Baseball adores statistics, and its fans endlessly debate numbers, their relevance and worth.
So, with the storied New York Yankees promoting this season as their 100th anniversary, that figure is also fair game. Is this really the organization's 100th anniversary, a concept the Bronx Bombers are using as the core of a seasonlong marketing campaign, including eight 100th-anniversary game giveaways?
Here are the facts: The organization was founded in Baltimore in 1901, making this its 103rd year. The club moved to New York in 1903 and rebranded as the Highlanders, meaning this is the team's 101st year in New York. In 1913 the team switched to the famous Yankees moniker, so this is the organization's 91st year under that cherished mantle.
"It is not a gray area," insists Rick Cerrone, the team's director of public relations. "The Yankees came into existence as the Highlanders in 1903, and a name change doesn't change the fact of when your franchise was born."
Deborah Tymon, the team's vice president of marketing, said it was never an issue whether branding this season as the 100th anniversary was historically accurate, because 1903 had always been the starting point.
What about the two years in Baltimore? When a company shifts its headquarters, it doesn't usually delete its earlier history, right? Do you then ignore the Indianapolis Colts' years in Baltimore?
Cerrone's answer: "We don't recognize those two years. I can't answer the questions to why; that team went bankrupt or disbanded. It is not a matter of a simple answer. It might have been a transfer on paper only. It has never been recognized in any records or any roster."
But a glance at Yankees history on mlb.com shows the league lists the team's first year as 1901, not 1903. Cerrone, however, said that MLB doesn't recognize the Yankees as a charter member of the American League, which emerged in 1901.
Hayes Roth, a branding expert with Landor Associates, a division of advertising giant WPP Group, has created anniversary programs and views the Yankees' situation as relatively harmless. Anniversary campaigns are about celebrating an organization's history and passion, he said, and not about closely monitoring historical dates. Most companies of the Yankees' age have complicated histories, with name changes and the like, he said.
Hayes said he would not be surprised if the Bronx club, a decade from now, launches a new ad campaign celebrating 100 years of the Yankees name.
