Pitching and the Long Ball Lift Brooklyn Cyclones Over Jersey Shore

From the desk: THE SURF AVENUE SLUGGERS

Jersey Shore @ Coney Island tied; 2-2

I - JS 7; BK 5

II - BK 3; JS 2

III - JS 3; BK 0

IV - BK 7; JS 2

BOXSCORE

Francisco Alvarez Homers in Return to Lineup; Cyclones Even Series

Now that's more like it..!

Jersey Shore promptly takes a 2-0 lead in the first inning on catcher Logan O'Hoppe's two-run home run.

Afterwhich, Brooklyn hurlers surrender just four scattered hits the rest of the way.  After the first inning, Cyclones southpaw  Cam Opp regroups, allowing just one more hit and one walk with three strikeouts through 5.2 innings pitched for the win.  He faces game-high 22 batters, throwing 74 pitchers with 42 (56.7%) going for strikes.  Relievers Josh Hejka and Allan Winans join together for 3.1 scoreless innings with five strikeouts.

Starting the game at first and finishing in left field, Jeremy Vasquez goes 2 for 3 with a home run in the second and a team-high three runs batted in.  Making his return to the lineup, catcher Francisco Alvarez is 1 for 3 with a home run in the eighth, his fifth this season, and two runs batted in, and LT Struble goes 2 for 4 also with two runs batted in.  Cody Bohanek, starting at third place in place of Brett Baty, gives Long Island three players with multiple hits.

With Friday's victory, the Cyclones knot the series at two.

But you know I can't let them off the hook so easily.  Despite ten hits, the Surf Avenue Sluggers whiffed ten times and drew just three walks.

Long Island Ducks Bow To Honey Hunters In First Ever Visit to Gastonia

From the desk: THE WEBBED SPIKES NINE

GAME ONE

Gastonia Honey Hunters   13

Long Island Ducks             11

FINAL/BOX

Home Team Holds Their Ground Against Long Island Invaders

After losing two of three on their home turf, the Flock makes their first-ever venture to Gastonia, North Carolina, where this weekend they open a three-game series against the expansion Honey Hunters.

Not a game for the faint of heart, Long Island starter Jhoendri Herrera allows seven earned runs on seven hits and four walks in just 2.2 innings pitched.  Gastonia starter Jeff Gause fares no better, surrendering seven runs (four earned) on eight hits and one walk in only 4.1 innings pitched.  He yields home runs to Ryan Jackson, first baseman Clint Freeman, and Johnni Turbo.  

With two runs in the top of the fourth, Long Island ties the game at seven.  However, facing Corey Howard in relief of Herrera, the Honey Hunters pull away with three runs in the bottom half of the frame.  

Before being dispatched to the showers, Jeff Gause surrenders his eighth run in the fifth.  Facing Carl Brice in relief of Gause, Ryan Jackson's sac-fly in the sixth brings the Ducks within one.  That is until Gastonia takes an 11-9 lead in the bottom of the sixth.

But you knew it wouldn't stop there.  After all, through the first six innings, Long Island scored in every inning but the second, and Gastonia scored in every inning but the fifth.  Be that as it may, Juan De La Cruz singles home Clint Freeman, and Steve Lombardozzi drives home another with a sacrifice fly to left field, tying the game at eleven.

However, Long Island's bullpen does not hold its ground.  Hector Cervenka surrenders the go-ahead run in the seventh, and Anderson DeLeon gives up an insurance run in the ninth en route to Gastonia's 13-11 win.  Cervenka takes the loss.

Clint Freeman leads Long Island with four hits, and Ryan Jackson leads Long Island with four runs batted in.

The first place Ducks still own a one-game lead over the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs.

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 6/26/1921: Babe Ruth Inches Closer to Home Run Mark; Giants and Phillies Idle

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 #67

BOXSCORE: Sunday, June 26, 1921 - BR

Washington Senators @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Yankees Take Rubber Game From Senators; Babe Ruth Hits Number 27

Waite Hoyt allows a run on two hits in the first inning but does not yield another.  Washington remains stuck in place as the Erasmus High School product surrenders just five hits and no runs the rest of the way.  Right fielder Sam Rice is the lone Senator to cross home plate.  Meanwhile, Bob Meusel leads the Yankees effort going 3 for 4 with a double, home run, and two runs batted in.  The Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth, hits home run number 27 in the third with Roger Peckinpaugh on base.  With his second home run in as many days, Ruth is now eight home runs shy of tying Roger Connor's all-time mark established 23 years ago.  With three hits, Roger Peckinpaugh raises his average to .309, and with a triple in the fifth, Wally Pipp drives home his 46th run this season.  Ruth now has 70 runs batted in.

• FINAL: WAS 1; NYY 9
• RECORD: 39-28 (.582); second place; 3.0 GB of Cleveland

New York Times, June 26, 1921

Sound familiar?

The Metsian Podcast: The Dog Days Of June(?) with the Kranepool Society, Stephen Keane

From the desk: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

38-31 (.551), First Place

It's officially summertime!  Independence Day is ten days away, and the Mets, against all odds, still hold a four-game division lead over the Washington Nationals.  While it can be said the Mets are still feeding off their seven-game and five-game winning streaks back in May, they've nonetheless scratched and clawed to stay above par in June.  But how much longer can this last?  Joining The Metsian Podcast to help answer that question (and talk some 1979 Mets) is the one and only governor of the Kranepool Society ...

Stephen Keane

seventy-four minutes

 

Brooklyn Cyclones Get Two-Hit By Jersey Shore Blue Claws

From the desk: THE SURF AVENUE SLUGGERS

Jersey Shore leads Coney Island; 2-1

I - JS 7; BK 5

II - BK 3; JS 2

III - JS 3; BK 0

Two hits and surrendering unearned runs are no way to go through life.

Not again..!?

What is happening to my Surf Avenue Sluggers?

Without going back and checking, I know this is at least the fourth time the Cyclones have been two-hit by the opposition this season.  Hudson Valley did it to Brooklyn three times in one series.  

On Thursday, Blue Claws starter Kevin Gowdy faces 19 batters, throwing 78 pitches with 48 (61.5%) going for strikes.  He allows no runs on no hits and two walks with five strikeouts through six innings pitched for the win.  From the bullpen, Jersey Shore's Aidan Anderson yields a double to Brett Baty in the eighth, and in the ninth, Blake Brown surrenders a double to Juan Uriarte (still playing in place of  Francisco Alvarez), and that's all.  The Cyclones strike out nine times and draw two walks.  

Brooklyn starter Jose Butto starts out effectively but is foiled in the fifth.  He surrenders three runs, but only one is earned.  Otherwise, Butto allows only four hits and one walk with five strikeouts in 4.2 innings pitched in a losing effort.  Relievers Connor O'Neil and Andrew Edwards join together for 4.1 scoreless innings.

• RECORD: 14-28 (.333)
• BOXSCORE
  

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 6/25/1921: Babe Ruth Hits Number 26 In Loss; Giants Sweep Twin Bill at Baker Bowl

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 #66

BOXSCORE: Saturday, June 25, 1921 - BR

Washington Senators @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Senators Even Up With Yankees; Bambino Hits Number 26

Washington sends a message informing the Yankees they're not alone in this race.  Yankees starter Bob Shawkey comes apart like wet paper in the first, yielding five runs on four hits and six fielding errors, three by Shawkey himself.  Wally Pipp finally gets the Yankees on the ledger in the fourth.  Facing  Walter Johnson with a runner on base in the fifth, Babe Ruth hits his 26th home run this season.  He is now just nine away from tying Roger Connor's all-time mark.  But The Big Train wins the day.  Shawkey recovers, allowing just one run the rest of the way.  However, the damage is done; two unearned runs are the difference.  Right fielder Sam Rice and second baseman Bucky Harris each drive home a run apiece.

• FINAL: WAS 6; NYY 4
• RECORD: 38-28 (.576); second place, 3.0 GB of Cleveland

New-York Tribune (New York, New York)

GAME #63

BOXSCORE GAME ONE: Saturday, June 25, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

Baker Bowl

Curt Walker Home Run Leads Giants Hit Parade

The Giants launch another major offensive against Philadelphia pitching at Baker Bowl.  This time, former Reds starter Jimmy Ring allows nine runs (eight earned) on 14 hits and three walks in just 5.2 innings pitched.  New York wields four more hits against reliever Huck Betts over the final 3.1 innings bringing their total number of hits to 18 for the game.  Ross Youngs, Dave Bancroft, and High Pockets Kelly each strike for three hits apiece.  Curt Walker hits his third home run this season in the fifth, and Earl Smith continues swinging a hot bat, going 8 for 24 (.333) in his last eight games.  John McGraw pulls starter Rosy Ryan with one out in the fourth upon yielding three earned runs on seven hits and no walks with two strikeouts.  Slim Salle earns the win in relief of Ryan, allowing just one unearned run on four hits over the final 5.2 innings.

• FINAL: NYG 9; PHI 4

⚾

GAME #64

BOXSCORE GAME TWO: Saturday, June 25, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

Baker Bowl

Giants Complete Sweep of Twin Bill With Yet Another Thrashing of Phillies

New York simply picks up where they left off.  The Philadelphia triumvirate of Lee Meadows, Stan Baumgartner, and Jimmie Keenan all endure the wrath of McGraw's batsmen.  Scoring five runs in the ninth inning for good measure, the Giants tally another 17 runs on 16 hits, seven going for extra bases of which five leave the playing field for home runs.  Frankie Frisch spearheads the attack going 4 for 6 with a double, home run, and two runs batted in, while Frank Snyder hits two home runs and drives in four.  High Pockets Kelly also drives home four runs giving him 68 to date, and Dave Bancroft homers in the seventh and drives in two.  Rube Benton hurls the first four innings, allowing three runs on seven hits for his fifth win.  Jesse Barnes yields just one run on seven hits over the final five innings.  New York sweeps the twin bill and now leads the series 3-0 ahead of the Phillies.  They become the third team this season after Cleveland and Pittsburgh to achieve forty victories.

• FINAL: NYG 17; PHI 4
• RECORD: 40-24 (.625); second place, 3.0 GB of Pittsburgh

Brooklyn Cyclones: Jose Mena Thrills Coney Island Crowd With Game Winning Hit In Tenth

From the desk: THE SURF AVENUE SLUGGERS

GAME TWO
Jersey Shore  2

Coney Island  3

10 innings

Brooklyn Battery Powers Cyclones To Victory In Game Two  

Stellar pitching and Jose Mena's game-winning hit in the eleventh sends the Coney Island crowd home in a delighted state of mind.  Goes to show good things come to those who wait.

Jersey Shore and Brooklyn duel to a scoreless tie through five.  Toeing the rubber for the Blue Claws,  Ethan Lindow yields just four hits and strikes out five.  For the Cyclones, Alec Kisena similarly allows just four hits with six strikeouts before exiting with one out in the sixth.  While inheriting a runner at second in relief of Kisena, Eric Orze closes out the top half of the frame unscathed.  Meanwhile, Lindow continues the mission with a scoreless bottom half of the sixth.

Eric Orze retires Jersey Shore in the top of the seventh, striking out DH Herbert Iser for out number three.  For the BlueClaws, right-hander Mark Potter takes over pitching duties from Lindow, who exits having allowed just five hits, just one for extra bases.  Suddenly, with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, LT Struble bunts for a base hit, then steals second base.  Next up, Antoine Duplantis lined a triple to center field, scoring Struble with the go-ahead run.  Unfortunately, Duplantis is left stood at third base.

Like an omen, third baseman Brett Baty's errant throw to first base opens the eighth.  With one out, Eric Orze issues a walk and then walks another to load the bases.  Brooklyn makes a change, and with one out into the game comes Mitch Ragan.  The Cyclones come close to executing a 5-4-3 double-play, but a safe call at first and the lead runner scoring from third knots the game at one.  

Jersey Shore right-hander Mike Adams is called upon to pitch the bottom of the eighth.  He pitches himself into, then out of potential trouble, and into the ninth inning, they go.

With one out in the top of the frame, Jose Mena (starting in place of dinged-up Francisco Alvarez) throws out an attempted steal of second.  Mitch Ragan then fans Herbert Iser for the third out.  In turn, Jersey's Andrew Brown throws a scoreless home half of the ninth, sending this contest into extra innings.

Mitch Ragan returns to the bump but does not hold.  The BlueClaws pull the old pinch-runner for the phantom runner who scores on consecutive sacrifice flies routine for a one-run advantage.

Then, facing Andrew Brown, Brooklyn loads the bases with the phantom runner, Ronny Mauricio, Brett Baty HBP, and a walk to Luke Ritter.  After a mound visit, Andrew Brown walks Joe Genord tying the game at two.  Still, with no outs, Jose Mena wields a line-drive single to right field, Brett Baty scores the winning run.

Mitch Ragan earns the win.  Brooklyn evens the battle of the beaches at one.

• BOXSCORE

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 6/24/1921: Carl Mays Wins Eleventh; Giants Trounce Phillies at Baker Bowl

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 #65

BOXSCORE: Friday, June 24, 1921 - BR

Washington Senators @ NEW YORK YANKEES

POLO GROUNDS

Yankees Take Series Opener From Washington; Mays Wins Number Eleven

Back home at the Polo Grounds, the Yankees offer visiting Washington no quarter.  Making his 16th start, Carl "Sub" Mays holds the Senators to three runs on just six hits and one walk with a pair of strikeouts through nine.  Shortstop Frank O'Rourke connects on a two-run home run in the fifth, and right fielder Sam Rice drives home a run in the eighth.  Washington left-hander Harry Courtney allows nine runs, seven earned 15 hits, and three walks in a losing effort.  Home Run Baker goes 3 for 4, while Aaron Ward and Wally Schang drive home two runs apiece.  Carl Mays improves to 11-5 with a 2.44 ERA.

• FINAL: WAS 3; NYY 9
• RECORD: 38-27 (.585); second place, 3.0 GB of Cleveland

⚾         ⚾

GAME #62

BOXSCORE: Friday, June 24, 1921 - BR

New York Giants @ PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

Baker Bowl

Giants Announce Their Arrival in the City of Brotherly Love with Authority

Back in Philadelphia for the first time since the regular season's grand opening, the Giants make themselves at home with an eleven-run, 19 hit barrage at the Baker Bowl.  They require less than two hours before strutting off the field in triumph.  Making his twelfth start this season, southpaw Art Nehf limits the Phillies to a pair of runs on eight hits and one walk with five strikeouts through nine.  Meanwhile, Phillies starter Stan Baumgartner's outing ends with haste, just four batters, four hits, and four runs for the loss.  The bullpen fares no better, allowing seven runs, five earned, on 15 hits.  Seven New York hits go for extra bases.  Catcher Frank Snyder is the big man on campus.  With the Giants leading 9-2 after six, Snyder homers in the seventh and again in the ninth for good measure.  George Burns goes 3 for 6 with a double and two runs scored.  Frankie Frisch and High Pockets Kelly each drive home two, and Ross Youngs goes 2 for 3 with two walks, two runs scored, and a run batted in, giving him 47 for the season.  Alas, the Giants gain no ground as the Pirates take down the Cardinals at Sportsman's Park.

• FINAL: NYG 11; PHI 2
• RECORD: 38-24 (.613); second place, 4.0 GB of Pittsburgh

OTD 6/23/1935: Bushwick Splits Games of Twin Bill With Homestead Grays at Dexter Park

From the desk: NEGRO LEAGUES vs. BROOKLYN SEMIPROS

Times Union (Brooklyn, New York),

Monday, June 24, 1935

On Sunday, June 23, 1935, Max Rosner's Bushwick nine split games of a doubleheader with Cum Posey's Homestead Grays at Dexter Park.

NEGRO NATIONAL LEAGUE

HOMESTEAD GRAYS

vs.

BUSHWICK

GAME ONE - Facing Homestead Grays right-hander Ray Brown, Bushwick musters seven runs on 13 hits and two walks.  The Grays open the scoring in the first, but Bushwick scores twice in the second, highlighted by right fielder Solly Mishkin's home run, and would never trail again.  Four more runs cross the plate in the sixth as Mishkin, second baseman Dutch Woerner, third baseman Jimmy Calleran all hit safely, and catcher Emil Gall smashes a two-run home run.  Mishkin and Woerner lead Bushwick with three hits apiece, and Jimmy Calleran goes 1 for 3 with two runs batted in.  Starter Charley Perkins yields five runs on nine hits and one walk with four strikeouts for the win.  Homestead third baseman  George Scales leads the Grays with three runs batted in.  He, along with center fielder Jerry Benjamin and second baseman Matt Carlisle wield two hits apiece.  However, first baseman Buck Leonard is held hitless in three at-bats.

GAME TWO - Grays starter Joe Strong limits Bushwick to just one run on four hits and two walks with two strikeouts for the win.  Native Brooklynite and former big leaguer of 30 games with the New York Giants Al Moore drives home, Emil Gall, with Bushwick's only run in the sixth.  In a losing effort, starter Art Smith yields two runs on eight hits and four walks over six innings pitched.  Jim Duffy allows three runs on four hits over two innings in relief of Smith.  Matt Carlisle goes 4 for 5, giving him six hits in the twin bill.  George Scales and shortstop Jelly Jackson hit for extra bases.  Buck Leonard is again held hitless in four at-bats, making him 0 for 7 for the day.  Jerry Benjamin and catcher Tommy Dukes post multiple hits.

"In 16 games with colored teams this season the Dexters have won twelve and lost four.  Against Negro National League teams they have won three out of five.  Aginst white clubs they have won eleven out of twelve, making their record to date 23 victories against five defeats." - Times Union, Brooklyn

OTD 6/23/1935: Bay Parkway Dukes Split Twin Bill With New York Black Yankees at Erasmus Field

From the desk: NEGRO LEAGUES vs. BROOKLYN SEMIPROS

Times Union (Brooklyn, New York),

Monday, June 24, 1935

On Sunday, June 23, 1935, not more than two miles from where I presently live, the Bay Parkway Dukes split games of a doubleheader with the New York Black Yankees at Erasmus Field, McDonald Avenue at the Avenue M station along the Culver Line. 

⚾ 1935 New York Black Yankees ⚾

GAME ONE - Bay Parkway starter Al Morris limits the Yankees to just one run on eight hits and two walks with seven strikeouts for the win.  Second baseman Henry Spearman leads the visitors with four hits, including a double in four at-bats.  Catcher Bob Clarke is the only other Yankee with multiple hits.  Left fielder Crush Holloway and shortstop Walter Cannady account for the Yankees' other two hits.  But the New York Black Yankees leave nine men on base.  Starter Barney Brown yields two runs on just four hits and four walks with seven strikeouts in a hard-luck loss.  Both teams traded runs in the first inning, Spearman scoring for the Yankees and Goldstein for the Dukes.  The score remains unchanged through the fifth.  However, in the home sixth, Yankees' first baseman Dave Thomas drops a throw from third baseman Bill Riggins allowing Mac Posnack to score the game's decisive run.

GAME TWO - The Dukes twice hold the lead, each time relinquishing it to the Yankees, who finally pull away with single runs in the sixth and eighth innings en route to a tightly contested 6-5 victory and a split of Sunday's twin bill at Erasmus Field.  The Yankees' pitching duties are shared by Connie Rector and  Terris McDuffie joining together to win.  They allow nine hits, with four going for extra bases, including a triple by Dukes' second baseman, Rodrigues.  McDuffie walks one and strikeouts out four, and Rector walks one and hits a batter.  Making up for his game one misplay, first baseman Dave Thomas leads the Yankees with a double, triple, and two runs scored.  Center fielder Thad Christopher also goes 2 for 5 with a double and a run scored.  

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 6/23/1921: Frankie Frisch Lifts Giants Over Braves; Babe Ruth Within Ten Home Runs Of Roger Connor

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 #61

BOXSCORE: Thursday, June 23, 1921 - BR

Boston Braves @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

Frisch Homers and Toney Wins Ninth as Giants Salvage Series Finale

The Giants salvage game three of their series against the Braves and avoid being swept.  Making his 13th start this season, Fred Toney holds Boston to four runs on nine hits and one walk with five strikeouts for his ninth victory against just three losses with a 3.18 ERA.  Braves starter Jack Scott allows four runs while getting knocked out of the box with one out in the third.  Ross Youngs drives home two in the first, and High Pockets Kelly and Curt Walker drive home runs in the third.  Fred Toney helps his cause with a run batted in during the fourth.  Frankie Frisch goes 3 for 4 with a home run in the fifth and four runs batted in.

• FINAL: BOS 4; NYG 10
• RECORD: 37-24 (.607); second place, 4.0 GB of Pittsburgh

The Boston Globe, Thursday, June 24, 1921

GAME #64

BOXSCORE: Thursday, June 23, 1921 - BR

New York Yankees @ BOSTON RED SOX

Fenway Park

Babe Ruth Hits Number 25 as Yankees Gain Series Split at Boston

The Yankees successfully split their six-game series with the Red Sox and have the Texas cowboy Rip Collins largely to thank.  He yields just one unearned run on five hits, although he walks six and fans four in a winning effort.  New York roughs up former teammate now Red Sox hurler Hank Thormahlen for twelve hits en route to a 6-1 victory.  Catcher Roxy Walters drives home Boston's lone run.  Home Run Baker and Bob Meusel each single and drive home a run in the opening frame.  With a runner on in the fifth, Babe Ruth clubs his 25th home run this season.  He is now just ten home runs away from tying Roger Connor for the most home runs all-time.  He also remains slightly ahead of last year's single-season home run pace, in which he astonishingly turned a record 54 baseballs into souvenirs.

• FINAL: NYY 6; BOS 1
• RECORD: 37-27 (.578); second place, 3.0 GB of Cleveland

Brooklyn Cyclones: Jersey Shore Triumphant In First Ever Visit To Coney Island

From the desk: THE SURF AVENUE SLUGGERS

BATTLE ON THE BOARDWALK

GAME ONE
Jersey Shore BlueClaws  7

Brooklyn Cyclones           5

FINAL/BOX

BlueClaws Bullpen Stops Brooklyn Comeback Cold In Its Tracks

Jupiter Pluvius does the Brooklyn Cyclones no favors ...

.. and so it is, the Jersey Shore BlueClaws are triumphant in their first-ever venture into Coney Island.

Oh, the shame ...

Insofar as the game, once both starting pitchers are yanked from the mound, the whole complexion of this contest changes - as if to say, all is well, nothing more to see here; go back to your homes.

Unfortunately for Brooklyn, an early and rather large deficit proves too much to overcome.

In the second inning, Jersey Shore third baseman D.J. Stewart says hello to Kings County with a home run against starter Jaison Vilera who in the very next frame yields six more runs, all earned.  Once the dust settles, Vilera is charged with seven earned runs on seven hits, including two home runs, and three walks, in a mere 2.2 innings pitched.

After wielding just two hits through the first three innings, Brooklyn finally gets on the board against Blue Claws starter Dominic Pipkin when Francisco Alvarez laces a double down the left-field line scoring Ronny Mauricio (single) and Brett Baty (double).  Joe Genord singles home Alvarez, and center fielder Adrian Hernandez plates two more, making it a 7-5 game.

Francisco Alvarez leaves the game (leg) and is replaced behind the plate by Juan Uriarte as they head into the fifth.  Perhaps asking your backstop who is built like a Mack truck to catch in 72% humidity (as I listen in from nearby Bensonhurst), leg out a double, then race from second to home was a bit much on the legs.  The announcers were sticking to a precautionary, and proactive explanation, but they did mention he was limping in the dugout.  Put that through the translator.  Otherwise, I hope it was just cramps.  Stay tuned ...

In relief of Vilera, right-hander Colby Morris puts forth his longest outing this season.  His previous high was 2.2 innings pitched.  He faces twelve batters and throws 51 pitches, with 30 (58.8%) going for strikes.  He strikes out the side in the fifth as part of three innings of no-hit, no-run ball.  All told, he strikes out four but clearly tires in the sixth inning, walking two batters before making his exit.  With two out and two runners on base, Michel Otanez enters the game and closes out the frame.

With the game in the hands of Jersey Shore's Manuel Silva and Otanez for Brooklyn, the score remains unchanged through the seventh as Brett Baty bounces into an inning-ending double play to close out the frame.  Otanez exits after 1.1 scoreless innings pitch with one hit allowed; into the game comes Allan Winans, who twirls a scoreless top eight.  Silva, in turn, tosses three scoreless innings for the Blue Claws.  He is relieved by Aneurys Zabala, who likewise closes out the home half of the eighth.

Winans goes out for the ninth and proceeds to retire Jersey Shore in order.  Zabala likewise climbs the bump for the home ninth.  First up, Joe Genord strikes out swinging.  Next, LT Struble works the count full and draws a one-out walk.  Antoine Duplantis then strikes out swinging.  Finally, like Genord and Duplantis before him, Cody Bohanek caps off an 0 for 5 night with a strikeout of the swinging variety.  It was Brooklyn's twelfth strikeout of the game, yet another double-digit demonstration.

File this under the comeback that wasn't.  Brooklyn's five-run outburst in the fifth was all there was, two runs short.  The Jersey Shore bullpen made sure of that.

• Quick Note: spell check keeps wanting to turn Aneurys Zabala's name into Aneurysm!

OTD 6/22/1907: The Brooklyn Royal Giants Defeat Benton at Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania

From the desk: DEM BARNSTORMERS

The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 23, 1907

On Saturday, June 22, 1907, the Brooklyn Royal Giants defeat the Benton nine at Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, roughly 165 miles away from Washington Park.

Starting for the Benton locals, Bombey yields seven runs on eleven hits.  All but Grant Johnson and left fielder John Patterson hit safely for Brooklyn.  Third baseman Bill Monroe, first baseman Bob Jordan, second baseman Gus James, and catching this game, Clarence Williams, all register two hits apiece.  Starting pitcher Bill Merritt also joins in the hit parade with two of his own and two runs scored.  Otherwise, Merritt allows five runs on ten hits in a winning effort.  Shortstop Grant Johnson registers a game-high eight assists, and first baseman Bob Jordan with a likewise game-high ten putouts. 

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 6/22/1921: Giants Drop Second Straight to Braves; Yankees Split Twin Bill At Fenway 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 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 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 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 #60

BOXSCORE: Wednesday, June 22, 1921 - BR

Boston Braves @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

Braves Take Second Straight at the Polo Grounds

Boston's Dana Fillingim wins his second start against the Giants this season as the Braves take a 2-0 series lead at the Polo Grounds.  Giant starter Phil Douglas is removed after eight runs, six earned, nine hits, and two walks in just five innings pitched.  There was no taming Braves' first baseman Walter Holke, who goes 4 for 4 with a double, home run, three runs batted in, and three runs scored.  Second baseman Hod Ford knocks home two runs with a double in the sixth, giving Boston at that time a commanding 8-3 lead.  Fillingim earns his seventh win but not before yielding five runs on eight hits.  With Dave Bancroft on base, Frankie Frisch laces an inside-the-park home run into the right/center gap.  High Pockets Kelly drives home his 59th run this season.  Getting the start again at third base, Pat Patterson goes 2 for 3 with a run batted in; he is 7 for 14 in his last four games.  With their victory over the Reds at Cincinnati, the first-place Pirates extend their lead by another full game over the Giants.

• FINAL: BOS 9; NYG 5
• RECORD: 36-24 (.600); second place, 5.5 GB of Pittsburgh

⚾          ⚾          ⚾

GAME #62

BOXSCORE GAME ONE: Wednesday, June 22, 1921 - BR

New York Yankees @ BOSTON RED SOX

Fenway Park

The Makeup of April 30, 1921

Jack Quinn Turns Tables on Sad Sam Jones

In what is arguably Jack Quinn's finest performance this season to date, the Yankees stride to a confident 8-2 victory while evening the series at two.  Quinn surrenders just four scattered hits through the first seven innings.  Although the Yankee right-hander yields a single and double leading off the eighth, Boston barely manages to score on a grounder to first and a sacrifice fly to center field.  Sad Sam Jones, who allowed the Yankees just one run on seven hits in his previous start against New York, this time surrenders eight runs, five earned, on 14 hits and two walks through 6.2 innings pitched for the loss.  Babe Ruth singles three times in five at-bats with a run batted in.  Bob Meusel also wields three hits with a double and two runs batted in.  Aaron Ward also drives home two.

• FINAL: NYY 8; BOS 2

⚾

GAME #63

BOXSCORE GAME TWO: Wednesday, June 22, 1921 - BR

New York Yankees @ BOSTON RED SOX

Fenway Park

Red Sox Salvage Twin Bill Split Behind Allen Russell's Fine Effort

Harkening back to Sad Sam Jones' May 2 start against the Yankees, Boston right-hander and former Yankee Allen "Rubberarm" Russell limits New York to just one run on six hits and three walks with four strikeouts.  Batting cleanup this game, Home Run Baker's double drives home Babe Ruth in the fourth for the Yankees' lone run.  Bill Piercy allows the Red Sox five runs, four earned, eight hits, and four walks in a losing effort.  Boston second baseman Del Pratt leads the Red Sox with a triple and four runs batted in.

• FINAL: NYY 1; BOS 5
• RECORD: 36-27 (.571), second place, 4.0 GB of Cleveland