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Are there any A's fans left in Philly

M

MattParker

An article in this morning's New York Times talks about Giants fans left in the region who can't watch their team (which left New York over 50 years ago) in the World Series because they are Cablevision subscribers and Fox is not available to them right now. As the article mentions, there are also Dodgers fans in Brooklyn. I guess if guys can pine all their life for the girl who dumped them in high school, they can remain loyal to a team that left town when Ike was president.

Are there any Athletics' fans still left in Philly? Does anybody still follow the team through a cable "Season Ticket" package or via MLB.com? Or even DXing broadcasts late at night from American League cities?
 
The A's left Philadelphia in 1954 (someone who was 14 when they left would be 70 now). The Giants and Dodgers left New York in 1957. If there are still Giants and Dodgers fans in NY, one would think there are still A's fans in Philly. That there aren't says something, but I'm not sure what. Is it a difference in the local baseball culture? Is it the fact that the A's and Phillies weren't rivals like the Giants/Dodgers and Yankees were (is that true? I have no idea.)?
 
When the A's made their first return to Philadelphia thru interleague play (I think in 03) there was this group of people...like a club with a Philadelphia A's banner. Forget what they called themselves, but they were a group of people who remain A's fans, and still consider the A's the Philadelphia Athletics.
 
aindik said:
The A's left Philadelphia in 1954 (someone who was 14 when they left would be 70 now). The Giants and Dodgers left New York in 1957. If there are still Giants and Dodgers fans in NY, one would think there are still A's fans in Philly. That there aren't says something, but I'm not sure what. Is it a difference in the local baseball culture? Is it the fact that the A's and Phillies weren't rivals like the Giants/Dodgers and Yankees were (is that true? I have no idea.)?
Click to expand...

Apparently there was a rivalry. (Old, very bad, joke: Are you and Phillies fan or an Athletic's supporter?) Like New York and Chicago, different neighborhoods favored one team or the other. Some claimed Republicans favored the Phils and Democrats favored the A's. The two teams played each other in a "city series" (three or seven games) from 1903 until the A's left town in 1955. Supposedly much of the A's fan base switched loyalties to the Phils when A's management kept selling off good players figuring they could make more money with a bad/cheap team. It's a practice a couple of teams still employ but in the A's case, their ticket sales dropped and the Mack family ended up selling out and the team moved to KC.

The difference between Philly and New York/Brooklyn is those teams had active and loyal fan bases until their moves were announced. The A's mostly had alienated their base.

From 1938 to 1950 By Saam was the voice of both the Phils and the A's. Both teams played in Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium and radio did not carry away games. When radio started carrying the full schedule of both teams (on separate stations), Saam stayed with the A's until they left town and then came back to the Phils.
 
Actually, Republicans were A's fans and Democrats were Phillies' fans. This was the time when the Republican machine controlled Philadelphia and City Hall. The A's were the clear favorites in Philadelphia until after WWII. The A's won nine pennants and five world championships betweeen 1901-31. They declined in the 1930s and 1940s. and except for a brief revival in 1947-48-49, they didn't really contend after that. From 1901-45,The Phillies were a poor ballclub, both on the field and off. While the A's played in a palace known as Shibe Park, the Phillies played in the dilapidated Baker Bowl. In 1938, the Phils moved to Shibe Park. After the war, the Phillies improved, thanks to new owner Bob Carpenter and a surplus of great young players. When the Phils won the pennant in 1950, the A's finished dead last in the AL.
In 1954, following a 100-loss season and poor attendance, the A's were sold by the Mack family to Arnold Johnson, who moved the team to Kansas City. Since there was no bridge between the old Philadelphia A's and the KC franchise (most of the old A's players didn't last long in KC), no one remained loyal to the A's in Philadelphia, and many old A's fans switched loyalites to the Phillies. By 1957, the Kansas City Athletics bore little or no resemblence to the Philadelphia franchise.
Radio-wise, both teams began broadcasting games in the 1930s. Many stations carried the games. In the 1940s, WIBG was the home of the A's and Phillies. In 1950, the Phils moved to WPEN.
 
Just to add to this.....there are still Boston Red Sox fans here in Scranton left over from when the Sox AAA team was here in Scranton. I know one of them well....admittedly, he is 67 years old and remembers meeting many of the Sox players when he was a kid. I believe they left Scranton around 1960.

KF
 
Interestingly enough, TCM showed "Fear Strikes Out" this week, which depicted Jim Piersall playing for Scranton in the Red Sox farm system. The Scranton Red Sox/Miners played in the AA Eastern League from 1939 through 1953 as a Red Sox affiliate in all but their last year. Piersall played for the team 1948.

I wonder if minor league baseball creates out-of-area fans for the parent team today. Any Nats fans in Harrisburg? Any KC fans in Wilmington? Both teams draw well locally but I suspect folks still follow the Phils.
 
I'm an OLD A's fan. I still have some publicity pictures of A's players in the original manilla envelope. Eddie Joost, Pete Suter, Ferris Fain. That record setting double play combo. Speaking of Shibe Park, once saw Ted Williams hit a couple home runs against us. I'm a radio guy in Las Vegas, a student of the Blavat Broadcasting School in 1969.
 
It is my impression that most Wilmington Blue Rocks fans still are loyal Phillies and Orioles fans rather than die hard Royals fans. It would be far cooler if the Blue Rocks were either affiliated with the Phillies or the Orioles, but KC's farm team, the Wilmington Blue Rocks bring to Wilmington an exciting brand of minor league baseball that we as Wilmingtonians are proud to support.
 
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