The New York Yankees Early History

Before 1913, the New York Yankees were known as the New York Highlanders. It was a series of unexpected events that changed their team's name, and eventually gave them the name for their stadium. In 1911, a devastating fire destroyed most of the Polo Grounds, home of the Highlanders biggest rival team, the New York Giants. Though this strong rivalry existed between them, the Highlanders agreed to let the Giants play at Hilltop Park, for the sake of baseball.

When the construction of the Polo Grounds was completed, the Highlanders moved into this stadium after their agreement to play at Hilltop Park was over. Seated next to the Harlem River, the team had no use for the Highlanders name. They were referenced many times as the "Yankees," as a variation of "Americans." Many journals and newspapers also quoted the name "Yankees," and in 1913, the New York Highlanders officially became the New York Yankees.

In 1920, the New York Yankees acquired Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox. Ruth was already well known as a great pitcher and was becoming more known for his hitting as well. The Yankees wanted to use Ruth as a hitter only and history was to be made. Ruth would become the most celebrated player in baseball's history setting many records that stood for a very long time. Some just recently broken by Barry Bonds.

Ruth had always been a trouble maker and was now even more so now that he was in New York but his new team owners were very tolerant as long as he kept the fans coming.

In 1923, the New York Yankees moved into the new Yankee Stadium. It was the very first triple layered ball park, seating fifty eight thousand. In the first game that was played there, Babe Ruth hit a home run. Ruth's home run hitting was the power that eventually paid for the stadium, which gave Yankee Stadium the nickname "The House that Ruth Built." The New York Yankees won their first World Series this year. They would go on to win 25 total World Series championships in the century.

In 1927, the Yankees had such a potent lineup that it was dubbed "Murderers' Row." Some baseball fans and critics consider this to be the most powerful baseball team in the history of baseball, though claims like that have also been made about their lineups of 1939, 1961, and 1998. That year Ruth set the home run record with 60. This record would stand for 34 years until another Yankee Roger Maris would break it in 1961 with 61 home runs.

Besides Babe Ruth the most well known Yankee of this period was certainly first baseman Lou Gehrig. Gehrig was known as the "Iron Horse" because he never missed a game. He played in 2,130 consecutive games beginning in 1925. He was an excellent hitter and finished his career with a .340 batting average and 493 home runs.

The '30s brought Yankees a new manager, Joe McCarthy, who guided them to new levels of excellence. In 1936, the Yankees acquired Joe DiMaggio. From '36 to '39, the Yankees banged out an astounding four consecutive World Series wins. The 1939 season was also a sad season for the Yankees as the "Iron Man" Lou Gehrig became extremely ill with a rare disease that became known as "Lou Gehrig's disease." He would become too ill to play baseball and had to retire early at age 35. He would die in 1941 prior to his 38th birthday.

The first half of the 1940s was a difficult time in baseball and for the world in general as World War II was raging. Many of the games players including some Yankees were fighting in the war during this time. Despite all of this turmoil, the Yankees and "Joltin' Joe" Dimagio were able to win the World Series in 1941, 1943, 1947, and 1949.

1951 saw DiMaggio leave the Yankees and Mickey Mantle take his place as the team's biggest star. Casey Stengel was the manager for the Yankees during this period. Stengel's team won the World Series five times in a row from '49 to '53. The Yankees dominated the 1950s probably more so than any team has dominated any decade in baseball history. They won the American League pennant 8 of the 10 seasons and went on to win the World Series 6 of those seasons.