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

From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD

100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds: 

New York Giants & New York Yankees 

1921 Season Revisited

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

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

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

Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates shifted along the New York/New England fault.  The Yankees' purchase of George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox sends seismic waves reverberating throughout the baseball world but none more intense than in Washington Heights.  

Ruth's earth-shattering record of 54 home runs was something never experienced before in the history of baseball.  However, it was an accomplishment for which John McGraw had little appreciation.  He believes players work too hard and earnestly to have their skills disrespected by some miscreant's lone swing of the bat.

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

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

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

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

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

• Stats: BASEBALL REFERENCE

Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!

GAME #153

BOXSCORE: Sunday, October 2, 1921 - BR

Boston Red Sox @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

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

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

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

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

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

GAME #153

BOXSCORE: Sunday, October 2, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ Brooklyn Robins

Ebbets Field

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

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

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

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

⚾

WORLD SERIES

GAME ONE: Wednesday, October 5, 1921

NEW YORK YANKEES

vs.

NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 8/3/1921: Ruth Hits Number Fifty as Yanks Sweep Senators; Giants Gain Share of First Place With Victory at Ebbets Field

From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD

100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds: 

New York Giants & New York Yankees 

1921 Season Revisited

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

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

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

Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates shift along the New York/New England fault.  The Yankees' purchase of George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox sends seismic waves reverberating throughout the baseball world but none more intense than in Washington Heights.  

Ruth's earth-shattering record of 54 home runs was something never experienced before in the history of baseball.  However, it was an accomplishment for which John McGraw had little appreciation.  He believes players work too hard and earnestly to have their skills disrespected by some miscreant's lone swing of the bat.

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

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

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

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

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

• Stats: BASEBALL REFERENCE

Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!

Daily News (New York, NY), 

Sunday, September 4, 1921

GAME #125

BOXSCORE: Saturday, September 3, 1921 - BR

Washington Senators @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Babe Ruth Hits Number Fifty, Carl Mays Wins Number Twenty-Two, and Yankees Go Two-Up on the Indians

Washington jumps out to an early lead for the third straight game only to get routed by the Yankees. 

Facing Carl Mays in the first inning, Senators' center fielder Sam Rice drives home the game's opening run, and catcher Patsy Gharrity gives the Senators a 2-0 lead in the second.  The Yanks get one back in the bottom of the frame when Bob Meusel draws a lead-off walk, advances to second, steals third and scored on Mike McNally's comebacker to Senator's starter Harry Courtney.  Matters go awry for the visitors in the third.  Harry Courtney yields a lead-off triple to counterpart Carl Mays.  After Elmer Miller draws a walk, Roger Peckinpaugh singles home Mays tying the game at two.  Still, with no outs, Babe Ruth swats his fiftieth home run this season, giving the Yankees a 5-2 lead and knocking the Senator starter out of the box.  Not yet done, Yankees catcher Al DeVormer, subbing for Wally Schang, greets Washington reliever Al Schacht with a two-run single for a 7-2 lead.  Carl Mays crosses the plate in the sixth on Elmer Smith's triple, then singles home the Yankees' ninth run in the eighth.  With two outs in the visitor's ninth, Carl Mays surrenders a home run to third baseman Howie Shanks.  Otherwise, Mays yields three runs on eight hits and four walks for his 22nd win against nine losses with a 2.93 ERA.  A rain-dampened crowd of 25,000, particularly those seated in the upper right-field stands, are rewarded for their perseverance with a bit of history. The King of Crash, Babe Ruth, who, last season, became the first player ever to hit fifty home runs in a season, repeats the feat.  With 29 games left in the regular season, he is now just four away from tying his own single-season home run record, and, lest we forget, he leads major league baseball with 141 runs batted in.  Meanwhile, the Yankees not only sweep the four-game series at the Polo Grounds, but they are also winners of six consecutive games, all at the expense of Washington.  With Detroit's victory over the Indians at Navin Field, the Yankees gain another full game in the standings ahead of Cleveland.  BOXSCORE: The Standard Union (Brooklyn, NY), Sunday, September 4, 1921

• FINAL: WAS 3; NYY 9
• RECORD: 79-46 (.632); First Place, 2.0 GA of Cleveland

The Birmingham (AL) News, Sunday, September 4, 1921

⚾

GAME #130

BOXSCORE: Saturday, September 3, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ BROOKLYN ROBINS

Ebbets Field

Jesse Barnes Earns Victory at Wet Ebbets Field; Giants Seize Share of First Place

With an impatient Jupiter Pluvius in attendance amongst the 22,000 partisans at Ebbets Field, the Giants perform an about-face after yesterday's loss in handing the Robins an identical 5-1 margin of defeat in a shortened seven-inning affair at the Bedford and Sullivan grounds.  Uncle Robbie calls on Dutch Ruether for mound duties and is opposed by Jesse Barnes.  Leading off the game, George Burns safely bunt-hits his way on base, advances on Dave Bancroft's double, and scored on Frankie Frisch's fielder's choice to short.  Frank Snyder doubles leading off the third, gets bunted over to third by Barnes, and scored on George Burns' sacrifice fly to center field for a 2-0 lead.  The Giants scored three more times in the fourth.  Jesse Burns does his part by limiting the Robins to just one run on nine hits and no walks for the victory.  Ray Schmandt drives home Zack Wheat for Brooklyn's lone score.  The Robins bat 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position.  Irish Meusel goes 2 for 3 with a fourth-inning home run.  High Pockets Kelly drives in his 117th run this season, and Jesse Barnes helps his own cause with a hit and one run batted in.  The Cardinals and Pirates were washed out at Forbes Field.  Thus, the Giants effectively achieve a first-place tie with the Pirates, save for the fractional minutia.  

• FINAL: NYG 5; BRK 1
• RECORD: 79-51 (.608); tied for first place with Pittsburgh

The Standard Union (Brooklyn, NY), 

Sunday, September 4, 1921

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

From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD

100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds: 

New York Giants & New York Yankees 

1921 Season Revisited

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

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

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

Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates shift along the New York/New England fault.  The Yankees' purchase of George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox sends seismic waves reverberating throughout the baseball world but none more intense than in Washington Heights.  

Ruth's earth-shattering record of 54 home runs was something never experienced before in the history of baseball.  However, it was an accomplishment for which John McGraw had little appreciation.  He believes players work too hard and earnestly to have their skills disrespected by some miscreant's lone swing of the bat.

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

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

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

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

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

• Stats: BASEBALL REFERENCE

Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!

GAME #122

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

Washington Senators @ NEW YORK YANKEES 

POLO GROUNDS

Bob Meusel Powers Yankees in Opener

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

• FINAL: WAS 3; NYY 6

⚾

GAME #123

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

Washington Senators @ NEW YORK YANKEES 

POLO GROUNDS

Make-Up: 6/28/1921

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

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

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

⚾

GAME #129

BOXSCORE: Thursday, September 1, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ BROOKLYN ROBINS

Ebbets Field

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

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

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

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

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

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 

Tuesday, September 2, 1921

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

From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD

100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds: 

New York Giants & New York Yankees 

1921 Season Revisited

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

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

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

Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates shift along the New York/New England fault.  The Yankees' purchase of George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox sends seismic waves reverberating throughout the baseball world but none more intense than in Washington Heights.  

Ruth's earth-shattering record of 54 home runs was something never experienced before in the history of baseball.  However, it was an accomplishment for which John McGraw had little appreciation.  He believes players work too hard and earnestly to have their skills disrespected by some miscreant's lone swing of the bat.

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

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

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

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

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

• Stats: BASEBALL REFERENCE

Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!

GAME #113

BOXSCORE: Tuesday, August 16, 1921 - BR

Brooklynn Robins @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

Make-Up: 5/5/1921

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

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

FINAL: BRK 7; NYG 6

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

⚾

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

NEXT GAME: Wednesday, August 17, 1921

New York Yankees @ CHICAGO WHITE SOX

Comisky Park

The New York Herald, Wednesday, August 17, 1921

Evening Star (Washington, District of Columbia),

Wednesday, Aug 17, 1921

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

From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD

100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds: 

New York Giants & New York Yankees 

1921 Seasons Revisited

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

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

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

Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates along the New York/New England fault shift.  The Yankees' purchase of George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox sends seismic waves reverberating throughout the baseball world but none more intense than in Washington Heights.  

Ruth's earth-shattering record of 54 home runs was something never experienced before in the history of baseball.  However, it was an accomplishment for which John McGraw had little appreciation.  He believes players work too hard and earnestly to have their skills disrespected by some miscreant's lone swing of the bat.

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

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

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

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

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

• Stats: BASEBALL REFERENCE

Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!

⚾

GAME #71

BOXSCORE: Wednesday, July 6, 1921 - BR

Brooklyn Robins @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

Uncle Robbie Answers Back Punctuated by Burleigh Grimes

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

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

⚾

Record-Journal (Meriden, Connecticut)

NEXT GAME: Friday, July 8, 1921

New York Yankees @CHICAGO WHITE SOX

Comiskey Park

The Winnipeg Tribune (Manitoba, Canada)

The Buffalo American (Buffalo, New York)

Record-Journal (Meriden, Connecticut)

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 7/4/1921: Yankees Sweep Athletics; Giants Sweep Robins 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 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!

Philadelphia Inquirer

GAME #72

BOXSCORE GAME ONE: Monday, July 4, 1921 - BR

Philadelphia Athletics @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Home Run Baker Powers Highlanders to Game One Win

A crowd of 25,000 descend from and around Coogan's Bluff for a hot and humid holiday twin bill against the Athletics.  Despite staking Bob Shawkey to an early three-run lead, the Yankees require three decisive runs in the bottom half of the seventh.  After shutting down Philadelphia through six innings, the A's scored once in the top half of the seventh and three more times in the eighth to no avail.  A's second baseman Jimmy Dykes leads Philadelphia with three hits, including a triple.  Right-hander Dave Keefe yields six earned runs on ten hits, including two home runs struck by Home Run Baker and one knock by Bob Meusel; the two join together for half of the Yankees ten hits and six runs batted in, for Meusel, his 53rd and 54th this season.  Bob Shawkey, at least mentally contented by the white powdery substance now being applied to baseballs by umpires, holds the A's to his standard four runs on eight hits and three walks with five strikeouts for his sixth victory against four losses.  For the eleventh straight game, Miller Huggins does not utilize the bullpen.  Otherwise, the Athletics fall to 29-43, an apathetic 17.5 games out of first place, sticky powder be damned.

• FINAL: PHI 4; NYY 6

⚾

GAME #73

BOXSCORE GAME TWO: Monday, July 4, 1921 - BR

Philadelphia Athletics @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Aaron Ward and Wally Schang Lead the Way To Sweep Of Athletics

Don't look now, but with today's sweep of the Athletics, the Yankees win their seventh in a row.  Despite Philadelphia jumping out to a four-run lead in the top half of the first, game two is a no contest.  Facing sophomore pitcher Eddie Rommel, the Yankees amass 13 runs (twelve earned) on 14 hits and four walks through seven innings.  Lefty Wolf yields the Yankees 14th and final run in the eighth.  Aaron Ward leads the Yankees, going 2 for 4 with a double, home run, and four runs batted in.  Babe Ruth drives in three runs with two hits, Bob Meusel drives home two, and Wally Schang hits his third home run this season.  Ruth raises his season total to 77 runs batted in.  Even Carl Mays drives home a run.  Making his 18th start, Mays holds the A's to four runs on eleven hits for his 13th victory against five losses with a 2.49 ERA.

• FINAL: PHI 4; NYY 14
• RECORD: 45-28 (. 616); second place, 2.0 GB of Cleveland  

Philadelphia Inquirer

GAME #69

BOXSCORE GAME ONE: Monday, July 4, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ BROOKLYN ROBINS

Ebbets Field

High Pockets Kelly Lifts Giants Above Robins

The McGrawmen show Brooklyn fans just what is thought of Uncle Robbie's vaunted pitching staff.  Facing Clarence Mitchell, who is indeed in the midst of an improved campaign over last, the Giants unleash a 14-hit mid-morning assault en route to a game one triumph.  The Giants open with three runs in the first, and starter Rosy Ryan ensures they hold.  A three-run third and single runs in the fourth and seventh give the New Yorkers their final margin of victory.  Ross Youngs and High Pockets Kelly set off holiday fireworks as a dismayed Ebbets Fields crowd watches on.  Youngs hits his third home run and drives home two, while George Kelly twice hits for the circuit and drives in five; they are home run numbers eleven and twelve.  Meanwhile, Kelly's 75 runs batted in are just two behind Babe Ruth for the major league lead.  Third baseman Jimmy Johnston in the first inning is the lone Robin to cross home plate courtesy of Zack Wheat's sacrifice fly.  Center fielder Hi Myers goes 3 for 4 with a double.  Otherwise, to John McGraw's great delight Rosy Ryan hurls a gem, shutting out Uncle Robbie's batsmen over the final eight innings.  All told, Ryan allows just one earned run on eight hits and two walks for his fourth win this season.

• FINAL: NYG 8; BRK 1

⚾

GAME #70

BOXSCORE GAME TWO: Monday, July 4, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ BROOKLYN ROBINS

Ebbets Field

McGrawmen Complete Sweep at Ebbets Field

McGraw's men essentially pick up where they leave off, this time overcoming a one-run deficit in a more closely contested affair.  The Giants open with a 2-0 lead, but it does not last as Brooklyn counters with three runs in the third.  After tying the game at three, the Giants plate the game's decisive runs in the sixth.  Brooklyn pulls within one in the eighth, but the Giants put the game away with two scores in the ninth.  Zack Wheat homers and drives home three for Brooklyn, and Tommy Griffith drives in one.  Starting at second base, newcomer Johnny Rawlings goes 2 for 4 with a pair of runs batted in.  George Burns leads the Giants with three hits, and Ross Youngs drives home his 53rd run this season.  McGraw's starter again proves better than Uncle Robbie's.  Phil Douglas allows four runs (three earned) on seven hits and just two walks for the win.  Uncle Robbie favorite Sherry Smith takes the loss.

• FINAL: NYG 7; BRK 4
• RECORD: 44-26 (.629); second place, 3.5 GB of Pittsburgh

Meanwhile, out in Utah ...

Philadelphia Inquirer

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