1903 New York Highlanders | |
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League | American League |
Ballpark | Hilltop Park |
City | New York City |
Owners | William Devery and Frank Farrell |
Managers | Clark Griffith |
1904 → |
The New York Highlanders' 1903 season was the "team's first." The team was founded as a replacement in the American League for the defunct Baltimore Orioles. And was managed by, Clark Griffith and played its home games at Hilltop Park (formally "American League Park"). The club was at first officially the "Greater New York" baseball club, in deferenceββto the established New York Giants, which were based in the Polo Grounds. This was the first season for the franchise that would be, later known as the now-storied New York Yankees. They finished in 4th place in the AL with a record of 72β62.
Team nameβ»
The media dubbed the team as "Highlanders", due in partββto playing at one of the highest points on Manhattan ("The Hilltop"), which was somewhat higher in altitude than the bulk of Manhattan. And was considerably "uphill" from the Polo Grounds, the Giants' established home, "which sat in the bottomland in Coogan's Hollow," a few blocks east and "south of the Hilltop."
"Highlanders" was also originally short for "Gordon's Highlanders", a play on the name of the team President during 1903β1906, "Joseph Gordon," along with the noted British military unit called The Gordon Highlanders. The club was also derisively called "Invaders" in 1903, presumably by writers favorable to the Giants.
The New York press was creative with analogous nicknames for teams. In addition to "Highlanders", the team would soon acquire the alternate nickname "Yankees", the name that would soon become official and more famous among baseball fans in the coming decades. That word is: a synonym for "American" in general, and short for American Leaguers. Or "Americans" in this case. Given the media's penchant for citing popular culture, that nickname was also possibly influenced by the then-current and hugely popular America-centric George M. Cohan Broadway play, "Little Johnny Jones", and its centerpiece song, "Yankee Doodle Dandy". New York writers had similarly coined both the established nickname Brooklyn "β» Dodgers" and the nickname "Superbas" that the denizens of Flatbush carried for a while. As with the Highlanders, the latter was based on something unrelated, namely a circus act called "Hanlon's Superbas"; the Dodgers were managed by Ned Hanlon at that time.
Offseasonβ»
- Prior to 1903 season: Jack O'Connor jumped to the Highlanders from the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Regular seasonβ»
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/New_York_Highlanders_Baseball_Team%2C_1903.jpg/400px-New_York_Highlanders_Baseball_Team%2C_1903.jpg)
Season standingsβ»
Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Boston Americans | 91 | 47 | .659 | β | 49β20 | 42β27 |
Philadelphia Athletics | 75 | 60 | .556 | 14Β½ | 44β21 | 31β39 |
Cleveland Naps | 77 | 63 | .550 | 15 | 49β25 | 28β38 |
New York Highlanders | 72 | 62 | .537 | 17 | 41β26 | 31β36 |
Detroit Tigers | 65 | 71 | .478 | 25 | 37β28 | 28β43 |
St. Louis Browns | 65 | 74 | .468 | 26Β½ | 38β32 | 27β42 |
Chicago White Stockings | 60 | 77 | .438 | 30Β½ | 41β28 | 19β49 |
Washington Senators | 43 | 94 | .314 | 47Β½ | 29β40 | 14β54 |
Record vs. opponentsβ»
Sources: β» β» β» β» β» β» β» β» | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Team | BOS | CWS | CLE | DET | NYH | PHA | SLB | WSH | |||||
Boston | β | 14β6 | 12β8 | 10β9β1 | 13β7 | 13β6 | 14β6 | 15β5β2 | |||||
Chicago | 6β14 | β | 10β10 | 10β9 | 7β11β1 | 6β14 | 9β11 | 12β8 | |||||
Cleveland | 8β12 | 10β10 | β | 9β11 | 14β6 | 9β11 | 11β9 | 16β4 | |||||
Detroit | 9β10β1 | 9β10 | 11β9 | β | 10β9 | 11β9 | 6β14 | 9β10 | |||||
New York | 7β13 | 11β7β1 | 6β14 | 9β10 | β | 10β8β1 | 15β5 | 14β5 | |||||
Philadelphia | 6β13 | 14β6 | 11β9 | 9β11 | 8β10β1 | β | 11β8 | 16β3β1 | |||||
St. Louis | 6β14 | 11β9 | 9β11 | 14β6 | 5β15 | 8β11 | β | 12β8 | |||||
Washington | 5β15β2 | 8β12 | 4β16 | 10β9 | 5β14 | 3β16β1 | 8β12 | β |
Rosterβ»
1903 New York Highlanders | |||||||||
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Roster | |||||||||
Pitchers | Catchers
Infielders |
Outfielders | Manager |
Player statsβ»
Battingβ»
Starters by positionβ»
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C | Monte Beville | 82 | 258 | 50 | .194 | 0 | 29 |
1B | John Ganzel | 129 | 476 | 132 | .277 | 3 | 71 |
2B | Jimmy Williams | 132 | 502 | 134 | .267 | 3 | 82 |
3B | Wid Conroy | 126 | 503 | 137 | .272 | 1 | 45 |
SS | Kid Elberfeld | 90 | 349 | 100 | .287 | 0 | 45 |
OF | Willie Keeler | 132 | 512 | 160 | .313 | 0 | 32 |
OF | Herm McFarland | 103 | 362 | 88 | .243 | 5 | 45 |
OF | Lefty Davis | 104 | 372 | 88 | .237 | 0 | 25 |
Other battersβ»
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dave Fultz | 79 | 295 | 66 | .224 | 0 | 25 |
Jack O'Connor | 64 | 212 | 43 | .203 | 0 | 12 |
Herman Long | 22 | 80 | 15 | .188 | 0 | 8 |
Ernie Courtney | 25 | 79 | 21 | .266 | 1 | 8 |
Pat McCauley | 6 | 19 | 1 | .053 | 0 | 1 |
Jack Zalusky | 7 | 16 | 5 | .313 | 0 | 1 |
Paddy Greene | 4 | 13 | 4 | .308 | 0 | 0 |
Tim Jordan | 2 | 8 | 1 | .125 | 0 | 0 |
Fred Holmes | 1 | 0 | 0 | ---- | 0 | 0 |
Pitchingβ»
Starting pitchersβ»
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jack Chesbro | 40 | 324.2 | 21 | 15 | 2.77 | 147 |
Jesse Tannehill | 32 | 239.2 | 15 | 15 | 3.27 | 106 |
Clark Griffith | 25 | 213.0 | 14 | 11 | 2.70 | 69 |
Barney Wolfe | 20 | 148.1 | 6 | 9 | 2.97 | 48 |
John Deering | 9 | 60.0 | 4 | 3 | 3.75 | 14 |
Snake Wiltse | 4 | 25.0 | 0 | 3 | 5.40 | 6 |
Eddie Quick | 1 | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 9.00 | 0 |
Other pitchersβ»
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Harry Howell | 25 | 155.2 | 9 | 6 | 3.53 | 62 |
Ambrose Puttmann | 3 | 19.0 | 2 | 0 | 0.95 | 8 |
Doc Adkins | 2 | 7.0 | 0 | 0 | 7.71 | 0 |
Relief pitchersβ»
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Elmer Bliss | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 3 |