From 1901 through 1954, the Athletics won five World Series and another four American League pennants. Numbers that fifty years later still rank the Athletics as Phillyville's most succesful franchise. Connie Mack, the Athletics' famous manager, was among the initial class of inductees to Cooperstown. These guys were the New York Yankees of their era... yet they packed their bags and moved to Kansas City.
While all this winning was going on, the team to be left behind was busy putting together the longest string of futility in the history of sport. From 1918 through 1948, the Phils managed one (1!!!) winning season. That's several generations of losing baseball. Jim Mora, former coach of the Philadelphia Stars, must have been quoting Doc Prothro when he exclaimed "Playoffs? Playoffs? We can't be thinking of the playoffs! We're trying to win one game!"
Yet it was the Athletics and all our championships that left town. Why we they allowed to walk? When the greatest team in Philadelphia sports history packed their bags, where were the maddened thousands crying "Fraud!"
Waterless urinals, John Street, Tom Ridge holding up a $1 bill, Andy Ashby, the Navy Yard, the curse of Billy Penn, the BPT, the A's in Oakland, our trolleys in SF... call it allegory, call it metaphor. In Phillyville, call it the symptoms of our pathological provincialism. Like another -ville, Phillyville's maddened thousands have grown accustomed to watching our heroes strike out.
Phillyville needs to escape the myopia of our past. We need to think big, knock down a few windmills and Bring Back the A's!
About Me
- DeWitt
- My name is DeWitt Brown. I'm just some guy who while writing a blog about the Phillies came to the realization that Philly's sports teams suffer from the same pathologies as their host city. As for "Ruby Legs," it's just the silly user name I picked for my gmail account (The Phillies were originally the Worcester Ruby Legs). And as google also owns blogger, it became my default user name. I had no intention of "blogging" anonymously as I really never expected anyone bother reading this drivel. Tens of thousands of page views later, d'oh! So, to be clear, this blog was and remains a hobby. Some people like watching Dancing with the Stars, I like writing a stupid blog. Its content reflects my personal interests (as warped as that may be) and is the kind of stuff you're likely to hear me yelling about at some local watering hole after I've had a couple. In every sense of the word, this blog is a personal account of what I am thinking about on any given day. And other than one Wawa ad that ran on the site over a year ago that netted me a whopping $15, I derive absolutely no financial benefit from this site. If you need any other clarifications, email me.