1921 THE YANKEES, THE GIANTS, AND THE BATTLE FOR BASEBALL IN NEW YORK

1921 THE YANKEES, THE GIANTS          SPATZ, STEINBERG, ALEXANDER
Posted: Sept. 7, 2013


At the dawn of the roaring twenties, baseball was struggling to overcome two of its darkest moments: the death of a player during a Major League game and the revelations of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. At this critical juncture for baseball, two teams emerged to fight for the future of the game. They were also battling for the hearts and minds of New Yorkers as the city rose in dramatic fashion to the pinnacle of the baseball world.
1921 captures this crucial moment in the history of baseball, telling the story of a season that pitted the New York Yankees against their Polo Grounds landlords and hated rivals, John McGraw’s Giants, in the first all–New York Series and resulted in the first American League pennant for the now-storied Yankees’ franchise. Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg recreate the drama that featured the charismatic Babe Ruth in his assault on baseball records in the face of McGraw’s disdain for the American League and the Ruth-led slugging style. Their work evokes the early 1920s with the words of renowned sportswriters such as Damon Runyon, Grantland Rice, and Heywood Broun. With more than fifty photographs, the book offers a remarkably vivid picture of the colorful characters, the crosstown rivalry, and the incomparable performances that made this season a classic.

HUBBY'S REVIEW:

This was a book that was not just about baseball, but about what was going in the country at the time as well. Many people thought baseball would lose fans but instead more people were going to the games. Mainly because the Babe was hitting home runs. This was also about the first all NEW YORK world series. Being played in one ball park. The Yankees and Giants would share the Polo grounds. The Yankees having to pay rent but they were drawing in more people than the Giants and were the first ones to draw over a million fans. The book was full of many stories of what was going on at the time and baseball trying to over come the Black Sox Scandal. The Giants did not want to have the Yankees in there park any more so during this time is when they bought the land and started building Yankee stadium. In a few years this would hurt the Giants because the Yankees were winning championships and still bring in people. The Giants were now starting to hurt for money and not bring in as many people. A good book about baseball and the history of that time.