Usually, I don't go in for throwing shade on our lowly competitors, such as the ethically compromised, ever more boring ESPN. (Even before the Sports Apocalypse, it was in a death spiral, in my oh-so-humble opinion.)
But reporting that THIS is the day the New York Yankees became the New York Yankees is beyond the Pale.
It is not true, and cannot be allowed to stand.
The truth: in the early days of baseball, team nicknames were very fluid and changeable, often created just to serve headline writers.
The Brooklyn team was called the "Bridegrooms" one year because a lot of the players got married in the off-season. Later, they were the "Superbas" because the manager was the famous Ned Hanlon, and there was a popular vaudeville troupe called "Hanlon's Superbas."
Later they became the "Robins" after Mgr. Wilbert Robinson (and to the end of their stay in Brooklyn, the team was often referred to as "the Flock" in headlines).
Same thing for your New York Yankees.
They were, it is true, originally called "the Highlanders." The reasons why are not clear. It was maybe because they were playing up on Washington Heights, or because they were playing to the north of the other Manhattan team, the Giants; or because one of the Tammany sachems serving as a front for the team's owners was named Gordon.
BUT...BUT...even in the first year of the American League team in New York—1903—it was often called "the Yankees."
The reasons why are again obscure. It was probably because either they were in the "American" League, or because, again, they were north of the Giants. (Headline writers of the time seem to have been obsessed with Manhattan geography.)
But we were Yankees from the beginning!
Friday, April 10, 2020
Correcting ESPN.
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4 comments:
Great read, Hoss. Extremely educational. I always thought "Highlanders" came from the geography and topography of Hilltop Park. I never knew about the British infantry regiment known as the "Gordon Highlanders."
So the very first Opening Day at Hilltop Park featured the NY Highlanders vs the Washington Senators -- soldiers vs legislators. Hmmm ...
I did know that teams were fast and loose with names in the early days, but I was always under the impression that the Highlanders was the "official" name, which gave way "officially" to the Yankees in 1913. Whatever the sportswriters and fans called them notwithstanding.
The thing I remember, though, is that the original Highlanders team was the Baltimore team, purchased and moved North by the new owners. And the Babe was from Baltimore by way of Boston, where he played his last games for the Braves.
Spooky.
Yes, JM, there is a big Baltimore connection. But baseball reference and most others don't consider the original, AL Orioles to be the same franchise, as only a couple of marginal players played for both.
John McGraw, sent by Ban Johnson to scout out a way of bringing an AL team to NYC—previously blocked by the eccentric Giants owner, Andrew Freedman, who was on the MTA board—instead cut a deal with Freedman, became the Giants' manager, AND persuaded the top players on the Orioles to jump to the Giants, a move that stunned Baltimore fans.
McGraw, who hated Johnson, thought that was the end of the AL. Instead, Johnson and co. just found the right Tammany guys to bribe—by making them owners of the new, New York team.
Johnson then had other AL clubs send players to the new franchise, and helped them sign away some prominent NL stars, such as Wee Willie Keeler and Happy Jack Chesbro.
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