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.
Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!
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GAME #17
POLO GROUNDS
38,000 Watch With Dismay as Eddie Rommel Pitches Fourteen Inning Victory Over Yankees
Just as they had done yesterday for the Giants, New York City baseball bugs pack the Polo Grounds to capacity for today's American League tilt against the Athletics. Making his fifth start of the season, Bill Piercy toes the slab for the Yankees and is opposed by Philadelphia right-hander Eddie Rommel.
With runners on the corners in the fourth, left fielder Tillie Walker's sac-fly and catcher Cy Perkins' base hit through the middle gives the A's a 2-0 lead. The Yankees pick up an unearned run in the fifth when Fred Hofmann scores on Braggo Roth's ground ball fielder's choice to third. First baseman Ivy Griffin delivers home Philadelphia's third run in the sixth, but the Athletics' insurance expires in the ninth. After Bill Piercy retires the A's in order, Bob Meusel reaches safely and advances to second on a costly error by Tillie Walker in left field. Home Run Baker then singles off Eddie Rommel, scoring Meusel. Miller Huggins replaces Baker with pinch-runner Chick Fewster, who, to this point, was getting a day off. Pinch-hitting for Piercy, Chick Hawks taps out catcher to first advancing the runners along. Eddie Rommel then walks Braggo Roth, but Chick Fewster takes advantage of a lackadaisical battery and steals home behind the play, thus tying the game at three.
Huggins summons sophomore right-hander Rip Collins from the bullpen. Mr. Connie Mack leaves Rommel in the game, and the two pitchers duel through four scoreless innings. With one out and two runners on base in the top of the 14th inning, Cy Perkins triples into the left/center field gap giving the visiting Athletics a 5-3 lead. Babe Ruth singles leading off the bottom half of the frame, advances to third on Wally Pip's hit, and scores on Bob Meusel's sac-fly to straightaway center. With the tying run at second base, the capacity crowd is hushed when Rommel retires Wally Schang to end the game. Rip Collins is tagged with his second loss in as many appearances.
The Yankees open a 17-game road trip on Tuesday against the Detroit Tigers.
- FINAL: PHI 5; NYY 4 (14-inn)
- RECORD: 9-8 (.529); fourth place, 4.0 GB of Cleveland
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GAME #19
Ebbets Field
Southpaw Clarence Mitchell Shuts Out Giants at Ebbets Field
In this battle of rivals, the home team is yet to lose. Today ends no differently. After bowing in two straight at the Polo Grounds, the Robins return to Brooklyn, where the Giants lost for the fifth time this season at Ebbets Field. After five scoreless innings, Tommy Griffith homers off Giants starter Jesse Barnes. Robins starter Clarence Mitchell makes it stand. Ivy Olson drives home an insurance run in the eighth, but it was not needed. Mitchell yields ten hits and three walks in an otherwise stellar complete-game shutout effort. The Robins southpaw improves to 3-0 with a 2.20 ERA. Jesse Barnes is removed after six innings. He allows one earned run on just three hits and three walks in a tough-luck loss. Rosy Ryan allows one run on three hits over two innings in relief of Barnes. Catcher Frank Snyder is the only Giants batter with multiple hits. Brooklyn catcher Otto Miller is similarly the lone Robins batter with multiple hits. Brooklyn reclaims second place from the Giants. Today's game also marks the first time the New Yorkers have been shut out by the competition this season.
- FINAL: NYG 0; BKN 2
- RECORD: 12-7 (.632); third place; 3.5 GB of Pittsburgh
