New York Joins the Club

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - Here's an "I didn't know that" story. TODAY in BASEBALL (1903) the owners of the Baltimore Orioles, a charter member of the American League, sold the team to New Yorkers Frank Farrell and Bill Devery who moved the franchise to Manhattan. The team was called the Highlanders because they played in one of the highest spots in upper Manhattan. The team didn't become known as the Yankees until 1913. No, the New York Yankees, the most storied franchise in professional sports, was not an original member of the American League.

Here's how it evolved. The National League had been in business for a quarter century when Ban Johnson began shaking things up in 1900. He ran a minor league (the Western League), but wanted it to be major and compete, if not bury, the National League. The National League wasn't going to go away, but neither was Ban Johnson.

The NL and AL grudgingly tried to work things out. When the American League was established as a major league in 1901 the National League New York Giants didn't want any competition from the upstart league. For two years it got its way. Instead of putting a team in New York the American League put a team in Baltimore for its inaugural 1901 season and called it the Orioles. Upon the sale of the Orioles to Farrell and Devery the National League could keep the American League out of New York no longer. The Baltimore Orioles name ceased to exist (until the 1950's) and a franchise that would become the most prominent in sports, the Yankees, was put in place.

Today's Baltimore Orioles are a different franchise all together though also one of the league's originals. It started out as the Milwaukee Brewers (no connection to the current Brewers), but moved to Missouri after one season and became the St. Louis Browns. The Browns left St. Louis for Maryland in 1954 and changed its name to the Orioles.

Contributing sources:
The New York Times, January 10, 1903
Baseball-Almanac