What if.....?

As a fan of Philadelphia sports have you ever wondered what if…..? What if the Giants never picked up Cody Ross? What if the Phillies didn’t come back in 2007? Here’s one I’m sure someone thought of, but I never heard. What if the Phillies were the ones who left town in 1954. What if the Phillies moved to Kansas City and later Oakland? What would they be called? The Oakland Oakies, Oakland Californians? Or would they name it something different altogether? What and who would we have missed? What have we missed?

　

　

The Philadelphia Athletic’s played fifty-four seasons in Philadelphia before moving due to Kansas City. The Athletic’s were a charter members of the National League. They were also a charter member of the American League. In the first thirty years of their franchise they won nine pennants and five World Series Championships. Even today that makes the Philadelphia Athletic’s the most successful sports team in Philadelphia sports history. The last twenty-four years weren’t as kind to the A’s as the first twenty-nine. Due to a decline in interest the A’s were sold and moved to Kansas City leaving only one baseball team in the city, our beloved Phillies.

WHAT WE’VE MISSED SINCE DEPARTING

• 1954 – Athletic’s play their last game in Philadelphia on September 19, 1954 in a 4-2 loss to the New York Yankees.
• 1954 – A’s last win as the Philadelphia A’s on September 26, 1954 in an 8-6 win over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.
• 1955-1967 – The A’s call Kansas City their home during this time, and literally nothing exciting happened during their time. The only notable thing to mention was that the A’s became a major league farm team for the New York Yankees as the A’s owner made ridiculous trades to the team whose stadium he owned prior to owning the A’s
• 1968 – The A’s move to Oakland which to this day is still their home. And to this day they still play in the same shitty stadium.
• 1968 – Catfish Hunter throws a perfect game against the Minnesota Twins.
• 1970 – Vida Blue throws a No-Hitter against the Minnesota Twins.
• 1972 – The A’s win the first of three World Series titles in the 1970’s.
• 1973 – Win their second world series in as many years.
• 1974 – Win their third consecutive World Series Title.
• 1975 – The A’s have a four pitcher effort in another no-hitter against the California Angels.
• 1979 - The A’s turn two triple plays in a matter of four days.
• 1980 – Rickey Henderson steals 100 bases
• 1982 – Rickey Henderson steals a Major League Record 130 bases.
• 1983 – Mike Warren throws a no hitter against the Chicago White Sox.
• 1986 – Jose Canseco wins Rookie of the Year
• 1987 – Mark McGwire wins Rookie of the Year and belts out a rookie record 49 Home Runs.
• 1988 – A’s win AL Pennant losing the World Series to the L.A. Dodgers in five games.
• 1989 – A’s win World Series in a 4 game sweep of the San Fransisco Giants in what is known as the Earthquake World Series.
• 1990 – Dave Stewart throws a no hitter vs. the Toronto Blue Jays.
• 1990 – A’s win AL Pennant, but lose in the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.
• 1991 - Rickey Henderson becomes the all time steals leader when he steals his 939th stolen base against the N.Y. Yankees breaking Lou Brock’s record. Afterwards he callously says he’s the "greatest of all time" He would have been cheered forever if he said that in Philadelphia. And if you think I’m wrong, think of the reception Jimmy Rollins received when he said the Phillies were the team to beat.

• 2010 – A’s pitcher Dallas Braden tosses the franchise’s 2nd perfect game. Only the 19th in Major League History against the Tampa Bay Rays on May 9 and first ever against the team with the best record in the majors at the time of the game.

Hall of Famers who played for the A’s

Bold were inducted as A’s players

　

Kansas City A’s

Tommy Lasorda
Luke Appling
Lou Boudreau

Whitey Herzog

Satchel Paige

Enos Slaught

Oakland A’s

Orlando Cepeda

Rollie Fingers

Catfish Hunter
Willie McCovey

Billy Williams

Dennis Eckersley

Goose Gossage

Reggie Jackson

Joe Morgan

Don Sutton

Rickey Henderson

Dick Williams

Phillies

As a fan of the Phillies have you ever wondered what it would be like if they weren’t here anymore? We wouldn’t have had 1980 or 2008, but we would have had the Oakland A’s four World Series titles. Does that make you wish the A’s stayed in Philadelphia and the Phillies left town so you had a team with nine World Series titles in 110 years as opposed to the Phillies two titles in 128 years?

Philadelphia fans hate to lose more than anything else, but we are all loyal to the all time losing team in the history of sports. Our team is the first team to reach the 10,000 loss milestone, and as much as we hate to lose did we dread it? Um…oddly enough we celebrated it? Were Phillies fans actually rooting for them to lose to reach a milestone that no other team was within a few hundred losses of catching up to? It’s not as if they were going to give up the lead to the Atlanta Braves who currently have 278 losses less than the Phillies, and played seven more seasons than the Fightins’. The Phillies are currently 1097 games below .500 in their history. Teams that have been in the Major Leagues for 18 less seasons have more wins than the Phillies.

Despite the Phillies history of losing this is about the Phillies from the time that the Athletic’s left the city leaving the Phillies the only team in town. Since the A’s left town the Phillies have finished at .500 or better 28 times, and finished with a losing record 27 times. Their overall record during this time is 4391-4493. The A’s on the other hand have had 30 seasons with a losing record and only 25 at .500 or higher. Their overall record is 4384-4504. So throughout the 55 season the Phillies have won only seven more games than the A’s. The A’s have lost eleven more games than the Phillies.

What we would have missed

• 1964 – Jim Bunning throws the first perfect game in Phillies history.
• 1964 – The Phillies had a 6 ½ game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals with twelve games to play. The Phillies go on a ten game losing streak and finish one game behind the Cardinals losing the pennant. The Cardinals won the World Series that season.
• 1971 - Rick Wise throws a no hitter against the Cincinnati Reds.
• 1972 – Steve Carlton earns 27 wins, a 1.98 ERA and became the first Phillies pitcher to have over 300 strike outs. This during a season the Phils only won 59 games. Carlton wins the Cy Young award as the best pitcher in baseball.
• 1977 – Steve Carlton wins his second Cy Young Award.
• 1978 – The Phillies add what is quite possibly the mascot in all of sports history on April 25,
• 1978 the Phillies introduce the Phillie Phanatic to the city.
• 1980 – FINALLY! After 97 years of losing and heartbreaking losses the Phillies have finally won a World Series defeating the Kansas City Royals in six games.
• 1980 – Steve Carlton wins his third Cy Young Award.
• 1982 – Steve Carlton wins his fourth Cy Young Award.
• 1983 – The Phillies lost to the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series losing the series four games to one.
• 1983 – John Denny wins the Cy Young Award.
• 1987 – Michael Jack Schmidt hits his 500^{th career home run off the Pittsburgh Pirates Don Robinson.}
• 1987 – Steve Bedrosian wins the Cy Young after posting 40 saves.
• 1990 – Terry Mulholland throws a no hitter against the San Fransisco Giants.
• 1991 – Tommy Greene throws a no hitter versus the Montreal Expos.
• 1993 – The Phillies win 97 games and beat the Atlanta Braves to win the Pennant and eventually lose to the Toronto Blue Jays in a six game series remembered for Joe Carter’s walk off home run.
• 1997 – The Phillies Scott Rolen wins Rookie of the Year.
• 2003 – Kevin Millwood tosses a no hitter against the San Fransisco Giants.
• 2004 – The Phillies begin play in their brand new state of the art stadium Citizens Bank Park. That seems to have tuned this era of Phillies baseball into the best in franchise history.
• 2005 – The Big Man Ryan Howard wins rookie of the year after belting out 22 home runs in only 88 games.
• 2006 – In only his second MLB season Ryan Howard earns NL MVP honors after hitting 58 home runs and driving in 149 runs.
• 2007 – With 17 games remaining the Phillies trailed the NY Mets by seven games. The Phillies won 13 of those 17 games to pass the Mets and win the NL East for the first time since 1993. The Phillies would go on to be swept by the Colorado Rockies in the playoffs.
• 2007 – For the second consecutive season a member of the Fightin Phils was named NL MVP. This time it was Jimmy Rollins bringing home the honors.
• 2008 – After making the playoffs on the final day of the regular season the Phillies went into the playoffs on a high not and went on to beat the Milwaukee Brewers three games to 1, and then took on the LA Dodgers in the NLCS knocking them out in five games. The Phillies next faced the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series where they beat them in five games in a series that saw the clinching game delayed for two days before the Phillies could taste champagne.
• 2008 – Shane Victorino and Matt Stairs home runs in the 8th inning of game four of the NLCS that put the Phillies up two runs and gave them momentum to close out the series against the Dodgers.
• 2008 – Game three of the Fall Classic was delayed for two hours and the game didn’t start until after 10 o’clock eastern time. The game was won off a dribbler by Carlos Ruiz at almost 2 o’clock in the morning.
• 2008 – Game four of what is shaping up to be a memorable World Series sees the Phillies starting pitcher Joe Blanton hit a home run into the left field seats and seems to give the Phillies their final push before claiming the title of champions.
• 2008 – Cole Hamels is named World Series MVP.
• 2009 – This season got off to a tragic start as long time Phillies Hall of Fame Broadcaster Harry Kalas died in Washington D.C. while preparing for an afternoon game between the Phillies and the Nationals.
• 2009 – For the first time in Phillies history they reached the Fall Classic in consecutive seasons. This time it wouldn’t be as magical as 2008 was with the Phillies losing to the NY Yankees in six games. Game one however was one of the best playoff performances in Phillies post season history in a game pitched by newcomer Cliff Lee.
• 2010 – On May 29, 2010 Phillies ace Roy Halladay pitched the second perfect game in Phillies history in a 1-0 shutout of the Florida Marlins.
• 2010 – Yet again the Phillies are the NL East Champions, in fact the fourth consecutive season standing atop the division. The Phillies won 97 games and were primed to go deep into the playoffs riding their three headed monster rotation. The first playoff game gave Phillies fans exactly what they thought they would see as Roy Halladay threw his second no hitter of the year and only the second no hitter in MLB post season history against the Cincinnati Reds. The Phillies would dispose of the Reds in a three game sweep and would be knocked out in six games by eventual World Series Champion San Fransisco Giants.
• 2010 – Roy Halladay wins the Cy Young Award.
• 2011 – Heading into the season with what many in baseball to consider one of the best rotations in baseball history. Led by last year’s ace Halladay, and bringing back Cliff Lee to go with Roy Oswalt and 2008 World Series MVP Cole Hamels the Phillies hope to bounce back after last season’s early departure from the playoffs.

Since the A’s left:Phillies have had 28 seasons at .500 or higher to the A’s 25.
A’s have had 30 seasons below .500 to the Phillies 27.
Phillies have won 4,391 games since than to the A’s wining 4,384. That’s is only seven more wins in 55 seasons of baseball. Which was overcome last season.
A’s have lost 4,504 to the Phillies 4,493. A’s have lost eleven more games
A’s have four World Series Titles to the Phillies two.
A’s have won six Pennants to the Phillies five.

The Players we would have missed.

Robin Roberts
Richie Ashburn
Jim Bunning
Rick Wise
Ruben Amaro (not quite as significant, but it paved the way for Ruben Amaro Jr. who is the man behind Cliff Lee x’s 2, Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt. Not officially, but, my opinion.

Steve Carlton

Mike Schmidt
Pete Rose
Larry Bowa
John Kruk
Tug McGraw
Danny Tarta…BULL SHIT.
Ryan Howard
Chase Utley
Jimmie Rollins
Charlie Manuel-not a player, but he’s uncle chalie

Cliff Lee

Roy Oswalt

Roy Halladay

Cole Hamels

Chooch

Regardless of World Championships the Phillies are the team that Philadelphia chose in the 50’s to be their hometown team. Philadelphia isn’t big enough for two MLB teams. Yeah, it would be great to say that our baseball teams has nine World Series titles, but since I’ve been born it would be tied at 1. Going my entire life without seeing a championship made 2008 so much more worth it. I remember just before they closed Market and Broad for the Parade I drove down with an air horn just to get the crowd going. We love our Phillies, and if we had the A’s right now, we’d have one of the cheapest teams in the majors. CBP might not exist if it wasn’t for the A’s leaving town. Hell, the Phillie Phanatic might not be our beloved mascot. If the A’s stayed in town and we had a mascot it would be an elephant. Imagine a baseball team having an elephant for a mascot when it’s zoo doesn’t even have elephants.

I know in the 90’s the Phillies were known to be cheap, but the Phillies have turned the page and now it’s a love story between the Phillies and the fans. The Phillies captured everyone’s hearts a little over two years ago, and the fans are showing their appreciation by showing up every game. So, I for one am not disappointed that the A’s left town. It happened twenty-seven years before I was born. All I’ve ever known and loved has been the Fightin’ Phils.