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to any of those teams because from 1921 to '24 he was playing for the in- dependent Philadelphia Quakers, Frankford Yellow Jackets and a team from Shenandoah. It turned out that Hinkey was far better at football than baseball. The Yankees used him sparingly in 1923 as a reserve outfielder and pinch runner because of his speed. He appeared in only 28 regular-season games and had 25 at-bats, with four hits, including two doubles and three RBIs, and scored nine runs for a .160 average. He also had 17 put-outs and one assist without any fielding errors. The Yankees won the American League by 16 games, and once again they faced off against their crosstown rivals, the New York Giants, who had defeated them the previous two years in their first World Series appearances. The series was tied at 1-1 when Haines made his first series appearance in the top of the seventh inning of the third game at Yankee Stadium. Casey Stengel – yes, the now-legendary man- ager – had hit a solo home run in the seventh inning to give the Giants a 1- 0 lead. Haines replaced Babe Ruth in right field, as Ruth moved to first base because of an injury to Wally Pipp. Haines led off the ninth inning by grounding out to third base for what would be his only at-bat in the series, and the Yankees lost, 1-0. However, the Yankees won the next two games, setting up a chance to end the series in Game Six at the Polo Grounds. That's when Haines made history. The Giants were leading, 4-1, with one out in the top of the eighth inning when the Yankees rallied with two singles and a walk to load the bases. Haines was sent into run for pinch-hitter Fred Hoffman at first base. Two more walks cut the Giants' lead to 4-3. With Haines now at third, Ruth struck out swinging before Bob Meusel's ground ball single to center field sent Haines home with the tying run, plus two more runs for a 6-4 lead that held up to clinch the game and the series. No one realized it at the time, but that was the start of one of the greatest dy- nasties in sports. For Haines, however, it was to be the end, albeit a hugely profitable one. He had been earning $500 a month and he received a full share of the $6,143.49 payout to each winning player. He never played in another major league game but went on to play for six dif- ferent high-minor league teams until 1933. Hinkey was almost 27 years old when the Mara family organized the New York Giants football team in 1925. The Maras joined the NFL and recruited Haines to be the Giants' starting tail- back, and eventually captain, for a then-hefty sum of $4,000. Among his teammates that first season was a 38- year-old Jim Thorpe. It was smash- mouth single-wing football, and Haines was a multiple-threat signal-caller who ran, kicked, threw, caught passes and played defense. He was an immediate star and for four years was one of New York's most popular sports celebrities, earning the label "the Giants' First Su- perstar." Trying to increase its relatively sparse attendance, the team frequently advertised its games with this headline: "Come see Hinkey Haines and his New York Football Giants." In a publicity stunt on Nov. 12, 1926, to promote an upcoming game with Los Angeles, Haines caught a football thrown by a teammate from a New York skyscraper 324 feet above street level as a crowd of 4,000 watched, set- ting what was ballyhooed as "a new world record." Ridge Riley described the event in "Road to Number One," his book of Penn State football history: "Haines, [standing] in Bryant Park, was to catch a pass thrown by a team- mate, Lynn Bomar of Vanderbilt, from the 20th floor of the American Radiator Corp. Bldg. on West 40th St. Bomar was off target three times, and the fourth pass bounced off Hinkey's chest. Haines removed his suit jacket, signaled Bomar, took a deep breath, and neatly cradled the fifth throw." The Giants finished fourth in the 12- team NFL in 1925 (8-4) and again in 1926 (8-4-1), but in 1927 they went 11-1-1 and won the title. (In those days, the championship was given to the team with the best record.) In a crucial late-season showdown against the Chicago Bears, Haines made the play of his career. Sports historian John Maxymuk cites it as play No. 40 in his 2008 book "The 50 Greatest Plays in New York Giants Football His- tory." New York was 8-1-1 and Chicago 7- 2-1 when they met at the Polo Grounds on Nov. 27. Early in the game, the Gi- ants were punting from their own end zone. Nine Bears lined up to rush the punter with two men back at midfield. Maxymuk described the moment: "Hinkey Haines, New York's signal caller, shouted to [punter] Mule Watson to be careful to avoid stepping on the end line for a safety when he punted. Hinkey then asked for a towel from the official to clean the mud off the ball. When the ball was snapped, how- ever, Haines took the snap and threw a quick pass to end Chuck Corgan, who ran it out to the 40, shifting the entire momentum of the game." Keep in mind, this was in an era of field position strategy in which players called their own plays. The ball was heavier, passing was limited and passes had to be thrown within five yards of the line of scrimmage. That made Haines' trickery all the more shocking. There was no scoring until the second half when the Giants went 60 yards on the kickoff for a touchdown, missed the PAT but scored again in the period and went on to win, 13-7. The following week, Haines ran 80 yards for his only rushing touchdown of the year as the Giants defeated Red Grange's New York Yankees, 14-0, to clinch the championship. That season, Haines scored four touchdowns on pass receptions and another on a punt return. In early December he was the guest of honor at a packed testimonial dinner at the Hotel Astor in Times Square. Haines retired from the Giants after the 1928 season but returned late in the 1929 season to play for a new NFL team, the Staten Island Stapletons. He didn't play in 1930 but was back in 1931 as Staten Island's head coach, inserting himself into two games before resigning later in the season. However, that wasn't the end of SEE HINKEY PAGE 60

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