The Yankees are beyond any reasonable doubt the premier team in Major League Baseball. They have been in the World Series 39 times since the American League was fashioned in 1900 - and they have won 26 of them. The teams tied for second most World Series Championships are the Cardinals and Athletics with 9.

The Yankees have been in New York since 1903; previously they were in Baltimore known as the Baltimore Orioles. They started out in New York as the Highlanders, playing at Hilltop Park (today, the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center sits where Hilltop Park was located). They played in the Polo Grounds (sharing it with its home team, the National League New York Giants) from 1913

And it did seem like there was a limited amount of capital available for the huge project, because the newspaper article mentioned that bids "for the steel work have already been obtained," and "they were fairly satisfactory...ranging from much below the prices of a year or two ago, but rather higher than had been hoped by the men who have to put up the money for this project." The colonel did not plan to "get what they considered the worst of it financially" in case the bids "proved to be beyond the bounds of reason," the story explained. Ground was to be broken around the first of March.

The Yankees became popularly known as the "Yankees" around 1904; and when the New York Herald reported on April 15, 1906, "Yankees win opening game from Boston, 2-1," it was more or less official they were no longer the Highlanders.

The New York Times reported on March 22, 1919, that "Babe Ruth Finally Signs with Boston," for a reported $27,000 for three years. Boston owner Harry H. Frazee's previous best offer had been $8,500, the Times reported. Contrasted with today's dollar value $27,000 would be worth around $540,000; and even though $27,000 doesn't sound like much compared to the $2.5 million original cost of building Yankee Stadium - or to the salaries today's players draw. (To wit, Derek Jeter's 2003 salary was around $15,000,000; he came to the plate 482 times; do the math and see Jeter earned around $30,000 per at-bat).

"On this terrain there will be erected a huge stadium, which will surpass in seating capacity any structure hitherto built for the accommodation of lovers of baseball," the Times' article continued, in typical dramatic style, albeit there was no byline so the author was unknown.

The actual construction of the stadium of course received a great deal of coverage in The New York Times. One story (4/1/1923) - headlined, "Yanks' Stadium Big Engineering Task," pointed to the massive construction effort being put forth, in order to meet an incredibly tight deadline, and listed the materials that would go into the stadium.

The 74,200 attendance figure that was reported by the stadium was, Times' readers learned on the 20th, "merely an estimate" by Yankees business manager Edward Barrow. In fact, only around 52,000 paid to see the game, plus several thousand were admitted with passes. But the Times - obviously feeling somewhat duped - reported that the 74,200 figures "were accepted without question and were published in hundreds of newspapers in this country and in various places around the world."

The headline in The New York Times on December 27, 1919 read, "Ruth Talks Of Retiring"; the story said Ruth is "'through with major league baseball' unless the management of the Boston American league Club is prepared to meet his demand for $20,000 a year."

Some common words found in the essay are:
Babe Ruth, Engineering Task, February Excavation, Waldorf Astor, Yankee Stadium, York Times, Orphan Asylum, Edward Barrow, Derek Jeter's, Meantime Ruth, babe ruth, yankee stadium, york times, times reported, world series, home run, jacob ruppert, polo grounds, red sox, times story, colonel jacob ruppert, york times story, according york times,
Approximate Word count = 2408
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)