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
Carl Mays Tires Late; Phil Douglas Finishes Strong For Victory in Game Four
In a rematch of Game One, Phil Douglas climbs the hill opposed by Carl Mays. Both pitchers strike out their first batters faced, George Burns by Mays and Elmer Miller by Douglas. The two starters then go on to retire their first six batters of the game.
With one out in the visitor's third, catcher Frank Snyder is the first Giant to reach base on Roger Peckinpaugh's error at short but is left stranded. Mike McNally wields the Yankees first hit leading off the home half of the third, and is promptly thrown while attempting to steal second, Snyder to Dave Bancroft. Babe Ruth singles with two outs in the fourth, playing on a bad ankle and a wounded elbow. But Phil Douglas fans Bob Meusel. In the meantime, Carl Mays sets down 15 of his first 16 batters faced through the visitor's fifth.
The Yankees finally open the scoring in the home fifth. Wally Pipp leads off with a single, advances his way third, and scores on Wally Schang's triple to deep left field with two outs.
Mays and Douglas then duel through two more scoreless frames. George Burns and Peckinpaugh exchange singles in the sixth, but the latter is thrown out attempting to steal second, Snyder to Bancroft. With one out in the top of the seventh, Ross Youngs singles up the middle, but High Pockets Kelly grounds into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play, Peckinpaugh, to Ward, to Pipp. Phil Douglas fans Babe Ruth in the sixth, then strikes out Wally Pipp and Aaron Ward consecutively in the seventh, bringing the scattered pockets of Giant fans to their feet in appreciation.
Douglas is rewarded for his efforts in the visitor's eighth. Irish Meusel triples into the left/center field gap and scores on Johnny Rawlings' base hit to right. Frank Snyder then beats out a bunt fielded by Carl Mays. Phil Douglas helps his cause by successfully sacrificing both runners into scoring positions for George Burns, who sends them home with a double to left field. Carl Mays retires Bancroft and Frankie Frisch to end the threat, but not before the Giants seize a 3-1 lead.
Leading off the home eighth, Mike McNally looks at strike three, then with two outs, Phil Douglas strikes out Elmer Miller.
High Pockets Kelly doubles and scores on Irish Meusel's base hit to left field with one out in the visitor's ninth.
After Phil Douglas retires Peckinpaugh on a grounder to second, Babe Ruth reanimates the largely Yankee crowd with a home run far out in the right field distance. But it goes for naught. Bob Meusel pops foul to Frank Snyder, and Douglas handles Wally Pipp's comebacker unassisted to close out the victory.
Phil Douglas, the veteran right-hander amid a career season under John McGraw, masterfully outduels Carl Mays, holding the Yankees to a pair of runs on seven hits and no walks with seven strikeouts, five of which were recorded in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings. Douglas strikes out seven of eight Yankee position players at least once and Elmer Miller twice. Only Roger Peckingpaugh and Carl Mays withstand his offerings, albeit with little effect.
Carl Mays, who hurled a five-hit shutout in Game One, remains brilliant through the seventh. However, the aftermath of Game Three is realized. After the Giants twenty hit attack, which necessitated four Yankee pitchers, Miller Huggins is reluctant to send in relief for Carl Mays. In turn, all four runs and seven of the Giants' nine hits come in the eighth and ninth innings. The Yankees have now opened each game with a lead but have failed to protect it in consecutive games. Perhaps, there was little else Huggins could do in Game Three. However, today most certainly brings his piloting back into question as 13 of the Giants' 17 runs scored this series have come in the seventh inning or later.
George Burns goes 2 for 4 with two runs batted in, while the continuing contributions made by Irish Meusel and Johnny Rawlings cannot go unspoken. Together, the three account for six of the Giants' nine hits and drive home all runs.
An ailing Babe Ruth finally hit this series's first home run, but it failed to turn the tide. Through four games, he is 4 for 11 with one extra-base hit, five walks, four runs batted in, two runs scored, and five strikeouts.
The series is now tied at two. McGraw's men have clearly seized momentum and will next host Game Five, Waite Hoyt and Art Nehf, the likely matchup.
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