In January 1913, Young signed with the New York Yankees. He appeared in his first major league game on April 10, 1913. He appeared in only seven games for the Yankees, all as the team's starting shortstop, compiled a .067 batting average in 15 at bats, and committed five errors. Roger Peckinpaugh won the job as the Yankees' regular shortstop, and on April 27, 1913, the Yankees released Young to the Sacramento Sacts of the Pacific Coast League (PCL). Sacramento Sacts Young appeared in 160 games for Sacramento in 1913. His father was opposed to Young choosing baseball as a career and offered him a fifty percent stake in the family grocery store if Young would give up baseball at the end of the 1913 season. Young announced his retirement, but changed his mind and returned to Sacramento in 1914. He appeared in 199 games in 1914, and his batting average rose to .275. In September 1914, pitcher John Birdie Williams said of Young: "Pep Young is the best infielder on the coast today. He is a wonderful fielder, a great base runner, a fine man to get passes, and he used to be a fairly good hitter. . . . The best description I can give is that he is a second Donie Bush, and you know what that means." Detroit Tigers On August 12, 1914, Young was sold by Sacramento to the Detroit Tigers on the condition he would finish the 1914 season with Sacramento. Young remained as the Tigers' starting second baseman for seven seasons from 1915 to 1921. During his first year with the Tigers, Young received daily, one-on-one batting instruction from the team's center fielder, Ty Cobb. During the 1915 Tigers season, the club compiled a 100–54 for the second highest winning percentage (.649) in franchise history. Young appeared in 123 games for the 1915 Tigers, including 113 as the team's starting second baseman. He only managed to compile a .243 batting average in 1915, but he demonstrated a sharp batting eye and drew 53 bases on balls to boost his on-base percentage to .339. He led the American League's second basemen with 32 errors, but showed promise in also ranking highly among the league second basemen with 371 assists (fourth), a 5.46 range factor per nine innings (fourth), 233 putouts (fifth), 44 double plays turned (fifth), and a .950 fielding percentage (fifth). Throughout his