The history of the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball's National League began on November 1, 1882, with the organization of the Philadelphia Ball Club Limited. In 1883, this organization won the franchise rights to Philadelphia when the city was selected to replace the Massachusetts-based Worcesters, who had folded after the 1882 season.
The franchise made its first post-season appearance in 1915, losing to the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. The Phillies franchise also has the second-longest streak of consecutive losing seasons in American professional sports, 16 straight from 1933 to 1948; the record stood until 2009, when it was broken by the Pittsburgh Pirates. After another National League pennant in 1950, the Phillies did not return to the postseason until 1976, beginning a period of extended success for the franchise. From 1975 to 1983, they won five East Division championships as well as the first-half championship in the strike-shortened 1981 season. The team made the playoffs five straight seasons from 2007 through 2011.
The Phillies currently compete in the National League East division. Since 2004, the team's home has been Citizens Bank Park in the South Philadelphia section of the city. The franchise has won two World Series championships (against Kansas City in 1980, Tampa Bay in 2008), and eight National League pennants.
In its 144-season history, the franchise has employed 51 managers and 10 general managers (GMs). Dallas Green and Charlie Manuel are the only Phillies managers to win a World Series: Green in 1980, and Manuel in 2008. Manuel is also the only Phillies manager to win two pennants, and on the last day of the 2011 regular season, surpassed Gene Mauch's 644-win record as the winningest manager in franchise history, taking two fewer seasons than Mauch to accomplish that feat. The longest-tenured general manager is Paul Owens, with 11 years of service to the team as the general manager, from 1972 to 1983. Owens also served as the team manager in 1972, and from 1983 to 1984. After this time, he served as a team executive until 2003, and was inducted into the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame in recognition of his services. The manager with the highest winning percentage over a full season or more was Arthur Irwin, whose .575 winning percentage is fourth on the all-time wins list for Phillies managers.
Origins
The Philadelphia Phillies were organized and founded on November 1, 1882, as the Philadelphia Ball Club Limited and capitalized with $15,000 by a group led by sporting goods manufacturer Al Reach (a pioneering professional baseball player) and attorney John Rogers. The purpose of the organization was "for the playing of base ball ... in the City of Philadelphia."
Reach and Rogers took the place in the League vacated by the Worcester Worcesters, a franchise that had folded in 1882. Some sources, including the Phillies themselves, have claimed that Reach and Rogers bought the Worcester club and moved them to Philadelphia. However, contemporary references document that there is no direct link between the two teams. Most notably, no players from the 1882 Worcesters came to the 1883 Phillies.
The Eastern Championship Association Philadelphia Phillies had played exhibition and league games in 1881 and 1882 and held its games at Recreation Park, and its owners included those who would own the National League Phillies. When the National League rights to Philadelphia were acquired late in 1882, and with the Philadelphia Athletics still operating, the new team assumed the Phillies nickname.
The Phillies played their first game on April 2, 1883, when they defeated the amateur Manayunk Ashlands by the score of 11–0 at Recreation Park. The Philadelphia Inquirer referred to the team as the Phillies from the first game.
In 1884, Harry Wright, the former manager of baseball's first openly professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was recruited as manager in hopes of reversing the team's fortunes. Wright brought immediate credibility to the franchise. His death in 1895 would be mourned by the Phillies and its supporters.
In 1887, they began play at 15th Street and Huntingdon Avenue at the Philadelphia Ball Park, which after 1923 came to be known as Baker Bowl. The team was competitive in the 1890s. The standout players of the franchise in the era were Billy Hamilton, Sam Thompson, and Ed Delahanty, who in 1896 set the major-league record (since tied by several others) with 4 home runs in a single game.
Due to growing disagreements about the direction of the team and the National League, Reach sold his interest to Rogers in 1899.
Early 20th century
The Phillies' had suppressed the wages of their best players Ed Delahanty and Nap Lajoie in the late 1890s. The American League was launched in 1901 to break the National League's monopoly and offer higher wages to its players. After fighting their best players, the Phillies saw them sign with the American League including a number of players who ended up playing for their crosstown rivals, the Athletics, owned by former Phillies minority owner Benjamin Shibe.
Unwilling to compete for players, and while their former teammates throve (the AL's first five batting champions were former Phillies), the remaining squad fared dismally, finishing 46 games out of first place in 1902—the first of three straight years finishing either seventh or eighth. To add tragedy, a balcony collapsed during a game at the Philadelphia Ball Park in 1903, killing 12 and injuring hundreds. Rogers was forced to sell the Phillies to avoid being ruined by an avalanche of lawsuits.
The Phillies won their first pennant in 1915 thanks to the pitching of Grover Cleveland Alexander and the batting prowess of Gavvy Cravath, who set the major-league single-season record for home runs with 24. However, by 1917 Alexander had been traded away when owner William Baker refused to increase his salary. Baker was known for running the Phillies very cheaply; for instance, during much of his tenure there was only one scout in the entire organization.
The effect of the Alexander trade was immediate. In 1918, only three years after winning the pennant, the Phillies finished sixth, thirteen games under .500. It was the start of one of the longest streaks of futility in baseball history. From 1918 to 1948, the Phillies had only one winning record (78–76 in 1932), only finished higher than sixth twice, and were never a serious factor past June. During this stretch, they finished last a total of 17 times and next to last seven times. This saddled the franchise with a reputation for failure that dogged it for many years. For instance, a 1962 cartoon in a baseball magazine depicted a ballplayer arriving at a French Foreign Legion outpost, explaining, "I was released by the Phillies!"
The team's primary stars during the 1920s and 1930s were outfielders Cy Williams, Lefty O'Doul, and Chuck Klein, who captured the vaunted Triple Crown in 1933. Unfortunately, Philadelphia's cozy Baker Bowl proved to be a fertile hitting ground for Phillies opponents as well, and in 1930, the team surrendered 1199 runs, a major-league record still standing today.
1930s–1940s Baker died in 1930 and was succeeded by Charlie Ruch, who had been one of Baker's partners in the syndicate that bought the team in 1913. After only two years, however, Ruch retired on the advice of his doctor. With the support of Baker's widow, team business manager Gerald Nugent was chosen as team president. Nugent had married longtime team secretary Mae Mallon in 1925, and Mallon had inherited 500 shares of Phillies stock upon Baker's death. Baker's widow died in 1934, leaving her 700 shares in the team to Mae Mallon Nugent and her son, Gerald Nugent Jr. Combined with his own shares, this effectively gave Gerald Sr. controlling interest.
On May 1, 1933, the Phillies celebrated the franchise's fiftieth anniversary. The Phillies welcomed back former players to be introduced and cheered by the crowd, and play a five inning exhibition game prior to their regularly scheduled game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Present were former Phillies players of the late 19th century and first decades of the 20th century including John Titus, Roy Thomas, Otto Knabe, Hans Lobert, Kitty Bransfield, Dick Hartley, Mickey Doolan, Red Dooin, Harry Coveleski, Al Maul, Jerry Donovan, George Andrews, Jack Clements, Monte Cross, Jess Pernell, Stan Baumgartner, and Charles Fulmer, who was 82-years old and had played for the 1875 Philadelphia White Stockings in the National Association.
Unlike Baker, Nugent badly wanted to build a winning team. For example, under his watch the Phillies began building a rudimentary farm system for the first time in their history. He also had an eye for spotting obscure talent. However, he did not have the financial means to get the Phillies out of the second division. He was forced to trade what little talent the team had to make ends meet, and often had to use some creative financial methods to even field a team at all.
One problem was the Phillies' National League Park. Once considered one of the finest parks in baseball, it was not well maintained from the 1910s onward. For instance, until 1925 the Phillies used a flock of sheep to trim the grass. Fans were often showered with rust whenever one of Klein's home runs hit girders. The entire right field grandstand collapsed in 1926, forcing the Phillies to move to the A's Shibe Park (five blocks west on Lehigh Avenue from Baker Bowl) for 1927.
For several years—particularly after Nugent took control of the team—the Phillies tried to move to Shibe Park on a permanent basis as tenants of the A's. However, the park was owned by the estate of former Cubs owner Charles Webb Murphy, who refused to let the Phillies out of their lease at first. Finally, when Nugent threatened to sue, the Murphy estate agreed to "suspend" the lease for five years in return for yearly payments, clearing the way for the Phillies to move to Shibe Park.
The nadir came in 1941, when the Phillies finished with a ghastly 43–111 record, setting a franchise record for losses in a season. A year later, they needed an advance from the league just to go to spring training. Nugent realized he did not have enough money to operate the team in 1943, and put it up for sale. He found a willing buyer in minor-league executive Bill Veeck, who had the intention of stocking it with Negro league stars. Unfortunately for Veeck, when Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, an ardent segregationist, found out about it, he pressured National League president Ford Frick to have the league take over the Phillies. The story was initially challenged by a 1998 article in the Society for American Baseball Research's The National Pastime, arguing that Philadelphia's black press made no mention of a sale to Veeck. However, in 2006, Jules Tygiel published an article in the 2006 edition of Baseball Research Journal which proved Veeck indeed planned to buy the Phillies.Revisiting Bill Veeck and the 1943 Phillies, The National Pastime, 2006 issue, page 109. Retrieved 2012-05-12. He expanded on it in an appendix, entitled "Did Bill Veeck Lie About His Plan to Purchase the '43 Phillies?", published in Paul Dickson's biography, Bill Veeck: Baseball's Greatest Maverick. Joseph Thomas Moore wrote in his biography of Doby, "Bill Veeck planned to buy the Philadelphia Phillies with the as yet unannounced intention of breaking that color line."