1871 Preview - Philadelphia Athletics

As with the Mutual club, the naming convention at the time was actually Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia. The Athletic club was the top team in Philadelphia from its founding in 1860, and frequently battled on equal footing with the top New York-Brooklyn clubs - Atlantic, Excelsior and Mutual.

Athletic actually won its only championship in 1871, and it was a controversial one. According to David Nemec's outstanding Great Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Major League Baseball, the final standings were so close that the ultimate outcome turned on both a late-season game between Chicago and Philadelphia after the Chicago fire ruined the homes and ballpark of the Chicago club*, and a few early-season games that Rockford allegedly should have forfeited. When both issues went in favor of the Athletics, they won their first and only championship.

The team was disbanded after being kicked out of the National League in 1876, although the new Philadelphia team that would form in the early 1880s "Beer and Whiskey League" would be named after them. That team also didn't last, but the American League Philadelphia entry was also named the Athletics in 1901. And that's why the Oakland A's are named that today. I don't know what the deal is with the stupid elephant on the sleeve, so that's an item for another day.

P - Dick McBride - Union Army veteran and sweetly mutton-chopped pitcher who was the player-manager in 1871. Lifelong Philadelphian who was born in the city in 1845, and died there in 1916.
C - Fergy Malone - He was primarily a catcher - a left-handed throwing catcher. He was also one of the few major league players born in Ireland. (However, many players in the 1890-1910 era were of Irish descent.) Not much else on him out there, other than the fact that he died in Seattle in 1905. A trip to Seattle wasn't exactly normal in those days - makes you wonder what he was doing there. (Not watching basketball, right Slick? HEY-O!)
1B - Wes "Icicle" Fisler - Love the nickname, but again there's not a lot out there on this guy. He spent most of his life living in the Philly area, and played only for them for 1871-76. I don't even know where the nickname comes from.
2B - Al Reach - He was one of the stars of the 1860s, and was age 30 by 1871. He retired from playing around the end of the Association era, and promptly started up a sporting goods company that made him millions before he sold to Al Spalding in 1889, and helped found the Phillies franchise in the early 1880s. He died in early 1928 at the age of 87, which really underscores how long ago this era was. By the time the 1927 Yankees were doing their thing, some of these guys were well into their eighties.
3B - Levi Meyerle - Another lifelong Philadelphian, and an absolutely outstanding hitter in his prime. He was the primary reason the Athletics won the championship in 1871, as he hit .492 for the team. Even with the fair-foul hit (where a ball could bounce in fair territory and then roll foul and still be in play - a practice banned in the 1876-77 offseason), that's still pretty impressive.
SS - John Radcliffe - Another native Philadelphian who played for a few years but didn't leave much of a record other than his alleged fixing of games. In 1874, an umpire came forward and accused Radcliffe, Denny Mack, Candy Cummings, Bill Craver and Nat Hicks of having worked together to throw games. Originally, Radcliffe was convicted and banned, but was later reinstated for reasons that seem a little obscure. A pretty good hitter in the early 1870s.
LF - Ned Cuthbert - He was a solid player about whom little seems to be known. He was a starting outfielder into the 1880s, but does not seem to figure into many stories. He has been credited with inventing the stolen base, but this is disputed - some accounts have stolen bases as part of the game in the 1850s. In any event, many players of the 1870s later in life described their game as station-to-station in comparison to the early 20th century dead ball game. I seem to remember at least one anecdote from George Wright talking about this.
CF - Count Sensenderfer - Best name of the 1871 players. Another lifelong Philadelphian who played for the team throughout the Association era. Sensenderfer went into politics after his playing career, and was a County Commissioner as well as a member of various Democratic committees.
RF - George Bechtel - He was a good outfielder and pitcher in the 1860s and early 1870s, and has the dubious distinction of being the first player ever banned for life from the professional game for throwing games. He tried to get Jim Devlin of Louisville to throw a game in 1876, and was turned in by Devlin, who ironically was banned for life a year later for throwing games. (Maybe he just didn't want to throw games with Bechtel?)

On the whole, the Athletic club seems to have the most local boys. This may be popular with the home crowd, although I suppose we'll have to see whether Philly is just better than other parts of the country at producing big leaguers.

* - Not only did it burn up the homes and ballpark of most of the Chicago players, it burned most of the Chicago banks, too. And in 1871, there was no FDIC insurance. If the bank burned down, your life savings could just be gone. So yeah, it was pretty devastating to the Chicago team. And the rest of the city.