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RetroSeasons

RetroSeasons recaps past sports seasons through stories, photos, videos, and stats from every team, league, and stadium in history. Coverage includes the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL, as well as vintage media from defunct teams and leagues.

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Philadelphia Athletics
Seasons 1861-1876 (16 seasons)

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Teams Philadelphia Athletics History Seasons

Recap

In 1860, James N. Kerns formed a club, simply named "Athletic Base Ball Club", that soon dominated amateur play in the area (Jordan 1999). Harper's Weekly chronicled a match 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 (Base Ball Club being dropped in any case). In prose the team was commonly called the Athletics, plural, and later generations have usually called both club and team 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, 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. Actually, the race was much 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. The final game of the season, played on October 30 in Brooklyn, saw 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 that 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 in the 1860s and Cap Anson, who played from 1872 to 1875 (Anson took over as captain near the very end of the 1875 season).

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 Ezra Sutton, and pitcher/manager Dick McBride.

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Year	Season	League	Team	W	L	Pct	GB	Standings	Playoffs	Manager	Attendance	Stadium	Berth	Champ
1876	1876	NL	Philadelphia Athletics	14	45	.237		7th	Missed Postseason	Al Wright		Jefferson Street Grounds
1875	1875	NA	Philadelphia Athletics	53	20	.726		2nd	Missed Postseason	Dick McBride (49-18) Cap Anson (4-2)		Jefferson Street Grounds
1874	1874	NA	Philadelphia Athletics	33	22	.600		3rd	Missed Postseason	Dick McBride		Jefferson Street Grounds
1873	1873	NA	Philadelphia Athletics	28	23	.549		5th	Missed Postseason	Dick McBride		Jefferson Street Grounds
1872	1872	NA	Philadelphia Athletics	30	14	.682		4th	Missed Postseason	Dick McBride		Jefferson Street Grounds
1871	1871	NA	Philadelphia Athletics	21	7	.750		1st	NA Champions	Dick McBride		Jefferson Street Grounds		1
1870	1870	NABBP	Philadelphia Athletic	26	11	.697		3rd	Missed Postseason
1869	1869	NABBP	Philadelphia Athletic	15	7	.674		3rd	Missed Postseason
1868	1868	NABBP	Philadelphia Athletic	47	3	.940		1st	Missed Postseason
1867	1867	NABBP	Philadelphia Athletic	44	3	.936		1st	Missed Postseason
1866	1866	NABBP	Philadelphia Athletic	23	2	.920		2nd	Missed Postseason
1865	1865	NABBP	Philadelphia Athletic	15	3	.833		2nd	Missed Postseason
1864	1864	NABBP	Philadelphia Athletic	8	1	.889		3rd	Missed Postseason
1863	1863	NABBP	Philadelphia Athletic	7	5	.583		4th	Missed Postseason
1861	1861	NABBP	Philadelphia Athletic	2	2	.500		7th	Missed Postseason

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