Did the Yankees win their 10,000th game yesterday? Some say yes, some say no
 

There is a fascinating debate going on over Baseball Reference's (the de facto Bible of baseball stats) decision to dissociate the New York Yankees franchise from the 1901 & 1902 Baltimore Orioles. That decision came earlier this week, days before what would have been the 10,000th victory in franchise history.

We, of course, have always believed--through thousands of books and citations over the years--that the Baltimore Orioles "became" the New York Yankees. Even earlier this season, accounts of the Dodgers 10,000th victory mentioned the Yankees 10,000th victory would come "some time this summer." But now it has happened, and no one has said a word. The discussion is here:

http://www.sports-reference.com/blog...nkees-history/

Fascinating discussion going on there. Some world champion level hairsplitters among the comments, too.

From my interpretation of what John Thorn is saying, the league sold the league "franchise" of the Baltimore Orioles to owners who stood up a team in New York that eventually became the Yankees. I take this to mean the league was selling the open team slot in the league, not necessarily the assets of the Orioles team entity. And that certain players left dangling with the dissolution of the O's signed on to play for the Highlanders. Therefore, it was not a cut & dry "Orioles moved to New York and became the Highlanders".

All those who citing contemporary newspaper articles seem to be implying old=authoritative. From my family history research experience, I found that newspapers were rarely all that concerned with using correct technical terms in any discussion when "first impression" common language would suffice. Newspapers weren't peer-reviewed science journals, they were mechanisms for selling advertising. Heck, even today it is rare for a newspaper article (in print or online) to accurately portray any moderately complex subject.

10,000? Pfft. Giants hit that mark 9 years ago. :D

They eluded to this on the Yankees' broadcast the other night. I think they mentioned that one of the homeruns this past week (maybe Beltran) was possibly the 15,000 HR in franchise history, BUT they were not sure if 1901 & 1902 were being counted. interesting debate.

I see that Baseball-Reference has now split up the 1901-02 Orioles and the Yankees 1903-now, which means they are calling it different franchises for the first time. That is interesting and strange that they are switching the thinking after 110 years

They are apparently just following the lead of Total Baseball, who made the change in 1989.