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. ...

Octavius V. Catto was honored today when his statue was unveiled in front of Philadelphia City Hall. Fans of the Ken Burns documentary "Baseball" will recall Catto as being a civil rights leader who attempted to integrate baseball before the professional leagues were founded. Catto worked as an educator. His friend, the principal of the Roberts Vaux Consolidated School, Jacob White, founded an African American baseball team, the Philadelphia Pythians in the 1860s. Catto was the star shortstop of the Pythians.  In 1867, White first attempted to join the Pennsylvania Base Ball Players Association, but was persuaded to withdraw that application on account of racism. Later that year, the Pythians applied to join the National Base Ball Players Association, but was again infamously rebuffed due to the team's racial make-up. This did not deter Catto, who used baseball as a tool to educate African Americans on civil rights. After a game, Catto would take the opportunity to ...

William J. Kovatch, Jr.             In 1947, Jackie Robinson burst on the scene, breaking the color barrier that plagued the major leagues for seventy years.   Adept with the bat and quick on the base path, Robinson helped make the Dodgers perennial contenders and eventually World Champions in 1955.             Robinson’s accomplishments were made possible by Dodger General Manager Branch Rickey, one of the game’s greatest innovators.   Through Robinson, Rickey was exorcizing his own demons.   As the manager of the Ohio Wesleyan University baseball team in the early twentieth century, Rickey’s star catcher was Charles Thomas, the only black player on the team.   Rickey watched as Thomas encountered racism across the Midwest, and was refused lodging during the team’s road trips.   The memory of the mistreatment Thomas suffered haunted Rickey f...

William J. Kovatch, Jr.             On July 9, 1903, the naked, mangled body of a man with his leg shorn off was fished out of the Niagara Gorge, downstream from Niagara Falls.   The body was identified as Ed Delahanty, outfielder for the Washington Senators and former offensive powerhouse for the Philadelphia Phillies.   Delahanty had last been seen on July 2, when a train conductor, John Cole, fed up with Delahanty’s drunken misconduct, threw him off of the train before crossing the International Railway Bridge.   A New York Times obituary reported that Delahanty had an open razor and was terrorizing passengers in a sleeper compartment.   Delahanty had been drinking too excess, and became confused and irate when he tried to enter a sleeper compartment that was already occupied.   Cole failed to follow proper procedures and simply left Delahanty at the Bridgeburg station, instead of leaving Delahanty...