1903 New York Highlanders season

1903 New York Highlanders
Major League affiliations
Location
  • New York City (since 1903)
Other information
Owner(s) William Devery and Frank Farrell
Manager(s) Clark Griffith
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The New York Highlanders' 1903 season finished with the team in 4th place in the American League with a record of 72–62. The team was managed by Clark Griffith and played its home games at Hilltop Park (formally "American League Park"). The season began with the Baltimore Orioles relocating to New York. The club was at first officially the "Greater New York" baseball club, in deference to the established New York Giants.

New Name

The media dubbed the team as "Highlanders", due in part to 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 1903–1906, 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". 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 "[Trolley] 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.

Offseason

Regular season

The 1903 New York Highlanders

Season standings

American League W L Pct. GB Home Road
Boston Americans 91 47 0.659 — 49–20 42–27
Philadelphia Athletics 75 60 0.556 14½ 44–21 31–39
Cleveland Naps 77 63 0.550 15 49–25 28–38
New York Highlanders 72 62 0.537 17 41–26 31–36
Detroit Tigers 65 71 0.478 25 37–28 28–43
St. Louis Browns 65 74 0.468 26½ 38–32 27–42
Chicago White Stockings 60 77 0.438 30½ 41–28 19–49
Washington Senators 43 94 0.314 47½ 29–40 14–54

Record vs. opponents

1903 American League Records

Sources:

Team BOS CWS CLE DET NY PHI STL WSH
Boston — 14–6 12–8 10–9–1 13–7 13–6 14–6 15–5–2
Chicago 6–14 — 10–10 10–9 7–11–1 6–14 9–11 12–8
Cleveland 8–12 10–10 — 9–11 14–6 9–11 11–9 16–4
Detroit 9–10–1 9–10 11–9 — 10–9 11–9 6–14 9–10
New York 7–13 11–7–1 6–14 9–10 — 10–8–1 15–5 14–5
Philadelphia 6–13 14–6 11–9 9–11 8–10–1 — 11–8 16–3–1
St. Louis 6–14 11–9 9–11 14–6 5–15 8–11 — 12–8
Washington 5–15–2 8–12 4–16 10–9 5–14 3–16–1 8–12 —

Roster

1903 New York Highlanders
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders Manager

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

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 Beville, MonteMonte Beville 82 258 50 .194 0 29
1B Ganzel, JohnJohn Ganzel 129 476 132 .277 3 71
2B Williams, JimmyJimmy Williams 132 502 134 .267 3 82
3B Conroy, WidWid Conroy 126 503 137 .272 1 45
SS Elberfeld, KidKid Elberfeld 90 349 100 .287 0 45
OF Keeler, WillieWillie Keeler 132 512 160 .313 0 32
OF McFarland, HermHerm McFarland 103 362 88 .243 5 45
OF Davis, LeftyLefty Davis 104 372 88 .237 0 25

Other batters

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
Fultz, DaveDave Fultz 79 295 66 .224 0 25
O'Connor, JackJack O'Connor 64 212 43 .203 0 12
Long, HermanHerman Long 22 80 15 .188 0 8
Courtney, ErnieErnie Courtney 25 79 21 .266 1 8
McCauley, PatPat McCauley 6 19 1 .053 0 1
Zalusky, JackJack Zalusky 7 16 5 .313 0 1
Greene, PaddyPaddy Greene 4 13 4 .308 0 0
Jordan, TimTim Jordan 2 8 1 .125 0 0
Holmes, FredFred Holmes 1 0 0 ---- 0 0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Chesbro, JackJack Chesbro 40 324.2 21 15 2.77 147
Tannehill, JesseJesse Tannehill 32 239.2 15 15 3.27 106
Griffith, ClarkClark Griffith 25 213 14 11 2.70 69
Wolfe, BarneyBarney Wolfe 20 148.1 6 9 2.97 48
Deering, JohnJohn Deering 9 60 4 3 3.75 14
Wiltse, SnakeSnake Wiltse 4 25 0 3 5.40 6
Quick, EddieEddie Quick 1 2 0 0 9.00 0

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Howell, HarryHarry Howell 25 155.2 9 6 3.53 62
Puttmann, AmbroseAmbrose Puttmann 3 19 2 0 0.95 8
Adkins, DocDoc Adkins 2 7 0 0 7.71 0

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Bliss, ElmerElmer Bliss 1 1 0 0 0.00 3

Notes

  1. ↑ Jack O'Connor page at Baseball Reference

References

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