In 1904, the United States was booming under President Theodore Roosevelt Jr.’s dynamic leadership.

Roosevelt took over as president after a Polish anarchist assassinated President William McKinley in Buffalo. The populace loved Roosevelt, who had been the Rough Riders’ leader, an author, an outdoorsman, a rancher and the New York governor. No city was thriving more than New York with its immigrant-fueled population growth and its flourishing economy.

New York was big enough to support three professional baseball teams – the National League’s Giants, the American League’s Highlanders, and Brooklyn’s Superbas. The Highlanders and the Superbas eventually became the Yankees and the Dodgers.

Immigrants loved baseball, in part because some of their fellow first- and second-generation immigrants excelled on the diamond. Among the most outstanding were Pittsburgh Pirates’ shortstop Honus Wagner, an eight-time batting champion and the Baltimore Orioles’ third baseman John J. McGraw, who ranks third in career on base percentage just behind Ted Williams and Babe........

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