Philadelphia Baseball History

As Charlie Ferguson sat on the bench, the twenty-two year old must have had butterflies in his stomach.   He turned in a remarkable pitching performance, having gone a full nine innings for the Philadelphia Quakers, one of the nicknames that the Phillies were known by until about 1890, and not a single member of the Providence Grays had gotten a hit off of him.   Unfortunately, the Quakers’ offense was just as anemic as the Grays’ was that day.   And so, on this August 29, 1885, Charlie Ferguson would have to sit and wait, and even be ready to go out for a possible tenth inning. Charlie Ferguson's Opponents Had Been Involved in the First World Series The Quakers’ opponent was the Providence Grays, the reigning National League champions.   They had been involved in the first World Series, although, calling it that may give it a bit more of an air of formality than the series of matches really deserves.   Back in 1884, there were two separate major leagues. ...

This week, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that MLB was considering a proposal for a new playoff format .  Pursuant to the proposal, each league would send seven teams to the playoffs, as opposed to the current five.  The three division winners would be joined by four wild card teams.  The team with the best record in each league would earn a first round bye.  The division leaders, as well as the wild card team with the best record, would host a first round play-off series, which would be a best-of-three series.  That's right.  They would host all three games, not merely two out of the three. But so far, we have not reached the most unusual part of the proposal.  Two of the three teams hosting the first round of playoffs would get to choose their opponent from the bottom three wild card teams.  The division winner in this first round with the best record would have first choice.  The final division winner would get the second c...

By William J. Kovatch, Jr. This week I address the arguments against Pete Rose's reinstatement, and show that as a legend of the game he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.