Philadelphia Athletics
Major League Baseball team in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954.
The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team based in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954. The franchise later moved to Kansas City, then Oakland, and eventually to West Sacramento, with a planned relocation to the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Eight former Philadelphia Athletics players were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Quick Facts
- Established
- 1901
- Relocated
- 1955 (to Kansas City, Missouri; became the Kansas City Athletics)
- League
- American League (1901–1954)
- Series
- World Series
Facts from the source article.
History
Former catcher Connie Mack was hired to manage the club, and he persuaded Phillies minority owner Ben Shibe and others to invest. The team was named the Philadelphia Athletics, reviving the name of the Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia, a founding NL member that folded after one season in 1876. Mack bought a 25% interest, and the remaining 25% was sold to sportswriters Sam Jones and Frank Hough. The new league recruited players from the NL, including second baseman Nap Lajoie, who jumped from the Phillies and won the AL's first batting title with a .426 average, still a league record. In 1902, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidated Lajoie's contract with the Athletics, ordering him back to the Phillies, but the order was enforceable only in Pennsylvania; Lajoie was sold to Cleveland and kept out of Philadelphia road games until the 1903 National Agreement. The Athletics played at Columbia Park from 1901 through 1908, hosting two home games of the 1905 World Series there.
Legacy
The Athletics first faced the Phillies in interleague play in June 2003 at Veterans Stadium, where former Athletics Eddie Joost and Gus Zernial were invited, and Connie Mack's daughter Ruth Mack Clark attended the first game. Connie Mack III, the former U.S. Senator and Mack's grandson, threw out the first ball. The Phillies visited the Athletics in Oakland in June 2005, with Joost throwing the first pitch. In 2011, the Athletics played the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, with the Phillies winning two of three games. Nostalgia for the Athletics persists in the Philadelphia region, supported by the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society and a company selling retro gear. The franchise played in Oakland longer than in Philadelphia, and in 2023 announced a planned move to Las Vegas in 2028, with a temporary relocation to West Sacramento for 2025–2027.
Achievements
The Athletics display at their stadium the numbers of Hall-of-Fame players from the Philadelphia years and the years of their World Championships: 1910, 1911, 1913, 1929, and 1930. From 1978 to 2003, the Philadelphia Phillies inducted one former Athletic annually into the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame at Veterans Stadium, honoring 25 Athletics. In 2004, the Athletics' plaques were moved to the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, and a single plaque listing all inductees was attached to a statue of Connie Mack across from Citizens Bank Park.
More in History of Major League Baseball by team
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