OTD Negro National League 8/4/1935: Brooklyn Eagles Routed By Newark Dodgers in Twin Bill at Ebbets Field

From the desk: WHERE THE EAGLES LEARNED TO FLY

NEGRO NATIONAL LEAGUE II

NEWARK DODGERS

vs.

BROOKLYN EAGLES

FROM

Ebbets Field

On Sunday, Aug 4, 1935, in a Negro National League matchup, the Brooklyn Eagles lost both games of a doubleheader to the Newark Dodgers.  The visitors twice rally during the latter innings to capture victory at Ebbets Field, Bedford Avenue at Sullivan Place.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle,

Monday, August 5, 1935

GAME ONE - Brooklyn opens the scoring in the first, but Newark responds with two runs in the second followed by a three-run third.  The Eagles claw back with a run in the home fourth then erutpt for three runs in the sixth tying the game at five.  However, Newark remains resolute with three runs in the eighth highlighted by pinch-hitter Frank McCoy's bases loaded double, and one last run in the ninth for a 9-5 victory in favor of the visitors.  

Newark right-hander William Bell allows eleven hits and no walks in a winning effort.  At the plate for Brooklyn, Fats Jenkins goes 2 for 4 with a double and two runs scored, second baseman Harry Williams is likewise 2 for 4 with a double, stolen base, and one run scored, and first baseman George Giles lashes a triple.

Eagle starter Will Jackman yields 17 hits and no walks with five strikeouts in a losing effort.  Newark second baseman Flash Miller leads the Dodgers going 3 for 5 with a double and two runs scored; William Bell also connects for three hits.  Five other Dodgers weild multiple hits.  Third baseman Ray Dandridge is 2 for 5 with two runs and a triple, and shortstop Ted Bond wields two hits with a stolen base.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Monday, August 5, 1935

GAME TWO - In a high-scoring, albeit closely contested affair, Newark outlasts Brooklyn to capture game two.  

Starting for Brooklyn, right-hander Leon Day has certainly seen better days.  He is knocked out of the box after recording just three outs but not before yielding five hits.  Forced into quick relief duty, former NYC high-schooler Billy Nicholas allows two more hits as the Dodgers tally six runs in the second inning.  

The Eagles respond in prolific fashion, with two runs in the bottom half of the frame, five runs in the third, and after Newark posts two runs in the top of the fifth, Brooklyn tallies three more for a 10-8 lead through four.  

However, Otis Starks pitching in relief of Nicholas followed by Will Jackman cannot hold.  Starks surrenders seven hits over 4.1 innings and Jackman allows another five hits in 1.2 innings as the Dodgers flourish in the closing fames with two runs in the seventh, three in the eighth, and one more in the ninth en route to a 14-12 victory and twin bill sweep at Ebbets Field. 

Starting game two in right field, Bert Johnson leads Newark going 5 for 6 with a triple and three runs scored.  Meanwhile, Ray Dandridge goes 4 for 6 giving him six total hits in eleven at-bats with five runs scored over two games.

The Dodgers in game two strike for 22 hits, the Eagles are not far behind with 19 hits.  Newark starter Alonza Bailey lasts just 4.2 innings.  As previously noted, Leon Day does not make it out of the second but does escape with a no-decision.  William Bell earns the victory, Brooklyn's Otis Starks, the loss.  Otherwise, it was clear that moundwork was not order of the day.

Times Union (Brooklyn, N.Y.),

Monday, August 5, 1935

Hudson Valley Continues Flexing Dominance Over Brooklyn Cyclones With Series Opening One-Hitter

From the desk: THE SURF AVENUE SLUGGERS

Hudson Valley leads Brooklyn; 1-0

I - HVR 5; BRK 0

Brooklyn Cyclones One-Hit By Hudson Valley Renegades; Now, Where Have I Heard That Before ...

There would be no slugging along Surf Avenue this evening.  Of course, strikeouts were in abundance, and bases on balls were actually favorably high, not that the Cyclones could take advantage.

Instead, this is turning into a familiar refrain: Look what the Hudson Valley Renegades did to the Brooklyn Cyclones, again!

Renegade starter Randy Vasquez allows just one hit and two walks with ten strikeouts while facing 21 batters over six innings pitched for the win.  The bullpen of Nelson L Alvarez and Nick Ernst account for the final three innings allowing no runs and no hits to close out Hudson Valley's one-hit shutout victory in game one at Coney Island.

Second baseman Edgardo Fermin singles with two outs in the second, and that was that.  Five times Brooklyn sent to the plate a bare minimum of three batters.

The game doesn't start well to begin with.  Making a rare start at first base, Cody Bohanek's first inning misplay clears the way for an unearned run.  Afterwhich, there's no begrudging starter Jaison Vilera who allows just one earned run in the sixth, on six total hits and one walk with six strikeouts in a losing effort.

Three members from Brooklyn's bullpen join together in surrendering another three runs on five hits and four walks over the final 3.1 innings.

With Tuesday's victory, the Renegades improve to 14-5 this season against the Cyclones.  Boxscore

OTD 8/4/1935: Teenage Semipro Third Baseman Phil Rizzuto Goes 0 for 4 in Floral Park's Win Over Sheridan Casey's of Bay Ridge

From the desk: BROOKLYN KID DOES GOOD

Times Union (Brooklyn, NY) 

Monday, August 5, 1935

Hall of Fame shortstop and later a beloved broadcaster for the New York Yankees, Phil Rizzuto is born on Sept. 25, 1917, in Brooklyn, New York.  

His playing career, World Series performances, game accounts behind the mic, his nightly birthday wishes, and rush to get over the George Washington Bridge is indeed legendary.

Over in Woodhaven, Queens, part of playing at Dexter Park means performing before scouts.  Such is how a teenage Phil Rizzuto gets discovered by Paul Krichell 1, who would sign quite the clutch of talent for the Yankees.

Phil Rizzuto's abilities begin drawing attention once he starts playing for Richmond Hill High School, Queens.  By 18-years old, Phil is already playing semipro ball - something which never left his heart.  He is known to have played briefly for the Glendale Farmers of the same borough.

On Sunday, August 4, 1935, batting second in the order, third baseman Phil Rizzuto goes 0 for 4 as his Floral Park teammates defeat the Sheridan Casey's of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

The Scooter does not sign with the Yankees until the 1937 season.  Fast forward a few years, when the 1939 minor league season is over, many players from Glendale and vicinity, including Rizzuto, form a barnstorming team called the Minor League All-Stars.  A crowd of 10,000 assembles at Dexter Park, where the Minor League All-Stars take both games of a twin bill against host Bushwick. 2

Phil Rizzuto would make his major league debut for the New York Yankees in the 1941 season.  

1 & 2 - Baseball's Peerless Semipros; Thomas Barthel

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 8/4/1921: Ty Cobb Schools Yankees; Giants Bow Again at Sportsman's Park

From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD

100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds: 

New York Giants & New York Yankees 

1921 Season Revisited

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Stats: BASEBALL REFERENCE

Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!

GAME #95

BOXSCORE: Thursday, August 4, 1921 - BR

Detroit Tigers @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Ty Cobb Leads Tigers Hitting Attack Versus Yankees

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

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

⚾

GAME #101

BOXSCORE: Thursday, August 4, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

Sportsman's Park

Giants Befuddled by Rookie Bill Pertica; Cards Win Third Straight 

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

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

OTD Brooklyn Semipro Rivalry 8/3/1934: With Late Rally Bay Parkway Seizes Victory Over Bushwick at Dexter Park

From the desk: BROOKLYN SEMIPRO RIVALRY

The Brooklyn Citizen, Saturday, August 4, 1934

On Friday, August 3, 1934, in their fourth clash this season, Joe Rosner's Bay Parkway Dukes defeated brother Max Rosner's Bushwicks at Dexter Park.

Behind the strong pitching of Hank Grampp, the Bushwicks appear headed towards a certain victory.  After four scoreless innings, the Dexters plate two runs in the fifth on runs scored by recently signed catcher Charlie Hargreaves (former Brooklyn Dodger) and first baseman Eppie Barnes.  Staked to a 2-0 lead, Grampp continues hurling scoreless baseball through the seventh.

Bay Parkway finally solves Grampp's puzzling efforts with a five-run outburst in the eighth.  After singles by first baseman Gene Rogers and right fielder Bruce Caldwell, pinch-hitter Ike Gould doubles, and Dressen the second baseman singles for three runs, knocking Hank Grampp out of the box.  Facing Art Smith in relief of Grampp, the Dukes score twice more on a walk, a hit by Jim Duffy, and a perfectly executed squeeze-play for a 5-2 lead.

Bushwick picks up an unearned run in the home ninth.  Right fielder Eddie Boland triples and scores on one of three Bay Parkway errors.  Otherwise, Duke's starter Jim "Dizzy" Duffy allows three runs on eight hits (only one for extra bases) and two walks with four strikeouts in a resilient winning effort.

Despite an initial seven exemplary innings pitched, Hank Grampp winds up yielding nine of Bay Parkway's ten hits in a late-inning, albeit a hard-luck loss.  

Bruce Caldwell, in particular, leads the Dukes with a 3 for 5 performance at the plate, and Dizzy Duffy helps his own cause with a double then a single in that big eighth inning. 

Bushwick's second baseman Buck Lai and Grumpp each register a hit and a run batted in. 

The Bay Parkway Dukes now lead the season series against Bushwick, three games to one.

The Brooklyn Citizen, 

Saturday, August 4, 1934

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 8/3/1921: Rain Continues Falling in Washington Heights; Giants Lose Second Straight to Redbirds

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.  

For 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!

Harrisburg Telegraph (Harrisburg, PA), 

Wednesday, Aug 3, 1921

GAME CALLED: RAIN

Wednesday, August 3, 1921

Detroit Tigers @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Second Straight Postponement

The New York Herald, Wednesday, August 3, 1921

⚾

GAME #100

BOXSCORE: Wednesday, August 3, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

Sportsman's Park

Bill Doak Outduels Phil Douglas; Giants Lose Game in Standings

A 20-game winner last season for St. Louis, Bill Doak outlasts Phil Douglas in game two at Sportsman's Park.  In the home first, leadoff batter Jack Smith homers off Douglas.  Ross Youngs leading off the second triples to center field and scores on a wild pitch.  Left fielder Austin McHenry's base hit in the third gives the Cardinals a 2-1 lead.  With one out in the sixth, Austin McHenry homers to right field.  Johnny Rawlings then drives home a run in the seventh, but the Giants strand the tying run on third.  Bill Doak yields two runs on seven hits and two walks with six strikeouts for the win.  Phil Douglas allows three runs on seven hits and one walk but yields two home runs in a hard-luck loss.  At Forbes Field, the Pirates defeat the Phillies 9 to 5.

• FINAL: NYG 2; STL 3
• RECORD: 61-39 (.610); second place, 2.5 GB of Cleveland

OTD in Brooklyn Semipros 8/2/1950: Bushwicks Steal A Victory From Chicago American Giants at Dexter Park

From the desk: NEGRO LEAGUES vs. BROOKLYN SEMIPROS

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 

Tuesday, August 1, 1950

On Wednesday, August 2, 1950, the Bushwicks defeated the Chicago American Giants in extra-innings at Dexter Park, Woodhaven.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Thursday, August 3, 1950

Making their only Eastern appearance this season, the Windy City nine of the Negro American League, managed by Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe, open the scoring against Bushwick starter Al Zachary in the top of the first with two runs off three hits (two doubles).

Bushwick retaliates with six runs in the bottom half of the frame knocking Chicago starter Harry Rhodes out of the box.   Rhodes now playing left field singles at the top of the second, followed by triples from shortstop Clyde McNeil and right fielder Butch McCord to pull the American Giants within two.  Chicago scores again in the fourth inning, cutting their deficit to one, but Bushwick tallies one in the sixth for a 7-5 lead.

The score remains unchanged through the eighth.

In the top of the ninth, two Chicago singles knock Al Zachary out of the box.  Pete Rafferty takes over mound duties and immediately walks center fielder Art Pennington to load the bases.  Third baseman Luther Braham's two-run double to left field ties the game at seven.  That precipitates a pitching change as Gene Bowe is summoned to relieve Pete Rafferty.

Pinch-hitting in the bottom half of the tenth, George Schneider reaches safely on Joe Scott's misplay at second.  Schneider advances to second on a bunt and moves over to third on a ground ball.  Then with two outs and Roy Trieble at the plate, George Schneider darts off third and steals home to end the game.

Gene Bowe comes away with the win, Al Zachary escapes with a no-decision.

Brooklyn Cyclones Leave Runners Stranded Up and Down Jersey Shore; Blue Claws Take Series

From the desk: THE CONEY ISLAND NINE

 JERSEY SHORE defeats CONEY ISLAND; 4-2

I - BK 14; JS 5

II - JS 3; BK 1

III - BK 4; JS 0

IV - JS 3; BK 0

V - JS 4; BK 3

VI - JS 4; BK 3

O for Fugheddaboudit..!

Need a reason for Sunday's loss?  

How about thirteen?

Look no further than batting 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position.  So, it's not like Brooklyn didn't have their opportunities.  Otherwise, the Cyclones twice relinquish the lead en route to a 4-3 loss.

In the first, Antoine Duplantis leads off the game with a single and soon scores on Francisco Alvarez's ground ball to second.  An inning later, Joe Genord singles and scores on a Nic Gaddis sacrifice fly.  However, Jersey Shore ties the game against starter Luc Rennie in the home second on a leadoff home run by D.J. Stewart immediately followed by a triple and sacrifice fly.

Brooklyn retakes the lead in the third on Francisco Alvarez's second run batted in.  Afterwhich, Brooklyn musters just two hits the rest of the game.

Jersey Shore scores the tying run in the sixth and seizes the lead on right fielder McCarty Tatum's two-out blast in the seventh.  Right-hander Connor O'Neil allows the decisive knock for the loss.  Luc Rennie escapes with a no-decision.

After trailing the Cyclones two games to one, the Blue Claws win their third straight and take the series over Brooklyn four games against two.

Once Upon A Summer 8/2/1918: Brooklyn Royal Giants Open August Back in New Jersey

From the desk: DEM BARNSTORMERS & THE DONALDSON NETWORK

The month of August kicks off with minor discrepancies centered around two games versus the Camp Dix Soldiers.

"Camp Dix, N.J., Aug. 2 - The Brooklyn Royal Giants easily trimmed the Camp Dix team here last Saturday afternoon by a score of 8-2.  Transfers had weakened the soldier boys' nine and a makeshift team had to be put in the field.  The batting of Joe Hewitt, Johnny Pugh, and Thompson and fielding of Hewitt featured." - The Donaldson Network

In reporting the Camp Dix match as "last Saturday," it dates this particular game to July 27, 1918.  However, as noted in the Bridgewater (N.J.) Courier News, that same day, the "Brooklyn Giants" (perhaps mistakenly called the Dodgers?) apparently defeat Camp Dix, 13 to 9.  The question remains whether if on July 27, 1918, the Royal Giants defeat Camp Dix by a score of 8 to 2 or 13 to 9, and if, in fact, two distinct games were played.  In either event, right-hander Irvin Brooks is credited with the victory.

• BOXSCORE: Trenton Times Advisor (Trenton, N.J.), Sunday, July 28, 1918, via THE DONALDSON NETWORK; Brooklyn 8; Camp Dix 2.

"The Dix baseball team was handed a drubbing this afternoon on the local diamond by the Brooklyn Royal Giants.  The final score does not show how badly the soldiers were trimmed." - The Trenton Times Advisor (Trenton, N.J.), Sunday, July 28, 1918 / THE DONALDSON NETWORK

This game account is in question (?)

The Courier News (Bridgewater, New Jersey),

Tuesday, July 30, 1918

⚾

Sunday, August 4, 1918, Hackensack, N.J. 

"ROYAL GIANTS AGAIN TRIM PROSPECT NINE"

"The Royal Giants repeated their victory of last week again defeating the Prospect Heights team in a loosely played game that failed to hold the spectators' interest.  The final count stood 8 to 3.  The Giants succeeded in annexing twice as many hits as the losers, and the slugging of Wilson, Smith and Stewart was the feature of the battle." - Trenton (N.J.) Evening Times, Sunday, Aug. 4, 1918 / THE DONALDSON NETWORK

The keywords here are "last week" and "again," which entails a previously played game.  Their first encounter most likely took place on Friday, July 26, on Brooklyn's way back to New Jersey from Pennsylvania, where two days prior, they battled Bethlehem.  If not, then, on, about, or after Monday, July 29, a day after playing Doherty's Silk Sox.

⚾

BROOKLYN ROYAL GIANTS

ONCE UPON A SUMMER, 1918: JOHN DONALDSON'S LONE SEASON WITH THE BROOKLYN ROYAL GIANTS

• 6/28 - Brooklyn Royal Giants Acquire Midwest Pitching Great, John Donaldson
• 6/30 - John Donaldson Loses Brooklyn Royal Giants Debut To New York Lincoln Giants
• 7/3 - John Donaldson Poised To Make Brooklyn/Queens Debut At Dexter Park
• 7/4 - John Donaldson Twirls Shutout Over Cuban Stars In Dexter Park Debut
• 7/7 - Joe Williams Wins Second Straight Decision Over John Donaldson; Lincoln Giants and Royal Giants Split Twin Bill
• 7/13 - Brooklyn Royal Giants Defeat Glendale at Farmer's Oval, Queens
• 7/14 - John Donaldson Defeats Bushwick; Royal Giants Split Twin Bill At Dexter Park
• 7/15 - Brooklyn Royal Giants Take Series Opener From Atlantic City Bacharach Giants
• 7/16 - Brooklyn Royal Giants Take Game Two from Bacharach Giants; John Donaldson Earns The Victory
• 7/17 - Brooklyn Royal Giants Wrap Up Series With Bacharach Giants at Atlantic City
• 7/18 - N.Y. Ship League Team Defeat Brooklyn Royal Giants at Camden, New Jersey
• 7/21 - Cuban Stars Double-Up Brooklyn Royal Giants; John Donaldson Takes Loss at Dexter Park
• 7/24 - Brooklyn Royal Giants Bow To Stan Baumgartner and Bethlehem Steel at Allentown, PA
• 7/27 - Brooklyn Royal Giants Defeat Camp Dix Soldiers*
• 7/28 - Silk Sox Clout John Donaldson's Offerings; Brooklyn Royal Giants Fall at Doherty's Oval

LHP - JOHN DONALDSON'S STARTS w/ BROOKLYN:

1. 6/30/1918 - (L) 9 innings, 2 runs, 7 hits, 2 W, 2K (Lincoln Giants; Olympic Field)
2. 7/4/1918 - (W) 9 innings, 0 RUNS, 5 hits, 1 W, 6K (Cuban Stars; Dexter Park)
3. 7/7/1918 - (L) 9 innings, 3 runs, 9 hits, 2 W, 2K (Lincoln Giants; Olympic Field)
4. 7/14/1918 - (W) 9 innings, 1 run, 7 hits, 1 W, 5K (Bushwick; Dexter Park)
5. 7/16/1918 - (W) 9 innings, 4 runs, 14 hits, (?)W, 6K* (Atlantic City; Bacharach Park)
6. 7/21/1918 - (L) 9 innings, 6 runs, 10 hits, 4 W, 1 K (Cuban Stars; Dexter Park)
7. 7/28/1918 - (L) 9 innings, 9 runs, 16 hits, 2 W, 3 K (Silk Sox, Doherty's Oval, N.J.)

• LINE: 63 innings, 25 runs, 68 hits, 12 walks, 25 strikeouts, 3.57 ERA

 

BEDFORD & SULLIVAN PODCAST:

Restoring Baseball Great John Donaldson's Lost Legacy With Negro Leagues Historian and Founder of The Donaldson Network, Peter Gorton.

Minnesota native Peter Gorton leads a group of historians dedicated to discovering the lost legacy of John Wesley Donaldson.  In this episode, we discuss the man, baseball career, and life of one of the more incredible and inspiring athletes to ever play the game, and how his amazing legacy became lost to a nation, most particularly Baseball's Hall of Fame.  

Original airdate: March 13, 2021

The Metsian Podcast Post-Trade Deadline Special with The Record's Justin Toscano

From the desk: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

GUEST
Mets Beat Writer

THE RECORD NorthJersey.com

JUSTIN TOSCANO

Trade Deadline Reaction

Kumar Rocker ~ Michael Conforto ~ Jacob deGrom ~ Javier Baez

Mets Hall of Fame Inductees

and so much more!

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 8/2/1921: Yanks and Indians Rained Out; Giants Drop Series Opener at Sportsman's Park

From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD

100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds: 

New York Giants & New York Yankees 

1921 Season Revisited

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

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

For 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!

Harrisburg (PA) Telegraph, Aug. 3, 1921

GAME CALLED: RAIN

Tuesday, August 2, 1921

Cleveland Indians @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

⚾

GAME #99

BOXSCORE: Tuesday, August 2, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

Sportsman's Park

Giants Lose Opener at Sportsman's Park; Pirates Idle

New York's arrival at Sportsman's Park is met with defeat.  Despite being staked to a 3-0 lead in the first, Jesse Barnes cannot hold back the Cardinals.  Two unearned runs in the third and a decisive four-run seventh inning spell his demise.  Milt Stock's two-run triple and Rogers Hornsby's base hit to score Stock are the difference.  Starting for St. Louis, former Dodger Jeff Pfeffer is knocked out of the box in the first.  However, Bill Bailey steps in with 6.1 innings of one-run ball for the win.  The Giants are limited to eight total hits and draw four walks.  High Pockets Kelly drives home two runs, and Ross Youngs and Johnny Rawlings each deliver one apiece.  Jesse Barnes takes the loss, allowing six runs (four earned) on nine hits and two walks through seven innings pitched.  The Giants lose one half-game in the standings as the Pirates were idle.

• FINAL: NYG 4; STL 6
• RECORD: 61-38 (.616); second place, 1.5 GB of Pittsburgh

OTD in Brooklyn Semipros 8/1/1935: Bay Parkway Dukes Routed By Local Rival Bay Ridge Club

From the desk: BROOKLYN SEMIPROS

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Friday, August 2, 1935

"BAY RIDGES TROUNCE BAY PARKWAYS, 15-6, IN NIGHT GAME"

On Thursday, August 1, 1935, in a matchup of local rivals played not more than two miles from where I presently live, the Bay Ridge Baseball Club conquers the Bay Parkway Dukes at Bay Ridge Oval, 15th Avenue at 86th Street.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Friday, August 2, 1935

With neighborhood pride on the line, at least half the crowd of 4,500 watches on with great delight as the Bay Ridgers trounce the Dukes by a final score of 15 to 6.  All Bay Ridge batters hit safely, and all but one wield multiple hits.  By the game's end, they strike for twenty hits, including 13 for extra bases, against Bay Parkway starter George Smith and relievers Gannett and Lester.  Smith walks three and strikes out four in the loss.

Third baseman Harry Bennett leads Bay Ridge with four runs driven home.  Second baseman Bobby Cummings goes 3 for 5 with a double, a pair of triples, and two runs batted in.  Left fielder Eddie Marsini accounts for three hits, including a double; center fielder Jeff McDonald goes 2 for 4 with three runs batted in, and first baseman Al Ambramowitz collects three hits, including a triple and home run.

In the ninth, Luciano also homers for the Dukes.  Otherwise, Bay Ridge starter Joe Stryker holds Bay Parkway to six runs on eight hits and five walks with eight strikeouts for the win.  In fact, Luciano leads the Dukes with three hits, including two of four Bay Parkway extra-base hits, Rodriguez and Ike Goldstein account for the others.  Meanwhile, the number five-hitter in the lineup and right fielder Bruce Caldwell strikes out four times.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Friday, August 2, 1935

Brooklyn Cyclones Comeback Falls Short; Jersey Shore Takes Game Five

From the desk: THE CONEY ISLAND NINE

 JERSEY SHORE leads CONEY ISLAND; 3-2

I - BK 14; JS 5

II - JS 3; BK 1

III - BK 4; JS 0

IV - JS 3; BK 0

V - JS 4; BK 3

Game five between the Cyclones and Blue Claws features the beleaguered Alec Kisena toeing the slab for Brooklyn opposed by Victor Vargas for Jersey Shore.

With one out in the bottom of the first, Blue Claw catcher Logan O'Hoppe homers off Kisena for a prompt 1-0 lead.  The score remains unchanged through the fourth.  Jersey Shore then strikes for three runs in the fifth, knocking Kisena out of the box.  Enter Evy Ruibal, who secures two outs to end the threat.

Victor Vargas keeps Brooklyn off the scoreboard through the first six innings.  But the 'Clones finally breakthrough in the seventh on Francisco Alvarez's leadoff home run, his tenth this season.  The Cyclones score twice more in the eighth on Francisco Alvarez's second home run of the game, this time with a runner on base bringing Brooklyn within a run of the Blue Claws.

But Coney Island would score no more.  Jersey Shore's Manuel Silva retires the first two batters faced in the ninth.  First baseman Joe Genord follows with a double to put himself in scoring position, but pinch-hitter Joe Suozzi leaves the tying run stranded.

Alec Kisena allows four runs on seven hits and two walks with six strikeouts over 4.1 innings pitched in a losing effort.  Making his 13th start for Brooklyn, he entered Saturday's contest with a 5.15 ERA and exits with a 5.40 mark.  His mound counterpart Victor Vargas surrenders just three hits and four walks with six strikeouts through six scoreless innings pitched for the win.

• Francisco Alvarez now has eleven home runs and 32 RBI through 49 games, and 163 at-bats since joining Brooklyn.

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 8/1/1921: Yanks Take Series From Cleveland; Giants Split Series at Redland 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.  

For 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 #94

BOXSCORE: Monday, August 1, 1921 - BR

Cleveland Indians @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Yankees Take Series Finale From Indians; Pull Within One Game of First Place

Waite Hoyt wins his third decision this season against Cleveland, and just as they did a week ago, the Yankees take the series finale and conclude their series one game in the standings behind the Indians.  Chick Fewster drives home a run in the second, and Home Run Bakers clouts a two-run home run in the third.  Waite Hoyt makes it stand.  He allows two runs on eight hits and two walks with four strikeouts for the win.  Wally Pipp and Roger Peckinpaugh also drive home runs for the Yankees en route to a 5-2 final score.  Jim Bagby takes the loss.  For the moment, the embattled Miller Huggins' terms of employment remain in place as the Yankees take two of three from the Indians.

• FINAL: CLE 2; NYY 5
• RECORD: 59-35 (.628); second place, 1.0 GB of Cleveland

⚾

GAME #98

BOXSCORE: Monday, August 1, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ Cincinnati Reds

Redland Field

Giants Salvage Series Split at Redland Field

Staked to a 2-0 lead, Cincinnati starter Cliffe Markle opens with five scoreless innings pitched.  High Pockets Kelly drives home New York's first run of the game in the sixth, but the Reds strike back with a run in the bottom half of the frame for a 3-1 lead.  Fred Toney yields all three runs on eight hits and one walk through six innings pitched.  George Burns helps manufacture a run in the seventh, and Frankie Frisch doubles to center field, plating two for a 4-3 Giants lead.  Cliffe Markle surrenders three consecutive hits to load the bases in the top of the ninth, then walks Ross Youngs to force home a run.  Facing Slim Salle in the bottom of the frame, Larry Kopf doubles home Pat Duncan.  John McGraw wastes no time bringing in Jesse Barnes, who records the final out.  Fred Toney earns his first tenth victory this season, but the Giants gain no ground on Pittsburgh.

• FINAL: NYG 5; CIN 4
• RECORD: 61-37 (.622); second place, 1.0 GB of Pittsburgh