Athletic of Philadelphia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This is about the first so-called "Philadelphia Athletics" baseball team (1860-1876). See Philadelphia Athletics (American Association) for the 1882-1891 AA Athletics and Oakland Athletics for the 1901-1954 American League Athletics.
Philadelphia "had been a baseball town from the earliest days of the game", fielding amateur teams since at least the early 1830s. In 1860 James N. Kerns formed a club, simply named "Athletic Base Ball Club", that soon dominated amateur play in the area (Jordan 1999). Harper's Weekly chronicled a match between Athletic and Atlantic of Brooklyn for the baseball championship in 1866. A famous Harper's illustration shows the Athletic players in uniforms with the familiar Old English "A" on front.
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[edit] Name
The simply named Athletic Base Ball Club was established in 1860. When newspapers developed stand-alone game scores and league standings, the club was termed Athletic (Base Ball Club being dropped in any case). In prose the team was commonly called the Athletics, plural, and later generations have usually called both club and team the "Philadelphia Athletics". Athletic of Philadelphia is a compromise that contemporary readers would understand as an abbreviation for something like Athletic Base Ball Club, of Philadelphia in distinction from clubs of the same name in other cities.
[edit] National Association
Athletic turned professional in the late 1860s and helped establish the first league, National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NA), which began play in 1871. It played home games at Jefferson Street Grounds at least until expulsion from the major leagues in 1876.
The Athletics were one of the successful National Association teams, winning the first pennant with a record of 21 wins and 7 losses (.750), two games ahead of the Boston Red Stockings and Chicago White Stockings.[1] While Boston dominated the NA, winning the other four pennants, Athletic and Mutual (of New York) also fielded teams every year, Athletic winning a few more games overall but never challenging Boston.[2]
Dick McBride served as regular pitcher for more than a decade and as captain throughout the NA seasons, which gets him manager credit today. Other star players include Al Reach in the 1860s and Cap Anson 1872 to 1875. (Anson took over as captain near the very end of the 1875 season.)
- During their five-year existence the Athletics won 165 games and lost only 86 for a winning percentage of .657. Notable players on their roster included Hall of Famer Cap Anson, infielder Ezra Sutton, and pitcher/manager Dick McBride.
[edit] National League
During the summer of 1875, Chicago moved decisively to improve its team by recruiting six western stars then playing in Boston and Philadelphia. Four Red Stockings and Anson would play for Chicago in 1876, Ezra Sutton remaining in Philadelphia for the Athletics final season.
Chicago's William Hulbert, assisted by player Albert Spalding and sportwriter Lewis Meacham, moved at the same time to organize a new league. Hulbert recruited first St. Louis (NA), then two independent clubs from Louisville (Grays) and Cincinnati, and finally four eastern clubs: Athletic, Mutual, Hartford, and Boston.[3]
After fifteen years as a strong and stable club, Athletic fared poorly in the new National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, finishing seventh with 14 wins in 60 games, 38 wins behind Chicago. Near the end, the financially-troubled team refused to make a western road trip, shutting down with 35 games played at home, 25 away.[4] Mutual of New York also refused, owing the western teams nine home games. Both clubs were expelled from the National League, which simply contracted from eight to six for the 1877 season.
- The 1876 Athletics were managed by Al Wright (baseball manager) and played their home games at the Jefferson Street Grounds.
- Their top-hitting regular was left fielder George Hall, who batted .366 with a slugging percentage of .545. Another strong batter on the team was third baseman Levi Meyerle, who hit .340. The best pitcher on the team was Lon Knight, who won 10, lost 22, and had an ERA of 2.62.
[edit] Record
Year W L T Games Rank in games (in wins) 1861 2 2 4 14 1862 1 1 2 non-member 1863 7 5 12 2 (4th in wins) 1864 8 1 9 10 (tie 3rd) 1865 15 3 18 2 (2nd) 1866 23 2 25 2 (2nd) 1867 44 3 47 1 (1st) 1868 47 3 50 2 (tie 1st) 1869 45 8 53 3 (3rd) 1870 65 11 1 77 2 (tie 3rd in wins) Championship matches with professional teams 1869-1870 1869 15 7 22 3 (tie 2nd in wins) 1870 26 11 1 38 2 (3rd) Professional leagues 1871 21 7 28 6 (1st place) 1872 30 14 3 47 4 (4th place) 1873 28 23 1 52 6 (5th place) 1874 33 22 55 6 (3rd place) 1875 53 20 4 77 3 (3rd place) 1876 14 45 1 60 7 (7th place)
Source for season records: Wright (2000) has published records for dozens of NABBP teams each season, relying on a mix of game and season records in contemporary newspapers and guides. Dozens of leading clubs by number of matches are included, as are many others. The records do not consistently cover either all games played or all championship matches between NABBP members.
[edit] Notes
- ^ But the race was much closer. The primary official criterion was neither games nor winning percentage but wins and the three clubs finished in the order given with 21, 20, and 19 wins. The final game played, Chicago at Athletic, was decisive only because the Athletics won it --and by a particular treatment of forfeit games.
- ^ Except for Mutual in 1874, shorter lived clubs finished second. Judged by winning percentage, a later criterion, Athletic in 1875 achieved the sixth best season in NA history behind only the five pennant winners. But the criterion was wins, an incentive for clubs to complete their series. In the five NA seasons Athletic ranked 6-4-6-6-3 in games played, 1-4-5-3-3 in wins. --And the club ranked terminally 7 in games played for 1876.
- ^ Three NA clubs still in business were excluded: Philadelphia (White Stockings or Phillies), Atlantic (of Brooklyn), and Elm City (of New Haven). The Athletics and Mutuals were selected rather than the Phillies and Atlantics, as the NL granted exclusive territories to all member clubs. New Haven was too small a city and the club had declined to travel West in 1875, playing only three home games apiece with Chicago and St. Louis. One wonders whether other criteria would have been imposed to support the neat eight clubs, four West and four East, but that is for thought experiments.
- ^ Athletic "owed" each of the four western teams two games at its home ballpark, having played only three each. It played only three games in New York, and Mutual played only four in Philadelphia, another symptom of mutual athletic decline. But the League would not have expelled two clubs for shirking on their visits to each other.
[edit] References
- Baseball-Reference. "Philadelphia Athletics Team Index" (1871-1875). Retrieved 2006-09/17.
- Baseball-Reference. "Philadelphia Athletics Team Index" (1876). Retrieved 2006-09-07.
- Jordan, David M (1999). The Athletics of Philadelphia: Connie Mack's White Elephants, 1901-1954. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-7864-0620-8
- Retrosheet. "Philadelphia Athletics (1871-1876)". Retrieved 2006-08-30.
- Wright, Marshall (2000). The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-7864-0779-4
