Philadelphia Baseball History

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 ...

Going into the last month of the season, it looked as though the Phillies had a difficult task ahead of them. At 50-83, in order to avoid 100 losses on the season, the team had to win 13 of their final 29 games. That would be a winning percentage of .448 for a team who came into the month with a .375 winning percentage for the season. Plus, the Phillies faced the division leading Nationals seven times, the league leading Dodgers four times, and the Mets, who seemed to have the Phillies' number this year, six times.  Yet here we are, just three games left for the season, and the Phillies are winning. Not only are they winning, but winning against teams that matter. When the Dodgers came to town, they had yet to clinch their division. The Phillies took three of four from them. When the Nationals came to town, they were playing for a 100 win season. The Phils won two of three from them, and ensured that there would not be a 100 wins in Washington. In fact, the Phillies have a win...