The Battle of New York

In the early-1920s, the American League’s New York Yankees and the National League’s New York Giants competed against each other in three consecutive World Series. Here is a look at the first championship battle between the two clubs that took place in 1921.

New York City normally has five boroughs but in the days leading up to the 1921 World Series, there were only two; one for Giants fans and another for the Yankee supporters. For only the second time in World Series history, two teams from the same city would wage battle for baseball supremacy. Everyone across the entire state was picking sides in what was said to be the dream of every New York baseball fan since the Yankees entered the American League in 1903. Even Governor Nathan L. Miller made a prediction, selecting the Giants. Baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was not so decisive, instead confident that the series would take nine games to decide.

Fresh off capturing their ninth National League pennant in franchise history, the Giants (94-59) looked primed to end their World Series drought, as they had not brought home the championship in four previous tries. Statistically, the team had the best run-producing offense in the National League and were led by two future Hall-of-Famers. First baseman George Kelly led the league with 23 home runs and also drove in a team-high 122 runs while third baseman Frankie Frisch led the team with a .341 average while also driving in 100 runs. Left-hander Art Nehf (20-10, 2.63) and right-hander Jesse Barnes (15-9, 3.10), both 28 years old, were the team’s workhorses on the mound.

Meanwhile, the Yankees (98- 55) won their first ever American League pennant with the best overall record in baseball and packed even more punch on offense than the Giants, averaging an incredible 6.2 runs per game (tops in the majors). Of course, the man most responsible for the outburst on offense was Babe Ruth. For the third straight season, Ruth broke his own single-season home run mark, this time with 59. He also had a career high in RBIs with 171. Outfielder Bob Meusel (.318-24-136) had a good year behind the Bambino while pitcher Carl Mays dazzled on the mound. Mays led the league in wins (27), innings (337), and saves (7); doing his part to get the Yankees into the postseason.

The entire best-of-nine series would be played at Polo Grounds, which was home to both the Giants and Yankees. The umpire crew would consist of Cy Rigler and Earnest Quigley of the NL and George Moriarty and Ollie Chill of the AL. A crowd of over 30,000 fans attended game one at Polo Grounds and watched as Yankees lead-off man Elmer Miller hit a single off  Giants starter Phil Douglas to start the game. After Roger Peckinpaugh advanced Miller to second on a sacrifice bunt, Ruth stepped up to the plate and swatted a blazing single up the middle to score Miller for the first run of the contest.

It turned out that was all the Yankees would need. Mike McNally added an insurance run by stealing home in the fifth, just narrowly sliding under the mitt of Giants’ catcher Frank Snyder, and Meusel drove in another run as the Yankees won the first game 3-0 behind the masterful pitching of their starter, Carl Mays. Mays went the distance, allowing only five hits and shutting down the high-powered Giants attack. Despite recording the loss, Douglas pitched well enough to keep his club in it, going eight innings, allowing five hits while striking out six. Frisch was the only Giant to do anything at the plate, going 4-4.

Another pitching duel occurred in Game 2 between the Yankees’ Waite Hoyt and the Giants’ Art Nehf. Again, the Yankees struck first blood with a run in the fourth and like the previous game, that run would be all they would need. Hoyt pitched a complete game, two-hitter and also drove in a run as the Yanks blanked the Giants 3-0 to take a commanding lead in the series. Nehf pitched well in the losing cause, tossing eight innings while surrendering only three hits, but he walked seven batters.

No one foresaw the Giants losing the first two games of the series. They had not played well at all over the first two games but perhaps the most worrisome fact for Giants fans was that it appeared the Yankees were out-thinking and playing better fundamental baseball than their ball club, two traits that had become staples for John McGraw-managed teams. However, McGraw himself was keeping cool, at least in the public eye, telling the media that the series had not yet been won.

Yankees skipper Miller Huggins sent out pitcher Bob Shawkey to jam a dagger into the Giants while McGraw countered with 18-game winner Fred Toney, but neither starter lasted very long. The Yankees again would strike first blood and this time, in a big way with a four-run third inning, highlighted by a two-run single by Ruth. Toney could not get through the inning and had to be replaced by Barnes. However, the Giants would tie the score up in their half of the inning. After loading the bases, Shawkey issued back-to-back run scoring walks before Huggins replaced him with Jack Quinn. Quinn did a good job to pitch out of the jam but the Yankee lead had disappeared and it was now a 4-4 game.

Quinn and Barnes pitched well out of the bullpen and neither side could scratch across a run until the seventh, when the Giants exploded. Back-to-back hits by Irish Meusel and Johnny Rawlings made the score 8-4 Giants and at that time, Quinn was replaced by Rip Collins, who had to be relieved by Tom Rogers later in the inning. The Giants chalked up eight runs in the inning on route to a 13-5 victory to put themselves back in the series. Ross Youngs led the way with a four RBI day while Meusel and Rawlings drove in three apiece for a Giants offense that had 20 hits off four different Yankee hurlers.

The news had gotten worse for Yankee fans when it was reported that Babe Ruth might be out of the lineup in Game 4 with an arm infection. While stealing third earlier in the series, Ruth bruised his arm and Huggins was forced to replace him late in Game 3 when it appeared an infection had developed on the slugger’s right arm. It was soon being reported that Ruth would miss the remainder of the series.

Rain pushed Game 4 back a day but when it resumed, Ruth trotted out to his position in left field. The Bambino also brought the crowd to its feet when he crushed a home run into the right field bleachers in the ninth inning. However, the solo homer could only cut the Giants lead to two runs and McGraw’s men were back in the series after a 4-2 victory. The Yankees took a 1-0 lead into the eighth but after the Giants tied it up, George Burns hit a two-run double off Carl Mays to put the game away for the Giants. Both Mays and Giants starter Phil Douglas threw complete games, with Douglas striking out eight Yankee batters.

The World Series had now come down to a five game series but John McGraw’s squad had clear momentum after crushing the Yankees in Game 3 and beating their pitching ace in Game 4. The fifth game was a rematch between Nehf and Hoyt, the Game 2 starters. Ruth remained in the Yankees lineup, despite having his right arm bandaged heavily and a charleyhorse that he suffered in the previous game. With the score 1-1 in the fourth, Ruth kick started a rally with a rare bunt single. He would score the eventual game-winning run during the next at-bat, as he limped home on a double from Bob Meusel. The Yankees added one more run that inning to make the score 3-1 and that would be the final as the New York Yankees regained the series lead.

Team doctors delivered a fatal blow to Huggins in the morning before Game 6: Ruth would be done for the series. His forearm was going to require minor surgery to heal the infection and doctors demanded he be held out of the lineup or else Ruth would run the risk of suffering permanent damage. Huggins was forced to shuffle his lineup: leadoff man Elmer Miller would slide down to Ruth’s #3 spot while Chick Fewster would take over for Ruth in left field and bat leadoff.

Life without Ruth seemed to start well enough for the Yankees in Game 6. They chased Toney early again, this time in the first inning, and started the game off with a 3-0 lead. But then the Giants returned the favor in the second when they tied the score up on the strength of home runs by Irish Meusel and Frank Snyder. The fireworks also forced Huggins to replace Shawkey with Harry Harper. The American Leaguers retook the lead in the same inning when Fewster, Ruth’s replacement, smashed a two-run shot off of Barnes. The seesaw match continued in the fourth when the Giants capitalized on a Yankee error to post four runs on the board. The Giants added one more run later on and would end up winning the contest 8-5.

Douglas and Mays would face each other for a third time in the series, this time in an all important Game 7. Both pitchers shut down the opposing offenses well and through six innings, the score was knotted up at one. In the seventh however, Mays’ defense let him down and it would cost the Yankees the game. After recording two quick outs in the frame, Rawlings chopped a ball towards Yankee second baseman Aaron Ward and for the second time in the game, the usually slick-fielding Ward fumbled the grounder, allowing Rawlings to reach. The next batter, Snyder, hit the first offering he saw from Mays into deep centerfield. Rawlings would score on the double and that would be the final run of the contest and the Giants were now one game away from becoming World Champions after winning the contest, 2-1.

The Giants got off to a quick start in Game 8, scoring a two-out run when a ground ball rolled through Roger Peckinpaugh’s legs. Then, the rest of the afternoon belonged to the brilliant pitching of Art Nehf and Waite Hoyt. The only trouble the offenses created in the first eight innings of the contest was the Yankees in the fourth, when they loaded the bases but squandered the opportunity when Schang flied out to centerfield to keep the score 1-0 Giants.

The Yankees had one more chance in the ninth. Huggins opted to send up Babe Ruth, his injured slugger who had missed the last two contests, to bat for Wally Pipp and the Bambino got a rousing ovation from every fan in the ballpark. Ruth appeared to be in mighty pain with every swing and eventually, he grounded out to first. After Ward drew a walk to get the tying-run, Huggins put on the hit-and-run with Home Run Baker at the plate. On the third pitch of the at-bat, Ward took off and Baker rocketed a shot that was headed for right field. The second baseman Rawlings got a good jump on the ball, fully extended out for the baseball and somehow threw out Baker from his knees.

Ward, thinking the ball got through the infield, raced around second base and headed for third. After getting Baker out, first baseman George Kelly rifled the ball across the diamond to third base. The ball pulled Frankie Frisch a few steps off the bag and when he caught the ball, both he and Ward dove headfirst; Frisch into Ward and Ward into the bag. When the dust cleared, third base umpire Earnest Quigley raised his right hand to signal the last of the Yankee chances and for the end of the series. The New York Giants captured their first World Series since 1905 by defeating the New York Yankees 5 games to 3.

The next year, the Giants made it back-to-back championships with a 4-0 series sweep (with a tie in Game 2) over the crosstown Yankees. When the teams met for a third consecutive time in 1923, it was the Yankees who came out victorious, a 4-2 series victory in the club’s first year at Yankee Stadium.