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

by Lyle Spatz, Steve Steinberg, Charles C. Alexander (Foreword)

At the dawn of the roaring twenties, baseball was struggling to overcome two of its darkest 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.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, History

538 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Robert Morrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like too many baseball books that focus on a single season, the book takes you through the entire season, game by game. This almost guarantees a dull read for the first half of the book, no matter how well you've written the story. Authors considering the task should read Summer of 49 first.

The book is also weakened by the endless quotes by the sportswriters of the day and that they are the primary source of the narrative. This feels very formulaic rather quickly.

Fortunately, the book picked up speed once we arrived in September and ended on an upbeat. Overall, the book is well-written, generally meticulous and develops a usable picture of many of the actors such as Babe Ruth, John McGraw and Miller Huggins.

[Tom Gase · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a fan that doesn't like the Giants I sure do like reading about their NY days. This is a very well-researched and written book about the 1921 season in which the top team in the NL turns out to be the New York Giants while in the AL the New York Yankees begin their reign with Babe Ruth. The Giants are led by their longtime manager John McGraw. Basically every game these teams play during 1921 is detailed to a certain extent during the book. The book spends a good 50 or so pages on the World Series at the end. It's an interesting read because that year the Yankees played in the Polo Grounds with the Giants since Yankee Stadium wasn't quite built yet. The Yankees were outdrawing the Giants because of Babe Ruth's homers and McGraw hated that his type of small-ball was ending. So the World Series that year is played all at the same place. Book really captured the time period of 1921 very well, it almost felt like I was there. The authors do a great job of research but this might not read so well for someone that doesn't like baseball as much as I do. A must read for any die-hard Giant or Yankee fan.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot by reading this, mostly about what baseball's transition from the dead ball to the home run era was like. Still, I thought that a better construction of the contents would have served the readers better. The authors decided to spend the majority of the time on the 1921 season, giving us a chapter on each team for every month of the season. To be completely truthful, this just wasn't that interesting. The introductory chapters setting up the "state of the game," so to speak, and how Babe Ruth and other things (e.g., the expulsion of spit ball pitchers, changes in the construction of the baseball itself) were changing the national past time, was extremely interesting. The chapters discussing the character of John McGraw was also interesting. But then the World Series chapters (one for each game), which were all good, basically closed out the book. It is customary, in writing books on baseball history, to include a last chapter letting readers know how the main characters lived out the rest of their days - what they did and what happened to them. But there was nothing like this in this book, and I found that disappointing.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think an excellent book if you need a good source for writing another book or article. The book goes into almost every detail of every game of the 1921 season, and by the middle of the book you can pretty much get the sense of what baseball in NYC was like in the early 1920's. The are some good and new (for me anyway) perspectives on some of the characters of the story, such as Jn McGraw and Babe Ruth, and some details about important but lesser known players from each team. You can tell the authors did exhaustive research for the book, and relied on many primary sources to do so. All in all an interesting if at times tedious book, but definitely worth the read if only to transport yourself to another time.

[Joe Santoro · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a switch from my usual methods, I got this book AFTER I decided to get the 1921 season to play (Strat-o-matic this time instead of APBA for variety), rather than read a book then decide I MUST play that season (which often doesn't last long).

The book was a pretty good recap of the season, but , as the title promised, it focuses totally on the Giants and Yankees.. swapping back and forth in alternate chapters covering about a month at a time.

While the title promised that to be the case, I still was hoping for a bit more about the rest of the league, and especially the after effects of the Black Sox scandal.

The story of Ruth Vs. McGraw is still a really good one though, and is a perfectly valid and interesting topic for a book. I would have liked a bit more about the 'news' and stories of the season, and less play by play, but overall the book is worth reading. Man, there were alot of last second heroics! Reading it, it felt like the dawn of the Slugger was just as much about pitchers no longer being able to take is easy through parts of the line up, and thus getting tired before 9 innings as it was about emulating Ruth.

Oh, and I STILL think McGraw had something to do with the 1919 World Series.. maybe some day if I'm independently wealthy or after I retire I'll join SABR and try to prove it.

[Patrick Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best baseball books that I have read recently, this book chronicles the baseball season of 1921. It was the first time a World Series featured two New York teams and highlights the towering figures of John McGraw and Babe Ruth. The book gives a great feel for the era with quotes from the sports writing of the time and pictures from that era. I've notice criticism of this style of book, just chronicling one season. I however enjoy the encapsulation of one season in the river of time. I really enjoyed the book and read other season type books since. It is the best of them.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable! I loved the back stories on the players and the sportswriters. The book covers spring training, the whole regular season and the post season. I learned a lot about Miller Huggins and John McGraw. The significant changes in the 1921 game are thoroughly covered. Lots of interesting tidbits about the New York of that time too.So many interesting characters including the best ballplayer name I've ever heard: Pickles Dillhoefer.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great stuff here about the Babe, McGraw, and Miller Huggins, but a little too much game by game for my taste.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly researched and thorough, the book takes you through the 1921 season focusing on the two teams that shared the Polo Grounds, the Yankees and Giants. It was an important year in that Ruth was playing only his second full season in New York, the Yankees won their first pennant, the Giants were looking to return to the top after several years away from glory, all while the roaring 20's was kicking off and New York was in the midst of the largely-ignored alcohol prohibition.

I enjoyed the detours into the culture at large, though the book did at times get bogged down in the daily game recaps in a way that "Summer of '49", in my opinion, largely avoided. Still an important read about an interesting season and place.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 and 1/2 stars. Not bad.

[Scott Leffler · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 seris. 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 basebll trying to over come the black sox scandle. 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 chapionships 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.

[William]

This book is quite rewarding for those willing to slog through it. It is historian's history, not semi-academic history by a sports journalist. This shows through in the expansive notes and the well-documented sources, which was much appreciated. But it also showed in the sometimes less-than-scintillating style and the insistence in covering every. last. detail. That said, it provides a fascinating portrait of a fascinating time in America and in baseball. Thus, over half of those details the author smoosh in here are actually pretty interesting. The clash between John McGraw's old New York Giants and Babe Ruth's up-and-coming Yankees encapsulates an important transition in baseball and an important transition in American culture. Spatz and Steinberg do a nice job of chronicling that story. Recommended for serious baseball or American twentieth-century history nerds. (But be warned, historians, while significant historical arguments ARE presented, there's a WHOLE LOT of baseball here. It probably helps if you have an interest in both.)

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steinberg and Spatz won the Seymour Medal for their Yankees 1921 history in the early Landis era, when baseball was still overcoming the Black Sox scandal.

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[Goatville9 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Overall this book was disappointing. It seems as if the authors developed the narrative entirely from box scores researched from newspapers of the time. The book had about the depth one would expect from research coming only from box scores.

[zumiee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Giants and Yankees battled for dominance of New York City, and of the baseball world in 1921. The authors have done solid research and weave a nice narrative of the season. The Giants won that Series and repeated as champs in 1922.

[Big League Manager · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little long but well worth the time.