Philadelphia Baseball History

Baseball, having evolved from the game of rounders, is at its heart a child’s game. Growing up in the city, it was easy to start a baseball game. All you needed was a stick in a rubber ball for equipment. Gather a few friends. Find an open space such as an empty lot, or even a quiet city street where a car’s bumper would serve as a base. Boom! You have a ball game. It should be of no surprise, therefore, that this children’s game has attracted many children at heart to play professionally. The childish exploits of the great babe Ruth, and his soft spot for children fans, are well known in the baseball world. But child-like exploits as an adult often go hand-in-hand with child-like irresponsibility. And this could be a problem when a grown man cannot control his behavior, or curb child-like excesses. It often takes great patience to see the potential in such a player. Such was the case of George Edward “Rube” Waddell.  Waddell’s child-like exploits are well-known. Waddell ...

The 1929 Philadelphia Athletics boasted four future Hall of Famers: Jimmie Foxx, Robert “Lefty” Grove, Al Simmons and Mickey Cochrane. But the most unexpected hero of that season was a thirty-five year old right-handed pitcher with a submarine-style motion, Howard Ehmke.  Born in Silver Creek, New York, Ehmke moved to Los Angeles in 1913. The Los Angeles Angles of the Pacific Coast League signed him to a contract, and then sold his rights to the Washington Senators. Ehmke spurned the Senators in favor of signing with the Buffalo Blues of the upstart Federal League.  But Ehmke’s year with the Blues was disappointing. After the Federal League folded, Ehmke played with the Syracuse Stars, and was sold to the Detroit Tigers. However, the Senators claimed that they still owned the rights to Ehmke. AL President Ban Johnson agreed. The Senators then sold their rights to the Tigers.  Ehmke played six seasons with the Tigers, until he was traded to the Red Sox befor...

For the Philadelphia sports fan it is easy to be romantic about the Athletics. After all, their five world championships surpass those of all of the professional sports teams that play in Philadelphia today. But let’s not kid ourselves. The A’s we’re not always that good. In fact, during the time between the two major dynasties, and after 1931, the A’s were downright horrible. A lot of that had to do with the way baseball teams were recruited. While Connie Mack was good at recruiting baseball teams in the early 20th century, he proved unable to adapt to modern methods of recruitment. And thus the Philadelphia A’s wallowed in or near the cellar for a good portion of their existence. In 1901, when Ban Johnson was forming the American League to be a competitor to the National League, he courted Connie Mack, then manager of the Milwaukee Brewers of the western league, because of his talent in putting together baseball teams.  Mack could assemble talented teams b...

It may seem weird that a guy in his mid 40s is nostalgic about the Philadelphia Athletics. After all, the team had left Philadelphia a good decade and a half before I was even born. I had known about the A’s from the plaques that the Phillies put up at Veteran Stadium every year. Each season the Phillies honored both a Phillie and an Athletic on their Wall of Fame.  The practice of honoring a member of the A’s ended in 2004, and the A’s Wall of Fame inductees we’re relegated to a plaque on a statue of Connie Mack in the parking lot of Citizens Bank Park.  Still, as a child, I knew who Connie Mack was. I knew he had an impact on the city. But I had never seen a game Connie Mack managed. I had never seen Bobby Shantz throw a single pitch. I had never even seen Jimmy Foxx hit a home run. There were something romantic about the Athletics. Perhaps it was growing up in the 1970s as a Phillies fan. To this date, I can recite starting lineup of the 1977 Phillies.  I tu...