100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 10/2/1921: Yanks End Season With Comeback Win Over Red Sox; Giants Bow to Uncle Robbie 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 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!

GAME #153

BOXSCORE: Sunday, October 2, 1921 - BR

Boston Red Sox @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Babe Ruth Hits Number 59; Yanks Close Out Season Finale With Ninth-Inning Comeback Victory Over Red Sox

Down to the very last game, the Yankees refuse to be denied.  With 15,000 fans on hand for the regular-season finale, the Red Sox and Yankees stage quite the entertaining back and forth affair.  Starting in place of Wally Schang, catcher Al DeVormer doubles home two runs in the second against Boston starter Curt Fullerton.  Then with two runners on base in the third, Babe Ruth brings the crowd to its feet when he connects for his 59th home run this season, giving the Yankees a 5-0 lead through the third.  Yanks starter Bob Shawkey makes his exit after tossing three scoreless innings.  Rip Collins takes over mound duties in the fourth much to the Red Sox liking.  Babe Ruth's misplay in left field and three consecutive walks issued by Collins result in two runs.  With Rip Collins still toeing the rubber in the fifth, the Red Sox tally three on four hits, three going for extra bases.  Miller Huggins summons Bill Piercy, who ends the threat, but not before Boston ties the game at five.  Piercy and Fullerton traded zeroes through the seventh.  Wally Pipp's error in the eight leads to a run for Boston.  But with one out and two runners on base in the home ninth, Roger Peckinpaugh doubles home both runners with the tying and winning run. New York wraps up the season with a 4.5 game lead over the Cleveland Indians.  The next time the Yankees take the field will be here at the Polo Grounds against their landlords, the New York Giants, in the 1921 World Series.

• FINAL: BOS 6; NYY 7
• FINAL RECORD: 98-55 (.641); FIRST PLACE, 4.5 GA of Cleveland

The Birmingham (AL) News, Monday, October 3, 1921

The Buffalo (NY) Inquirer, Monday, October 3, 1921

GAME #153

BOXSCORE: Sunday, October 2, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ Brooklyn Robins

Ebbets Field

Burleigh Grimes Wins Number 22; Giants Drop Regular-Season Finale at Ebbets Field

Let Uncle Robbie have his fun, for he will soon be back sitting in his living room armchair while his chief rival plays on.  The now-former defending National League champions spent more than one hundred games since June 7, mired in fourth and fifth place.  Alas, Brooklyn wraps up their season with a 77-75 record, 16.5 games behind the pennant-winning Giants.  Before a crowd of 15,000 at Ebbets Field, spitballer Burleigh Grimes holds the Manhattanites to four runs on 13 hits and two walks with five strikeouts for his 22nd win this season against 13 losses with a 2.92 ERA.  Left fielder Zack Wheat

closes out the season with a .320 average.  Hi Myers goes 3 for 4 with two runs scored, and Ray Schmandt triples, driving home two.  Otherwise, John McGraw utilizes upwards of twenty players to keep everyone on point.  He spreads pitching duties between Art Nehf, Red Shea, and Rosy Ryan closes out the game.  Frankie Frisch drives home his 100th run, and Ross Youngs plates two giving him 105 for the season.  That makes three Giant players (High Pockets Kelly) who reach the century mark.

• FINAL: NYG 4; BRK 7
• FINAL RECORD: 94-59 (.614); FIRST PLACE, 4.0 GA of Pittsburgh

⚾

WORLD SERIES

GAME ONE: Wednesday, October 5, 1921

NEW YORK YANKEES

vs.

NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 9/10/1921: Giants Take Second Straight From Robins; Carl Mays Wins Number 24 at Shibe 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 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!

Hartford (CT) Courant, Sunday, September 11, 1921

GAME #138

BOXSCORE: Saturday, September 10, 1921 - BR

Brooklyn Robins @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

Giants Complete Two-Game Sweep Over Defending National League Champs; Maintain Half-Game Edge Over Bucs

Jesse Barnes gives John McGraw the final say over rival Wilbert Robinson and last season's National League champion Brooklyn Robins.  Facing 21-game winner Burleigh Grimes, the Giants strike for three runs on four hits in the first inning.  Ross Youngs, High Pockets Kelly, and Irish Meusel drive in runs, and Jesse Barnes makes them stand.  The Giants' right-hander limits Brooklyn to just one run on nine hits and no walks for his fourteenth victory against nine losses with a representative 2.85 ERA.  Second baseman Pete Kilduff ruins the shutout in the second with a home run.  The score remains unchanged through the ninth as 28,000 fans attending the final regular-season game at the Polo Grounds rise to their feet and show Jesse Barnes and his teammates appreciation.  The Giants have played five more games than Pittsburgh, who today defeated the Cubs, thus maintaining a half-game lead in the standings.  They must now defend and, with requisite effort, build upon this slimmest of leads entirely on the road.  Their trek begins tomorrow at Ebbets Field.  Afterwhich, it's off to Cincinnati, then back to Pittsburgh for another showdown versus the Pirates.  Games at Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and back in Brooklyn round out the schedule.

• FINAL: BRK 1; NYG 3
• RECORD: 84-49 (.609); First Place, 0.5 GA of Pittsburgh

Hartford (CT) Courant, Sunday, September 11, 1921

"In a close race like the present one, we don't intend to be beaten out by a technicality as we were in 1908." - John McGraw, Vice President, New York Giants

GAME #133

BOXSCORE: Saturday, September 10, 1921 - BR

New York Yankees @ PHILADELPHIA ATHLETICS

Shibe Park

Carl Mays Wins Number 24; Athletics Routed in Rubber Game

The A's jump out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning.  But the Athletics would score no more.  Yankee starter Carl Mays shuts out Philadelphia over the final eight innings en route to his 24th victory this season.  Also helping himself out at the plate, Mays goes 3 for 6 with a double and two runs batted in.  In a second straight walloping of the Athletics, the Yankees amass 19 runs on 24 hits against three different pitchers.  Wally Schang lifts his average to .315 by going 5 for 6 with two runs batted in.  Babe Ruth goes 3 for 6 with a double, triple, and three runs batted in, giving him 154 to date.  Ruth also lifts his average to .384, placing him third behind Harry Heilmann (.403) and Ty Cobb (.390).  Getting the start at third base, Mike McNally goes 3 for 5 with three runs batted in.  Roger Peckinpaugh, Wally Pipp, and Aaron Ward each drive home two.  All told, the Yankees bat 16 for 24 with runners in scoring position.  They take the rubber game at Shibe Park while the Indians split a twin bill at St. Louis, giving the Huggmen a full two-game lead over Cleveland.

• FINAL: NYY 19; PHI 3
• RECORD: 84-49 (.632); First Place, 2.0 GA of Cleveland

The Selma Times-Journal (Selma, Alabama), 

Sunday, September 11, 1921

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 9/1/1921: Yankees Sweep Twin Bill From Senators; Giants Get Tripped-Up 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 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 #122

BOXSCORE GAME ONE: Thursday, September 1, 1921 - BR

Washington Senators @ NEW YORK YANKEES 

POLO GROUNDS

Bob Meusel Powers Yankees in Opener

It's deuces wild for the Yankees upon their return home as they post pairs of runs in the first, third, and sixth innings en route to a 6-3 victory in Thursday's opening game.  Meanwhile, starter Bob Shawkey holds the Sens to three runs on seven hits and three walks with seven strikeouts for the win.  Catcher Patsy Gharrity pulls Washington with one in the second.  But Shawkey follows with five scoreless innings, then yields two unearned runs in the sixth, resulting from a throwing error by catcher Fred Hofman.  Bob Meusel connects on his 17th home run, and with two runs batted, he now boasts 108 this season.  Wally Pipp and Fred Hofman making the rare start, each drive in two runs as well.  Arguably having his best season to date, Washington veteran George Mogridge takes the loss.

• FINAL: WAS 3; NYY 6

⚾

GAME #123

BOXSCORE GAME TWO: Thursday, September 1, 1921 - BR

Washington Senators @ NEW YORK YANKEES 

POLO GROUNDS

Make-Up: 6/28/1921

New Jersey Native Harry Harper Outperforms Walter Johnson; Yanks Sweep Twin Bill  

In front of 28,000 fans at Griffith Stadium, a dismayed crowd witnesses New York's seldom if ever utilized left-hander Harry Harper outperform the great Walter Johnson in game two of Thursday's twin bill.  Harper allows one run in the visitor's fourth, then keeps Washington scoreless the rest of the way.  He yields eight total hits and one walk with three strikeouts for only his second win this season.  Second baseman Bucky Harris accounts for the Senators' only run batted in, scoring Sam Rice.  In the home fourth, the Yankees string together five consecutive hits for a 3-1 lead.  After adding a run in the seventh, the Yankees again erupt for a four-run eighth inning for a commanding 8-1 lead and the final margin of victory.  Babe Ruth has now gone nine games without a home run, easily his longest drought this season.  This win, coupled with the Indians' extra-inning loss against the Tigers at Detroit, again elevates the Yankees to the top of the American League standings by one full game over Cleveland.

• FINAL: WAS 1; NYY 8
• RECORD: 77-46 (.626); First Place, 1.0 GA of Cleveland

⚾

GAME #129

BOXSCORE: Thursday, September 1, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ BROOKLYN ROBINS

Ebbets Field

Burleigh Grimes Wins Number Twenty; Brooklyn Halts Giants Win Streak at Eight

The Giants' eight-game win streak comes to an abrupt end in where else but, you guessed it, Brooklyn against Wilbert Robinson and Burleigh Grimes.  Despite their double-digit deficit in the standings, the still defending National League champions will not go down lightly, at least not against John McGraw.

Spitballer Burleigh Grimes yields just six hits, three of which occur consecutively, leading off the fifth.  The following batter, Earl Smith, lifts a liner to left field caught by Zack Wheat, who throws to third baseman Jimmy Johnston who in turn throws to Ivy Olson at second base to complete a triple play, as both Irish Meusel and Johnny Rawling blunder by straying too far away from their respective bases.  Otherwise, Making his 30th appearance this season, Burleigh Grimes holds the Giants scoreless through the first eight innings of play.  The Giants spoil the shutout in the ninth, but in truth, Burleigh Grimes needs to look no further than at the infield play behind him.  Errors by Ivy Olson at short and second baseman Pete Kilduff tarnish Burliegh's otherwise fine pitching line with an unearned run, just one walk, and four strikeouts for his twentieth victory this season against eight losses with a 3.02 ERA.  Since the Pittsburgh series, John McGraw is displaying little to no hesitancy in removing his starters.  This game is no different.  Fred Toney is relieved upon yielding three runs (two earned) on seven hits over four innings pitched.  Slim Salle and Rosy Ryan each surrender a run over the final four innings.  Robins' catcher Otto Miller drives home two runs.  Hi Myers, Clarence Mitchell, and Burleigh Grimes account for Brooklyn's other runs sent home.  

Meanwhile, out in Pittsburgh, the Pirates lose both ends of a doubleheader against the Cardinals at Forbes Field.  Thus, the Giants still managed to gain a half-game in the standings.

• FINAL: NYG 1; BRK 5
• RECORD: 78-51 (.605); second place, 1.0 GB of Pittsburg

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 

Tuesday, September 2, 1921

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 8/16/1921: Brooklyn Hands Fading Giants Another Defeat; Yankees Lose Another American Association Exhibition Against Indianapolis

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 #113

BOXSCORE: Tuesday, August 16, 1921 - BR

Brooklynn Robins @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

Make-Up: 5/5/1921

Brooklyn Robins Came, They Saw, and Triumphed in a One Game Visit

Consider this a hit-and-run, if you will.  Sure looked like one for many of the 10,000 witnesses at the Polo Grounds.  Art Nehf opens with five scoreless innings pitched.  After he and Burleigh Grimes duel through three scoreless innings, Johnny Rawlings provides Nehf with two runs in the fourth, and Dave Bancroft and Ross Youngs drive in runs in the fifth.  Afterwhich, the Robins blindside Art Nehf with five hits, including Zack Wheat's two-run single in a four-run sixth.  Art Nehf is knocked out of the box, and Rosy Ryan ends the threat.  But the Giants recover.  Ryan Helps himself with a hit in the home sixth, scoring Meusel, and in the eighth, the other Meusel, Irish singles home High Pockets Kelly giving the Giants a 6-4 lead.  Facing Rosy Ryan with one out and Burleigh Grimes on base in the visitor's ninth, shortstop Ivy Olson homers to deep right field.  Brooklyn third baseman Jimmy Johnston then homers off Ryan to deep left field.  The spitballer Burleigh Grimes retires the Giants in an orderly fashion during the bottom half of the frame for his 18th victory this season against only six losses with a 3.04 ERA.  Rosy Ryan takes the loss.  With Tuesday's defeat, the Giants fall to 7-10 in August.  Moreover, they tie their season-high deficit of 5.5 games out of first place.

FINAL: BRK 7; NYG 6

RECORD: 67-46 (.593); second place, 5.5 GB of Pittsburgh

⚾

The Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana), Monday, August 15, 1921

NEXT GAME: Wednesday, August 17, 1921

New York Yankees @ CHICAGO WHITE SOX

Comisky Park

The New York Herald, Wednesday, August 17, 1921

Evening Star (Washington, District of Columbia),

Wednesday, Aug 17, 1921

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 7/6/1921: Burleigh Grimes Answers For Uncle Robbie; Schedule Makers Idle Highlanders

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 still harbored much animosity two full decades later, 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.  

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 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 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.  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 more so 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 before the start of 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. 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 #71

BOXSCORE: Wednesday, July 6, 1921 - BR

Brooklyn Robins @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

Uncle Robbie Answers Back Punctuated by Burleigh Grimes

On the heels of being swept at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn exacts a measure of revenge in front of 10,000 disgruntled cranks at the Polo Grounds.  The spitballer Ol' Stubblebeard Burleigh Grimes limits the Giants to no runs on just two hits through the first eight innings of play.  The Giants finally muster four runs on five hits in the ninth inning to no avail.  The damage was already done.  Unlike the first three months of this season, Uncle Robbie's batsmen scored early, often, and late en route to an 11-4 toppling of the New Yorkers.  In fact, Burleigh Grimes spearheads the offensive attack, going 4 for 5 with a double, home run, and three runs batted in.  Zack Wheat and Hi Myers each drive in two runs.  Burleigh Grimes improves to a stellar 11-2 with a 2.76 ERA.  No Giants pitcher escapes unscathed.  Fred Toney allows six runs on ten hits in six innings pitched.  Relievers Rube Benton and Walter Zink together yield another five runs, but only three are earned.

• FINAL: BKN 11; NYG 4
• RECORD: 44-27 (.620); second place, 4.0 GB of Pittsburgh

⚾

Record-Journal (Meriden, Connecticut)

NEXT GAME: Friday, July 8, 1921

New York Yankees @CHICAGO WHITE SOX

Comiskey Park

The Winnipeg Tribune (Manitoba, Canada)

The Buffalo American (Buffalo, New York)

Record-Journal (Meriden, Connecticut)

100 Years Ago Today 10/12/1920: Cleveland Indians Defeat Brooklyn Robins to Claim World Series Title

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF DEM BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS
1920 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

WORLD SERIES: Tuesday, October 12, 1920 - GAME SEVEN

Brooklyn Robins vs. Cleveland Indians

Dunn Field

Stan Covelesky Whitewashes Brooklyn, Earns Third Win Over Robins

CLEVELAND INDIANS ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS

Sunday's pre-game arrest of Rube Marquard clearly impacts the rest of the series as Burleigh Grimes is forced into making an emergency start on short rest in Game Five.  He promptly proves ineffective.  With the Robins facing elimination after also losing Game Six, Grimes is again tasked with pitching Game Seven on just two days rest.  The gamely spitballer does his best but his performance palls in comparison to that of mound opponent Stan Covelaski.  Brooklyn is held scoreless for the second straight game and is limited to eight runs all series.  Zack Wheat accounts for two of the Robins five scattered hits.  Coveleski walks just one batter in a complete game shutout, his third victory against the Robins this series.  In three starts he allows just two runs and fifteen hits over 27 innings pitched.  Meanwhile, Grimes allows three runs, two earned, on seven hits and four walks through seven innings pitched.  Cleveland scores an unearned run in the fourth helped along by an error from Grimes.  Tris Speaker triples to drive in a run in the fifth and left fielder Charlie Jameison doubles home the Indians final run in the seventh.  Al Mamaux pitches a scoreless eighth inning to no avail.  The Cleveland Indians are World Champions of baseball, their first ever title following their first ever pennant.  Indians players dedicate the victory to their fallen comrade, Ray Chapman.  In his first full season as skipper, Tris Speaker claims the title.  His team this season won the most games in baseball and now sweep the Robins at League Park.

Thank you for following my recap of the 1920 Brooklyn Robins season.

100 Years Ago Today 10/10/1920: Brooklyn Robins Lose Troublesome Game Five; Trail Indians 3-2

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF DEM BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS
1920 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

WORLD SERIES: Sunday, October 10, 1920 - GAME FIVE

Brooklyn Robins vs. Cleveland Indians

League Park

"I've been in baseball for 40 years and I never saw one like this." - Wilbert Robinson

Game Five at Cleveland features a historical if not ponderous series of events Brooklyn Robins fans for all the wrong reasons will not soon forget.

Although no longer the perennial 20-game winner while with the Giants, 33-year old Rube Marquard during the 1920 season is nothing short of clutch.  When Uncle Robbie needs him most his old friend repeatedly comes through with vintage performances.  Scheduled to pitch this day for the Robins, Rube Marquard prior to the game is arrested by Cleveland police outside League Park on charges of ticket scalping.  Marquard maintains his innocence claiming a misunderstanding.  But an incensed Charles Ebbets will hear non of it and releases Rube on the spot.  

Inside the park Burleigh Grimes hurriedly prepares for an unexpected start.  Looking on in attendance is former Cleveland Spider legend and baseball's all-time wins leader Cy Young.  Pitching on three days rest, Burleigh Grimes by game time is still noticeably unprepared.  In the first inning Cleveland leads off with consecutive singles and a successful bunt hit by Tris Speaker.  With no outs and the bases loaded, right fielder and clean-up hitter Elmer Smith crushes a Grimes offering to deep right for a grand slam home run, the first in World Series history.  With Burleigh Grimes still pitching in the fourth, Indians starter Jim Bagby aides his own cause by homering deep to center field with two runners on giving Cleveland a commanding 7-0 lead.  His home run is the first hit by a pitcher in World Series history.  The Indians score one last time in the fifth inning off reliever Clarence Mitchell.

Brooklyn is not without its chances.  They strand a runner on second in the first.  Ed Konetchy triples in the second but on a sac-fly attempt is thrown out at home by left fielder Charlie Jameison.  In the third Burleigh Grimes bounces into a double play and the Robins strand two runners.  Hi Myers in the fourth removes himself from the base paths by getting thrown out attempting to steal third.  The fifth inning really makes all Robins shake their heads in dismay.  With no outs and Pete Kilduff and Otto Miller on base, Clarence Mitchell lines out to second baseman Bill Wambsganss, who immediately steps on second to retire Kilduff then tags an approaching Otto Miller to complete an unassisted triple play, again the first in World Series history.  Otherwise, the Robins go quietly until the ninth when Ed Konetchy drives in his first run of the series.  Alas it is too little too late.

Cleveland's 31-game winner Jim Bagby avenges his Game Two loss against Grimes, allowing one run on 13 hits and no walks over nine innings complete.  Grimes in turn takes the loss after yielding seven runs on nine hits and a walk in just 3.1 innings pitched.

100 Years Ago Today 10/6/1920: Brooklyn Robins Knot Series With Cleveland Indians

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF DEM BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS

1920 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

WORLD SERIES: Wednesday, October 6, 1920 - GAME TWO

Cleveland Indians vs. Brooklyn Robins

Ebbets Field

Burleigh Grimes Whitewashes Cleveland; Outperforms Jim Bagby

To the great relief of an entire Borough, the Robins knot the World Series at a game apiece.  Facing baseball's winningest pitcher with 31 victories, Brooklyn opens the scoring with haste against Cleveland right-hander Jim Bagby.  In the first inning Jimmy Johnston reaches on a one out single and scores on Zack Wheat's line drive double to center.  Starter Burleigh Grimes singles leading off the third and comes around to score on a double by Tommy Griffith.  In the fifth, Griffith's base hit delivers home Ivy Olson from second base for a 3-0 Robins lead.  Burleigh Grimes takes care of the rest.  Outperforming Jim Bagby, the spitballer yields seven hits and four walks over nine shutout innings.  Tris Speaker accounts for two of the Indians hits.

100 Years Ago Today 10/3/1920: Brooklyn Robins Close Regular Season With Victory Over Braves

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF DEM BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS

1920 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

Game #155: Sunday, October 3, 1920 - BR

Boston Braves vs. Brooklyn Robins

Ebbets Field

Robins Win Final Game of Season; Next Stop World Series Versus Cleveland Indians

Brooklyn wraps up a wildly successful 1920 season with one final defeat of the Boston Braves in front of 10,000 crazed fans at Ebbets Field.  As if 26-innings weren't enough, the teams need another ten innings in order to decide a victor.  The Robins and Braves back on May 1 played nearly the length of three nine innings games only to end the day tied at one.  Boston jumps out to a quick 3-0 lead, all runs are unearned.  No changes in the score are affected through the seventh.  However, Brooklyn finally strikes for two runs in the eighth.  With a runner on Zack Wheat connects on his ninth home run for the season and his second in as many games.   Boston picks up an insurance run in the ninth.  But the Robins rally for two more in the bottom half, tying the game at four.  In the home tenth, Hi Myers triples home Bill McCabe with the winning run.  George Mohart and Johnny Miljus join together for the victory, allowing four runs, none earned, on nine hits and three walks.

From the first of September through the end of the season the Robins post a 23-6 (.793) record.  They end the season with a 93-61 record, seven games in front of the Giants and 10.5 games ahead of the now dethroned N.L. champ Cincinnati Reds.  After averaging just 65 wins over the last three seasons, their 93 victories ties for fourth highest in franchise history and falls just one win shy of their 1916 record.  Robinson's team never fell below .500 and were never more than 3.5 games out of first place.  The New York Giants got off to a poor start after Frankie Frisch was stricken by appendicitis.  They surged with a 20-11 record in August, but would ultimately lose 15 of 22 games against the Robins.

"No special system of playing won the 1920 pennant for the Brooklyn Superbas.  Nerve and Spirit won the pennant." - Wilbert Robinson. 

This is Uncle Robbie's second pennant since parting ways with the Giants and taking over the Superbas in 1914 from Bill Dahlen.  Only nine members of the 1916 N.L. champs remain.  Nine other players were acquired over the previous two seasons.  In fact, this year's team is largely unchanged from last season when they won only 69 games (a 24 game improvement).

A veteran lineup, seven of eight position regulars are 30-years of age or older.  Two of Wilbert Robinson's savviest moves were making Jimmy Johnston the starting third baseman and plugging Pete Kilduff at second.  Thirty-four year old Ivy Olson caught a lot of flack at shortstop by fans but he proved clutch with a stick.

The heart of the lineup proved solid.  Acquired last season, 34-year old first baseman Big Ed Konetchy bats .308 with 63 runs batted in.  Center fielder Hi Myers plays every game this season.  Myers finishes with a .304 average and once again leads the National League with 22 triples.  He posts career bests in on-base percentage and slugging average and leads the Robins for a second straight season with 85 runs batted in.  Brooklyn's undeniable star Zack Wheat registers his eighth .300 season.  The 1918 batting champion this season places fourth in the race with a .328 average and ranks fourth in the league with a .385 on-base percentage.

Acquired from the Pirates in 1918, Burleigh Grimes enjoys his finest season as a pro.  The spitballer posts a career high 23 victories against eleven losses with a 2.22 earned run average.  He finishes third in the N.L. with 131 strikeouts, while his wins and ERA both rank second.  In fact, the Robins lead the league with a 2.92 team ERA.

100 Years Ago Today 10/2/1920: Brooklyn Robins Wrap Up Season Series Against Giants With Victory at Polo Grounds

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF DEM BUMS & LITTLE NAPOLEON'S EMPIRE

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS

1920 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

Game #154: Sunday, October 2, 1920 - BR

Brooklyn Robins vs. New York Giants

Polo Grounds

Burleigh Grimes Wins #23; Robins Bid Adieu to Manhattan

Uncle Robbie offers up one last parting gift for John McGraw.  He plays all his regulars in the penultimate game of the season against McGraw's second squad.  Leading off the top of the eighth, Zack Wheat homers to deep right putting the finishing touch on Brooklyn's 4-2 victory over the Giants in their final confrontation of the season.  Wheat finishes the day 2 for 4 with a run scored and two runs batted in.  Otto Miller also accounts for two runs batted in.  The spitballer Burleigh Grimes appears briefly but does enough to gain his 23rd victory of the season versus eleven losses with a 2.28 earned run average.  He allows two runs on four hits and three walks with seven strikeouts in five innings pitched.  Grimes collects his 34th hit of the season as well.  In 111 at-bats he finishes the season hitting .306 with twelve extra base hits and sixteen runs batted in.  Clarence Mitchell pitches the final four innings yielding no runs and just four hits with three strikeouts.  Brooklyn finishes their season series against the Giants with a 15-7 record.  The Robins wrap up the regular season tomorrow against the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field.  If you recall, on Saturday, May 1, 1920, the Robins and Braves played to a one all tie after a record 26-innings at Boston.  The game was suspended on account of darkness.  Hence, there will be a game #155 before the Robins open the 1920 World Series against the Cleveland Indians who today clinch the American League pennant with a 10-1 trouncing over the Detroit Tigers at Navin Field.  Game One is scheduled for Oct. 5, at Ebbets Field.

• RECORD: 92-61 (.601)
• 1st Place; 5.0 GA

100 Years Ago Today 9/28/1920: Brooklyn Robins Claim Second Pennant in Five Years

 From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF DEM BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS 

National League Standings: 9/28/1920
1) Brooklyn     90-60  *
2) New York    85-65  5 GB

1920 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

Pandemonium breaks out in Brooklyn as word from the Polo Grounds spreads throughout town.  It's official, the Robins make the jump from fifth place to National League champions.  Upon the final out in New York's game two loss yesterday against Boston, the idle Robins clinch their fifth National League  pennant and second in the last five years.  Brooklyn owns a five game lead over the Giants with only four games left on the schedule.  John McGraw's club does well to overcome the now unseated Cincinnati Reds.  Perhaps in any other season the Giants 18-9 September surge nets them better results.  The Giants even close to within 1.5 games of the Robins as recently as twenty days ago.  But there was just no slowing down the Robins who have thus far posted a 20-5 record in September.  At no time during the season did the Robins ever fall more than four games out of first.  McGraw's Giants this season have so far posted the most runs in the National League.  However, Wilbert Robinson's pitching staff owns the circuit's best ERA.  Uncle Robbie claims his second pennant since leaving the Giants and becoming manager of the Robins.  His relationship with John McGraw - known to hold a grudge - is no doubt headed towards an all-time low.  In his third full season, spitballer Burleigh Grimes leads the Robins with 22 victories and owns the league's best winning percentage.  At the plate, Zack Wheat, Hi Myers and Ed Konetchy are all batting above the .300 mark.  Myers presently leads the team with 83 RBI and for a second straight season is leading the circuit in triples.  Meanwhile, 30-year old Jimmy Johnston rewards Uncle Robbie's faith in him at third base with a .291 average in a team high 150 games.  Tomorrow the Robins and Giants commence a now inconsequential three game series at the Polo Grounds.  

For now, an uproarious celebration in the streets of Brooklyn continues ...