The '''New York Yankees''' are a Major League Baseball team, based in the borough of The Bronx, in New York City, New York.
The Yankees are one of two major league franchises to operate in the city of New York; the other team is the New York Mets of the National League, who are based in the borough of Queens.
Since the 1969 divisional realignment, the Yankees have played in the Eastern Division of the American League. They have been Major League Baseball's dominant franchise, winning more pennants (39) and World Series titles (26) than any other team. The Yankees also have more championships than any other top league professional team in North America.
One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Yankees have been among the most storied teams in their history of more than a century. Along with franchises like the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Cowboys, and Montreal Canadiens, the Yankees have helped exemplify the phrase "dynasty" in professional athletics.
[SI's Top 20 Dynasties of the 20th Century http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/centurys_best/news/1999/05/06/top_dynasties/]The Boston Red Sox are the Yankees' chief rival, with the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry widely considered the most heated rivalry in all of American professional sports.
Distinctions
The Yankees have won 26 World Series in 39 appearances (which, since the first World Series in 1903, currently amounts to an average appearance every 2.8 seasons and a championship every 3.9 seasons); the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia/Oakland Athletics are tied for second with nine World Series victories each, and the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers are second in World Series appearances with eighteen; eleven of those eighteen appearances have been against the Yankees, where the Dodgers have gone 3-8 against them. Among the 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. The Yankees are also the only team that is represented at every position in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
History
Origins
At the end of the 1900 season the American League (AL) re-organized and, with its president Ban Johnson as the driving force, decided to assert itself as a new major league. Previously known as the Western League until 1899, the AL carried over five of its previous locations and added three more on the East Coast, including one in Baltimore, Maryland, which had lost its National League team when that league contracted the year before. The intention of Johnson and the American League had been to place a team in New York City, but their efforts had been stymied by the political connections that owners of the
