Archive for the ‘Baseball History’ Category

The 1905 Athletics: American League Champions!

by Bob Warrington Introduction Connie Mack and his Athletics brought Philadelphia its second baseball championship in 1905 by capturing the American League crown. Using many of the same players who won the A’s first league title in 1902, Mack tasted victory for a second time in 1905, but only after surviving a harrowing pennant race. […]

An Interview With Eddie Mayo

  This is another of the interviews with wartime ballplayers conducted by A’s Society member Kit Crissey and included in his book, Teenagers, Graybeards and 4-F’s, vol. 2 (copyright 1982), and reprinted with Kit’s permission.  

Nellie Fox The One That Got Away

by Dale Smith During his 50-year reign as manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, Connie Mack was known for having an uncanny ability to spot potential. Whether on a college diamond, an independent minor league team or through the A’s own farm system, Connie just seemed to know which players were going to have Hall of […]

An Interview with Lum Harris

by Harrington E. Crissey, Jr. (Editor’s note: Local baseball historian Harrington “Kit” Crissey published two volumes of interviews with big league ballplayers in World War II baseball, entitled Teenagers, Graybeards and 4-F’s. The second volume, copyrighted in 1982, featured American League players. Kit has kindly given us permission to reprint from time to time his […]

What Would Have Happened If the War Hadn’t Intervened

By Father Jerome Romanowski aka “The Baseball Padre” Nineteen Forty One could have been the year like 1922 when Connie Mack began to build another winning team. Once the team of that era reached a total of 65 wins, it began a gradual ascent to the top of the American League. The Athletics of 1922 […]

A Wet Day In Motown

Al Schacht, the humorist pitcher-coach for many years with the Senators, loved to recall a story Wally Moses liked to tell from back in the 1930s. “The Athletics opened their western trip in Detroit,” Moses recalled. “It had rained all the previous night and the mud and water were ankle deep on some parts of […]

Connie Mack’s First Book

by Bob Warrington Most Philadelphia A’s fans are aware of two books “authored” by Connie Mack late in his life—“My 66 Years in the Big Leagues” and “Connie Mack’s Baseball Book.” I put quotation marks around the word “authored” because it is generally believed that the books were ghost-written, perhaps by Richard S. (Dick) Armstrong, […]

Greek George: A Slam-Bang Way To Go Out

by David Jordan Charles Peter George, known to one and all as “Greek,” was a well-known catcher back in the ‘30s and ‘40s. What he was known for, unfortunately, was not his ballplaying skill but for being involved frequently in funny or unusual situations on the field.      

The Story of the 1964 Phillies Press Guide

by Bob Warrington Today, Media Guides are an indispensable source for background information about a baseball team, its players and officials, organization, statistical records (both good and bad), ballpark, franchise history, and other reference material. Originally produced by clubs as Press Guides exclusively for members of the media—primarily newspaper writers and broadcasters with daily responsibility […]

Connie Mack’s Days as a Player With The Washington Nationals

by Bob Warrington Introduction Most baseball fans with a sense of history are aware of the legendary managerial career of Connie Mack—the skipper of the Philadelphia Athletics between 1901-50. Less well known is the fact that Mack also had an 11-year career as a major league baseball player in the late 19th century. Generally regarded […]