Philadelphia Baseball History

It was the late seventies. As a seven or eight year old boy, I was excited to see my favorite baseball player, the Bull, Greg Luzinski, come to the Kiddie City on Erie Avenue near the Juniata Park section of Philadelphia. But the Bull was suffering from an injury that day, and couldn’t make it. In his place, the Phillies sent their star catcher, Bob Boone.  Sure, I was disappointed Luzinski couldn’t make it. But everyone knew Bob Boone. By 1979, he had already been an All-Star three times. He may not have been a serious offensive threat. But he did win Gold Gloves in 1978 and 1979.  And so, Boone showed up. He climbed up on to the temporary stage they had built in the Kiddie City parking lot, and demonstrated some toy. I think it was one of those machines that lobbed a plastic ball in the air that you then hit with a plastic bat. Of course, it didn’t matter. I wasn’t there to buy a new toy. I was there to meet one of the players on my favorite team.  Afterwa...

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...