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
POLO GROUNDS
Carl Mays Hurls Five-Hit Shutout; Yankees Take World Series Opener
Gotham manager John McGraw throws the first curveball of the series. He goes against the pundits by withholding Art Nehf and instead pits right-hander Phil Douglas against the Yankee submariner, Carl Mays. Hammering typewriters of the press and Yankee batters immediately bring this decision into question.
Leading off the game, Elmer Miller singles to straightaway center field. Roger Peckinpaugh successfully bunts the runner over, and Babe Ruth follows with a single to center, plating Elmer Miller from second.
The score remains unchanged through the fourth inning. Carl Mays yields just two hits, one in the home first and a second in the fourth, both by Frankie Frisch. Phil Douglas settles in, issuing but two walks. That is until third baseman Mike McNally leads off the visitor's fifth with a double to left field and is sacrificed to third by Wally Schang. Douglas then strikes out his counterpart, Carl Mays. But with two outs and Elmer Miller at the bat, Mike McNally executes a clean steal of home for a 2-0 Yankee lead.
Roger Peckinpaugh singles leading off the sixth, and with Babe Ruth at the plate, moves to second on a passed ball by Frank Snyder. Phil Douglas then fans Babe Ruth. Bob Meusel follows with a triple to left field, scoring Peckinpaugh. However, Meusel is called out on appeal for not touching first base. But the damage is done as the Yankees seize a 3-0 lead.
Carl Mays takes care of the rest. He yields just three more hits the rest of the way.
Phil Douglas gets outdueled, allowing three earned runs on five hits and four walks with six strikeouts through eight innings. Pitching in relief of Douglas, Jesse Barnes faces five batters in the ninth. With two outs and two runners in scoring position, Barnes strikes out Wally Schang.
Frankie Frisch leads off the home ninth with his fourth hit of the game. Ross Youngs trades places with Frisch on a fielder's choice. Afterwhich, High Pockets Kelly grounds into a game-ending double play, Peckinpaugh, to Aaron Ward, to Wally Pipp.
Carl Mays, the regular season's winningest pitcher, holds the Giants to five scattered hits and no walks in a complete-game shutout effort for the win. Only Frankie Frisch solves the Carl Mays puzzle with four hits, including a triple in the sixth. Otherwise, second baseman Johnny Rawlings accounts for the Giants' only other hit.
Babe Ruth goes 1 for 3 with a walk and two strikeouts, no home runs to the crowd's dismay, but nonetheless delivers home the game's decisive run in the first. Mike McNally makes the series opener his own showcase with two hits, including a double, and two stolen bases, including a McGraw-like theft of home. For indeed, the Yankees' methods of manufacturing this victory should somewhat dispel a prevailing belief that the Hugmen are too slow on the basepaths and overly dependent on Babe Ruth's home runs.
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