The Philadelphia Athletics, also known as the Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia, was a prominent National Association, and later National League, professional baseball team that played in the second half of the 19th century.

Founding and early success (1860–1875)

Early history

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

"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 the Athletic Base Ball Club, which soon dominated amateur play in the area. ''

Harper's Weekly ''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper (publisher), Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many su ...

'' chronicled a game 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 blackletter "A" on front. When newspapers developed stand-alone game scores and league standings, the club was termed Athletic with Base Ball Club being dropped in any case. In prose, the team was commonly called the Athletics, and it was later known as the Philadelphia Athletics.

National Association

The Athletics 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. Their home field had been at 15th and Columbia, an otherwise unnamed venue informally called "the Athletic grounds." For 1871 they relocated to

Jefferson Street Grounds Jefferson Street Grounds was a Baseball park, baseball field located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was also known as Jefferson Park and Athletics Park. It was home to three different professional baseball teams, competing in three different sp ...

, playing most of their home games there until being expelled from the major leagues after the 1876 season. The Athletics were one of the most 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. The race was actually even closer; the primary official criterion then was neither games nor winning percentage, but wins, and the three clubs finished in the order given with 21, 20, and 19 victories. In the final game of the season, played on October 30 in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, the Athletic defeat Chicago, 4–1, clinching the title. Chicago had become a road team following the Great Chicago Fire. Nate Berkenstock, a 40-year-old amateur who played right field for Philadelphia that day due to injuries, made his only big-league appearance in the game. While Boston dominated the NA, winning the other four pennants, the Athletics and New York Mutuals also fielded teams every year, with Philadelphia winning a few more games overall but never challenging Boston. Dick McBride served as regular pitcher for more than a decade and as captain throughout the NA seasons, which gives him manager credit today. Other star players include

Al Reach Alfred James Reach (May 25, 1840 – January 14, 1928) was an Anglo-American sportsman who was one of the early stars of baseball in the National Association. After his playing career, he went on to become an influential executive, publisher, s ...

in the 1860s and Cap Anson, who played from 1872 to 1875. At the very end of the 1875 season, Anson took over as the team's captain. The Athletics also played one game in Dover, Delaware on June 24, 1875. They played at Fairview Park Fair Grounds. 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 An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field, between first base and third base. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns pla ...

Ezra Sutton, and

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

and manager Dick McBride.

National League (1876)

During the summer of 1875, the Chicago White Stockings moved decisively to improve its team by recruiting six stars then playing in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and Philadelphia. Four Red Stockings players,

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...

Deacon White,

s Cal McVey and Ross Barnes, and

Al Spalding, and Philadelphia Athletics

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the Baseball scorekeep ...

Cap Anson played for Chicago in 1876, with Ezra Sutton remaining in Philadelphia for the Athletics' final season. Chicago's William Hulbert, assisted by player Albert Spalding and sportswriter Lewis Meacham, moved at the same time to organize a new league. Hulbert recruited first the St. Louis Brown Stockings of the National Association, independent clubs from Louisville and Cincinnati, the Louisville Grays and Cincinnati Reds, and four eastern clubs: the Athletics, the New York Mutuals, the Hartford Dark Blues, and the Boston Red Stockings. Three NA clubs still in business were excluded: the Philadelphia Whites, Brooklyn Atlantics, and the New Haven Elm Citys. The Athletics and Mutuals were selected rather than the Whites and Atlantics, as the new National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs 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. On Saturday, April 22, 1876, the Athletics played in the first game in the history of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

, losing to the Boston Red Caps, 6–5. After having spent 15 years as a strong and stable club, the Athletics 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 of the season, the financially troubled team refused to make a western road trip, finishing with 35 games played at home and 25 away.The 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 the Mutuals played only four in Philadelphia, another symptom of the Mutual–Athletic decline. But the league would not have expelled two clubs for shirking on their visits to each other. 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 and played their home games at the

. Their top-hitting regular was

left fielder In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...

George Hall, who batted .366 with a slugging percentage of .545. Another strong batter on the team was

Levi Meyerle Levi Samuel Meyerle (July 1849 – November 4, 1921) was an American Major League Baseball player who played for eight seasons in organized professional league play. During his career he played for the Philadelphia Athletics of the National ...

, who hit .340. The best

on the team was Lon Knight, who won 10 games, lost 22, and had an ERA of 2.62.

Record

Championship matches with professional teams (1869–1870) and with professional leagues (1871–1876) 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.

Notes

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, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. *Retrosheet

Retrieved 2006-08-30. *Wright, Marshall (2000). ''The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857–1870''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. {{DEFAULTSORT:Philadelphia Athletics (1860-1876) 1860 establishments in Pennsylvania Baseball teams disestablished in 1876 Baseball teams established in 1860 Defunct baseball teams in Pennsylvania Defunct Major League Baseball teams Defunct sports clubs and teams in Pennsylvania Athletics (1860-1876) National Association of Base Ball Players teams National Association of Professional Base Ball Players teams Sports clubs and teams disestablished in 1876