New York Gothams

League Affiliation: Federal Association

Founded: 1883 (Century League)

Ownership History:
James Darrow: 1883-92
Miles Bigsby: 1892-1929
Charles Bigsby Jr: 1929-1937
Leland Winthrop: 1937-present

PENNANTS
1885, 93, 95, 96, 1926, 30, 31, 34, 35, 42, 50, 56

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
1893, 95, 96, 1915, 21, 35, 42, 56

ABOUT THE NEW YORK GOTHAMS

The Gothams were founded in 1883 during the heart of the baseball war between the rival Border Association and Century League. The Border circuit had a club in New York while the Century did not. James Darrow was the club's original owner and convinced his friends and political cronies, Charles and Miles Bigsby, to refurbish their harness racing track into a baseball stadium. That the Bigsby Oval was located directly across the street from the home of the Border Association's New York Stars was the icing on the cake. Still, a club founded largely out of spite turned out to be a pretty good product on the field. Stumbling in their first two seasons, the Gothams found their footing and became one of the Century League's top teams for the balance of the 1880s. In the 90s, they took their winning ways into the newly founded FABL winning three pennants and three World Championships, including the very first one in 1893 (and following up in 1895 and '96). Though real success was harder to come by in the 20th century, by the late 1920s the Gothams were again in the pennant mix in the Federal Association. 

The club's success in the early 1930s was followed by some down seasons, but the team did win titles in every decade except the first decade of the 20th century and entered the 1960s with eight titles. With the Stars and Kings having decamped for points west, the Gothams ruled the nation's largest city for nearly a decade before expansion brought a new team into the Big Apple in 1962.

TRIVIA: Bigsby Oval, the team's home park, was originally built as a harness-racing venue. When the Gothams became successful, the politically-connected Bigsby family sought and received permission to expand the eastern and western seating areas over Riverside Drive and Broadway, respectively, creating "tunnels" on the streets below in order to add seating capacity to a park originally built in 1876.

BUILT: 1876 (Refurbished, 1890, 1919)

IN-USE*: 1883-1938

CAPACITY: 52450

ADDRESS: 3501 Broadway, New York, NY

* - by the Gothams

BUILT: 1939

IN-USE: 1939 - 

CAPACITY: 50000

ADDRESS: 12-01 Astoria Park South, Queens, NY