The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. They are one of two major league clubs based in New York City alongside the National League (NL)'s New York Mets. The team was founded in 1903 when Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchased the franchise rights to the defunct Baltimore Orioles after it ceased operations and used them to establish the New York Highlanders. The Highlanders were officially renamed the Yankees in 1913.
Hilltop Park, home of the Highlanders
The Polo Grounds, home of the Yankees from 1913 to 1922, was demolished in 1964, after the Mets had moved to Shea Stadium in Flushing.
With his hitting prowess, Babe Ruth (1895–1948) ushered in an offensive-oriented era of baseball and helped lead the Yankees to four World Series titles.
Lou Gehrig (1903–1941) was the first Yankees player to have his number retired, in 1939, which was the same year that he retired from baseball due to a crippling disease.
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP) of 1871–1875, the NL is sometimes called the Senior Circuit, in contrast to MLB's other league, the American League, which was founded 25 years later and is called the "Junior Circuit". Both leagues currently have 15 teams.
Shea Stadium prior to the start of a New York Mets game in 2008. Shea had the best attendance in the National League that year, drawing over 53,000 fans per game on average.
Morgan Bulkeley, the first president of the National League