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1921: The Yankees, the Giants, and the Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York

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It has become popular in recent years to write books dealing with specific years, and authors Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg have hit a home run with their new book on the rivalry between the New York Giants and Yankees in the year 1921. A lot was taking place in the baseball world at this time. The spitball had been banned in 1920 with only those skilled practitioners allowed to continue with the damp hurl. New York Giants outfielder Benny Kauff would be banned for life by Commissioner Landis due to his undesirable character and for supposedly purchasing stolen cars. In May of 1920 Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians was killed by a pitch thrown by Yankees' hurler Carl Mays who dealt from the bottom with his submarine slants towards home plate. On Memorial Day of 1921 a memorial would be placed in deep center field at the Polo Grounds to honor Giants' player Eddie Grant who died in The Great War. Commissioner Landis would also assert his authority in September of 1920 in banning eight members of the Chicago White Sox for their participation in throwing the 1919 World Series.

The authors deal with the stress on both New York managers John McGraw and Miller Huggins. Huggins had the support of owner Jacob Ruppert, but co-owner Cap Huston wanted Wilbert Robinson. Both McGraw and Huggins were aged beyond their years. McGraw told his players the team has a chance to win "if my brains hold out." Years later George Kelly said McGraw would have had a barrage of bats thrown at him if he hadn't left immediately. Huggins said he "wouldn't go through those years again for a million dollars" since his health was more important. The photos in this book are sparkling and many never seen before. The photos of the players show several of them old beyond their years. Shufflin' Phil Douglas shows how a life of hard-living with alcohol can age a person. We learn of Ty Cobb fighting umpire Billy Evans under the grandstand following a game because Evans had the audacity to call Cobb out during the game.

In addition to reliving the lives of the managers and players we are treated to examples of the writings of such sportswriters as Joe Vila, Damon Runyon, Westbrook Pegler, and Walter Trumbull. Trumbull had a great line from game five of the World Series in which he said "the Giants ran bases with all the skill of a fat lady with the asthma racing for a street car."

Carl Mays was not liked by neither teammates nor opponents, and he feels the incident involving Chapman kept him out of the Hall of Fame. However, respected baseball historian and Hall of Fame voter Fred Lieb said it was due to his alleged acceptance of a bribe by gamblers in game four of the World Series of 1921. Mays pitched well in that game and he may have simply ran out of gas in the eighth inning. However, no proof was ever found of any wrongdoing.

The World Series was the best five games out of nine with the Yankees at a distinct disadvantage due to Babe Ruth seeing limited action due to an infected elbow and a starting pitching staff that really didn't go beyond Carl Mays and Waite Hoyt. McGraw kept close friend and former pitcher Christy Mathewson informed of the outcome of the games while Matty was being treated for tuberculosis at Saranac Lake in upstate New York. I found it interesting that McGraw would say if the Giants can't win with the lead they now have, they don't deserve to win. In other words he isn't accepting any blame if the Giants lose.

The Giants would win the battle of Broadway in both 1921 and 1922, but the Yankees became dominant beginning in 1923 when they opened their own playpen across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds. If you enjoy baseball's rich and glorious history you will certainly find this book a worthy addition to your baseball library.

Authors Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg bring 1921, an interesting and pivotal year, to life in this book about that year--subtitled, "The Yankees, the Giants, and the battle for baseball supremacy in New York."

The Yankees and Giants presented a clash of styles and personalities. Sportswriter Fred Lieb termed the 1921 Yankees, which included Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel and an aging Frank "Home Run" Baker, as "the greatest combination of clouters in history."

While Wee Willie Keeler had practiced the art of "hit'em where they ain't," Babe Ruth adopted the philosophy of "hit'em where there's no chance of them being."

The Giants, under the guidance of manager John McGraw, practiced the art of "small ball" or "inside baseball." Advancing runners any way they could. McGraw frowned on Ruth's impact on the game and despised the Yankees' playing style.

While Ruth was one of the most loved personalities in all of sports, McGraw was one of the most hated. McGraw had a dictatorial personality, was a vociferous umpire baiter and egotistical.

Yankees' manager Miller Huggins faced the challenge of whether or not he "could mold an unruly group of stars and prima donnas along with ordinary, every day players into a championship team." Huggins, who clashed frequently with Ruth, was highly criticized and didn't receive the respect he deserved.

The Yankees and Giants shared the Polo Grounds. The Yankees, before the arrival of Ruth, had been the city's poor step child, leasing space from the Giants.

The Yankees and Giants were both involved in pennant races in 1921. The Yankees trailed the Indians by 1.5 games on Aug. 30 and the two clubs tangled in "one of the fiercest pennant battles in history." The Giants trailed the Pirates by 7.5 games with six weeks to play. The Yankees and Giants would meet in the first all-New York World Series, which set records for attendance, money wagered and gate receipts.

Spatz and Steinberg take the reader through virtually a day-by-day account of the 1921 season, focusing on the Yankees and Giants. They put flesh and bones on many of the players with insights into their personalities, personal lives and other nuggets of information.

After spending 312 pages on the regular season, the eight-game World Series (it was the best of nine) is covered in just 70 pages.

1921 is thoroughly researched and documented, well written and contains some rare photographs of players. It is a treat for any serious baseball fan.

Much has been written about the nototious "Black Sox Scandal" during the 1919 World Series. By 1920, several of the guilty players had been booted out of baseball, including the great Shoeless Joe Jackson; the game had come to a crossroads. Clearly, its credibility with the American public had become a major issue. Baseball was on life support, in desperate need of a hero.

With that as a backdrop, Lyle Spatz & Steve Steinberg have chronicled the 1921 season in baseball, culminating with the first ever all New York World Series, as John McGraw's notorious Giants prevailed over Miller Huggins' upstart Yankees, five games to three. The real story behind that outcome was the limited action Babe Ruth would see (only one home run in sixteen at bats) due to an infected elbow. During the regular season, Ruth had the greatest offensive season of his career, highlighted by a new single season home run record of 59. Although that mark would be eclipsed later in his career, by that one extra home run, the Bambino's 171 runs batted in would stand as his personal best.

As the 1921 World Series began, the Yankees were the underdogs to John McGaw's legendary Giants. Both teams played in the Polo Grounds, but the park belonged to the Giants; the Yankees were just the tenants, playing in their very first Fall Classic. In another couple of years, they'd inhabit "The House That Ruth Built" - Yankee Stadium - and go on to become the world's most successful sports franchise. The Giants would eventually abandon the Polo Grounds and head to the left coast, along with the rival Dodgers, after the 1957 season; the Yankees reigned supreme.

Spatz & Steinberg have compiled a wonderful piece of baseball history, and American history, as well. It's a fascinating tale of baseball's evolution as the Roaring Twenties were just starting to heat up, and a restless American society looked forward to the party.

I consider myself a knowledgeable baseball trivia buff and historian but discovered from reading 1921 The Yankees,The Giants & The Battle For Baseball Supremacy In New York how John McGraw changed his strategy from playing small ball with emphasis on bunting, hit & run and the stolen base to the big inning which included procuring players who could hit the long ball. I was also under the impression that in the 1920s the vast majority of pitchers threw complete games until I read this book. 1921 also colorfully describes the Ruthian era and what it was like living in New York during Prohibition.

This was a time when men were men and there truly was no crying in baseball. You had to be a tough son of gun to compete in the majors back then. How many batters got hit in the head by a pitch and lay in the dirt unconscious?Having been a baseball fan all my life, I've often heard of many of the names in this fantastic book and never really knew what kind of players they were. I gained an appreciation of the impact that certain players had on their teams, their managers, and in all of baseball. The amount of research that went into this book is incredible. I can't imagine how many newspaper articles must have been gone through to give the reader this kind of story. You really get a good feel for how the boss NY Giants, battling Pittsburgh, and fledgling NY Yankees, battling Cleveland, struggled throughout the entire season to reach the world series. With no general managers in those days, the field manager ran everything. McGraw seemed as tough as they came. And Huggins was disrespected openly by his players. The book is quite insiteful in describing how McGraw and Huggins ran their clubs. And now when I see pictures of the old Polo Grounds in New York, I can imagine the players and the teams that played there.

We all know Babe Ruth but, how many know that the Babe was an all around player with wheels. If I remember correctly, the Babe hit three triples in a three game period once. There is a feat you don't see even the fastest players do these days. And he stole almost 20 bases in 1921. Sometimes you look at the stats of the Babe and you're in awe but, to read how hard he played the game even to the point of total collapse in the dugout after scoring a run is stuff I've never heard of. What I liked also was to learn how many games these teams actually played in a season. Aside from the many double headers that they were scheduled to play, the number of exhibition games they played during the season while traveling to their next road series was astounding. It was all about helping to raise money. Many times the regulars would rest but, all the fans would come out to see the Babe smash a long one and he would play all the time so that the fans could see him. It wasn't until near the end of the season when they finally cancelled exhibition games so that the players could rest up for important upcoming series.

When I finished the book, I felt like I wanted the story to go on. I felt like I would miss those characters that I had grown to know over the course of that season. Sometimes while reading the story during the regular season, there was a lot on information that was hard to digest in a quick read. I found it better to read for a while and then stop and try to digest the material before going on. I felt the authors put enough interesting side bits in to keep the story moving. If you like to read about history of baseball, read about 1921, it's excellent.

The authors present two divergent teams. The New York Giants at the peak of their dynasty and the New York Yankees, trying to start their own. The book is rich in history and well researched. Interesting portrayal of Giants manager John McGraw who was instrumental in persuading Colonel Ruppert into buying the Yankees.

Boston fans point to the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees as the beginning of the "curse" but the Yankees premiere pitcher, Carl Mays and several other top players came from the Red Sox and helped the Yankees to begin their greatness. Interestingly, the authors omit any mention of Red Sox owner, Frayze and his needing cash for No No Nanette, which is always quoted as the reason for selling the Babe.

Both teams battled for the same fans in the same ballpark with the Yankees actually outdrawing the Giants. During the season Ruppert purchases the land across the river where he will later build Yankees Stadium.

The authors recount the end of 1920 in which Cleveland beat the Dodgers in the World Series as well as the 1921 season and have many priceless photographs. The eight games of the World Series (it was a best 5 of 8 that year) are recounted in detail and all the box scores and stats are provided at the end in one of several appendices. There is also an Epilogue which tells of the succeding two seasons after 1921.

1921 is an easy book to pick up and a very hard one to put down. Simply put it's a model of baseball history, and a template for how the history of a single season should be written.

First, the authors introduce the game as it was played before 1921, how it was changing from a pitchers' game to a hitter's game, and why. The dichotomy between the "old style" Giants and the "new style" Yankees is quickly established, and it serves as a good backdrop for events. Key personnel are introduced. Other single season histories can get bogged down in day to day details, devolving quickly into a series of game summaries. The authors do a good job of interjecting biographies and other pertinent information throughout the book to keep it lively.

Also noteworthy is how much of what we complain about today, thinking it is endemic to the modern game, was actually present in 1921. For instance, there were constant complaints of about how unfair it was for teams to compete against the resources of the two New York teams, and in-season acquisitions were met with cries that the Giants were trying to "buy" the pennant for instance. There are many such stories in 1921 that reinforce just how little of what we think is new actually is.

Finally, the authors break down events, noting historical discrepancies and helping their readers decide what really happened.

The photos are great. I would have liked to see a few more, perhaps of New York itself. 1921 was the year the Yankees finally won the AL pennant and New York established itself as the baseball capital of the world. A little bit more about the city itself in the way of text and photos would have made the story even more colorful and lively.

Another note: although the book reads like a novel, it's actually pretty academic, heavily footnoted from many different sources. A bibliographic essay (a summary of the sources and the authors views of them) would have been a real addition to the baseball scholarship of this era.

I am already looking forward to the next book by these authors.

As a long time reader of baseball history books, I rated 1921 -the yankees,the giants,and the battle for baseball supremacy in new york as one of the best. authors spatz and steinberg and alexander could not have captured that year better - it was an exciting time in the nation as well as in new york. I rooted for the giants against the pirates and the yankees against the indians of tris speaker.So many colorful characters were highlighted in this tome the meusel brothers, casey stengel, ross youngs, and of course babe ruth and everyone favorites personality ty cobb. i never realized that miller huggins was not this genius yet and was sickly and very unpopular.This book depicts the time before the building of yankee stadium when the true dynasty was the giants of macraw not the bronx bombers.I could not put this book down. michael basta

Bought this book as a gift for father-in-law, whose own father played a couple of professional games as a pitcher with the New York Giants in the 1920s (1920? Or 21? I cannot remember...) Anyway, father was delighted with the book.