Philadelphia Baseball History

Beginning with Octavius Catto and Jacob White of the Philadelphia Pythians, the City of Brotherly Love played a large role in the development of African-American baseball. The origins of several talented African-American teams include ties to the Philadelphia area, such as the Cuban Giants, and the Philadelphia Giants. One such team that played in the early 20 th Century was the Hilldale Club. Hilldale played in a city just southwest of Philadelphia, Darby, PA.   The team had its roots in an athletic association for young men, called the Hilldale Athletic Club, formed in 1910. Ed Bolden, who worked in the main branch of the Philadelphia Post Office, founded the club, and had Hilldale Park built in 1914 at Chester and Cedar Avenues in Darby.   Bolden eventually incorporated the team in 1916 as the “Hilldale Baseball and Exhibition Company,” and began recruiting top African-American baseball players. Hilldale had no official nickname, and was mostly referred to as H...

In 1869, two years after Octavius Catto and the Philadelphia Pythians were denied entry into the National Association Base Ball Players because of the color of their skin, fully professional teams emerged. Disappointingly, in the age of professionalism, segregation continued to plague the sport. As professional baseball grew, Philadelphia played a key role in the development of African-American teams.  The Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia captured the first pennant of a fully professional league in 1871, and then played the first game of the National League in 1876.  But the professional major leagues were an exclusive club of all-white teams. In 1884, brothers Moses Fleetwood Walker and Weldy Walker discovered just how exclusive that club was.  The Walker brothers were African-Americans who played for the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association, a major league that rivaled the National League in the 19th Century. Teams from the American Associ...

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 ...