Athletic of Philadelphia
Encyclopedia : A : AT : ATH : Athletic of Philadelphia
- For the team that played in the American Association 1882-1891, see Philadelphia Athletics (American Association).
In the prologue to his 1999 work, The Athletics of Philadelphia, author David M. Jordan states that 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 called simply “Athletic,” which soon dominated amateur play in the area. Contemporaneous editions of Harper's Weekly chronicled the match between Athletic and the Brooklyn Atlantics for the baseball championship in 1866. A famous illustration published in Harper’s Weekly shows the Athletic players dressed in uniforms with the familiar Old English “A” on the front.
The Athletic club later turned professional, and were a charter member of the National Association of Professional Baseball Players, baseball's first major league, which began play in 1871. Other teams were the Boston Red Stockings, Chicago White Stockings, Forest City of Cleveland, Forest City of Rockford (IL), Kekionga of Fort Wayne, New York Mutuals, Olympic of Washington, and Troy (NY) Haymakers. Although the actual team name was the singular Athletic of Philadelphia, it is now often referred to by the more modern-sounding name, Philadelphia Athletics. In league standings they were listed as "Athletic" rather than "Philadelphia." Home grounds for the team was Jefferson Street Grounds.
The original A's were one of the most successful of the National Association teams, winning the first-ever major league pennant in 1871 with a record of 21 wins and 7 losses (.750), finishing two games ahead of the Chicago White Stockings, and finishing second another two times. Their stars included Al Reach, Cap Anson (starting in 1872) and Dick McBride. Anson, who would become a Major League hall-of-famer, hit .415 in 1872 and .398 in 1873. Despite 53 wins, 20 losses and a .726 winning percentage in 1875, the team finished 15 games behind one of the great teams in baseball history, the Boston Red Stockings, who finished that year at 71 and 8 for a .899 winning percentage.
After the 1875 season, six National Association teams withdrew from the league to form the new National League of Professional Baseball Clubs: Athletic, Boston Red Stockings, Chicago White Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, New York Mutuals, and St. Louis Brown Stockings. The Cincinnati Reds and Louisville Grays also joined the new eight-team league.
Though the Athletic were one of the dominant teams in the old National Association, they did not fare so well in the new league, finishing seventh in the inaugural year with a record of 14-45 (.237), 34½ games behind the champion Chicago White Stockings. Toward the end of the inaugural season, the financially-troubled team refused to make a western road trip, and were expelled from the National League, which contracted to six teams for the 1877 season.
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