Old Judge Question... Philadelphia / Athletics

[cozmokramer]

I’m curious about the team labeling for Philly on Old Judge cards.

Why is it that Philadelphia Quakers are listed as “Philadelphia” but the Philadelphia Athletics actually say “Athletics”.

Why... or should I ask How... was it decided to use the city name for one and the team name for the other?


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[RUKen]

Originally Posted by cozmokramer

I’m curious about the team labeling for Philly on Old Judge cards.

Why is it that Philadelphia Quakers are listed as “Philadelphia” but the Philadelphia Athletics actually say “Athletics”.

Why... or should I ask How... was it decided to use the city name for one and the team name for the other?

Each team was a business that had a name that usually included the identity of the city they played in; e.g. Philadelphia Base Ball Club. "Quakers" was just a nickname bestowed by fans and the press; it was not a part of the official team name. "Phillies" began as a nickname and became official decades later. A few teams had a name that did not include the city; e.g. Athletic Base Ball Club (Philadelphia) and Eclipse Base Ball Club (Louisville). The press would always use the official name. The Eclipse team had changed its name to Louisville Base Ball Club by the time that Old Judge cards were produced, so only the Athletics were identified by what looks to us as the team nickname. Edited to add: The players of the Metropolitan Base Ball Club in 1887 were also identified by their team "nickname", rather than as members of a New York team.

The American League Athletics were also identified as "Athletic" in early 20th century box scores and newspaper articles (while other teams were identified by city name), but at some point they also became known as Philadelphia.

[z28jd]

Originally Posted by cozmokramer

I’m curious about the team labeling for Philly on Old Judge cards.

Why is it that Philadelphia Quakers are listed as “Philadelphia” but the Philadelphia Athletics actually say “Athletics”.

Why... or should I ask How... was it decided to use the city name for one and the team name for the other?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Back when cities had two teams, one usually went by the city name and one by a nickname. Nicknames were never official names back then and often changed year-to-year.

I'm currently doing some reading on the 1890 season and one thing I noticed is that the local newspapers in Pittsburgh made it clear early in print that they would be calling the Player's League team the "Pittsburghs" and the National League team would be the Alleghenys. The PL team has the nickname Burghers, but that was never used by some papers. Even saying the Pirates name was adopted in 1891 is wrong because the local scribes rarely used that. You would see Pirates from some opposing cities. The team itself never fully embraced Pirates as a nickname until 1895.

Back then in print, most teams just went by cities, and at least for the current Pirates franchise, their first 26 years were spent in Allegheny City, which eventually became part of Pittsburgh.

[Fred]

I could only find a few team names that were not cities on OJs:

Athletics
Browns
Maroons
Mets
Whites