A’S CORPORATE DOCUMENTS ON DISPLAY

By David M. Jordan

A treasure trove of corporate documents from the early days of the existence of Ben Shibe’s and Connie Mack’s franchise, together with similar ones from the Athletics’ Ottawa farm team, purchased in 1952, are now on display in our museum in Hatboro. These artifacts are on loan to the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society from SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research. A SABR board member, Norman Macht, in the course of his ongoing work on a biography of Connie Mack, discovered these items in the archives of a Philadelphia law firm. Macht and the board of directors of SABR determined that a very appropriate place to display them would be the A’s Society museum.

There are six items in all, described as follows:

(1) The minute book of the Athletic Grounds Company, the corporation which actually built Shibe Park. The first minute describes the first meeting of the board of this corporation, on August 26, 1908, with those present being Benjamin F. Shibe, Cornelius McGillicuddy (it will be noted in all of these legal documents the Macks used their legal family name), Thomas S. Shibe, John D. Shibe, Frank L. Hough, and Samuel H. Jones (the latter two, of course, the two newsmen who initially owned between them 25% of the A’s club). The final meeting recorded in this minute book took place January 2, 1914, with the three Shibes and Cornelius McGillicuddy present; it was voted to dissolve the corporation and transfer all its assets, simultaneously with the transfer of all the assets of the American Base Ball Club of Philadelphia, a corporation founded in 1901, to the new and reorganized corporation, also called the American Baseball Club of Philadelphia, established in 1913.

(2) The stock transfer ledger for the American Baseball Club of Philadelphia (1913),
showing all the A’s stock transfers over the years to various Macks (sorry,
McGillicuddys), Shibes, McFarlands and an occasional Reach.

(3) The corporate seal of the American Baseball Club of Philadelphia (1913), which still gives a very nice imprint.

(4) The minute book for the Ottawa Baseball Club Ltd., starting with the organization meeting, Feb. 11, 1952, with five Canadian organizers, officers, and directors, then the meeting of Feb. 13, 1952, at which the five original Canadian directors and officers resigned and transferred their shares to Cornelius McGillicuddy, Earle T. McGillicuddy, Roy F. McGillicuddy, Arthur H. Ehlers (then the A’s general manager), and J. Channing Ellery (the club’s legal counsel), who became the Ottawa club’s officers and directors. The last entry in this book is dated December 9, 1954, a sad meeting to dissolve the corporation and to distribute its assets to the only surviving shareholder at that time, the American Baseball Club of Philadelphia, which was then on its way to Kansas City, Missouri.

(5) The stock transfer ledger for the Ottawa Baseball Club, Ltd.

(6) The stock certificate book from 1952 of the Ottawa Baseball Club, Ltd., with share certificates signed by Earle and Roy McGillicuddy.

Needless to say, these books and records are full of priceless signatures of Shibes and McGillicuddys, and they help to tell through the corporate dealings a good part of the off-the-field history of the Philadelphia Athletics. Somewhere, we presume, are the minute books of the two American Baseball Club of Philadelphia corporations, the one from 1901, the other 1913, but even without them these artifacts and records tell quite a story themselves.