain their momentum. Like the Giants storming Forbes Field in September and seizing five straight from the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Giants roar back against the Yankees with victories in five of the next six games, interrupted only by a loss in Game Five.
John McGraw returns the World Series crown back to its rightful place in the National League while the fanatical denizens of Gotham begin to revel throughout the streets of Little Napoleon's Empire.
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