A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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“Shoutout to ATM fees for making me buy my own money” (3/27)
“Thank you, ATM fees, for allowing me to buy my own money” (3/27)
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“Shout out to ATM fees for making me buy my own money” (3/27)
20-20-20 Rule (for eyes) (3/27)
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Entry from March 24, 2018
Hillmen (American League baseball team, later called Yankees)

Entry in progress—B.P.
 
Wikipedia: New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of two major league clubs based in New York City, the other being the New York Mets of the National League. In the 1901 season, the club began play in the AL as the Baltimore Orioles (no relation to the modern Baltimore Orioles). Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchased the franchise (which had ceased operations) and moved it to New York City, renaming the club the New York Highlanders. The Highlanders were officially renamed the Yankees in 1913.
(...)
Move to New York: the Highlanders years (1903–1912)
The team’s new ballpark, Hilltop Park (formally known as “American League Park”), was constructed in one of Upper Manhattan’s highest points—between 165th and 168th Streets—just a few blocks away from the much larger Polo Grounds. The team came to be known as the New York Highlanders. The name was inspired by a combination of the team’s elevated location in Upper Manhattan, and to the noted Scottish military unit The Gordon Highlanders, which coincided with the team’s president Joseph Gordon whose family was of Scots Irish heritage. Newspapers initially called the team “Gordon’s Highlanders” (e.g. New York World, April 15, 1903), which soon became just “Highlanders”.
 
Wikipedia: Hilltop Park
Hilltop Park was the nickname of a baseball park that stood in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. It was the home of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball from 1903 to 1912, when they were known as the “Highlanders”. It was also the temporary home of the New York Giants during a two-month period in 1911 while the Polo Grounds was being rebuilt after a fire.
 
The ballpark’s formal name, as painted on its exterior walls, was American League Park. Because the park was located on top of a ridge of Manhattan Island, it came to be known as Hilltop Park, and its team was most often called the New York Highlanders (as well as the Americans and the Yankees). This “Highland” connection contrasted with their intra-city rivals, the Giants, whose Polo Grounds was just a few blocks away, in the bottomland under Coogan’s Bluff.
 
Hilltop Park sat on the block bounded by Broadway, 165th Street, Fort Washington Avenue, and 168th Street. (...)  Hilltop Park was demolished in 1914.
 
Baseball Reference
New York Highlanders
The New York Highlanders were an American League baseball team that played from 1903-1912. In 1913, the became known as the New York Yankees.
 
History
The new ballpark for the new team was constructed at 165th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, one of the highest points on the island. Formally known as “American League Park”, it was nicknamed “Hilltop Park” or “The Hilltop”, and was signficantly smaller than the Polo Grounds, the Giants’ home just a few blocks away. Publisher William Randolph Hearst’s New York Evening Journal referred to the new club as the “Invaders” in 1903, but switched in the spring of 1904 to the name that would stick for several years: the New York Highlanders. The name was a reference to the team’s location and also to the noted British military unit The Gordon Highlanders, which fit as the team’s president from 1903 to 1906 was Joseph Gordon. By 1904, the team was also being called the “Yankees”, a synonym for “Americans”, but initially “Highlanders” was the most common unofficial nickname of the new team.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CitySports/Games • Saturday, March 24, 2018 • Permalink


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