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Meet the Phillies I n the city of Philadelphia Pennsylvania sports fans have a lot of choices There are professional teams in baseball football ootball basketball and hockey College sports also compete for for attention The Phillies are the city’s oldest team They have e been bringing together friends families and baseball fans since the 1800s The athletes who play for the Phillies come from all over the country and all over the world Like others in the city they help give Philadelphia its wonderful diversity They also work as hard at their jobs as the people who pay to watch them play This book tells the story of the Phillies Year in and year out ut they do whatever they can to reach the World Series And each each season people come from miles around to be part of that journey They cheer for the Phillies when they play well and definitely let them hear about it when they don’t That is the Philadelphia way Philadelphia fans cheer Ryan Howard after he scores a run 5
Glory Days T he Phillies played their first season in 1883 By then the game of baseball had already been popular in Philadelphia for two generations A team called the Athletics first brought professional baseball to the city in the 1860s The Athletics went out of business in 1876 For several years baseball fans in Philadelphia did not have a major-league team to root for They were happy when the Phillies joined the National League NL During the 1890s the Phillies had some awesome teams and truly great players Billy Hamilton Ed Delahanty and Sam Thompson formed an excellent outfield Hamilton was baseball’s greatest leadoff hitter Delahanty was the game’s most exciting slugger Thompson had a strong bat and an even stronger throwing arm 6
Other stars of those early clubs were catcher Jack Clements infielder Napoleon Lajoie and pitcher Charlie Ferguson In the early 1900s John Titus Roy Thomas and Sherry Magee gave the Phillies another excellent outfield It was not until 1915 however that the team won its first pennant That club was led by a young pitching ace named Grover Cleveland Alexander Alexander Erskine Mayer and Eppa Rixey kept games close for Philadelphia’s hitting stars including Gavvy Cravath Dave Bancroft and Fred Luderus The Phillies fell on hard times during the 1920s 1930s and 1940s They had some great hitters including Cy Williams and Chuck Klein But the team played in a small ballpark and their pitchers could not tame opposing hitters Finally in 1950 the Phillies assembled a group of good young pitchers Robin Roberts and Curt Simmons were two of the NL’s best starting pitchers Jim Konstanty was the league’s top relief pitcher With the help of young hitters Richie Ashburn Del Ennis Granny Hamner and Willie Puddin Head Jones the Phillies won their LEFT Billy Hamilton ABOVE Grover Cleveland Alexander 7
