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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Entry from January 15, 2023
Hug’s Men (New York Yankees nickname)

Baseball manager Miller Huggins (1878-1929) managed the St. Louis Cardinals (1913-1917) and the New York Yankees (1918-1929). Both teams were sometimes nicknamed “Hug’s Men” or “Hugmen.”
     
“Hug’s men” (meaning St. Louis Cardinals) was printed in the St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch on April 1, 1913. “CRAVATH’S SIXTH HOMER OF SEASON BEATS HUG’S MEN” was printed in the St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch on May 18, 1915. “Brilliant Play Costs Hug’s Men Double Victory” was printed in the St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch on August 1, 1916.
     
“Ray Caldwell’s first extended effort for the Yankees was attended by typical Caldwell luck and the customary defeat which broke the young winning streak of the Hugmen” (meaning New York Yankees) was printed in the New York (NY) Tribune on May 9, 1918. “HUG’S MEN TRIM THE BROWNS” was printed in the Tulsa (OK) Weekly Democrat on June 6, 1918. “Hugmen Neatly Turn Tables on the Indians” was printed in the New York (NY) Tribune on July 13, 1918. “HUG’S MEN IN GOOD SHAPE TO TACKLE REDS” was printed in the Cincinnati (OH) Post on March 15, 1920.
   
The New York Yankees were also called “Huggins’(s) Sluggers” or “Hug’s Sluggers,” again after Miller Huggins. Other New York Yankees nicknames include “Ruppert(‘s) Rifles” or “Ruppert(‘s) Riflemen” (after owner Jacob Ruppert), and the still-used “Bronx Bombers.”
     
     
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 is the National League (NL)‘s New York Mets. The team was founded in 1903 when Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchased the franchise rights to the defunct Baltimore Orioles (no relation to the current team of the same name) after it ceased operations and used them to establish the New York Highlanders. The Highlanders were officially renamed the New York Yankees in 1913.
     
Wikipedia: Miller Huggins
Miller James Huggins (March 27, 1878 – September 25, 1929) was an American professional baseball player and manager. Huggins played second base for the Cincinnati Reds (1904–1909) and St. Louis Cardinals (1910–1916). He managed the Cardinals (1913–1917) and New York Yankees (1918–1929), including the Murderers’ Row teams of the 1920s that won six American League (AL) pennants and three World Series championships. (...) He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1964.
     
Newspapers.com
1 April 1913, St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, “New Cardinal Pitchers to Get Test Against Browns” by W. J. O’Connor, pg. 13, col. 6:
Indeed, Stovall’s prize southpaw had only indifferent success against the Cards, and in-as-much as Hug’s men (St. Louis Cardinals—ed.) have batted against southpaws in seven of eight games played so far this season, they should be about ready to maul the portside offerings of anybody Tuesday.
 
Newspapers.com
16 April 1913, St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, “Cardinals Show Fighting Spirit has ‘Come Back’” by W. J. O’Connor, pg. 15, col. 1:
Hug’s men got to Packard in the fourth, when they worried him into submission by refusing to hit wide offerings.
 
Newspapers.com
21 May 1913, Detroit (MI) Free Press, pg. 14, col. 1:
CARDS BEAT
GIANTS AND
RAP MATTY
McGraw’s Peerless Hurler is
Driven From the Box by Hug-
gins’s Men, Who Play Circles
Around Champs.

 
Newspapers.com
2 May 1913, St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, pg. 16, col. 1:
The well-wishers of the Cardinals, numerous here, were anxious to see whether Hug’s men would find Marquard the enigma he has been to them since he became a star.
   
Newspapers.com
18 May 1915, St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, pg. 16, col. 5:
CRAVATH’S SIXTH
HOMER OF SEASON
BEATS HUG’S MEN
 
Newspapers.com
1 August 1916, St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, pg. 11, col. 1:
Brilliant Play
Costs Hug’s Men
Double Victory

 
Newspapers.com
9 May 1918, New York (NY) Tribune, “Perkins Bats Athletics To Victory Over Yankees,” pg. 16, col. 7:
PHILADELPHIA, May 8.—Ray Caldwell’s first extended effort for the Yankees was attended by typical Caldwell luck and the customary defeat which broke the young winning streak of the Hugmen.
 
Newspapers.com
6 June 1918, Tulsa (OK) Weekly Democrat, pg. 5, col. 1 banner headline:
HUG’S MEN TRIM THE BROWNS
   
Newspapers.com
4 July 1918, Washington (DC) Herald, “Yanks Jolted in First Game,” pg. 8, col. 1:
Jimmy jumped into battle to save the day for Old Ad Brennan who had been having his troubles in setting down the Hugmen during the early going.
 
Newspapers.com
8 July 1918, The Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer (Bridgeport, CT), “Cobb and Sisler Tie for Batting Honors,” pg. 8, col. 1:
Baker and Pipp together have made 100 hits, which tells the story why the Yankees are right up in the race. This pair punched out nearly a third of the “blows” made by the Hugmen.
 
Newspapers.com
13 July 1918, New York (NY) Tribune, pg. 12, col. 4:
Hugmen Neatly Turn
Tables on the Indians

Mogridge leads Murderers’
Row to Lop-Sided
Victory
By Charles A. Taylor
 
Newspapers.com
15 March 1920, Cincinnati (OH) Post, pg. 7, col. 1:
HUG’S MEN IN GOOD SHAPE TO TACKLE REDS
   
Google Books
Baseball Team Names:
A Worldwide Dictionary, 1869-2011

By Richard Worth
Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.
2013
Pg. 350:
New York (Mgr. Miller Huggins) Hug Men, (Team owner Jacob) Rupert’s Rifles, Huggin’s Sluggers YANKEES (Yanks)

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CitySports/Games • Sunday, January 15, 2023 • Permalink


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