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 #110
POLO GROUNDS
Giants Salvage Series Split With Brooklyn
In a contest marked by folly and misplay, the Giants hold on for the victory. Pete Kilduff scores in the third as a result of Dave Bancroft's error at short. Hi Myers homers to right field with two outs in the fourth, giving the Robins a 2-0 lead. Starters Fred Toney and Clarence Mitchell for Brooklyn simmer things down through the sixth. The Giants then post four unearned runs in the home seventh on four hits, a walk, a hit by pitch, and errors by Ivy Olson at short and right fielder Tommy Griffith. Meanwhile, Clarence Mitchell is knocked out of the box and replaced with Dutch Ruether. Fred Toney forges ahead and yields a run-scoring hit to Ray Schmandt in the ninth but holds on for the win. Toney allows two earned runs on just five hits and a walk with four strikeouts for the win. Clarence Mitchell takes the loss. Frankie Frisch goes 2 for 4 with a double and two runs batted in. By salvaging Saturday's finale, the Giants earn a series split with Brooklyn.
- FINAL: BRK 3; NYG 4
- RECORD: 66-44 (.600); second place, 4.0 GB of Pittsburgh
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GAME #105
Shibe Park
Make-Up: 4/23/1921
Yanks Claim Opener; Carl Mays Wins Number 18
Wally Schang and Elmer Miller drive in a run, and Home Run Baker plates two in a big four-run third inning. Carl Mays takes care of the rest. The submariner limits Philadelphia to a pair of runs on eight hits and no walks for his 18th victory this season against eight losses with a 2.94 ERA. A's left fielder Tillie Walker hit an inconsequential home run in the ninth. Youngster Eddie Rommel takes the loss. Bob Meusel drives home two, and Aaron Ward drives home one. Babe Ruth knocks in his 118th run this season.
- FINAL: NYY 7; PHI 2
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GAME #106
Shibe Park
Yankees Complete Sweep at Shibe Park
The Yankees scored early, often, and late. Four runs cross the plate in the first, and five more touch home in the third. Afterwhich it's just a matter of starter Rip Collins holding on. Bob Meusel leads the way going 3 for 5 with a home run and five runs batted in. Meusel lifts his RBI total to 88 for the season. Wally Pipp goes 3 for 4 with three runs driven home. With three hits, Babe Ruth raises his average to a .376 mark. After yielding a run on three hits in the ninth, Miller Huggins relieves Rip Colling with Bob Shawkey. Colling strikes out five en route to his eighth win this season. With a twin-bill sweep at Philadelphia, the Yankees gain a half-game on Cleveland.
- FINAL: NYY 13; PHI 7
- RECORD: 66-40 (.623); second place, 0.5 GB of Cleveland
