# 1903 New York Highlanders season

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 deference to 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 72–62.

## Team 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", 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 "[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

* Prior to 1903 season: Jack O'Connor jumped to the Highlanders from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

## Regular season
### Season standings

vteAmerican League :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| Boston Americans | 91 | 47 | .659 | — | 49‍–‍20 | 42‍–‍27 |
| Philadelphia Athletics | 75 | 60 | .556 | 14½ | 44‍–‍21 | 31‍–‍39 |
| Cleveland Naps | 77 | 63 | .550 | 15 | 49‍–‍25 | 28‍–‍38 |
| New York Highlanders | 72 | 62 | .537 | 17 | 41‍–‍26 | 31‍–‍36 |
| Detroit Tigers | 65 | 71 | .478 | 25 | 37‍–‍28 | 28‍–‍43 |
| St. Louis Browns | 65 | 74 | .468 | 26½ | 38‍–‍32 | 27‍–‍42 |
| Chicago White Stockings | 60 | 77 | .438 | 30½ | 41‍–‍28 | 19‍–‍49 |
| Washington Senators | 43 | 94 | .314 | 47½ | 29‍–‍40 | 14‍–‍54 |

### Record vs. opponents

1903 American League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | BOS | CWS | CLE | DET | NYH | PHA | SLB | 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
## 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 | 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 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 |
| 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 |

### 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 |
| 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 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 |
| 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 pitchers

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 |