100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 9/19/1921: Yanks Sink Back to Second After Loss to Tigers; Fading Pirates Salvage Finale Against Giants

From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD

100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds: 

New York Giants & New York Yankees 

1921 Season Revisited

In their last season at Hilltop Park, the 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 #142

BOXSCORE: Monday, September 19, 1921 - BR

Detroit Tigers @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

The Hugmen Suffer Late Round Knockout; Cleveland Moves Back Into First

Back into second place, they go.  With the Yankees leading 4-0 after three, a Monday crowd of 12,000 is left jaw-dropped when the Tigers pounce all over starter Carl Mays, then Bob Shawkey, and then Waite Hoyt in an eighth-inning eight-run debacle.  Phil Douglas yields another two-run single in the ninth.  The Yankees managed single runs in the eighth and ninth for naught.  Detroit left fielder Bobby Veach and first baseman Lu Blue join together for eight hits and four runs batted in, while manager Ty Cobb

and right fielder Harry Heilmann join for six hits.  The idle Cleveland Indians move back into first place by one half-game ahead of the Yankees.

• FINAL: DET 10; NYY 6
• RECORD: 89-53 (.627); second place, 0.5 GB of Cleveland

⚾

GAME #145

BOXSCORE: Monday, September 19, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ PITTSBURGH PIRATES

Forbes Field

The Everlong Crafty Babe Adams Hurls a Gem; Bucs Salvage Series Finale

The wily lifelong corsair and two-time twenty-game winner Babe Adams salvages the series finale for Pittsburgh near single-handed.  A first-inning error by second baseman George Cutshaw clears the way for Frankie Frisch to score the game's opening run.  But the Giants do not score again.  Babe Adams holds the McGrawmen scoreless on just four more hits and no walks over the final eight innings for the win.  Babe Adams also leads off the sixth inning with a triple and scores the tying run.  Starter Phil Douglas pitches well, just not well enough, allowing two runs (one earned) on just four hits and three walks through seven innings for the loss.  Nevertheless, the Giants depart Pittsburgh with a 3.5 game lead over the Pirates with only nine games left to play.

• FINAL: NYG 1; PITT 2
• RECORD: 90-55 (.621); First Place, 3.5 GA of Pittsburgh

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 9/18/1921: Victory Over Tigers Lifts Yanks Back Into First; Giants and Bucs Idle Before Final Showdown

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 #141

BOXSCORE: September 18, 1921 - BR

Detroit Tigers @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Waite Hoyt Outlasts Detroit's Dutch Leonard; Yanks Reforge First Place Tie With Cleveland

The American League is effectively up for grabs. With the Yankees series-opening win against the Tigers and Cleveland's loss at Griffith Stadium, the two teams are again tied for first place, albeit fractionally in favor of the Hugmen.  Detroit's veteran southpaw Dutch Leonard duels Waite Hoyt to a one-all tie through the fifth inning.  In the home sixth, third baseman Mike McNally homers off Leonard giving the Yankees a 2-1 lead.  Dutch Leonard is dispatched to the showers on the losing side after six, allowing two runs on nine hits and two walks through six innings.  Still facing Waite Hoyt in the eighth, first baseman Lu Blue singles home Ty Cobb tying things at two.  But the Yankees rally for a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame on runs batted in from Wally Schang and Waite Hoyt himself.  Hoyt then retires the Tigers in the ninth to seal the victory.  The Erasmus High School product limits Detroit to two runs on a dozen hits and no walks for his 17th win against 13 losses with a 3.06 ERA.  All four runs are driven in by the bottom third of the lineup, McNally, Schang, and Hoyt.  Babe Ruth goes 2 for 4 with a triple, lifting his batting average to a .383 mark.

• FINAL: DET; 2; NYY 4
• RECORD: 89-52 (.631); First Place, tied with Cleveland

The Pittsburgh (PA) Press, 

Monday, September 19, 1921

NOT SCHEDULED

Next Game: Monday, September 19, 1921

New York Giants @ PITTSBURGH PIRATES

FORBES FIELD

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 8/26/1921: Phil Douglas Hurls Giants To Fourth Consecutive Win Over Pirates; Yankees Regroup At Detroit

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!

The Buffalo (NY) Inquirer, Saturday, August 27, 1921

GAME #124

BOXSCORE: Friday, August 26, 1921 - BR

Pittsburgh Pirates @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

Make-Up: 5/23/1921

Phil Douglas Hurls Second Gem In Two Days; Giants Win Fourth in a Row Against First Place Pirates

The Pirates receive a tighter pitching performance from veteran Earl Hamilton, who limits the Giants to just two runs on five hits and two walks over a full nine innings.  Manager George Gibson's dilemma is that it still wasn't good enough.  Pitching on one days' rest, Phil Douglas holds the Pirates to one run on ten hits and three walks for the win.  Three double-plays helped him through the match.  In two starts this series against Pittsburgh, Douglas has allowed only one earned run.  In the fourth, Frankie Frisch triples home Dave Bancroft, and Ross Youngs delivers home Frisch.  Douglas makes it stand.  The Pirates manage their lone run on three hits in the fifth.  Douglas retires the Pirates in order in the ninth to earn his twelfth victory this season.  That makes four in a row against Pittsburgh, who sees their first-place standing shrink to 3.5 games ahead of the surging Giants.

• FINAL: PITT 1; NYG 2
• RECORD: 74-50 (.597); second place, 3.5 GB of Pittsburgh

⚾

GAME #117

BOXSCORE: Friday, August 26, 1921 - BR

New York Yankees @ DETROIT TIGERS

Navin Field

Carl Mays Wins Number Twenty, But Yankees Gain No Ground

The Highlanders take out their frustrations against the Tigers with a commanding 10-2 series-opening victory at Detroit.  But their effort goes for naught as the Indians defeat the Senators at Dunn Field.  Thus, no ground was gained.  With one out in the home sixth, the 34-year old Ty Cobb hits an inside-the-park home run to deepest center field.  All told, Carl Mays allows two runs on seven hits and one walk en route to his milestone 20th win this season against nine losses with a representative 2.96 ERA.  Manager Cobb allows Howard Ehmke to yield all ten Yankee runs on 15 hits for the loss.  Elmer Miller leads the Yanks with four runs batted in; Roger Peckinpaugh and Wally Pipp drive home two apiece.  Aaron Ward goes 3 for 5 with two doubles.

• FINAL: NYY 10; DET 2
• RECORD: 72-45 (.615); second place, 0.5 GB of Cleveland

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 8/4/1921: Ty Cobb Schools Yankees; Giants Bow Again 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 #95

BOXSCORE: Thursday, August 4, 1921 - BR

Detroit Tigers @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Ty Cobb Leads Tigers Hitting Attack Versus Yankees

After yesterday's series-opening postponement, the Tigers pounce all over Bob Shawkey and the Yanks.  Shawkey yields a leadoff double to first baseman Lu Blue then loses his touch.  Perhaps the home plate umpire didn't rub enough baseball's new white powder on the ball because Shawkey walks Ty Cobb to load the bases, then walks Bobby Veach to force home the Tigers' first run.  Right fielder Harry Heilmann's fly center scores Donnie Bush, and Bob Jones' fly to right scores Cobb for a 3-0 first-inning lead.  Ty Cobb in the fifth gives Babe Ruth a glimpse of his own home run capabilities, with his tenth clout this season giving Detroit a 4-0 lead.  The Yankees finally score off Dutch Leonard in the fourth when Wally Pipp's sacrifice fly to center field scores Ruth from third.  The score remains unchanged through the seventh.  Manager Ty Cobb again leads by example in the eighth tripling home Donnie Bush and scoring on Bobby Veach's fly ball to right.  Home Run Baker drives home Roger Peckinpaugh and Ruth in the visiting eighth, but third baseman Bobby Jones takes exception with a leadoff home run in the bottom of the frame, after which Dutch Leonard helps himself with a hit and run batted in.  Dutch Leonard limits the Yankees to three runs on seven hits and four walks for the win.  Bob Shawkey allows all eight runs on eight hits, including two home runs and three walks for the loss.  However, there's good news out of the nation's capital, where the Senators swept both games of a twin bill against the Cleveland Indians.  Thus, despite today's loss against Detroit, the Yankees actually gain a half-game on the Indians.

• FINAL: DET 8; NYY 3
• RECORD: 59-36 (.621); second place, 0.5 GB of Cleveland

⚾

GAME #101

BOXSCORE: Thursday, August 4, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

Sportsman's Park

Giants Befuddled by Rookie Bill Pertica; Cards Win Third Straight 

In one of the more ponderous losses this season, the Giants bow to the Cardinals for a third consecutive game at Sportsman's Park.  St. Louis right-hander Bill Pertica, who as a rookie pitched just one game in 1918, then completely missed the last two seasons, making his 24th appearance this season, limits New York to just six hits and no walks with a season-high six strikeouts over nine scoreless innings for a complete-game shutout victory.  Ross Youngs accounts for half of Gotham's hits including a triple.  Art Nehf, who pitches very effectively, is the hard-luck loser.  He allows seven hits and one walk but eventually yields.  Second baseman Rogers Hornsby with a hit in the sixth drives him the only run of the game.  Don't look now, but the Boston Braves trail the Giants by three games.

• FINAL: NYG 0; STL 1
• RECORD: 61-40 (.604); second place, 3.5 GB of Pittsburgh

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 7/18/1921: Giants Close In On Pirates; Babe Ruth Breaks Roger Connor's All-Time Home Run Record

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 #82

BOXSCORE: Monday, July 18, 1921 - BR

Pittsburgh Pirates @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

Art Nehf Sinks Pirates; Giants Lead Series 2-1

The Giants answered back for yesterday's loss and punctuate it with a big eight-run fourth inning.  Pittsburgh starter Johnny Morrison is knocked out of the box four batters into the fourth, but not before yielding six runs on five hits and four walks.  Johnny Rawlings leads off the fifth with an inside-the-park home run, and Dave Bancroft knocks in the Giants' twelfth and final run.  Bancroft goes 3 for 3 with a double and three runs batted in.  George Burns, Frankie Frisch, and Johnny Rawlings each drive home two runs apiece.  Art Nehf wins his fifth straight decision.  George Cutshaw drives home Max Carey in the fourth to spoil the shutout.  Otherwise, Nehf allows just one run on eight hits and one walk with four strikeouts for his twelfth win against just four losses.  The Giants lead the series 2-1 and again pull within 2.0 games of first place.

• FINAL: PITT 1; NYG 12
• RECORD: 52-30 (.634); second place, 2.0 GB of Pittsburgh

⚾

The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Florida) 

Tuesday, July 19, 1921

GAME #84

BOXSCORE: MONDAY, JULY 18, 1921 - BR

New York Yankees @ DETROIT TIGERS

Navin Field

Babe Ruth Breaks Roger Connor's All-Time Home Run Record With Style

Facing Detroit starter Howard Ehmke, New York wastes no time, scoring early, often, and late en route to a nine-run margin of victory at Navin Field.  Chick Fewster wields four hits in six at-bats.  Bob Meusel and Home Run Baker drive home two runs each, as does Wally Pipp, who goes 3 for 5 with a home run.  Carl Mays hurls a dandy, allowing one run on just six hits and four walks for his 15th win against only five losses with a 2.56 ERA.  The Yankees win their third straight at Detroit and extend their win streak to seven consecutive games.  Not far removed from a season-high eight-game win streak, the Yankees have claimed victory in 15 of their last 18 contests and are now positioned just one game behind the league leader with whom they open a four-game series this upcoming Wednesday.

ICYMI: Babe Ruth Ties All-Time Home Run Mark

Like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb totaled 20 home runs over the first five seasons of his career.  But that is where the similarities end.  Now the author of well over 3,000 major league hits, Ty Cobb watches curiously in the top of the eighth as Babe Ruth brings a sparse crowd at Navin Field to its feet with his 36th home run this season.  Ty Cobb twelve years ago once led the major leagues in home runs with nine.  Now in his 17th season, Cobb has yet to ever hit double-digit home runs.  The Bambino's clout to center field is the record-breaking 139th of his career, now placing him ahead of Roger Connor's all-time mark, set back in 1897, seven seasons before Ty Cobb's rookie campaign with Detroit.

• FINAL: NYY 10; DET 1
• RECORD: 53-31 (.631); second place, 1.0 GB of Cleveland

New York Tribune, July 19, 1921

Babe Ruth Career Home Run #139 

Sets New All-Time Record

As of 7/15/1921: Babe Ruth Ties Home Run Record

With two outs in the sixth and Roger Peckinpaugh stationed at first, Babe Ruth hits his 35th home run this season completely out of Sportsman's Park.  It is the 138th home run in his career, which ties Roger Connor's all-time record set in 1897, one score and three years ago.  Earlier this season, Ruth broke  Gavvy Cravath's 20th-century record of 119 home runs.  It took Cravath, who retired just last season, 13 seasons and 1,220 games to achieve his mark, whereas Roger Connor played 1,998 games over 18 seasons.  

As a rookie in 1914 through 1918, Babe Ruth is utilized by the Boston Red Sox primarily as a pitcher.  He hit just 20 home runs over his first five seasons, eleven of which came in 1918 to lead both leagues.  During various single-seasons in his career, Roger Connor led baseball in doubles, triples, runs batted in, and even with a .371 batting average in 1885, but he never once led the circuit in home runs.  Gavvy Cravath three times led both leagues in home runs and led the National League three other times.  In 1919, Boston finally unleashed Ruth at the plate.  He goes on to set the single-season home run record with 29, then last year in his first year with the Yankees breaks his own record with a wondrous, almost ponderous 54 circuits.  The Bambino entered this season with 103 career home runs in just 534 games. Meanwhile, 83 home runs have come in his last three seasons alone.  In only his 615th career game, the Sultan of Swat ties Roger Conner.  At 26-years of age, Babe Ruth, health willing, still has many more years to play.  Mark this day: no baseball player in the history of baseball has hit more home runs than Babe Ruth.  Every clout from here on out merely extends the Bambino's own record.

 

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 7/16/1921: Giants Win Opener in Showdown With Pirates; Yankees Hold On For Win At Navin 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 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 #80

BOXSCORE: Saturday, July 16, 1921 - BR

Pittsburgh Pirates @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

Giants Rout Pirates; Pull Within Two Games of First Place

The much-anticipated showdown against the Pirates begins.  Before an uproarious crowd of 33,000 at the Polo Grounds, the Giants rout the Pirates, scoring early, often, and late.  Only Pittsburgh second baseman George Cutshaw (3 for 4, two RBI) poses any real threat to starter Phil Douglas who holds the Pirates to four runs (three earned), eleven hits, and three walks with three strikeouts for the win.  The Giants open with a four-run fourth; Johnny Rawlings is square in the mix with two runs batted in.  Rawlings again drives home a run in the fifth and scores on Frank Snyder's double to left field.  Frankie Frisch triples and scores during a two-run fifth inning and Phil Douglas joins the hit parade with a double and two runs batted in during the eighth.  Dave Bancroft, Frankie Frisch, Ross Youngs, and Johnny Rawlings all wield three hits apiece.  With the victory, the Giants pull within two games of first place.

• FINAL: PITT 4; NYG 13
• RECORD: 51-29 (.638); second place, 2.0 GB of Pittsburgh

⚾

GAME #82

BOXSCORE: Saturday, July 16, 1921 - BR

New York Yankees @ DETROIT TIGERS

Navin Field

Carl Mays Thwarts Detroit Comeback; Preserves Win For Bob Shawkey

The Yankees appear on an easy path towards their sixth consecutive victory.  Fresh upon their arrival from St. Louis, the Yankees score three times in the fourth, once in the seventh, and unbeknownst to them, score the decisive run in the top of the ninth.  That is because Bob Shawkey shuts out the Tigers on five scattered hits through the first eight innings.  However, Shawkey noticeably tires.  Pinch-hitting, Ty Cobb drives home Detroit's first run and comes around to score their second.  And wouldn't you know, Miller Huggins makes a rare bullpen switch summoning Carl Mays who yields two more runs charged to Shawkey.  But the scoring ends there.   Detroit falls a run short in its endeavors.  The final out is recorded on a come-backer to Mays, who throws to first, ending the game.

• FINAL: NYY 5; DET 4
• RECORD: 51-31 (.622); second place, 2.0 GB of Cleveland

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 6/14/1921: Bambino Spearheads Sweep Over Tigers; Giants Salvage Finale at St. Louis

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 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 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 #54

BOXSCORE: Tuesday, June 14, 1921 - BR

Detroit Tigers @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Bambino Swats Two More Home Runs; Yankees Sweep Tigers

Babe Ruth has now hit four home runs within the last 24-hours.  He hit a two-run home run in the first, then another two-run home run in the third, and the Yankees never look back.  The Huggmen also benefit from Home Run Baker's jolt in the seventh en route to a 9-6 final score.  Trailing 9-3 through the eighth, the Tigers score five times in the eighth to no avail.  Center fielder Ty Cobb hits his ninth home run this season in the sixth.  Braggo Roth and starter Rip Collins each drive home a run apiece.  After allowing six runs (five earned), Collins is the fortunate winner, after 13 hits and two walks through 7.2 innings pitched.  Carl Mays closes out the final 1.1 innings.  The Bambino now has 23 home runs and 59 runs batted in.  His second home run to straightaway center field is believed to have landed well over 460 feet away from home plate, many rows back in the bleachers.  With the victory, the Yankees complete a four-game sweep of the Tigers.  The Yankees also gain a full game on the Indians, who were defeated in eleven innings by the Senators at Washington.  They will next welcome the Chicago White Sox to the Polo Grounds.

• FINAL: DET 6; NYY 9
• RECORD: 33-21 (.611); second place, 0.5 GB of Cleveland

⚾         ⚾         ⚾

GAME #53

BOXSCORE: Tuesday, June 14, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

Sportsman's Park

Giants Snap Skid; Salvage Finale at Sportsman's Park

On the brink of their seventh straight defeat, the New York Giants muster four runs in the eighth for a come from behind 6-4 victory in the series finale and thus avoid being swept at Sportsman's Park.  Fred Toney outlasts Cardinals starter Roy Walker who gets knocked out of the box after seven.  Toney made his 16th appearance, allowing four runs, three earned, nine hits, and just one walk through nine complete innings.  Cardinals' second baseman Rogers Hornsby goes 3 for 4 with a run batted in.  Roy Walker takes the loss, but his effort is compromised by six errors.  He yields five runs, but only two are earned.  Otherwise, Walker gives up six hits and three walks with three strikeouts through seven.  The Cardinals' own ten-game winning streak comes to an end as well.  Ross Youngs is 2 for 4 with three runs batted in.  Dave Bancroft goes 2 for 4 with two runs scored and one run batted in, and High Pockets Kelly drives home his 51st run this season.  The Giants arrive in Chicago tomorrow.

• FINAL: NYG 6; STL 4
• RECORD: 33-20 (.623); second place, 4.0 GB of Pittsburgh

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 6/13/1921: Babe Ruth Pitches Five Innings, Belts Two Home Runs; Giants Skid Hits Six

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 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 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!

The Morning Call (Paterson, New Jersey)

GAME #53

BOXSCORE: Monday, June 13, 1921 - BR

Detroit Tigers @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Babe Ruth Pitches Five Innings, Hits Two Home Runs

Babe Ruth continues his rampage against the Tigers while the Yankees hit four home runs.  Picking up where they left off yesterday, New York mounts a 13 run and 16 hit attack en route to their third straight win against Detroit.  Manager Ty Cobb seemed to have no qualms letting starter Howard Ehmke go the full nine innings.  One must think why.  This brings us to Babe Ruth.  Making his first start of the season and only his second start as a member of the Yankees, southpaw George Herman Ruth faces 28 batters, yields four runs, three earned, on five hits and seven walks with one strikeout in a winning effort.  He helps his own cause with a solo home run in the third and a two-run blast in the seventh.  He now has 21 home runs this season.  Chicken Hawks and Home Run Baker also homer off Ehmke.  Aaron Ward joins Ruth with three runs batted in.  Carl Mays and Alex Ferguson close out the game with two innings apiece, but neither goes unscathed.

• FINAL: DET 8; NYY 13
• RECORD: 32-21 (.604); second place, 2.5 GB of Cleveland

⚾         ⚾         ⚾

GAME #52

BOXSCORE: Monday, June 13, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

Sportsman's Park

Giants Skid Hits Six

The Cardinals scored early, often, and late in a 10-1 rout of the Giants.  In the first, Dave Bancroft scores on High Pockets Kelly's 50th run batted in this season.  After which, Cardinals' starter Jesse Haines shuts out the Giants over his final eight innings pitched, allowing eight total hits and three walks with six strikeouts for the win.  Giants starter Art Nehf and reliever Rosy Ryan are equally mistreated by St. Louis.  Art Nehf suffers just his third loss against seven wins.  Six of the Cardinals' 15 hits go for extra bases, including a triple by Rogers Hornsby and a home run by Les Mann.  The Cardinals extended the Giants' losing streak to six.

• FINAL: NYG 1; STL 10
• RECORD: 32-20 (.615); second place, 4.0 GB of Pittsburgh