100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 5/4/1921: Giants Defeat Brooklyn in Series Opener; Yankees Postponed At Washington

From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD

100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds: 

New York Giants & New York Yankees 

1921 Seasons Revisited

In their last season at Hilltop Park, the now formerly known New York Highlanders lost 102 games.  Rebranded as the Yankees, in 1913, they moved just a few blocks away into the Polo Grounds as tenants of the Senior Circuit's New York Giants.  To the chagrin of Giants manager John McGraw, the Americans proceeded to lose another 94 games.  

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

For as long as the Yankees paid their rent, the tenant/landlord relationship with the Giants remained amicably strained.  Mainly because the middling Americans, except for one season in 1916, never elevated themselves above the ranks of Junior Circuit also-rans.  But that changed in 1919 when they briefly vied for the pennant but tuckered out down the stretch to finish third.  A franchise-record 619,164 fans showed up to root for the American League contenders.  However, the Yankees' burgeoning success was not yet a pressing issue, per se, for the Giants, who were coming off a second-place finish and their best season in a decade at the turnstile.

Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates along the New York/New England fault shift.  The Yankees' purchase of George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox sends seismic waves reverberating throughout the baseball world but none more intense than in Washington Heights.  Ruth's earth-shattering record of 54 home runs was something never experienced before in the history of baseball but an accomplishment for which John McGraw has little appreciation as one who believes players work too hard and earnestly only to have their skills disrespected by some miscreant's lone swing of the bat.

Gotham's citizenry never before descended from Coogan's Bluff in such quantity and spectacle than in 1920 as the Giants would set a franchise record with 929,609 reported attendance.  However, the New York Nationals faced an economic dilemma of Ruthian proportions.  McGraw's disdain for his tenants was further heightened when the Yankees outdrew the host Giants in their own home for the first time in each franchise's history.  Headlined by Babe Ruth, the Yankees seized the city's attention, evidenced by an all-time major league record of 1,289,422 in attendance.

In 1921, over two million fans would again pack the Polo Grounds.  Babe Ruth would continue accomplishing the unimaginable, and if that wasn't surreal enough, he proceeds to top it.  All the while, with each passing day, John McGraw grows more incensed.  Lest we forget, New York City is still Little Napoleon's empire.  

Sharing a ballpark for both teams is becoming an insufferable condition—the Giants attempt to evict the Yankees in 1921 to no avail.  But a solution lies not too far away ...  

Until then, two major league titans charge headlong into a season-ending October clash at the Polo Grounds.  It is New York City's first-ever World's Championship Subway Series.  All games are played at the Polo Grounds, making Coogan's Bluff the center of the baseball universe. 

This is my replay of that season.  I'll be exercising my creative license whenever and wherever ever possible.  More than anything, this is about having fun and celebrating New York City's baseball history.  

• Stats: BASEBALL REFERENCE

Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!

New York Herald

GAME #17

BOXSCORE: Wednesday, May 4, 1921 - BR

Brooklyn Robins @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

The Art Of Managing As Demonstrated by Mister McGraw; Giants Turn Away Brooklyn In Series Opener

The defending National League champions from Brooklyn arrive for their first visit this season to the Polo Grounds.  They bring an eleven-game consecutive win streak with them, including four in a row against the Giants back in April at Ebbets Field.  

One of Wilbert Robinson's very few off-season reinforcements, Dutch Ruether toes the slab for a third straight start against the Giants and is opposed by Mister McGraw's little experienced right-hander Rosy Ryan.  After trading zeroes through the fourth, Brooklyn strikes.  Center fielder Hi Myers singles leading off the fifth, advances to second, and scores on Dutch Ruether's base hit to left field.  Then with two outs and runners on the corners, Brooklyn successfully executes a double steal; Ivy Olson breaks for second drawing a throw while Dutch Ruether swipes home, giving the Robins a 2-0 lead.  

Two more scoreless innings go by until John McGraw takes over.  He replaces Rosy Ryan with Art Nehf, who pitches a scoreless top half of the eighth.  Meanwhile, Uncle Robbie sends Ruether out for the bottom half of the eighth.  At McGraw's insistence, the Giants strike back.  Lee King laces a lead-off double, and Goldie Rapp reaches on an infield hit.  With one out and both runners in scoring position, McGraw pinch-hits Alex Gaston for Nehf, who promptly triples into the right/center field gap tying the game at two.  McGraw then replaces Gaston with pinch-runner John Monroe, who scores the go-ahead run on George Burns' hit back through the box that hits Dutch Ruether but cannot assist for a putout.  After which, Jesse Barnes obliges Mister McGraw by closing out the ninth.  No twelfth consecutive victory for the Robins, not in Little Napoleon's empire.

• FINAL: BKN 2; NYG 3
• RECORD: 11-6 (.647); third place, 2.5 GB of Pittsburgh

GAME CALLED: Rain

Wednesday, May 4, 1921

New York Yankees @ WASHINGTON SENATORS

Griffith Stadium

This marks the seventh game this season for the Yankees compromised by rain.  Meanwhile, the King of Clout remains stuck at six home runs.  

Babe Ruth entered the season with 103 career round-trippers, giving him a total of 109 to date.  Roger Conner, the former 19th century Troy Trojans/New York Giants great, holds the major league record with 138 home runs over an 18-year National League career.  Lest we forget, just three years ago, while a member of the Red Sox, Ruth led the American League with eleven home runs.  A year later, he shatters Philadelphia A's Socks Seybold's 16-year old single-season American League record of 16 home runs.  Later that same season he ties and surpasses by one the all-time record of 28 home runs set in 1894 by Chicago White Stockings third baseman Ned Williamson.  Then, of course, last season Ruth accomplishes the once-unimaginable, breaking his own record, and resetting it at an incredible 54 home runs in one season - no player before had ever before hit 50 home runs.  

The man is hitting more home runs than whole teams!  Fans of both circuits are still struggling to comprehend the historical events unfolding before them.  In Ruthian terms, he is a mere 29 home runs away from tying Roger Connor with upwards of 140 regular-season games left to play.  If last season is any indication, the home run record once again rides a pale horse.

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

From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD

100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds: 

New York Giants & New York Yankees 

1921 Seasons Revisited

In their last season at Hilltop Park, the now formerly known New York Highlanders lost 102 games.  Rebranded as the Yankees, in 1913, they moved just a few blocks away into the Polo Grounds as tenants of the Senior Circuit's New York Giants.  To the chagrin of Giants manager John McGraw, the Americans proceeded to lose another 94 games.  

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

For as long as the Yankees paid their rent, the tenant/landlord relationship with the Giants remained amicably strained.  Mainly because the middling Americans, except for one season in 1916, never elevated themselves above the ranks of Junior Circuit also-rans.  But that changed in 1919 when they briefly vied for the pennant but tuckered out down the stretch to finish third.  A franchise-record 619,164 fans showed up to root for the American League contenders.  However, the Yankees' burgeoning success was not yet a pressing issue, per se, for the Giants, who were coming off a second-place finish and their best season in a decade at the turnstile.

Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates along the New York/New England fault shift.  The Yankees' purchase of George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox sends seismic waves reverberating throughout the baseball world but none more intense than in Washington Heights.  Ruth's earth-shattering record of 54 home runs was something never experienced before in the history of baseball but an accomplishment for which John McGraw has little appreciation as one who believes players work too hard and earnestly only to have their skills disrespected by some miscreant's lone swing of the bat.

Gotham's citizenry never before descended from Coogan's Bluff in such quantity and spectacle than in 1920 as the Giants would set a franchise record with 929,609 reported attendance.  However, the New York Nationals faced an economic dilemma of Ruthian proportions.  McGraw's disdain for his tenants was further heightened when the Yankees outdrew the host Giants in their own home for the first time in each franchise's history.  Headlined by Babe Ruth, the Yankees seized the city's attention, evidenced by an all-time major league record of 1,289,422 in attendance.

In 1921, over two million fans would again pack the Polo Grounds.  Babe Ruth would continue forward, accomplishing the unimaginable, and if that wasn't surreal enough, he proceeds to top it.  All the while, with each passing day, John McGraw grows more incensed.  Lest we forget, New York City is still Little Napoleon's empire.  

Sharing a ballpark for both teams is becoming an insufferable condition.  A solution lies not too far away ...  

In the meantime, two major league titans charge headlong into a season-ending October clash at the Polo Grounds.  It is New York City's first-ever World's Championship Subway Series.  All games are played at the Polo Grounds, making Coogan's Bluff the center of the baseball universe. 

This is my replay of that season.  I'll be exercising my creative license whenever and wherever ever possible.  More than anything, this is about having fun and celebrating New York City's baseball history.  

• Stats: BASEBALL REFERENCE

Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!

⚾

GAME #12

BOXSCORE: Thursday, April 28, 1921 - BR

Washington Senators @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Motivated Yankees Salvage Series Finale Against Senators

Gharrity and Ruth Exchange Pleasantries and Almost Come to Blows

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

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

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

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

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

⚾

GAME #12

BOXSCORE: Thursday, April 28, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ BROOKLYN ROBINS

Ebbets Field

Brooklyn Robins Take Over Second Place at the Expense of Giants

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

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

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

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

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 4/27/1921: Washington Takes Fourth Straight From Yankees; Giants Drop Third Straight at Ebbets Field

From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD

100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds: 

New York Giants & New York Yankees 

1921 Seasons Revisited

In their last season at Hilltop Park, the now formerly known New York Highlanders lost 102 games.  Rebranded as the Yankees, in 1913, they moved just a few blocks away into the Polo Grounds as tenants of the Senior Circuit's New York Giants.  To the chagrin of Giants manager John McGraw, the Americans proceeded to lose another 94 games.  

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

For as long as the Yankees paid their rent, the tenant/landlord relationship with the Giants remained amicably strained.  Mainly because the middling Americans, except for one season in 1916, never elevated themselves above the ranks of Junior Circuit also-rans.  But that changed in 1919 when they briefly vied for the pennant but tuckered out down the stretch to finish third.  A franchise-record 619,164 fans showed up to root for the American League contenders.  However, the Yankees' burgeoning success was not yet a pressing issue, per se, for the Giants, who were coming off a second-place finish and their best season in a decade at the turnstile.

Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates along the New York/New England fault shift.  The Yankees' purchase of George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox sends seismic waves reverberating throughout the baseball world but none more intense than in Washington Heights.  Ruth's earth-shattering record of 54 home runs was something never experienced before in the history of baseball but an accomplishment for which John McGraw has little appreciation as one who believes players work too hard and earnestly only to have their skills disrespected by some miscreant's lone swing of the bat.

Gotham's citizenry never before descended from Coogan's Bluff in such quantity and spectacle than in 1920 as the Giants would set a franchise record with 929,609 reported attendance.  However, the New York Nationals faced an economic dilemma of Ruthian proportions.  McGraw's disdain for his tenants was further heightened when the Yankees outdrew the host Giants in their own home for the first time in each franchise's history.  Headlined by Babe Ruth, the Yankees seized the city's attention, evidenced by an all-time major league record of 1,289,422 in attendance.

In 1921, over two million fans would again pack the Polo Grounds.  Babe Ruth would continue forward, accomplishing the unimaginable, and if that wasn't surreal enough, he proceeds to top it.  All the while, with each passing day, John McGraw grows more incensed.  Lest we forget, New York City is still Little Napoleon's empire.  

Sharing a ballpark for both teams is becoming an insufferable condition.  A solution lies not too far away ...  

In the meantime, two major league titans charge headlong into a season-ending October clash at the Polo Grounds.  It is New York City's first-ever World's Championship Subway Series.  All games are played at the Polo Grounds, making Coogan's Bluff the center of the baseball universe. 

This is my replay of that season.  I'll be exercising my creative license whenever and wherever ever possible.  More than anything, this is about having fun and celebrating New York City's baseball history.  

• Stats: BASEBALL REFERENCE

Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!

⚾

GAME #11

BOXSCORE: Wednesday, April 27, 1921 - BR

Washington Senators @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Washington Senators Take Over First Place at Yankees Expense

Back-to-back twenty-game winner and last season's ERA champ, Bob Shawkey, makes his season debut and is opposed by the familiar Senators right-hander Jim Shaw.  

Washington scores right away when leadoff hitter Joe Judge singles, advances, and scores on left fielder Duffy Lewis' grounder to second.  But Shaw likewise hurls himself into first-inning trouble upon yielding a one-out single to Roger Peckinpaugh, then issuing consecutive bases on balls to Babe Ruth and Wally Pipp.  Bob Meusel's sacrifice flyball to center field scores Peckinpaugh, and an error by second baseman Bucky Harris on the relay permits Ruth to score the go-ahead run.  Later with two outs in the third and Babe Ruth stationed at third, Bob Meusel's single to right field gives the Yankees a 3-1 lead.  

Having shaken off that first inning rust, Bob Shawkey continues turning away Washington batters, that is until he issues the dreaded base on balls to Sam Rice leading off the eighth - for experience tells us over, and again the odds of that base runner scoring are quite good.  Sure enough, Duffy Lewis reaches safely on a fielder's choice when Chick Fewster mishandles the throw from third baseman Aaron Ward, and with one out, third baseman Howie Shanks triples home both base runners tying the game at three.

Pitching his second inning in relief of Jim Shaw, George Mogridge initiates an inning-ending 1-4-3 double play to end the Yankees eighth.  With one out in the top of the ninth, Joe Judge singles up the middle, and Bob Shawkey walks right fielder Clyde Milan.  Then just as he had done in the previous game, Miller Huggins, in an obvious temp of fate, summons from the bullpen another right-hander to again face the lefty-swinging Sam Rice.  In relief of Shawkey, Carl Mays this time induces a groundball to first, and the runners advance.  But Hug's vindication is short-lived when with two outs, some 15,000 dejected onlookers witness Carl Mays surrender a bases-emptying double to left field off the bat of Duffy Lewis.  Afterwhich, George Mogridge closes out the game with a third scoreless inning in relief of Shaw to earn his first win this season.  Bob Shawkey is tagged with his first loss.

The Senators take their fourth straight from the Yankees, the first back at Griffith Stadium, and now three straight here at the Polo Grounds with one game still left to play.  As a result of today's outcome, Washington moves into first place, one half-game ahead of Cleveland.  Locally, it marks the Yankees' fifth straight loss and their sixth of the season, dropping them one game under .500 with a 5-6 record.

• FINAL: WAS 5; NYY 3
• RECORD: 5-6 (.455); fourth place, 3.5 GB of Washington

⚾

GAME #11

BOXSCORE: Wednesday, April 27, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ BROOKLYN DODGERS

Ebbets Field

Giants Drop Third Straight at Ebbets Field

You'd never know it by simply observing John McGraw.  Looking on as Brooklyn plates both the tying and winning runs in the ninth, he remains stone-faced throughout.  However, anyone within close proximity could always sense Little Napoleon's loath towards perceived turncoat Wilbert Robinson.  Uncle Robbie knows this well.  After all, the feeling is mutual, and on Wednesday, he provides his once dear friend a third consecutive reminder where the defending National League champions are to be found.  

Making his third start, Jesse Barnes is opposed by Brooklyn's quietly effective southpaw Clarence Mitchell who gets staked to a 1-0 lead in the first on Zack Wheat's two-out hit scoring Jimmy Johnston from third.  The score remains unchanged through the fifth.  But High Pocket Kelly's Bedford Avenue-bound two-run home run in the sixth, along with Frankie Frisch's single plating George Burns in the seventh, gives Jesse Barnes and the Giants a 3-1 lead.  With two out in the bottom half of the frame and a pair of runners in scoring position, Clarence Mitchell helps his own cause with a single to center field, scoring both Hi Myers and Pete Kilduff, tying the game at three.  

When center fielder Eddie Brown opens the eighth with a single and third baseman Goldie Rapp follows with a double, manager Robinson replaces Mitchell with Al Mamaux, who immediately unleashes a wild pitch permitting Brown to score the go-ahead run.  Mamaux retires the Giants in order in the top half of the ninth.  Still facing Jesse Barnes, Robins' second baseman Pete Kilduff leads off with a single, advances, and scores on Bernie Neis's base hit to left.  After advancing to second, Neis scores on Jimmy Johnston's two-out game-winning hit to left field.  

Al Mamaux earns the win in relief, improving his record to 3-0 with a 1.50 earned run average.  Brooklyn's third baseman Jimmy Johnston finishes 3 for 4 with a double and a run batted in.  Jesse Barnes falls to 1-1 with a 1.88 ERA after allowing five earned runs on twelve hits through 8.2 innings pitched.  Third baseman Goldie Rapp goes 3 for 4 with two doubles.

• FINAL: NYG 4; BKN 5
• RECORD: 6-5 (.545); fourth place, 3 GB of Pittsburgh

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 ...

100 Years Years Ago Today 9/26/1920: Brooklyn Robins One Game Away From Clinching Pennant

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

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS

1920 National League Champions

Game #151: Sunday, September 26, 1920 - BR

New York Giants vs. Brooklyn Robins

Ebbets Field

Uncle Robbie and Rube Marquard Push McGraw's Giants to the Brink

Many times this season when Uncle Robbie needed Rube Marquard to win a big game, his old friend delivered in the clutch.  Today in front of a sold out Ebbets Field the soon to be 33-year old hurls what is to date perhaps the most heroic regular season victory in his Brooklyn career.  From the visitor's dugout an expressionless John McGraw offers no glimpse into his troubled mind as his former star pitcher helps reduce the Robins magic number to one.  Once inside the clubhouse a convivial Wilbert Robinson revels in his rival's defeat.  Twenty-one game winner Fred Toney starts for the Giants but comes nowhere near finishing.  Down a run, John McGraw pinch hits for Toney in the third.  Alex Gaston strikes out, but an error by third baseman Jimmy Johnston and a hits by Dave Bancroft and Ross Youngs tie the game at one.  In the Brooklyn seventh, reliever Phil Douglas walks the bases loaded.  Ivy Olson follows with a single to right scoring two runs.  The teams trade runs in the eighth.  Rube Marquard then retires the Giants in order in the ninth.  Brooklyn wins their 90th game of the season and an already uproarious Ebbets Field crowd goes wild.  Fans spill out onto the field and accompany Marquard on his triumphant march back towards the dugout.  The former Giants southpaw allows two runs, none earned, on just five hits and two walks with five strikeouts through a full nine innings.  He improves to 10-7 with a 3.31 ERA.  Hi Myers drives in two runs giving him 83 for the season.  Tomorrow the Robins are idle, while the Giants host a twin bill against the Boston Braves.  Anything other than a two game sweep and the Giants are through.  Should the Giants win out, they'll host Brooklyn at the Polo Grounds.

• RECORD: 90-60 (.600)
• 1st Place; 5.0 GA

100 Years Ago Today 9/23/1920: Brooklyn Robins and Giants Pause Before Showdown at Ebbets Field

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

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS

1920 National League Champions

NO GAMES SCHEDULED: Thursday, September 23, 1920

Summer is officially behind us.  Cooler air and longer shadows loom ahead as Autumn takes its turn.  John McGraw knows time is short.  But to the dismay of an entire city a two day break in the schedule freezes the National League pennant race in place.  With the defending champion Cincinnati Reds now a distant third, local fans anxiously wait out the calm before the storm.

The New York Giants commute to Brooklyn this weekend for two games at Ebbets Field.  Burleigh Grimes (22-10) and Jesse Barnes (18-15) are tentatively set to start on Saturday.  Rube Marquard (9-7) and Fred Toney (21-11) are due to pitch Sunday.

Five of the Giants next seven games are against the Robins who hold a five game lead in the standings and own a magic number of two.  Should luck be on the Giants side and they survive these next four games against the Robins and Boston Braves, they stand to host three more games against Brooklyn at the Polo Grounds in a series that would ultimately crown a new National League champion.

1) - Brooklyn     89-59 (.601)
2) - New York    83-63 (.568)  5.0 GB

That is, unless Uncle Robbie beats em to it.  So hope the Flatbush faithful who have packed Ebbets Field in record numbers much to the delight of Charlie and the McKeever Brothers.  The club has far exceeded their previous attendance record of 447,747 set in 1916, the last season they captured the pennant.  Now John McGraw finds himself in a similar position trailing his former pitching coach and friend turned rival, Wilbert Robinson, whom he feels abandoned him for the Dodgers after the 1913 season.

The rivalry resumes Saturday.

100 Years Ago Today 9/9/1920: Brooklyn Robins in First Place with Twenty Games Left

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF DEM BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS

1920 National League Champions

Game #135: Thursday, September 9, 1920 - BR
St. Louis Cardinals vs. Brooklyn Robins
Ebbets Field

New York City Center of Baseball Universe

Empire City is delirious with pennant fever and in other instances just plain mad.  Fans throughout the five boroughs are chomping at the bit for a shot at the title.  Even the suddenly relevant Highlanders featuring a 25-year old Babe Ruth have something to say.  Acquired from the Red Sox and relieved of his pitching duties by the Yankees, George Ruth continues setting baseball's single season records aflame.  Never before has the game witnessed such abnormalities when a pitched ball comes in contact with the swing of his bat.  Ruth is indeed all the rage.  Everyone wants to see The Babe.  The Yankees are even outdrawing the Giants in their own home park and John McGraw is incensed.  Unlike Chicago in 1906, New York City is yet to experience a subway World Series.  The Yankees are engaged in a three way race with the Indians and White Sox.  Cleveland finishes the day with a one game lead over Chicago, and a 1.5 game lead over the Yankees.  Meanwhile, the third place Giants bow to the Cubs at the Polo Grounds and the second place Reds defeat Boston at Braves Field.  The Giants have 21 games left in their season in which to overcome a 2.5 game deficit.  But only in New York City can there exist another universe just eighteen miles away where the Robins are letting it be known to both neighboring clubs that the road to a championship goes through Brooklyn.  If Wilbert Robinson hasn't already earned John McGraw's ire, he's certainly doing a fine job of it now.

Back home at Ebbets Field, the Brooklyn Robins defeat the visiting St. Louis Cardinals to retake sole possession of first place.  With the borough's collective heart beating like a big bass drum, an estimated crowd of 7,000 welcome home with a roar of appreciation their first place Robins.  Starter  Burleigh Grimes and company do not disappoint.  The spitballer limits the Cardinals to a pair of earned runs on seven hits and two walks with four strikeouts en rout to his twentieth victory of the season.  It's the first time in his five year career Grimes achieves the benchmark.  Meanwhile, his opponent, Bill Doak, is denied his 19th victory of the season.  Leading-off the Brooklyn half of the second, Zack Wheat hits his sixth home run deep to left.  Wheat drives home his second run of the game in the third.  Rogers Hornsby counters in the fourth with a two run triple.  But Ivy Olson and Ed Konetchy provide all the insurance required by Burleigh Grimes.  The heart of the order - Zack Wheat, Hi Myers and Ed Konetchy - are all batting above .300, while Brooklyn's team ERA remains the best in the league.

• RECORD: 77-57 (.575)
• 1st Place; 0.5 GA

100 Years Ago Today 8/31/1920: Brooklyn Robins Take Back First Place As September Looms

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF THE BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS
1920 National League Champions

Game #126: Tuesday, August 31, 1920 - BR
Brooklyn Robins vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Sportsman's Park

First Place Brooklyn Robins Achieve Victory Number Seventy with Twenty-Nine Games Left to Play 

Message to Uncle Robbie: Don't look back or you just might see who is behind you.

After all, New York City is still John McGraw's empire.  But it's also a not so subtle reminder that the National League pennant is up for grabs. 

If over these last five months you've remained a member of the staunch Brooklyn skeptics and Robins naysayers, then perhaps Tuesday's contest finally swayed you into believing this surprisingly irrepressible team - virtually unchanged from last season - genuinely stands poised to win another National League pennant.  From the lips of yours truly to the ears of Charlie Byrne!  But the McKeever Brothers and Charlie Ebbets himself believe this to be true.  Fans filing into 55 Sullivan Place in exponentially record numbers are all the proof they need.

With Tuesday's 5-2 victory at Sportsman's Park the Robins finish the month of August with a modest 14-13 record.  However, the true significance of Tuesday's game is that it marks Brooklyn's seventieth victory of the regular season.  It's one win above last season's total; thirteen more than achieved in 1918; and presently matches their 1917 output.  Only difference being this year's Robins still have twenty-nine games left to play.  Everything now points back to 1916 when the Robins win 94 games and capture the pennant by a 2.5 game margin over Philadelphia.  It may take that many wins if not more in order to keep at bay the defending champion Cincinnati Reds and surging New York Giants.  But make no mistake, the road to the pennant presently courses through Brooklyn, as both Cincinnati and the New York Giants visit Ebbets Field in late September.

Back on the field, the Robins lose their series against St. Louis but at least salvage a victory in their final visit this season to Sportsman's Park.  Unlike yesterday Brooklyn stays a step ahead of the Cardinals with a 2-1 lead after three, trading runs in the sixth, then closing with two more runs in the seventh en route to a 5-2 final.  Bernie Neis getting a start in center field goes 2 for 5 with two runs batted in.  Hi Myers, Ed Konetchy and Pete Kilduff also drive in a run apiece.  Starter Jeff Pfeffer improves to 12-8 with a 2.90 ERA, after yielding two runs on seven hits and no walks with four strikeouts through a full nine.  Boston's extra-inning triumph over Cincinnati coupled with Brooklyn's victory once again gives the Robins a half-game lead over the Reds. 

Meanwhile, the New York Giants lose yet again at Forbes Field placing them two games out of first.  We know Wilbert Robinson and John McGraw are no longer the close friends they once were.  It seems the only things they have in common theses days are their respective issues playing Pittsburgh.

• RECORD: 70-55 (.560)
• 1st Place; 0.5 GA

100 Years Ago Today 8/30/1920: Cardinals Twin Bill Sweep Drops Brooklyn Robins Into Second Place

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF THE BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS

1920 National League Champions

Game #124: Monday, August 30, 1920 - GAME ONE/BR
Brooklyn Robins vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Sportsmans Park

Veteran Bill Doak Gives Robins a Birdbath

Cardinals veteran starter Bill Doak, in the midst of one of his best seasons, offers the visiting Robins no quarter.  He faces just 29 batters while limiting Brooklyn to five scattered hits and no walks through nine shutout innings.  He improves to 17-10 with a 2.64 ERA.  Tommy Griffith, Pete Kilduff, Otto Miller and pinch hitter Bill Lamar account for the Robins only hits.  Brooklyn is 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.  Facing Rube Marquard, the Cardinals break a scoreless tie in the fifth.  The score remains unchanged through the seventh.  But the roof caves in on Marquard during the eighth.  Wilbert Robinson makes no move as Marquard issues a lead-off walk to Hal Janvrin then yields three straight base hits.  St. Louis goes on to tally four runs en route to a 6-0 whitewashing.  Marquard's record now stands at 8-7 with a 3.29 ERA after allowing six runs, five earned, on eight hits and four walks with five strikeouts through eight innings pitched.



Game #125: Monday, August 30, 1920, GAME TWO/BR
Brooklyn Robins vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Sportsmans Park

Leon Cadore Ruins Ferdie Schupp Shutout; Cardinals Complete Twin Bill Sweep

Where'd everybody go ...?

Brooklyn buckles in the late innings as the St. Louis Cardinals complete a twin bill sweep at Sportsman's Park.  Leon Cadore toes the rubber opposed by former New York Giants southpaw Ferdie Schupp.  The two duel through a one-all tie through six.  But similar to Rube Marquard in game one, the roof caves in late in the game atop Leon Cadore.  St. Louis erupts for two runs in the seventh and four more in the eighth.  Reliever Sherry Smith fares no better.  Jimmy Johnston accounts for three of Brooklyn's six total hits, but only Cadore himself can muster the Robins' lone run batted in - a home run, no less, in the third.  Otherwise, Ferdie Schupp effectively shuts out Brooklyn's positional eight.  Cincinnati defeats the Braves at Redland Field and take back possession of first place.  Meanwhile, the New York Giants are swept by the Pirates in their twin bill at Forbes Field.

• RECORD: 69-55 (.556)
• 2nd Place; 0.5 GB

100 Years Ago Today 8/15/1920: Brooklyn Robins Alone in First After Victory Over Phillies

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF THE BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS

1920 National League Champion

Game #112: Sunday, August 15, 1920 - BR
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Brooklyn Dodgers
Ebbets Field

Fireman Burleigh Grimes Saves the Day; Robins Back in Sole Possession of First

It takes longer than anticipated, but the Robins outlast the Phillies at Ebbets Field to regain sole possession of first place.  Facing Jeff Pfeffer, Philadelphia leads 4-2 after five innings.  Pitching for Philadelphia is former Trolley Dodger George Smith.  Pfeffer is knocked out of the game after yielding four earned runs on six hits and a walk through six innings.  In the Brooklyn seventh, Ivy Olson, Jimmy Johnston and Tommy Griffith together generate two runs tying the game at four.  Pitching in relief of Jeff Pfeffer and Leon Cardore in the Philadelphia eighth, Al Mamaux walks two of three batters faced.  That prompts a visit by Uncle Robbie who urgently summons Burleigh Grimes from the bullpen.  The spitballer rewards his manager with a goose egg.  But the game stays knotted through the ninth and tenth and eleventh innings.  Philadelphia breaks the deadlock in the top of the twelfth helped by Ivy Olson's errant throw with the bases loaded.  Grimes regains control of the situation and escapes with only one run scored.  Brooklyn born right-hander Johnny Enzmann enters the game for the Phillies.  Ivy Olson and Jimmy Johnston greet him with consecutive singles, and with one out Zack Wheat is issued an intentional walk.  Manager Gavvy Cravath looks on as Ivy Olson steps in.  Cravath gets his wish, a sure double play ground ball to short is returned home for a force out.  But catcher Mack Wheat throws errantly to first base allowing both brother Zack and Jimmy Johnston to score.  Native Brooklynite and former Robins pitcher Johnny Enzmann suffers his first loss in only his fifth appearance of the season.  Back in 1914 he appears in seven games for his hometown Brooklyn Dodgers.  The spitballer Burleigh Grimes allows no earned runs on three hits and one walk with four strikeouts though 4.2 innings for the win.  He improves to 18-7 with a 2.18 earned run average.  Chicago whitewashes the Reds at Cubs Park, and the Giants split a twin bill with the Braves at the Polo Grounds.

• RECORD: 63-48 (.568)
• First Place; 1.0 GA 

100 Years Ago Today 7/17/1920: Brooklyn Robins Take Advantage of Cincinnati Reds Sloppiness

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF THE BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS
1920 National League Champions

Game #85: Saturday, July 17, 1920 - BR
Brooklyn Robins vs Cincinnati Reds
Redland Field

Cincinnati Mistakes Prove Costly; Robins Extend Lead to Four Games Over Reds

Brooklyn squeezes out a second straight win against the defending World Champions.  With hits and runs in a state of scarcity the match is left to the respective right arms of Leon Cadore being opposed by Cincinnati's crafty Jimmy Ring.  With two outs, and runners on first and second in the Brooklyn second, Reds second baseman Morrie Rath botches Rowdy Elliot's pop fly in short right field allowing both base runners to score.  Later in the Cincinnati third Morrie Rath leads off with a single, and eventually manages his way to third.  With two outs and left fielder Pat Duncan at the plate, Morrie Rath steals home.  But Reds starter Jimmy Ring compromises his own cause in the Brooklyn sixth.  With two outs and Tommy Griffith standing at third and Pete Kilduff at the plate, Ring ponderously balks Griffith home from third for what would prove to be a crucial insurance run Brooklyn would sorely need.  Cincinnati gains a run back in the bottom of the frame, but can muster no more.  Leon Cadore earns the victory but three cheers for the bullpen.  Cadore yields two earned runs on six hits and two walks through six innings pitched.  He improves to 7-7 with a 2.17 earned run average.  Wilbert Robinson inserts Al Mamaux in relief of Cadore, and does not disappoint throwing three scoreless innings of one hit ball with two strikeouts.  Together Cadore and Mamaux outlast Jimmy Ring who surrenders three runs, one earned, on seven hits and three walks with five strikeouts in a somewhat confounding loss.  If any one is interested, the Giants are now 10.5 games out of first place.  That is all.

• RECORD: 51-33 (.607)
• First Place; 4.0 GA

100 Years Ago Today 7/7/1920: Second Place Brooklyn Robins Seizing League Wide Attention

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF THE BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS
1920 National League Champions

Uncle Robbie and Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers Proving Naysayers Wrong With Best Start Since 1916 Season; Forecast as Second Division Dwellers Back in Spring, Robins Just One-Half Game Out of First Place.

It was right around this time last season when the Brooklyn Robins were teetering just above .500 with a 34-32 record, and mired in fourth place although a still manageable 9.5 games out of first place.  Improved to a point but hardly viewed as a threat by first division rivals, lest we forget at this point the regular seasons of 1917 and 1918 were effectively lost.  Cruel and unusual ways to follow up a pennant, to be sure.  But any optimism harbored by Uncle Robbie and the 1919 Robins unbeknownst to them was officially laid to rest on July 9 when they fall ten games behind league leading Cincinnati and henceforth remained out of first by no less than double-digits through season's end.  And as if anyone needs reminding last year's Robins ultimately ended the season in fourth place with a 69-71 (.492) record, a distant 27-games out of first place.

If nothing else finishing the 1919 season out of the second division for the first time in three years was somewhat significant for Mr. Ebbets who's seats were being filled once again by America's returning war veterans.  Whether attendance this season reaches 1916 levels again remains to be seen, but last season's turnout was certainly encouraging.  But even more encouraging is what continues unfolding on the field this season.  Charlie Ebbets and the McKeever Brothers could not be happier as the 1920 Robins continue muting pundits and naysayers with a 40-31 record, placing them just one half-game behind the first place Reds.  In turn jubilant Brooklyn fans are flocking to the ballpark in record numbers.

This season's ever growing scandal involving last year's World's Series between the Reds and Chicago White Sox reported as being fixed is fast escalating from a mere brushfire into a blazing inferno.  However if in fact the White Sox indeed conspired to throw the series, that should in no way detract from Cincinnati's National League accomplishment.  Make no mistake, the Reds are the legitimate defending senior circuit champions, just as the Brooklyn Robins were four short years ago, and as they aspire to be again this season.  At this point in 1916 the Robins were 40-25, and four full games ahead of the second place Philadelphia Phillies.

They have their work cut out for them but good things are happening at Ebbets Field.  Uncle Robbie is being rewarded for handing second base to Pete Kilduff, and likewise the third base assignment over to Jimmy Johnston.  Mr. Robinson's latest decision gone right was to hand right field over to Tommy Griffith.  The aforementioned three are by no means a trio of stand out players, but a solid  group of players making positive contributions.  We'd be remiss if Otto Miller were not included among the quiet contributors.  His confident handling of pitchers is exactly what Uncle Robbie wants.

The veteran first baseman 34-year old Big Ed Konetchy is once again yielding a lethal bat.  Out of action from May 28 through June 10, he has since elevated his average by thirty-five points to a season high .333 mark.  Like Konetchy, Zack Wheat missed the first week of June due to injury.  He returned to action on June 9 but struggled.  His .303 average upon injury plummets to .271 by month's end.  However in truth the Robins demonstrate many offensive shortcomings, which play a huge roll in Brooklyn posting a 12-16 record in June - for instance, making the league's more pedestrian pitchers appear like Cy Young for a day.

Brooklyn is presently in the early stages of their longest road trip of the season.  Having swept the Braves at Boston, the Robins enter tomorrow's series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals at Sportsman's Park on a five game win streak, and winners of nine of their last ten games.  Stops at Chicago, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh still loom ahead.


1920 Brooklyn Robins - Baseball Reference

• Next up: a five game series versus the St. Louis Cardinals at Sportsman's Park; one game is a make-up from a May 16 rainout.

100 Years Ago Today 6/29/1920: Brooklyn Robins Skid Hits Season High Six Games

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF THE BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS

1920 National League Champions

Game #62: Tuesday, June 29, 1920 - BR
Brooklyn Robins vs. Boston Braves
Braves Field

Robins in Free Fall Heading Into Showdown With Giants at Polo Grounds

Brooklyn's June swoon continues as the Robins lose a season high sixth game in a row, five of which have come against the Boston Braves.  Tuesday's game is ponderously similar to so many others played this month where the competition's poorest arms keep getting rich at the expense of Brooklyn's lineup.  For Uncle Robbie, Zack Wheat's first inning run batted in is not a hopeful harbinger of things to come.  Instead Boston starter Jack Scott puts forth an effort Wilbert Robinson would soon rather forget.  Brooklyn musters twelve hits but go 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position.  Otherwise Scott surrenders just one earned run and one walk through nine complete innings pitched.  Batting leadoff this day Jimmy Johnston goes 3 for 5 with a run scored; Zack Wheat with two hits drives in his 20th run for the season.  Starter Leon Cadore's season record is now even at 5-5 with a 1.99 ERA.  He yields five earned runs on twelve hits and two walks in six innings.  George Mohart follows in relief and surrenders another three runs on five hits in two innings pitched.  Braves shortstop Rabbit Maranville is 3 for 4 with a triple and a run batted in.  Second baseman Charlie Pick and first baseman Walter Holke likewise register three hit apiece.  Jack Scott helps himself with two hits and two runs batted in.  Brooklyn this month has lost at least four games in a row on three separate occasions.  They are now just one game over .500 and 10-16 in June which tomorrow draws to a close.  Out of first place by 3.5 games marks Brooklyn's largest deficit of the season to date.

• RECORD: 31-30 (.508)
• 4th place; 3.5 GB

100 Years Ago Today 6/19/1920: Cubs Claw Brooklyn Robins in Extra Innings

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF THE BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS

1920 National League Champions

Game #51: Saturday, June 19, 1920 - BR
Chicago Cubs vs. Brooklyn Robins
Ebbets Field

Despite 4-7 Record During Present Home Stand Fans Continue Packing Ebbets Field Unlike Ever Before;  Another 8,000 Fans Take Saturday Loss in Stride.

After two straight days of rain the clouds over Bedford and Sullivan dissipate and baseball finally resumes play Saturday afternoon at Ebbets Field, although not exactly to Uncle Robbie's great satisfaction.  The visiting Cubs and Robins complete nine innings deadlocked at two runs apiece.  But in the Chicago twelfth and manager Wilbert Robinson looking on starter Al Mamaux commits a cardinal sin by walking leadoff batter Zeb Berry.  Berry is successfully bunted over to second then scores on Freddie Merkle's double to deep right.  But Wilbert Robinson makes no move.  After Mamaux retires third baseman Buck Herzog on a lazy fly to center for out number two Wilbert Robinson watches Chicago catcher Bob O'Farrell strike a Mamaux offering into deep center field for an inside the park home run and an abrupt 5-2 Cubs advantage.  Brooklyn scrapes together one run in the bottom of the frame but nothing more en route to a 5-3 defeat.  Performing like his old pre-war self, the great Grover Cleveland Alexander pitches another dandy.  In his third year with Chicago, Pete Alexander improves to 13-4 with a 2.22 earned run average.  Brooklyn manages just eight hits with Hi Meyers, Ed Konetchy, and Pete Kilduff, accounting for two each.  Meanwhile Zack Wheat since returning from a minor injury remains mired in an awful slump, going just 2 for 30 over his last eight games.  Al Mamaux pitches twelve innings in a losing effort.  Why, is something perhaps we'll never know.  Entering Saturday's action the Robins were coming off three straight days away from the diamond.  In other words Uncle Robbie had a fully rested and available staff.  Now he must contemplate the Robins sixth loss in their last seven games and the seventh in their last nine.  The Robins with a 28-22 record to date have now completed roughly one third of their regular season and to the dismay of naysayers still rank among the first division contenders.  They are indeed off to their best start since winning the pennant four years ago.  But Wilbert knows very well that at this point during each of the last three seasons the Robins have been a sub par team.  As if the onset of summer serves as a foreshadowing of things to come, in June 1916 the Robins post a 14-11 record.  But during the month of June from 1917 through 1919 they post sub par records.  Despite today's loss the second place Robins are still six games above .500 and are just 1.5 games behind the league leading Cincinnati Reds with the Cardinals and fourth place Cubs hot on their tail feathers.  However, June 2020 seems determined once again to become an issue as the Robins today fall to 7-8 this month.

• RECORD: 28-22 (.560)
• 2nd place; 1.5 GB

Commemorating the 1920 Brooklyn Robins: Early Season Trends Not Lost On Uncle Robbie

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF THE BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS
1920 National League Champions

Brooklyn Arrives at Fork in the Road.  After Strong Start Do Robins Go Way of 1916 Champions or Veer Off Road Like Last Year's Robins?

Now in his seventh year managing Brooklyn, Wilbert Robinson is fit to be tied, for first place that is.  The Robins 24-15 start is eerily reminiscent of their open to the 1916 season.  And we all know what happened that year.  Four years ago at this time the Robins lead the National League standings by 1.5 games over the second place New York Giants.  But after capturing the pennant in 1916 Brooklyn opens the 1917 season with a 14-20 record, and in 1918 they open with a 13-26 record.  Last season the Robins get off to a respectable 20-15 start but inevitably fade below par and for a third straight season finish in the second division.  No one recalls this more readily that Wilbert.  For the moment his team is presently tied for first place with the defending world champion Cincinnati Reds.  At no point through the team's first forty games have they ever fallen more than two games out of first.  But Wilbert understands well the long road ahead.  What happens next is anybody's guess.

If the Robins continue pitching effectively Uncle Robbie seems confident success will find its way to Brooklyn.  Mind you the Robins pitching staff which has failed to feature a 20-game winner since Jeff Pfeffer won 25 games in 1916 returns this season virtually unchanged from last.  Burleigh Grimes at 26-years old is the baby of the bunch.  He is off to an outstanding start with a 6-2 record and 1.33 earned run average.  On the other side of the spectrum is Jeff Pfeffer whom only recently snapped a personal five game losing streak.  He is so far  2-5 with a representative 2.25 earned run average.  Leon Cadore is 4-3 and owns a fine 1.45 earned run average.  Al Mamaux is answering the call with a 4-1 record and a brilliant 1.15 ERA through 47 innings pitched.  The elder member of Brooklyn's core group Rube Marquard limited last season by a broken leg to just eight games is still trying to find his old self with a 2-1 record and 4.28 ERA through 37 innings pitched.  The good news is despite baseball's ban on the spitball effective this season, Marquard and a handful of select pitchers are allowed to continue utilizing the pitch.

Trading Casey Stengel prior to the 1918 season clears the way for Hi Myers becoming a starter.  For the moment he continues bearing the offensive load while Zack Wheat and Ed Konetchy remain out with injuries.  Last year Myers leads the circuit in triples, slugging average, and runs batted in.  This season the now 31-year old center fielder is batting .306 with 16 extra base hits including two home runs and a team leading 22 runs batted in.  Both Zack Wheat and Big Ed Konetchy are expected back next week perhaps against St. Louis.

EARLY SEASON HIGHLIGHTS:

• 4/14/1920 - Brooklyn Robins Rout Phillies in Season Opener at Ebbets Field
• 4/24/1920 - Burleigh Grimes Hurls Robins Over Phillies 
• 4/26/1920 - Rube Marquard Turns Tables on Giants
• 5/1/1920 - Brooklyn Robins and Boston Braves Play in Major League Record 26-Inning Marathon
• 5/13/1920 - Brooklyn Robins Have No Answer for Grover Cleveland Alexander
• 5/15/1920 - Brooklyn Robins Take Second Straight From Cardinals at Robison Field

• Friday, May 21, 1920 - Brooklyn Whitewashes Defending Champions at Redland Field
• Wednesday, May 26, 1920 - Robins Claim Key Series Victory at Pittsburgh
• Monday, May 31, 1920 - Brooklyn Robins Sweep Rival Giants in Twin Bill at Ebbets
• Tuesday, June 1, 1920 - Robins Forge First Place Tie With Reds
• Thursday, June 3, 1920 - Brooklyn Robins Whitewash Phillies at Baker Bowl
• Friday, June 4, 1920 - Brooklyn Reclaims Share of First Place

Next: New York Giants vs Brooklyn Robins at Ebbets Field

* Join me this season as I commemorate the Brooklyn Robins 1920 National League championship.  I am recapping each regular season game in real time with of course a little touch of poetic license.