1903 New York Highlanders season

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. The season began with the Baltimore Orioles relocating to New York in what would be a first of many seasons in the city. 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 winning season for the franchise that would be later known as the now-storied New York Yankees.

New Name

The media dubbed the team as "Highlanders", due in part to playing at one of the highest points on Manhattan, 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 Dodgers|Brooklyn " 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

Record vs. opponents

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		82	258	50	.194	0	29
1B		129	476	132	.277	3	71
2B		132	502	134	.267	3	82
3B		126	503	137	.272	1	45
SS		90	349	100	.287	0	45
OF		132	512	160	.313	0	32
OF		103	362	88	.243	5	45
OF		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
	79	295	66	.224	0	25
	64	212	43	.203	0	12
	22	80	15	.188	0	8
	25	79	21	.266	1	8
	6	19	1	.053	0	1
	7	16	5	.313	0	1
	4	13	4	.308	0	0
	2	8	1	.125	0	0
	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
	40	324.2	21	15	2.77	147
	32	239.2	15	15	3.27	106
	25	213	14	11	2.70	69
	20	148.1	6	9	2.97	48
	9	60	4	3	3.75	14
	4	25	0	3	5.40	6
	1	2	0	0	9.00	0

Other pitchers