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.
Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!
GAME #123
POLO GROUNDS
Fred Toney Leads Giants to Third Straight Win Over Pirates
Right-hander Fred Toney takes his turn scuttling the Bucs. Picking up where Art Nehf and Phil Douglas left off, Toney takes matters into his own hands. In a big five-run second inning, Fred Toney hits a three-run home run to left field off Pittsburgh's talented rookie Johnny Morrison. On the mound, Toney limits the Pirates to a run in the fourth, and one inconsequential run in the ninth, on eight hits, only one going for extra bases, three walks with three strikeouts for the win. After yielding a single in the fifth, Toney retires the next eight batters consecutively. He improves to 15-8 with a 3.69 ERA. His battery mate, Earl Smith, goes 2 for 3 with two runs batted in. The McGrawmen are proving themselves to be a finely tuned machine. Their trio of starting pitchers have so far limited Pittsburgh to just four runs through 27 innings played, and if you haven't noticed, seven of New York's eight regular position players are presently hitting above the .300 mark led by Ross Youngs' .342 average. The Giants have now won three in a row at the Pirates' expense to pull within four and one-half games of first place.
- FINAL: PITT 2; NYG 5
- RECORD: 73-50 (.593); second place, 4.5 GB of Pittsburgh
⚾
GAME #116
Dunn Field
Yankees Routed; Defending Champions Reclaim First Place
In quite the step backward, the Yankees are routed by the defending champions who salvage the series finale and more importantly reclaim first place. Starter Bob Shawkey, Rip Collins, and Harry Harper have their mound offerings punished equally. Center fielder
Tris Speaker leads the Indians with four hits and shortstop
Joe Sewell homers in the fifth and drives home four runs. All told, Cleveland strikes for 15 runs on 17 hits; 12 runs are earned. Meanwhile, right-hander Allan Sothoron limits the Yankees to just one run on Bob Meusel's double in the first. Otherwise, Sothoron finishes with eight scoreless innings and strikes out six for the win. For Bob Meusel, his 96th run batted in this season. Babe Ruth goes 2 for 3 lifting his average to a .384 mark.
- FINAL: NYY 1; CLE 15
- RECORD: 71-45 (.612); second place, 0.5 GB of Cleveland
