Get Ready for More Sports Outrage

[Bicycle Bill]

No US-born black players on expected World Series rosters

That's right.  Jackie Robinson broke MLB's color barrier in 1947, and with only one exception (in 1950), ever since that time there has always been at least one black player on the roster of one of the two teams in the Fall Classic.

Until this year.

Read the AP News story here.

-"BB"-

[MajGenl.Meade]

(a) I thought you'd be happy - after all, it's not about anything except ability. Best person for the job

(b) did you overlook the words "US born"? There's POC fellows, including black(ish) chaps. Now you want US-born players only?

[Long Run]

The decline of blacks playing baseball has been a topic for nearly 20 years. Basketball and football have simply out-competed baseball for black players. This is part of the bigger trend of fewer U.S. kids in general playing baseball. This also leads to MLB being less popular without enough younger fans to replace those aging out. While the oldsters here might know who is playing in the WS, if you were to go into any high school that is not in the area of the two teams left, and few kids would be able to name the teams or even know that the WS was happening.

[Crackpot]

Is it World Series time?

[Burning Petard]

Sports is the national religion of the USofA. Once Baseball was the official state established religion, with special laws exempting it from many legal restrictions. That has faded away and now the NFL is the dominant denomination with many locally established branches. [see the Green Bay Packers as a prominent example] Still some older traditions of the former 'national pastime' still survive, but note the 'summer game' has now adapted the tiered play-off championship of other denominations. In theory, the winner of the World Series could now have a regular season record of less than .500. World Series is now played only at night and will go into November.

snailgate

[Sue U]

Is it World Series time?

Not for you; in fact, never for you. (Sorry.)

In theory, the winner of the World Series could now have a regular season record of less than .500.

As our Phillies ably proved this season. (Okay, they were *this much* over .500.)

If you had told me anytime before Labor Day that the Phillies would even be in the playoffs, let alone the World Series, l would have just assumed you were smoking crack.

[Econoline]

Is it World Series time?

Not for you; in fact, never for you. (Sorry.)

Welcome to life in Chicago!

[liberty]

One down and basketball, football, soccer, golf, and tennis to go; the world is becoming a better place.

[Joe Guy]

Isn't using the team name "Philadelphia Phillies" the same as San Francisco's team calling themselves the San Francisco Frannies?

Or the Chicago Chicaggies? New York Yorkees?

Miami Mamees?

[Bicycle Bill]

Maybe they were sponsored originally by the cigar company?

-"BB"-

[datsunaholic]

In theory, the winner of the World Series could now have a regular season record of less than .500.

snailgate

Could have done so even before the Wild Card was introduced in 1994. It is, and was since the divisions were created, possible to win one's Division with a losing record, it just never happened in the MLB like it has in the NFL.

It would be VERY unlikely to have a Wild Card team under .500.

[Sue U]

Isn't using the team name "Philadelphia Phillies" the same as San Francisco's team calling themselves the San Francisco Frannies?

Or the Chicago Chicaggies? New York Yorkees?

Miami Mamees?

Just for you, Joe.

How they came to be called the Phillies

December 1st, 2021

Todd Zolecki

If you peruse Baseball Reference long enough, you might stumble onto the Phillies’ franchise page.

The Phillies played their inaugural season in the National League in 1883, but according to the site they were known as the Quakers through '89. It is interesting then that the Phillies are sometimes called the “oldest, continuous, one-name, one-city franchise” in baseball.

So, what gives?

Well, a team called the Philadelphia Quakers joined the National Association in 1873. The league, however, folded in '75. The NL formed a year later, but the National Association’s Philadelphia A’s joined it. The A’s, however, got booted from the NL after refusing to take a road trip late in the season. The NL eventually wanted to re-establish itself in Philadelphia, so it disbanded the Worcester (Mass.) Brown Stockings (also known as the Ruby Legs) and formed a new franchise in Philadelphia in '83.

They were called the Phillies.

They were also called the Quakers, too. Unofficially, it seems.

Former Phillies vice president of communications Larry Shenk’s research staff (OK, the Baron is a one-man show) flipped through “The Philadelphia Phillies,” a book written by Fred Leib and Stan Baumgartner and published in 1953. (It was the only book in the Phillies’ PR office when Shenk joined the organization in '63.) In the book, Leib and Baumgartner wrote, “By general consent, the new team (1883) came to be known as the Phillies, one of the most natural and spontaneous of all big league nicknames. It was easily understood, as any oaf could recognize a Phillie to be a player from Philadelphia. However, the nickname of the old National Association Philadelphias -- the Quakers -- persisted, and for years a number of Philadelphia dailies referred to the new ball team as the Quakers.”

“Phillies: An Extraordinary Tradition” is the official history book of the franchise. In it, Bob Warrington confirmed that original owner Al Reach named the franchise the Phillies because “it tells you who we are and where we are from.”

The Phillies officially became the Phillies in 1890.

[Long Run]

So Joe is correct.

[Burning Petard]

Hey Sue -- you gonna go to any of the games? I just heard on channel 3 that all games thru #5 are sold out. The cheapest tickets (in Philadelphia) were for standing room only at $700 a pop. I wonder what that means about neighborhood parking?

snailgate.

[Joe Guy]

Just for you, Joe.

How they came to be called the Phillies.....

Thanks, Sue.

As I recall, (without doing a google search) from my own warped memory of my family playing the Stratomatic Baseball board game with some old time teams when I was a kid, The Philadelphia A's (Athletics) continued at least into the 1930s in the relatively new American League and eventually became the Oakland A's. They had some great players in the early days like Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx and a pitcher - Lefty Grove - who won over 30 games one year.

Oh yeah, and Boston probably should have named their baseball team the Boston Bostonies. Red Sox sounds too gay... .

But at least they didn't come up with the silly name that Cincinnati used for a few years - The Redlegs.

[Sue U]

So Joe is correct.

It would seem so!

Hey Sue -- you gonna go to any of the games? I just heard on channel 3 that all games thru #5 are sold out. The cheapest tickets (in Philadelphia) were for standing room only at $700 a pop. I wonder what that means about neighborhood parking?

snailgate.

If I were going to any of the games (which, so far, I'm not) I wouldn't drive; I'd take the PATCO Hi-Speed Line to Broad Street and then take the subway down to the ballpark. Faster and cheaper than driving and parking. I've entered a couple of contests to win tickets, but I expect I'll be watching the tee-vee like a few million other people in the Delaware Valley.

[BoSoxGal]

I read somewhere that Phillies was a shortened version of Philadelphians - that the team was once officially the Philadelphia Philadelphians.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Oh come on. They were obviously named after a particularly greasy, mushy, cheesy, steak, onions and mushroom thingie.

[Jarlaxle]

In theory, the winner of the World Series could now have a regular season record of less than .500.

snailgate

Could have done so even before the Wild Card was introduced in 1994. It is, and was since the divisions were created, possible to win one's Division with a losing record, it just never happened in the MLB like it has in the NFL.

It would be VERY unlikely to have a Wild Card team under .500.

Closest was actually 2005: the Padres won the very-bad NL West at 82-80.

[Jarlaxle]

Just for you, Joe.

How they came to be called the Phillies.....

Thanks, Sue.

As I recall, (without doing a google search) from my own warped memory of my family playing the Stratomatic Baseball board game with some old time teams when I was a kid, The Philadelphia A's (Athletics) continued at least into the 1930s in the relatively new American League and eventually became the Oakland A's. They had some great players in the early days like Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx and a pitcher - Lefty Grove - who won over 30 games one year.

The A's played in Philadelphia until 1954, and Kansas City from 1955 to 1967.