New York Yankees

New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the borough of the Bronx, in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's American League East Division. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Baltimore, Maryland in 1901 as the Baltimore Orioles and moved to New York City in 1903, becoming known as the New York Highlanders before being officially renamed the "Yankees" in 1913. From 1923 to 2008, the Yankees' home ballpark was Yankee Stadium, one of the world's most famous sports venues. In 2009, they moved into a new stadium, also called "Yankee Stadium".

As of 2011, the franchise, which most recently won the World Series in 2009, lead the league in both revenue and titles, with 27 World Series championships and 40 American League pennants.Throughout its existence, the team has had some of the most celebrated players in Major League history, including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Yogi Berra. Forty-three Yankees players and eleven Yankees managers have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the team has retired the numbers of 16 people.

The Yankees have achieved widespread popularity and a dedicated fanbase, although during the era of ownership by George Steinbrenner, they acquired a polarizing reputation from heavy spending on player salaries for the sake of recruiting top talent. Their rivalry with the Boston Red Sox is arguably the fiercest and most historic in North American professional sports. To support the Yankees and expand their media coverage, the dedicated television channel YES Network was launched in 2002.

The 2008 season was the last season played at historic Yankee Stadium. To celebrate the final year and history of Yankee Stadium, the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played there on July 15, 2008. The final regular-season game at Yankee Stadium was played on September 21, 2008 against Baltimore, the city from which both the Yankees and their great star Babe Ruth originated. The Yankees won Yankee Stadium's final game 7–3. Jose Molina's home run, a two-run shot hit to left-center field with one out in the bottom of the 4th inning, turned out to be the final home run in stadium history. After the game, Derek Jeter addressed the crowd, thanking them for their support over the years, and urging them to "take the memories of this field, add them to the new memories that will come at the new Yankee Stadium and continue to pass them on from generation to generation." The Yankees players then circled the field and saluted the fans, to the sound of "New York, New York". Despite multiple midseason roster moves, the team was hampered by injuries and missed the playoffs for the first time in 14 seasons. During the off-season, the Yankees retooled their roster with several star free agent acquisitions, a strategy different from the previous season's, where the team banked on young pitching prospects.

2010 New York Yankees season

The 2010 season featured the rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox being revived to start and end the season. The Yankees and the Red Sox started and finished the season against each other at Fenway Park. This was the first time since 1950 this had happened. In June, Joe Torre's Dodgers played games against the Yankees for the first time since he became manager of the Dodgers, with the Yankees taking two out of three games in the series. During the 2010 All-Star break, two longtime Yankee icons died: On July 11, former PA announcer Bob Sheppard and two days later principal owner George Steinbrenner. Eight days later, another longtime Yankee icon, former player and manager Ralph Houk, died.

The Yankees won the American League Wild Card. They swept the Minnesota Twins in the 2010 American League Division Series, but lost to the Texas Rangers in the 2010 American League Championship Series 4 games to 2.

Distinctions

See also: List of New York Yankees seasons and New York Yankees award winners and league leaders

The Yankees have won a leading 27 World Series in 40 appearances (which, since the first World Series in 1903, currently amounts to an average appearance every 2.7 seasons and a championship every 4.0 seasons); the St. Louis Cardinals are second with 10 World Series victories. The Yankees' number of World Series losses, 13, leads in Major League Baseball. The Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers and New York/San Francisco Giants are second in total World Series appearances with eighteen apiece. Of their eighteen World Series appearances, the Dodgers have faced the Yankees eleven times, going 3–8 against the Yankees, while the Giants have faced the Yankees seven times, going 2-5 against the Yankees.Among North American major sports, the Yankees' success is only approached by the 24 Stanley Cup championships of the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League. They have played in the World Series against every National League pennant winner except the Houston Astros and the Colorado Rockies, a feat that no other team is even close to matching.

Through 2010, the Yankees have an all-time regular season winning percentage of .568 (a 9670–7361 record), the best of any team in baseball.

Team nicknames

The "Yankees" name is often shortened to "the Yanks." Their most prominently used nickname is "the Bronx Bombers" or simply "the Bombers", a reference to their home and their prolific hitting. A less used nickname is "the Pinstripes", in reference to the iconic feature on their home uniforms. Critics often refer to the team and the organization as "the Evil empire", a term applied to the Yankees by Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino in a 2002 interview with the New York Times. A term from the team's tumultuous late 70's, "the Bronx Zoo", is sometimes used by detractors, as well as the "Damn Yankees," after the musical of the same name. These have both been embraced by fans.