From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD
100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds:
New York Giants & New York Yankees
1921 Season Revisited
In their last season at Hilltop Park, the formerly known New York Highlanders lose 102 games. Rebranded in 1913 as the Yankees, they move just a few blocks away into the Polo Grounds as tenants of the Senior Circuit's New York Giants. To the chagrin of Giants manager John McGraw, the Americans proceed to lose another 94 games.
Known to hold a grudge, McGraw two full decades later still harbors much animosity not only towards Ban Johnson and his rebel circuit (unkept promises included) but more so towards the Yankees. As they were founded at the expense of his rendered defunct Baltimore Orioles.
As long as the Yankees paid their rent, the tenant/landlord relationship with the Giants remains amicably strained. Mainly because the middling Americans, except for one season in 1916, never elevated themselves above the ranks of Junior Circuit also-rans. But that changed in 1919 when they briefly vied for the pennant but tuckered out down the stretch to finish third. A franchise record of 619,164 fans showed up to root for the American League contenders. However, the Yankees' burgeoning success was not yet a pressing issue, per se, for the Giants, who were coming off a second-place finish and their best season at the turnstile in a decade.
Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates shifted along the New York/New England fault. The Yankees' purchase of George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox sends seismic waves reverberating throughout the baseball world but none more intense than in Washington Heights.
Ruth's earth-shattering record of 54 home runs was something never experienced before in the history of baseball. However, it was an accomplishment for which John McGraw had little appreciation. He believes players work too hard and earnestly to have their skills disrespected by some miscreant's lone swing of the bat.
Gotham's citizenry never before descended from Coogan's Bluff in such quantity and spectacle as in 1920 as the Giants would set a franchise record with 929,609 reported attendance. However, the New York Nationals faced an economic dilemma of Ruthian proportions. McGraw's disdain for his tenants was heightened when the Yankees outdrew the host Giants in their own home for the first time in each franchise's history. Headlined by Babe Ruth, the Yankees seized the city's attention, evidenced by an all-time major league record of 1,289,422 in attendance.
In 1921, over two million fans would again pack the Polo Grounds. Babe Ruth would continue accomplishing the unimaginable - if the previous season wasn't surreal enough, he proceeds to top it. All the while, with each passing day, John McGraw grows more incensed. Lest we forget, New York City is still Little Napoleon's empire.
Sharing a ballpark is becoming an insufferable condition—the Giants attempt to evict the Yankees before the 1921 season to no avail. But a solution lies not too far away ...
Until then, two major league titans charge headlong into a season-ending October clash at the Polo Grounds. It is New York City's first-ever World's Championship Subway Series. All games are played at the Polo Grounds, making Coogan's Bluff the center of the baseball universe.
This is my replay of that season. Of course, I'll be exercising my creative license whenever and wherever ever possible. But, more than anything, this is about having fun and celebrating New York City's baseball history.
- Stats: BASEBALL REFERENCE
Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!
WORLD SERIES
POLO GROUNDS
Phil Douglas Again Foils Carl Mays; McGrawmen Seize First Lead of Series
For a third time this series, Carl Mays climbs the hill for the Yankees, opposed by Phil Douglas for the Giants.
Both halves of the first inning ominously play out in near mirror images. With one out, Roger Peckinpaugh doubles and is advanced to third by Emler Miller. With two outs, Phil Douglas handles Bob Meusel's comebacker for out number three. Similarly, in the Giant half, Dave Bancroft doubles to center field with one out and advances to third on Frankie Frisch's sac-fly. But Carl Mays handles Ross Youngs' comebacker to end any potential threat.
Just as they've done in five of the first six contests, the Yankees open the scoring. Wally Pipp doubles, leading off the second and moves to third on a bunt from Aaron Ward. This time Mike McNally drives Pipp home. McNally incurs an injury along the way and is replaced in the bottom of the third inning by Home Run Baker.
But as the Giants have done all series long, they fight back, almost instinctually, as if McGraw's men hunger for deficits then nourish themselves with hits. With one out in the home fourth, Ross Youngs singles through the right side, and with High Pockets Kelly at the plate steals second. With two outs, Irish Meusel lines a single to center field scoring Youngs and tying the game at one.
In the fifth, George Burns wields a two-out double to center field but is thrown out at third base trying to leg out a triple, Elmer Miller, to Aaron Ward, to Baker. Bob Meusel makes Giant fans gasp when he drives a Phil Douglas offering to the right-field wall caught by Ross Youngs.
Carl Mays, in the sixth, sets down in order, Dave Bancroft, Frankie Frisch, and Ross Youngs.
With two outs in the Yankee seventh, Home Run Baker and Wally Schang wield consecutive hits putting runners at the corners. With Carl Mays at the bat, Phil Douglas unleashes a wild pitch allowing Schang to move up. Douglas then induces Mays into a weak grounder to second ending the threat.
High Pockets opens the home seventh with a grounder to short. Afterwhich, Carl Mays strikes out Irish Meusel. But Aaron Ward then fails to cleanly handle Johnny Rawlings' bouncer to second, thus putting a runner aboard. Catcher Frank Snyder then comes through for his batterymate with a double into the left/center field gap scoring Rawlings all the way from first. With two outs and Snyder on second, Carl Mays strikes out his counterpart, Phil Douglas, but not before the Giants take a 2-1 lead.
With two outs in the Yankee eighth, Phil Douglas issues his first base on balls of the game but then retires Bob Meusel on a grounder to short. In the home eighth, Carl Mays, in order, sets down George Burns, Dave Bancroft, and Frankie Frisch.
Wally Pipp grounds out to Johnny Rawlings leading off the Yankee ninth. Aaron Ward flies harmlessly to George Burns in center. But Home Run Baker interrupts the Giant fan euphoria at the Polo Grounds with a base hit to right field. Wally Schang then hits a comebacker, fielded by Phil Douglas, who throws to Hogh Pockets Kelly at first base to close out the victory.
Carl Mays is brilliant in a losing effort, allowing two runs, one earned, on six hits and no walks with seven strikeouts. His effort is ultimately compromised by Aaron Ward's seventh-inning error.
However, the performance put forth by John McGraw's 31-year old disciple is exceptional. Phil Douglas yields just one run on eight hits and one walk with three strikeouts for the win. Starting in the third and into the seventh, Douglas retires thirteen batters consecutively. He punctuates a career year under McGraw with a second consecutive World Series victory against baseball's regular-season wins leader, Carl Mays. Precisely the way Mister McGraw planned it back in Game One.
The Giants, for the first time, lead the series, four games three. They need to win just one of two potential games, whereas the Yankees must now sweep the next two if they aspire to be crowned champions.
Miller Huggins has no one left to turn to but Waite Hoyt.
