100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 9/11/1921: Yanks Salvage Split with Red Sox; Giants Hit the Road with Rout of Robins at Ebbets Field

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 now 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 preceding 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 #134

BOXSCORE GAME ONE: Sunday, September 11, 1921 - BR

Boston Red Sox @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Rescheduled From Sept. 8, 1921

Bullet Joe Bush Outduels Waite Hoyt

Boston puts a damper on New York's homecoming.  Leading off the game, center fielder Nemo Liebold reaches safely on Roger Peckinpaugh's misplay at short.  Waite Hoyt walks Eddie Foster, and Mike Menosky's sacrifice bunt moves the runners along.  With one out, second baseman Del Pratt doubles them home.  Bob Meusel drives home a run in the bottom half of the frame.  However, Boston starter Bullet Joe Bush holds the Yankees scoreless over the final eight innings.  He limits the Yankees to seven hits with two strikeouts for his 13th win.  An error by Wally Pipp leads to another Red Sox run in the fourth.  In an otherwise representative effort, Waite Hoyt yields three runs, two earned, on just five hits and one walk with five strikeouts in the loss.

• FINAL: BOS 3; NYY 1 

⚾

GAME #135

BOXSCORE GAME TWO: Sunday, September 11, 1921 - BR

Boston Red Sox @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Make-Up: 7/1/1921

Bob Meusel Blast Lifts Yanks for Twin Bill Split

Another tightly contested pitching duel unfolds at the Polo Grounds, this time to the crowd's greater satisfaction.  All that was required of them was a little patience.  Boston once again opens the scoring.  Leading off the second, right fielder Shano Collins homers to deep left field off Yankees starter Bill Piercy.  Opposed by Boston right-hander Ben Karr, the score remains unchanged through the seventh inning.  Despite a stellar effort, Bill Piercy exits on the losing side of a 1-0 game, allowing one run on five hits and two walks.  Bob Shawkey hurls a scoreless top half of the eighth in relief of Piercy.  The Yankees finally size up Ben Karr's offerings in the bottom half of the frame, striking for five runs on six hits, highlighted by Bob Meusel's three-run home run.  Bob Shawkey walks lead-off batter Mike Menosky in the ninth.  Afterwhich, the Yankees turn a 6-4-3 double-play.  Shawkey records the final out to earn the win in relief of Piercy.

• FINAL: BOS 1; NYY 5
• RECORD: 85-50 (.630); First Place, 1.5 GA of Cleveland

⚾

GAME #139

BOXSCORE: Sunday, September 11, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ BROOKLYN ROBINS

Ebbets Field

First-Place Giants Embark on Season-Ending Road Trip With Rout of Robins at Ebbets Field

The season's final leg begins.  Gotham's first stop is across the East River in Brooklyn, where John McGraw serves Wilbert Robinson one last reminder before leaving town that his reign as defending National League champion is hereby over, if not by league standards, then by his own measure and manner.  With their latest defeat coming today at the hands of the Giants, the Robins fall 14.5 games out of first with roughly sixteen games left to play.  As such, a crowd of 18,000 at Ebbets Field bears witness to a rout.  

The Giants jump to a 5-0 lead before Brooklyn regroups with three runs in the home third.  But the Robins would score no more.  After yielding a hit and issuing two walks to open the third, John McGraw does not hesitate in replacing Bill Piercy with Fred Toney.  All three baserunners would score charged to Piercy.  In turn, Fred Toney allows just three hits over seven scoreless innings for the victory.  Not yet done, Giant hitters erupt in the sixth for another six runs on seven hits for an 11-3 lead and the final margin of victory.  

The catching tandem of Earl Smith and Frank Snyder continue blistering the opposition.  Snyder (.317) took his turn today, going 4 for 5 with a double and two runs batted in, giving him forty to date.  Meanwhile, Earl Smith is batting .332, with ten home runs and 49 runs batted in, with a .550 slugging average.  Said another way, John McGraw is getting marvelously rounded efforts from his two backstops and receivers.  Meanwhile, Irish Meusel and Johnny Rawlings continue demonstrating their gratitude toward John McGraw for bringing them into the fold.  The two joined for three hits, three runs batted in, and three runs scored.  Dave Bancroft lifts his average to .322 by going 3 for 5 with a run batted in, and Bob Meusel drives in his 93rd run this season.  The Giants amass twenty hits overall and bat 10 for 21 with runners in scoring position.

For the Giants, they sweep the Robins and extend their consecutive game win streak to six.  They widen their lead over the Pirates by a full game as Pittsburgh loses to the Reds at Cincinnati.  Next stop: Cincinnati.

• FINAL: NYG 11; BRK 3
• RECORD: 85-54 (.612); First Place, 1.5 GA of Pittsburgh

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 8/21/1921: Giants Even Up With Cards; Yankees Drop Twin Bill at Sportsman's Park

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 now 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 shift 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 preceding 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 #118

BOXSCORE: Sunday, August 21, 1921 - BR

St. Louis Cardinals @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

Giants Even Series With Cardinals

The Giants play before a more representative crowd but, more importantly, get back in the win column.  With 25,000 on hand, the home team builds a 6-2 lead through four.  In turn, Fred Toney holds the Cardinals at bay despite yielding two more rather inconsequential runs in the final frame.  Toney allows four runs on eleven hits and two walks with two strikeouts for the win.  His record improves to 14-8 with a 3.77 ERA.  St. Louis first baseman Jack Fournier wields two hits, including a double, and drives home two.  Starter Bill Bailey is removed after four innings but not before surrendering six runs (four earned) on eight hits and two walks in a losing effort.  Dave Bancroft goes 3 for 4 with a double and two runs batted in, and in a near mirror effort, Ross Youngs likewise goes 3 for 4 with a triple and two runs driven home.  Irish Meusel, Frankie Frisch, and Fred Toney each drive in one.  The Giants even the series with St. Louis at one and shave one-half game from their deficit behind Pittsburgh.

• FINAL: STL 4; NYG 7
• RECORD: 70-48 (.593); second place, 6.5 GB of Pittsburgh

⚾

GAME #111

BOXSCORE GAME ONE: Sunday, August 21, 1921- BR

New York Yankees @ ST. LOUIS BROWNS

Sportsman's Park

Make-Up: 7/24/1921

Urban Shocker Outlasts Bob Shawkey; George Sisler Finishes What He Starts

To the delight of the St. Louis faithful, veteran starter Urban Shocker outlasts Bob Shawkey in the first game of a twin bill at Sportsman's Park.  First baseman George Sisler doubles home the game's opening run in the first.  Helped along by two St. Louis errors, the Yankees score twice in the fifth.  But Jack Tobin's three-run home run against Shawkey in the bottom of the frame puts the Browns back in front.  That is until the top of the fifth when Elmer Smith's hit ties the game at four.  George Sisler singles leading off the sixth, then advances to second.  Baby Doll Jacobson singles to left field with one out, scoring Sisler for a 5-4 lead and the final margin of victory.  Urban allows just one hit over the final three innings.  Despite striking out nine Cardinals, Bob Shawkey surrenders five runs on seven hits for the loss.  Babe Ruth doubles and drives home one run giving him 130 to date.

• FINAL: NYG 4; STL 5

⚾

GAME #112

BOXSCORE GAME TWO: Sunday, August 21, 1921 - BR

New York Yankees @ ST. LOUIS BROWNS

Sportsman's Park

Yankees Humbled By St. Louis Novice Billy Bayne

The Cardinals' 22-year old left-hander, Billy Bayne, who entered the 1921 season with just 20 games of major league experience, hurls arguably the finest game of his brief career.  Bayne allows four hits and just two walks with ten strikeouts in a complete-game shutout victory.  Wally Pipp and Aaron Ward wield extra bases but are left stranded.  Roger Peckinpaugh and Babe Ruth account for the Yankees' only other hits.  George Sisler drives home the Browns' first run and scores their last.  Overall, Sisler scores three times and drives home two.  Baby Doll Johnson leads the Browns with three hits and a run scored.  Yankee starter Rip Collins loses after surrendering five runs (four earned) on nine hits and three walks with four strikeouts through seven innings.  Right-hander Bill Piercy enters in relief of Collins in the eighth and proceeds to surrender five unearned runs on three hits and one walk.  The Browns sweep the twin bill costing the Yankees 1.5 games in the standings.

• FINAL: NYY 0; STL 10
• RECORD: 68-44 (.607); second place, 2.5 GB of Cleveland

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 8/19/1921: Beleaguered Giants Take Rubber Game From Reds; Yanks Lose Series Finale at Comiskey Park

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 now 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 shift 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 preceding 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 #116

BOXSCORE: Friday, August 19, 1921 - BR

Cincinnati Reds @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

Giants Take Rubber Game Against Cincinnati Reds; First Place Pirates Split Twin Bill at Philadelphia

John McGraw has a problem.  The Giants have seen their deficit in the standings grow like an untamed garden weed under the hot August sun.  And therein lies the rub: if weeds were hard to grow, everyone would want them.  In the business of baseball, turnstiles tell the true story.  Consider if you will a team formerly tied for first place but now in a steady decline with only 3,000 fans bearing the witness on a Friday afternoon in New York City.  Meanwhile, the Highlanders, unwelcome tenants of the Polo Grounds, during their most recent homestand averaged just over 19,000 fans per game - a big problem, indeed.  It's pennants the people want.  To that effect, the Giants, in a decisive fashion, take Friday's rubber game against the Reds for the moment curtailing their freefall at six games back.  McGraw's men press starter Eppa Rixey for three runs in the first, then lower the hammer with four runs in the second, highlighted by two runs batted in each by Dave Bancroft and High Pockets Kelly.  Staked to a 7-2 lead after two, Jesse Barnes yields one last run in the fifth.  Irish Meusel drives home High Pockets Kelly in the home half of the fifth for an 8-3 lead and the final margin of victory.  Jesse Barnes surrenders three earned runs on twelve hits and one walk with four strikeouts for the win.  He improves his record to 11-7 with a 2.83 ERA.  Veteran Eppa Rixey takes the loss.  High Pockets Kelly drives home three runs giving him 110 for the season.  Down in Philadelphia, the Pirates and Phillies split games of a doubleheader.  And don't look now, but third-place Boston trails the Giants by a mere 2.5 games.

• FINAL: CIN 3; NYG 8
• RECORD: 69-47 (.595); second place, 6.0 GB of Pittsburgh

⚾

GAME #109

BOXSCORE: Friday, August 19, 1921 - BR

New York Yankees @ CHICAGO WHITE SOX

Comiskey Park

Yanks Bow in Rubber Game; Chicago Stars Shine Just a Little Brighter

Chicago offers New York pitchers no quarter.  Much maligned Miller Huggins dispatches four different moundsmen, none exit unscathed.  Starter Rip Collins surrenders two in just two innings, and Jack Quinn is treated likewise.  Losing pitcher Bill Piercy sustains the most damage, yielding six runs on five hits and two walks in just 1.1 innings pitched.  The last Highlander to climb the hill performs best, with Alex Ferguson surrendering one run on six hits over the final 2.2 innings.  Center fielder Amos Strunk leads Chicago with four hits and four runs batted in.  Second baseman Eddie Collins and catcher Ray Schalk each drive in three runs.  Right fielder Harry Hooper is 3 for 6 with two runs scored and one batted in.  White Sox starter Shovel Hodge goes the distance, allowing nine earned runs on 15 hits and six walks in an agreeably bloated nine-inning winning effort.  Babe Ruth and Home Run Baker drive home two runs each, and Bob Meusel drives home run number ninety.  Despite batting 10 for 17 with runners in scoring position, the Yankees nevertheless fall to the White Sox, winners of the series two games against one.

• FINAL: NYY 9; CHI 13
• RECORD: 67-42 (.615); second base, 1.0 GB of Cleveland

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 5/8/1921: Yankees Bow to Athletics in Extras; Giants Fall at Ebbets Field

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 Seasons Revisited

In their last season at Hilltop Park, the now formerly known New York Highlanders lost 102 games.  Rebranded as the Yankees, in 1913, they moved 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 proceeded to lose another 94 games.  

Known to hold a grudge, McGraw, two full decades later, still harbored much animosity not only towards Ban Johnson and his rebel circuit (unkept promises included) but more so towards the Yankees themselves who were founded at the expense of his rendered defunct Baltimore Orioles.  

For as long as the Yankees paid their rent, the tenant/landlord relationship with the Giants remained 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 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 in a decade at the turnstile.

Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates along the New York/New England fault shift.  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 but an accomplishment for which John McGraw has little appreciation as one who believes players work too hard and earnestly only 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 than 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 further 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, and if that 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 for both teams is becoming an insufferable condition—the Giants attempt to evict the Yankees in 1921 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.  I'll be exercising my creative license whenever and wherever ever possible.  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 #17

BOXSCORE: Sunday, May 8, 1921 - BR

Philadelphia Athletics @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

38,000 Watch With Dismay as Eddie Rommel Pitches Fourteen Inning Victory Over Yankees

Just as they had done yesterday for the Giants, New York City baseball bugs pack the Polo Grounds to capacity for today's American League tilt against the Athletics.  Making his fifth start of the season, Bill Piercy toes the slab for the Yankees and is opposed by Philadelphia right-hander Eddie Rommel.  

With runners on the corners in the fourth, left fielder Tillie Walker's sac-fly and catcher Cy Perkins' base hit through the middle gives the A's a 2-0 lead.  The Yankees pick up an unearned run in the fifth when Fred Hofmann scores on Braggo Roth's ground ball fielder's choice to third.  First baseman Ivy Griffin delivers home Philadelphia's third run in the sixth, but the Athletics' insurance expires in the ninth.  After Bill Piercy retires the A's in order, Bob Meusel reaches safely and advances to second on a costly error by Tillie Walker in left field.  Home Run Baker then singles off Eddie Rommel, scoring Meusel.  Miller Huggins replaces Baker with pinch-runner Chick Fewster, who, to this point, was getting a day off.  Pinch-hitting for Piercy, Chick Hawks taps out catcher to first advancing the runners along.  Eddie Rommel then walks Braggo Roth, but Chick Fewster takes advantage of a lackadaisical battery and steals home behind the play, thus tying the game at three.  

Huggins summons sophomore right-hander Rip Collins from the bullpen.  Mr. Connie Mack leaves Rommel in the game, and the two pitchers duel through four scoreless innings.  With one out and two runners on base in the top of the 14th inning, Cy Perkins triples into the left/center field gap giving the visiting Athletics a 5-3 lead.  Babe Ruth singles leading off the bottom half of the frame, advances to third on Wally Pip's hit, and scores on Bob Meusel's sac-fly to straightaway center.  With the tying run at second base, the capacity crowd is hushed when Rommel retires Wally Schang to end the game.  Rip Collins is tagged with his second loss in as many appearances.

The Yankees open a 17-game road trip on Tuesday against the Detroit Tigers.

• FINAL: PHI 5; NYY 4 (14-inn)
• RECORD: 9-8 (.529); fourth place, 4.0 GB of Cleveland

⚾

GAME #19

BOXSCORE: Sunday, May 8, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ BROOKLYN ROBINS

Ebbets Field

Southpaw Clarence Mitchell Shuts Out Giants at Ebbets Field

In this battle of rivals, the home team is yet to lose.  Today ends no differently.  After bowing in two straight at the Polo Grounds, the Robins return to Brooklyn, where the Giants lost for the fifth time this season at Ebbets Field.  After five scoreless innings, Tommy Griffith homers off Giants starter Jesse Barnes.  Robins starter Clarence Mitchell makes it stand.  Ivy Olson drives home an insurance run in the eighth, but it was not needed.  Mitchell yields ten hits and three walks in an otherwise stellar complete-game shutout effort.  The Robins southpaw improves to 3-0 with a 2.20 ERA.  Jesse Barnes is removed after six innings.  He allows one earned run on just three hits and three walks in a tough-luck loss.  Rosy Ryan allows one run on three hits over two innings in relief of Barnes.  Catcher Frank Snyder is the only Giants batter with multiple hits.  Brooklyn catcher Otto Miller is similarly the lone Robins batter with multiple hits.  Brooklyn reclaims second place from the Giants.  Today's game also marks the first time the New Yorkers have been shut out by the competition this season.

• FINAL: NYG 0; BKN 2
• RECORD: 12-7 (.632); third place; 3.5 GB of Pittsburgh

100 YEAS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 5/3/1921: Giants Complete Sweep of Braves; Yankees Whitewash Red Sox at Fenway

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 Seasons Revisited

In their last season at Hilltop Park, the now formerly known New York Highlanders lost 102 games.  Rebranded as the Yankees, in 1913, they moved 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 proceeded to lose another 94 games.  

Known to hold a grudge, McGraw, two full decades later, still harbored much animosity not only towards Ban Johnson and his rebel circuit (unkept promises included) but more so towards the Yankees themselves who were founded at the expense of his rendered defunct Baltimore Orioles.  

For as long as the Yankees paid their rent, the tenant/landlord relationship with the Giants remained 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 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 in a decade at the turnstile.

Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates along the New York/New England fault shift.  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 but an accomplishment for which John McGraw has little appreciation as one who believes players work too hard and earnestly only 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 than 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 further 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, and if that 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 for both teams is becoming an insufferable condition—the Giants attempt to evict the Yankees in 1921 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.  I'll be exercising my creative license whenever and wherever ever possible.  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 #16

BOXSCORE: Tuesday, May 3, 1921 - BR

Boston Braves @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

Rube Benton's First Start is a Dandy; Giants Complete Sweep of Braves

Upwards of 15,000 cranks arrive for the make-up of Friday's postponement, wherein the Giants defeat the Braves for a fourth straight game and complete the series sweep.  Making his first appearance of the season, the veteran Rube Benton allows two runs, one earned, on just three hits and one walk with two strikeouts over nine complete innings for the win.  Boston's first run is helped along by first baseman High Pocket Kelly's error in the second.  In the ninth, center fielder Roy Howell led off with a triple and scored when Frankie Frisch mishandles the relay from George Burns.  Ross Youngs starts things off for the Giants in the first inning with two runs batted in.  An error by Braves second baseman Hod Ford and a hit from High Pockets Kelly gives the Giants a 4-1 lead after three.  A run-scoring double struck by third baseman Goldie Rapp in the sixth knocks starter Mules Watson out of the box.  Catcher Frank Snyder greets reliever Joe Oeschger with a run-scoring hit through the left side.  Then with the bases loaded, Oeschger hits Dave Bancroft with a pitch plating the Giants' seventh and final run of the game.  Tomorrow, the second-place Brooklyn Robins pay this season's first visit to the Polo Grounds.

• FINAL: BOS 2; NYG 7
• RECORD: 10-6 (.625), third place, 3 GB of Pittsburgh

Home Run Race Through May 3, 1921

BOSTON GLOBE

GAME #14

BOXSCORE: Tuesday, May 3, 1921 - BR

New York Yankees @ BOSTON RED SOX

Fenway Park

Billy Piercy Blanks Red Sox in Fenway Park Finale 

New York salvages a win for a split in what was otherwise a washout at Boston.  Two of the four scheduled games were postponed due to yet more rain.  But after bowing in the ninth inning of yesterday's game, the Yankees respond this day with a cleanly orchestrated performance in an overall well-played and tightly contested affair at Fenway Park.  In the midst of his triumphant return to the big leagues, righty Bill Piercy climbs the hill and is opposed by Boston southpaw and naval veteran Herb Pennock.  Piercy surrenders no runs, ten hits, and two walks with two strikeouts in a complete-game shutout victory, his third of the season against one loss.  Leading off the third, a single from Aaron Ward and a double by catcher Wally Schang put two runners in scoring position.  Bill Piercy's hit to left plated one run, and with one out, Roger Peckinpaugh's sacrifice-fly to center scores Wally Schang for a 2-0 lead and the Giants' final margin of victory.

• FINAL: NYY 2; BOS 0
• RECORD: 7-7 (.500); fourth place, 3.5 GB of Cleveland

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 4/28/1921: Yankees Salvage Finale Against Senators; Giants Swept at Ebbets Field

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 Seasons Revisited

In their last season at Hilltop Park, the now formerly known New York Highlanders lost 102 games.  Rebranded as the Yankees, in 1913, they moved 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 proceeded to lose another 94 games.  

Known to hold a grudge, McGraw, two full decades later, still harbored much animosity not only towards Ban Johnson and his rebel circuit (unkept promises included) but more so towards the Yankees themselves who were founded at the expense of his rendered defunct Baltimore Orioles.  

For as long as the Yankees paid their rent, the tenant/landlord relationship with the Giants remained 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 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 in a decade at the turnstile.

Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates along the New York/New England fault shift.  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 but an accomplishment for which John McGraw has little appreciation as one who believes players work too hard and earnestly only 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 than 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 further 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 forward, accomplishing the unimaginable, and if that 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 for both teams is becoming an insufferable condition.  A solution lies not too far away ...  

In the meantime, 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.  I'll be exercising my creative license whenever and wherever ever possible.  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 #12

BOXSCORE: Thursday, April 28, 1921 - BR

Washington Senators @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Motivated Yankees Salvage Series Finale Against Senators

Gharrity and Ruth Exchange Pleasantries and Almost Come to Blows

Jacob Ruppert Jr. is seldom heard from.  But he is said to have conveyed good wishes and regards to second-year owner Clark Griffith upon the Washington Senators' departure from New York.  Before Thursday's game, the Colonel is also believed to have slipped underneath the Yankee clubhouse door several poignant words of wisdom directed at the players.  Mr. Ruppert's partner Tillinghast Huston is a known detractor of Miller Huggins.  So, this was interpreted as a veiled threat at their fourth-year skipper.  The team responds by salvaging the series finale in front of a contented 15,000 fans.  

Despite an early flurry of activity, the Yankees come away with a 5-4 lead after two.  Shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh's error in the top of the first clears the way for three unearned Senators' runs, including  Sam Rice's steal of home.  Wally Pipp drives in Chick Fewster in the bottom half of the frame.  In the second, right fielder Clyde Milan's two-out double drives home catcher Patsy Gharrity with the Senators' fourth run.  But the Yankees storm back with four runs on five hits against Washington starter Tom Zachary.  Starter Bill Piercy helps himself with a run batted in, followed by a pair of runs driven in from Peckinpaugh and one other from Babe Ruth.

After which, starter Bill Piercy effectively settles into a rhythm, whereas Yankees batters continue offering Washington pitchers no quarter.  Peckinpaugh drives in a run in the fourth, and Bill Piercy drives in his second of the game in the fifth.  Washington generates a run on three hits in the eighth against Piercy but do for themselves no favors in the bottom half of the eighth when third baseman Howie Shanks fields Aaron Ward's grounder but throws wildly to first, allowing two more Yankee base runners to score.  Bill Piercy strikes out the first two batters faced in the ninth, then sets down Sam Rice to end the game.

Piercy gives his skipper little to fret, allowing just two earned runs on ten hits and two walks with four strikeouts in a complete-game effort.  He improves to 2-1 with a 1.73 ERA through his first three starts, and 26.0 innings pitched.  The victory snaps New York's five-game losing streak and elevates them back to par.  The Yankees now head north for their first season visit to Boston.

• FINAL: WAS 5; NYY 9
• RECORD: 6-6 (.500); fourth place, 3 GB of Cleveland

⚾

GAME #12

BOXSCORE: Thursday, April 28, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ BROOKLYN ROBINS

Ebbets Field

Brooklyn Robins Take Over Second Place at the Expense of Giants

Imported from Cincinnati, southpaw Dutch Reuther demonstrates to Uncle Robbie his worth.  Making his third start and second straight against the visiting New Yorkers,  Reuther limits the Giants to one run on seven hits and one walk with a pair of strikeouts for his second win of the season against one loss.  His counterpart, inexperienced right-hander Rosy Ryan yields two earned runs on just four hits and two walks through seven gamely innings, albeit in a hard-luck loss.  

It's the Giants who open the scoring in the second when High Pockets Kelly lashes a one-out triple to left field and scores on a fielder's choice.  The tide remains unchanged through the sixth.  Third baseman Jimmy Johnston then leads off the seventh with a triple to straightaway center and touches home on Tommy Griffith's ensuing hit to left.  With one out, big Ed Konetchy drives in Griffith for a 2-1 Robins lead and their final margin of victory.  That makes four straight for Brooklyn and a sweep of the New York Giants at Ebbets Field, where the 1920 National League pennant waves snappingly in the stiff April breeze.  Brooklyn leapfrogs into second place, two full games ahead of the Giants and 1.5 games behind the Pirates.

Yankees partner Tillinghast Huston years back wanted Wilbert Robinson as manager of the Yankees, not Huggins.  Robinson, John McGraw's former confidante, has since guided the Brooks to a pair of National League pennants.  The Giants return to the Polo Grounds tomorrow, where they'll host the Boston Braves.

• FINAL: NYG 1; BKN 2
• RECORD: 6-6 (.500); fourth place, 3.5 GB of Pittsburgh

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 4/16/1921: Babe Ruth Hits First Home Run; Giants Fall at Philadelphia

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 Seasons Revisited

In their last season at Hilltop Park, the now formerly known New York Highlanders lost 102 games.  Rebranded as the Yankees, in 1913, they moved 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 proceeded to lose another 94 games.  

Known to hold a grudge, McGraw, two full decades later, still harbored much animosity not only towards Ban Johnson and his rebel circuit (unkept promises included) but more so towards the Yankees themselves who were founded at the expense of his rendered defunct Baltimore Orioles.  

For as long as the Yankees paid their rent, the tenant/landlord relationship with the Giants remained 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 619,164 fans showed up to root for the American League contenders.  However, the Yankees' burgeoning success was not yet a pressing issue, per see, for the Giants, who were coming off a second-place finish and their best season in a decade at the turnstile.

Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates along the New York/New England fault shifted.  The Yankees' purchase of George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox sent 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 but an accomplishment for which John McGraw had little appreciation as one who believed players worked too hard and earnestly only 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 than 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 further 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 forward accomplishing the unimaginable, and if that 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 for both teams is becoming an insufferable condition.  A resolution lies not too far away ...  

In the meantime, 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.  I'll be exercising my creative license whenever and wherever ever possible.  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 #3

BOXSCORE: Saturday, April 16, 1921 - BR

Philadelphia Athletics @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Babe Ruth Hits First Home Run; Starter Bill Piercy Hurls a Dandy

The Yankees rebound from Thursday's loss to claim their rubber game against Philadelphia.  Athletics starter Slim Harriss does himself no favors.  In fielding a game-opening bunt attempt by Chick Fewster, Harriss throws errantly to first base; Fewster advances all the way to third and scored on shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh's grounder to second.  An inning later, Harriss serves up a leadoff home run to Bob Meusel for a 2-0 Yankees lead.  Philadelphia reduces their deficit by one with a hit and a run scored by right fielder Whitey Whitt.  However, Babe Ruth in the bottom of the sixth homers to deep right field, giving the Yankees a 3-1 lead and their final margin of victory.  Winning pitcher Bill Piercy yields one lone run on just four hits and no walks with six strikeouts through nine innings complete.  Although Philadelphia sophomore Slim Harriss likewise surrenders just four hits and fans six batters, he suffers his first defeat.

The Yankees will next host the Boston Red Sox.

• FINAL: PHI 1; NYY 3
• RECORD:  2-1

⚾

GAME #3

BOXSCORE: Saturday, April 16, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
Baker Bowl

Giants Depart Philadelphia on a Losing Note

Philadelphia salvages their series finale against the Giants.  The Phillies lineup offers New York pitchers no quarter, striking eleven runs (ten earned) on 15 hits.  Starter Rosy Ryan fails to make it out of the second inning, having surrendered four runs (three earned) on three hits and two walks.  Pitching in relief of Ryan, Fred Toney yields solo home runs in the sixth by Phillies' third baseman Russ Wrightstone and catcher Frank Bruggy.  Facing Slim Sallee pitching in relief of Toney, Philadelphia erupts for five more runs in the eighth, highlighted by home runs from left fielder Irish Meusel and starting pitcher Lee Meadows.  Making his second appearance against the Giants, Meadows goes the distance but not before the Giants rally for three runs in the eighth and two in the ninth.  But it was too little too late.  First baseman High Pockets Kelly finishes 2 for 5 with his second home run of the season and three runs batted in.  Right fielder Curt Walker goes 3 for 5, including his third double of the season and a run scored, and Frankie Frisch drives in his fifth run through three games.  The Giants next travel to Boston for two games against the Braves.

• FINAL: NYG 5; PHI 11
• RECORD:  2-1