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 #153
POLO GROUNDS
Babe Ruth Hits Number 59; Yanks Close Out Season Finale With Ninth-Inning Comeback Victory Over Red Sox
Down to the very last game, the Yankees refuse to be denied. With 15,000 fans on hand for the regular-season finale, the Red Sox and Yankees stage quite the entertaining back and forth affair. Starting in place of Wally Schang, catcher Al DeVormer doubles home two runs in the second against Boston starter Curt Fullerton. Then with two runners on base in the third, Babe Ruth brings the crowd to its feet when he connects for his 59th home run this season, giving the Yankees a 5-0 lead through the third. Yanks starter Bob Shawkey makes his exit after tossing three scoreless innings. Rip Collins takes over mound duties in the fourth much to the Red Sox liking. Babe Ruth's misplay in left field and three consecutive walks issued by Collins result in two runs. With Rip Collins still toeing the rubber in the fifth, the Red Sox tally three on four hits, three going for extra bases. Miller Huggins summons Bill Piercy, who ends the threat, but not before Boston ties the game at five. Piercy and Fullerton traded zeroes through the seventh. Wally Pipp's error in the eight leads to a run for Boston. But with one out and two runners on base in the home ninth, Roger Peckinpaugh doubles home both runners with the tying and winning run. New York wraps up the season with a 4.5 game lead over the Cleveland Indians. The next time the Yankees take the field will be here at the Polo Grounds against their landlords, the New York Giants, in the 1921 World Series.
- FINAL: BOS 6; NYY 7
- FINAL RECORD: 98-55 (.641); FIRST PLACE, 4.5 GA of Cleveland
GAME #153
Ebbets Field
Burleigh Grimes Wins Number 22; Giants Drop Regular-Season Finale at Ebbets Field
Let Uncle Robbie have his fun, for he will soon be back sitting in his living room armchair while his chief rival plays on. The now-former defending National League champions spent more than one hundred games since June 7, mired in fourth and fifth place. Alas, Brooklyn wraps up their season with a 77-75 record, 16.5 games behind the pennant-winning Giants. Before a crowd of 15,000 at Ebbets Field, spitballer Burleigh Grimes holds the Manhattanites to four runs on 13 hits and two walks with five strikeouts for his 22nd win this season against 13 losses with a 2.92 ERA. Left fielder Zack Wheat
closes out the season with a .320 average. Hi Myers goes 3 for 4 with two runs scored, and Ray Schmandt triples, driving home two. Otherwise, John McGraw utilizes upwards of twenty players to keep everyone on point. He spreads pitching duties between Art Nehf, Red Shea, and Rosy Ryan closes out the game. Frankie Frisch drives home his 100th run, and Ross Youngs plates two giving him 105 for the season. That makes three Giant players (High Pockets Kelly) who reach the century mark.
- FINAL: NYG 4; BRK 7
- FINAL RECORD: 94-59 (.614); FIRST PLACE, 4.0 GA of Pittsburgh
⚾
WORLD SERIES
GAME ONE: Wednesday, October 5, 1921
NEW YORK YANKEES
vs.
NEW YORK GIANTS
POLO GROUNDS
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