Philadelphia Baseball History

When you look back at Connie Mack's time in Philadelphia, you see a lot of elephants.  There were elephant on the Athletics' uniforms.  There were elephants on the hats.  Connie Mack had elephant statues.  There was an elephant in the Athletics' logo.  The A's Christmas cards even had an elephant.  Now, most fans of Philadelphia baseball history can tell you that the elephant originated from a comment by John McGraw, the famous manager of the New York Giants.  He called the Philadelphia Athletics a white elephant.  Connie Mack was so amused by the comment, that he adopted the white elephant as the team's mascot.  But, what exactly does all of this mean? White elephants were revered in southeast Asian culture.  They were seen as a sign of wealth and opulence.  Rulers kept white elephants as a symbol of their power.  Because white elephants were revered, they were protected from performing labor.  But this meant that a g...

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 stunned the City of Philadelphia by announcing that they had found a new buyer for the team, and that they were moving to Kansas City.   While the A’s fortunes hand dwindled in the past two decades, the Athletics still had a loyal following.   Indeed, to this day, some Philadelphia baseball fans say the wrong team left. So what happened?   How did Philadelphia lose the A’s? Cornelius McGillicuddy, known as Connie Mack for short, guided the Philadelphia Athletics since the inception of the American League as a rival major league in 1901. Charles Somers, who had made his money in the coal industry, invested the money to help seed five ...