Philadelphia Baseball History

I was considering what topic to write about for the blog this week.  Then it hit me.  Why not write about Roy Halladay?  The Phillies were set to retire his number this season.  Earlier in the week I saw an interview of Todd Zolecki by Tom McCarthy on YouTube where Zolecki spoke about Doc.  Doc had a very interesting career.  He had a very rocky start, and almost didn't make it.  But he worked hard, and now is a Hall of Fame pitcher.   I'm sure I could write an interesting story about him. So, I started with a Google search.  I wanted to see if I could dig up some older stories, and maybe find an interesting angle to write from.  I was surprised when the whole first page of results was about how he had drugs in his system and was engaging in dangerous trick flying when he died. Wait a minute?  Is that news?  I thought we knew this two years ago , not too long after his death. I checked the dates on all of the news repo...

By: William J. Kovatch, Jr. Dick Allen burst on the scene as the second Phillies Rookie of the Year in 1964.  He became a respected power hitter, making the All-Star Team seven times in his career.  Allen was the 1972 AL MVP and finished his career with a .292 batting average, a .534 slugging percentage and a .374 on base percentage. In 2104, he missed being inducted by one vote of the Golden Era Committee.  When the Committee next meets in 2017, he should be in a good position to win election.

William J. Kovatch, Jr. In 1954, the Athletics were the only baseball team in Philadelphia that had brought a World Championship to the city.  In fact, the team won five!  Arguably, the team was more popular than the Phillies. But 1954 was the last season that the American League had a team in Philadelphia.  In the off season, the A's were sold, and by 1955 they were opening in Kansas City. The loss of the Athletics had a number of causes. Connie Mack had guided the team for over fifty years, but was having memory problems.  Because the ownership comprised of his family and the Shibe family, no one was willing to tell him that it was time to leave.  The result was decades of bad baseball, and lost attendance. In the midst of all of this, Mack's children from his late wife did not see eye to eye with his son with his second wife.  The older Mack children then mortgaged the team to buy all of the shares.  But this move was done when attendance ...