The history of the Boston Red Sox begins in , as one of the original franchises of the American League. Early years 1900–1909 In 1900, Ban Johnson's minor Western League, based in the Midwest, declared its equality with the National League, then the only major league in baseball. Johnson changed the name of his league to the American League. Competing in the streets, the upstart placed franchises in two of the largest and most important NL cities, Philadelphia and Boston. Despite the National League club having been previously well established in the city, beginning play in 1871, the new American League club managed to immediately surpass their in-city rivals in popularity. Factors contributing to this include the signing away of many of the star players from the "Nationals" to the "Americans" to more lucrative contracts, a more accessible location of their home park, animosity between Boston baseball fans and "Nationals" owner Arthur Soden, and more efforts made by the "Americans" to attract the growing Irish-American population to their games, as opposed to the "Nationals" preferring to market themselves more to Anglo-Saxons. Playing their home games at Huntington Avenue Grounds, the Boston franchise (often called the Americans during this time) finished second and third place in their first two seasons before capturing their first pennant in 1903 and repeating the feat in 1904. These early Boston teams were led by manager and star third baseman Jimmy Collins and by pitcher Cy Young, both signings away from the NL club, whose 1901 to 1904 seasons both rank among the best four-year runs ever. In addition, the Americans received significant contributions from outfielders Chick Stahl, Buck Freeman and Patsy Dougherty. In 1903, the Americans participated in the first modern World Series, beating the favored Pittsburgh Pirates and winning the best-of-nine series five games to three. The Americans were aided both by chants of "Tessie" from their Royal Rooters fan club and by their stronger pitching staff. The 1904 club was almost as good as the previous year's team, but due to the emergence of the New York Highlanders as a strong contender, the Americans found themselves in a tight pennant race through the last games of the season. Foreshadowing what would eventually become a storied rivalry, the 1904 race featured such controversial moves as the trade of Patsy Dougherty to the Highlanders for Bob Unglaub. However, the arguable climax of the season occurred