100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 10/10/1921: Waite Hoyt Hurls Second Gem of Series; Yankees Seize 3-2 Lead Over Giants

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

BOXSCORE GAME FIVE: Monday, October 10, 1921 - BR

New York Yankees vs. NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

Salisbury (NC) Evening Post, Monday, October 10, 1921

Waite Hoyt Again Dominates Giants in Game Five; Yankees Seize 3-2 Series Advantage

In a rematch of Game Two, Waite Hoyt toes the rubber opposed by Art Nehf.

The only difference being the Giants open the scoring for the first time this series.  

Leading off the home first, George Burns reaches safely on Mike McNally's misplay at third.  After Burns trades places with Dave Bancroft on a forceout at second, Frankie Frisch singles, and Ross Youngs draws a walk to load the bases.  High Pockets Kelly follows with a single to center; all runners advance one base.  Waite Hoyt bears down to strike out Irish Meusel, then escapes further damage by retiring Johnny Rawlings on a bouncer to second.

Bob Meusel leads off the visitor's second with a single to right, then advances to second base on Wally Pipp's sacrifice bunt.  As Aaron Ward swings at strike three, Bob Meusel takes off for third, but Frankie Frisch can't handle Earl Smith's throw.  Meusel mistakenly dashes towards home and is thrown out, Frisch to Smith.

A bit of basepath manipulation in the home second is thwarted by the Yankees.  With two outs, George Burns lays down a bunt for a hit.  Dave Bancroft then lines a base hit to right field.  Bob Meusel throws to Wally Pipp, who traps Bancroft in a rundown.  From Pipp to Ward and back to Pipp, but when Pipp throws back to second base, Meusel takes off for home and is thrown out, Roger Peckinpaugh to Wally Schang.

Mike McNally draws a walk leading off the Yankee third, followed by Wally Schang's double to left.  The runners hold on Waite Hoyt's grounder to short, but the game-tying run scores on Elmer Miller's flyball to center field.

Hoyt escapes more trouble in the bottom half of the third.  With one out and a runner at first, High Pockets Kelly strikes out looking.  Irish Meusel then doubles to left, with Ross Youngs pulling up at third.  But Hoyt retires Johnny Rawlings on a pop-foul to third.

An ailing Babe Ruth leads off the fourth with a perfectly placed bunt down the third baseline for a hit.  Bob Meusel follows with a double to left field, scoring Ruth all the way from first.  Meusel advances to third on Pipp's grounder to second.  Aaron Ward's flyball to center then scores Meusel for a 3-1 Yankees lead.

Earl Smith draws a walk leading off the Giant fourth.  With one out and George Burns at the bat, the Yankees execute a strikeout, caught stealing, double-play, Wally Schang to Aaron Ward.   

Afterwhich, neither lineup poses any threats through the seventh.

Another Giant rally is thwarted in the eighth.  Ross Youngs singles with one out.  High Pockets Kelly follows with a hit to right but is thrown out trying to leg out a double, Bob Meusel to Aaron Ward.  With Ross Youngs at third, Waite Hoyt induces Irish Meusel into a pop-foul to Wally Pipp.

Art Nehf retires the Yankees in order in the top of the ninth.  Johnny Rawlings then leads off the home half with a double to left field.  Earl Smith pops up to second base forcing Rawlings to stay in place.  Waite Hoyt then strikes out both pinch-hitter Frank Snyder and George Burns to end the game.

Coming off a two-hit masterpiece in Game Two, the Brooklynite out of Erasmus High School holds the Giants scoreless through the final eight innings.  He otherwise allows one unearned run on ten hits and two walks with six strikeouts for his second win.  He has now pitched eighteen innings this series without allowing an earned run.  

Meanwhile, the Giants strand nine runners on base and bat 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position.  Hoyt is supported by the stellar defense in the field, cutting the aggressive Giants off at every pass with a key double-play, two outfield assists by Bob Meusel, Peckinpaugh's throw home, and no stolen bases against the arm of Wally Shang.

Babe Ruth continues to play against the doctor's orders.  Compromised by an infected elbow, the Bambino struck out three times but still somehow managed to factor in the victory.  His fourth-inning bunt resulted in scoring the game's decisive run.  However, Ruth's availability moving forward still remains in question.

Art Nehf is once again outdueled by Hoyt.  The Giant southpaw allows three earned runs on just six hits and one walk with five strikeouts in another tightly contested loss.  

Wally Schang and Bob Meusel continue doing the heavy lifting for Miller Huggins.  Out of the Yankees' 31 hits to date, Schang and Meusel account for four of a limited seven extra-base hits.  Babe Ruth has hit either team's only home run through five games.  He and Wally Schang lead the Yankees in hitting with a .333 average, respectively.

So, just to be clear, the slugging Yankees have defeated John McGraw's Giants at their own game for the third time in five games.

Daily News (New York, NY), Tuesday, October 11, 1921

The Washington (D.C.) Post, Tuesday, October 11, 1921

l; The Birmingham (AL) News, Monday, October 10, 1921

r; The Washington (D.C.) Post, Tuesday, October 11, 1921

Daily News (New York, NY), 

Tuesday, October 11, 1921

The New York Times, 

Tuesday, October 11, 1921

The New York Times, Tuesday, October 11, 1921

 

The New York Times, Tuesday, October 11, 1921

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 10/9/1921: Phil Douglas Outlasts Carl Mays; Gotham Nationals Even Series at Two

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

BOXSCORE GAME FOUR:

Sunday, October 9, 1921 - BR

New York Giants

vs.

NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

      

The Jennings Daily Times-Record (Louisiana), Tuesday, October 4, 1921

 

Carl Mays Tires Late; Phil Douglas Finishes Strong For Victory in Game Four

GAME ONE     GAME TWO     GAME THREE

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.

Daily News, (New York, NY), Monday, October 10, 1921

(4) The New York Times, Monday, October 10, 1921

Lincoln (NE) Journal Star, 

Monday, October 10, 1921

The Evening World (New York, NY), Monday, October 10, 1921

The New York Times, Monday, October 10, 1921

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 10/7/1921: Giants Storm Back With Twenty Hits in Game Three; Four Yankee Pitchers Walloped

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

BOXSCORE GAME THREE: Friday, October 7, 1921 - BR

New York Yankees vs. NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

New-York (NY) Tribune, Saturday, October 8, 1921

The Tables Are Turned; Babe Ruth's Availability In Question

The Yankees just may have made a grave mistake, perhaps in more ways than one.

In a duel between eighteen-game winners, the third tilt pits Fred Toney for the Giants against Bob Shawkey for the visiting Yankees.  But after two scoreless innings, neither starting pitcher makes it out of the third.

Wally Schang draws a leadoff walk, and Bob Shawkey's single positions runners at the corners.  Elmer Miller slashes a hit to right field, scoring Schang, while Shawkey holds at second.  Another walk to Roger Peckinpaugh loads the bases.  Babe Ruth follows through with a base hit to center field, scoring both Shawkey and Miller.  John McGraw can tolerate no more and promptly summons Jesse Barnes to the mound.  With runners again at the corners, and Bob Meusel at the bat, Babe Ruth is thrown out attempting to steal second base - Frank Snyder to Johnny Rawlings.  Of course, Meusel then walks.  Wally Pipp follows with a sharp grounder to second, which Johnny Rawlings prevents from leaving the infield and secures the out at first as Peckinpaugh scores from third.  Jesse Barnes then strikes out Aaron Ward to end the threat, but not before the Yankees deliver a seemingly crushing four-run blow, all charged to Fred Toney.

However, the Yankee lead is fleeting.  Poised to take a veritable stranglehold in the series, the Hugmen fail to keep the Giants down, although Camp McGraw would say it was only a matter of time before they rise up.

After muddling through twenty scoreless innings, Jesse Barnes opens the home third with a single to left field.  With one out, Dave Bancroft singles, and Frankie Frisch walks, loading the bases.  Bob Shawkey issues another walk to Ross Youngs, forcing home the Giants' first run this series.  Afterwhich, Shawkey walks his third consecutive batter, High Pockets Kelly, pushing across a second run, and like John McGraw, Yankee manager Miller Huggins can stand no more.  Facing Jack Quinn in relief of Shawkey, Irish Meusel grounds to first base handled unassisted by Wally Pipp with Frankie Frisch scoring from third.  Next up, Johnny Rawlings hits one through the left side scoring Ross Youngs to knot the game at four.

Both Quinn and Barnes pitch into and out of trouble in the fourth before settling in for two more scoreless innings through the sixth.

And then the bell tolls ...

All the Giants' shortcomings and fielding misplays, all of which they failed to achieve at the bat in games one and two, are reconciled in the home eighth.  

Frankie Frisch leads things off with a single, Ross Youngs doubles to right, and High Pockets Kelly draws a walk to load the bases.  Irish Meusel doubles, plating two, and Johnny Rawlings singles to center driving home two more.  Miller Huggins dispatches Jack Quinn to the showers with haste.  With Frank Snyder now facing Rip Collins, Johnny Rawlings is thrown out while attempting to steal second base - Wally Schang to Peckinpaugh.  But the Giants reload the bases on consecutive base hits from Snyder, Jesse Barnes, and George Burns.  Dave Bancroft's sacrifice flyball to left field scores Snyder.  Rip Collins then walks Frankie Frisch to once again load the bases.  Afterwhich, Ross Youngs sends all runners home with a triple to the deepest reaches of center field.  Rip Collins joins Shawkey and Quinn on the scrap heap while right-hander Tom Rogers finally secures out number three.  All told, the Giants erupt for eight earned runs on eight hits, with three going for extra bases for a commanding 12-4 lead.

Leading off the eighth, Babe Ruth draws his fifth walk of the series and gets replaced by pinch-runner Chick Fewster, who soon scores on Aaron Ward's two-out base hit.  Leading off the home eighth, Irish Meusel singles to center, steals second base, and scores on Frank Snyder's hit to left field, giving the Giants a 13-5 final margin of victory.

No pitcher goes unscathed, but it's the Yankee hurlers who are left licking their wounds.  Bob Shawkey allows four earned runs on five hits and four walks in only 2.1 innings pitched.  Jack Quinn suffers the loss after yielding four runs on eight hits and two walks in 3.2 innings of work.  Rip Collins likewise gets his offerings hit to all corners of the field for another four runs on four hits and one walk, in only 0.2 innings.  Tom Rogers rounds out the list of casualties, surrendering one run on three hits over the final 1.1 innings of the game.

Pitching in relief of Fred Toney, right-hander Jesse Barnes plays a lead role in turning the Giants' fortunes, yielding a lone run on just four hits and two walks over the final seven innings with seven strikeouts against a game-high 25 batters faced.

George Burns goes 4 for 6, and Frank Snyder 4 for 5, as the restless Giants wield twenty hits against Yankee pitchers.  Ross Youngs drives home four runs, while Irish Meusel and Johnny Rawlings plate three apiece.  Frankie Frisch is now 7 for 10 with a triple, three walks, three runs scored, and two stolen bases through three games.

Now we hear that Babe Ruth is playing with a wounded left elbow, injured during the last regular-season series against Cleveland.  Through three World Series games, Ruth is 2 for 7, with no extra-base hits, five walks, four strikeouts, and three runs batted in, hardly the slugging anticipated by Miller Huggins and fans.  The Babe's next start is now in doubt.  

Should this be the case, the Yankees diminutive skipper needs to be held accountable.  Huggins knowingly played Ruth down the stretch through a bothersome leg, then a wrist injury, without so much as a day off.  Lest we forget, Ruth closed out September in his hotel room battling a case of the flu.  However, if Ruth indeed injured his left arm in that late September series with Cleveland, why on earth did Miller Huggins let Babe Ruth pitch and face 24 batters in an inconsequential October 1 game against the Athletics?

l; The New York Times, Saturday, October 8, 1921

r; The Sacramento (CA) Star, Saturday, October 8, 1921

Harrisburg (PA) Telegraph, Saturday, October 8, 1921

r; The Sacramento (CA) Star, Saturday, October 8, 1921

l; The New York Times, Saturday, October 8, 1921

r; The Leavenworth (KS) Times, Saturday, October 8, 1921

The Sacramento (CA) Star, 

Saturday, October 8, 1921

Harrisburg (PA) Telegraph, Saturday, October 8, 1921

The New York Times, Saturday, October 8, 1921

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 10/6/1921: Waite Hoyt Hurls Two-Hitter; Yankees Seize Two-Game World Series Lead Over Giants

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

BOXSCORE GAME TWO

Thursday, October 6, 1921 - BR

New York Giants

vs. 

NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

The Times (Shreveport, LA), Friday, October 6, 1921

Brooklyn "School Boy" Waite Hoyt Follows Carl Mays Gem With Brilliant Two-Hit Shutout; Miller Huggins' Yankees Seize Two Game Lead Over McGrawmen

GAME ONE

After throwing the press for a loop in game one, this was the matchup desired by John McGraw, his crafty southpaw Art Nehf going against the young Erasmus High School product, Waite Hoyt for the Yankees.

But with the Giants playing the unfamiliar visitor role to the Polo Grounds, a first-inning error serves a portent of things to come.  

Earl Smith fumbles Elmer Miller's foul pop-up behind home plate.  With renewed life, Miller draws a leadoff walk.  Roger Peckinpaugh is retired on a comebacker, Nehf to Kelly, with Miller advancing to second.  Afterwhich, Babe Ruth is conservatively issued a base on balls.  Bob Meusel then lines a grasscutter to third, expertly fielded by Frankie Frisch, who steps on third and throws to second to force Ruth.

The game remains scoreless through the third.

Unlike the first inning, following errors by the McGrawmen prove costly.  

With one out in the home fourth, Aaron Ward singles to right field.  Mike McNally follows with another comebacker to the mound, but Art Nehf throws errantly to second base pulling Dave Bancroft off the bag, and all hands remain safe.  Wally Schang draws a walk to load the bases.  Waite Hoyt then grounds to Johnny Rawlings, who foregoes the lead runner (Aaron Ward), steps on second, and throws to High Pockets Kelly completing the double play, but the action doesn't stop there.  Speedy Mike McNally follows through on a poor decision, blows through third base, and is thrown out at home, Kelly to Smith.

Art Nehf and Waite Hoyt duel through another three scoreless innings.

With two outs in the home fifth, Babe Ruth garners a hardy roar from the crowd, not with his bat but his legs.  The Sultan of Swat draws his third walk of the game, proceeds to steal second base, then third base to the delight of thousands.

One of the more unfathomable misplays of the day confirms what many among the 35,000 in attendance long suspected: the Giants simply are not in a fit state of mind.  Leading off the home eighth, Roger Peckinpaugh pops up to third base, but Frankie Frisch ponderously drops the ball.  Babe Ruth grounds to first base, forcing Peckinpaugh at second.  Bob Meusel singles to center, advancing Ruth to third and pulls into second base on the throw.  Ruth scores on Wally Pipp's grounder to second base, and Meusel advances to third.  Then, with two outs and Aaron Ward at the plate, Bob Meusel executes a clean steal of home, giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead. 

With one out in the visitor's ninth, Frankie Frisch singles, and Waite Hoyt walks Ross Youngs bringing the tying run to the plate.  But High Pockets Kelly grounds into a 5-4-3 double play to end the game, McNally, to Ward, to Pipp. 

Following Carl Mays' game one gem, the Brooklynite, Waite Hoyt, holds the Giants to a mere two hits and five walks with five strikeouts in a complete-game shutout effort.  He takes a one-hitter into the ninth.  No Giant makes it as far as third base, and only two runners reach second.  

Art Nehf allows three runs, but only one is earned.  Otherwise, he holds the Yankees to just three hits and seven walks over eight innings in a tough loss.

Bob Meusel, Aaron Ward, and Waite Hoyt wield the Yankee hits, while only Johnny Rawlings and Frankie Frisch account for the Giants.

One must now ask if the ghosts of World Series' past join together in haunting Little Napoleon.  The Giants have won seven National League pennants in their 19-plus seasons under John McGraw, but not since 1905 have they donned baseball's jeweled crown.  

Through two games Miller Huggins and his American Leaguers are defeating the McGrawmen at their own game.  The Yankees have played flawlessly in the field, whereas the Giants cannot say the same.  Despite McGraw's own mound maneuverings, Yankee pitchers have yielded just seven hits and no runs through the first 18 innings of the series.  

Oft accused of being long-ball dependent, the Hugmen are also yet to hit a home run.  Instead, their hits are timely; they've masterfully advanced runners and pushed them home.  Lest we forget, Babe Ruth drove in the decisive run in game one with a first-inning single.  

Meanwhile, Yankee aggressiveness on the basepaths is giving the Giants an appearance of being flat.  Ruth has stolen two of five bases by the Yankees, with Mike McNally and Bob Meusel boldly swiping home plate in each of the first two games.

The Yankees only need to win three of the next six games to clinch their first-ever World Series title.

The Times (Shreveport, LA), Friday, October 6, 1921

The New York Times, Friday, October 7, 1921

The Times (Shreveport, LA), Friday, October 6, 1921

The Evening World (New York, NY), Friday, October 7, 1921

The New York Times, Friday, October 7, 1921