The birth of the Big Apple: First mention of New York’s enduring nickname dates back 100 years Larry McShane, New York Daily News Back in 1921, when Babe Ruth was in right field for the Yankees and Mayor John Hylan in City Hall, a horse-racing writer for the New York Morning Telegraph overheard a Louisiana chat between two Black stablehands. The pair mentioned an upcoming trip from New Orleans to New York — the Big Apple, as they called it. On May 3, 1921, cub reporter John J. Fitz Gerald used the term in print for the first time, making Monday the 100th anniversary of the now-ubiquitous nickname for the five boroughs, according to a pair of dogged researchers.