Greatness in Waiting

Before they acquired Babe Ruth or won a single championship, the New York Yankees (ne Highlanders) inspired the strongest of feelings in baseball circles. Stars such as Jack Chesbro, Hal Chase, and Brooklyner Willie Keeler had loud followers, and the team made loyal fans of those who disliked the crosstown Giants or Dodgers. Even Ban Johnson prized the franchise, which gave his upstart American League a foothold in the nation's most populous city. Baltimoreans, on the other hand, nurtured an animus toward the team, which only a few years earlier had been called the Orioles. And former Orioles manager John McGraw hatched a plan, along with Giants owner Andrew Freedman, to sabotage the new club. This heavily illustrated volume combines a fully documented history of the deadball-era Yankees with more than 190 photographs of the people, places and events that figured prominently in the story.