Philadelphia Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies are one of the oldest teams in North American professional sports to stay in the same city and keep the same nickname. The team started out in the National League in 1883 under the very stern and austere official moniker of the Philadelphia Quakers, but were referred to as the Phillies from the earliest days of their existence, which they adopted officially in 1890 and have kept ever since. To say the young Phillies didn’t actually tear up the league upon joining is an understatement, with the team recording a lamentable 17-81 record (.173 win percentage) in their opening season. However, unlike many of the early teams in the league that are still playing today, the Phillies did not experience the rapid improvement and early triumphs in their earlier years. It was not until 1915 that the team finally won a National League pennant, after which they were trounced in the World Series by the Boston Red Sox (one of those “early success” teams still playing today). The Phillies then spent a miserable three and a half decades in the National League basement, finishing dead last 16 times and recording just four winning (above .500) seasons. It seems somewhat hard to believe that the team had any fans left at all in 1950 when they claimed the pennant again and made a return to the World Series against the New York Yankees, and indeed their home games in the series were attended by less than half the number who piled into Yankee Stadium to see their high-powered stars win Games Three and Four to finish up an easy sweep of the Phillies. The team began to improve from thereon, however, posting many winning seasons but never quite reaching October until after divisional play started and they made three consecutive appearances in the NLCS between 1976-1978. The Phillies lost all three series, managing to win just two games out of eleven on the way, though these years did at least produce one winner in Philadelphia: a new mascot known as the Phillie Phanatic. It is still a mystery what this round furry green trumpet-nosed creature actually is (he was designed by a company that worked with the guys who made The Muppets, perhaps an apt word to describe the first 90 years or so of the Phillies’ attempts to win baseball games), but he soon became a huge part of Phillies games, annoying opposition players and managers (the Phanatic was twice tackled by opponents who had had enough), stomping on opposition merchandise, hexing opposition pitchers, shooting hotdogs into the crowd, and pouring popcorn over commentators’ heads. Perhaps because of or in spite of such enjoyable mascot hijinx, the Phillies won their first ever NLCS in 1980 when they beat the Houston Astros in a Game Five decider despite being down 5-2 in the 8th with the fearsome Nolan Ryan on the mound for the Astros. The game ended up going to extra innings, where a single run in the top of the 10th was enough to win the game for the Phillies, sending them back to the World Series for the first time in 30 years. They were matched up against the Kansas City Royals, who were aiming to be the first expansion team to win the championship and proved stiff opponents, but the Phillies, led by the irrepressible Mike Schmidt, managed to eke out a 3-2 series lead heading back to Philadelphia for Game Six. There, an all-time record TV audience and a live crowd of over 65,000 watched the Philadelphia Phillies win their first-ever World Series in almost a century of trying as the spectacularly-named Tug McGraw finished off the Royals with a ninth inning strikeout. The party to end all parties raged through the City of Brotherly Love for days. The Phillies then went through quite a strange three decades, rarely qualifying for the playoffs but getting to the World Series four times in just six playoff runs between 1981 and 2009. The team was well beaten by the Baltimore Orioles in 1983 in five, unraveled by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993 (courtesy of Joe Carter’s walk-off series winning home run in Game Six, when the series looked set to head to Game Seven), and shut down in six by the Yankees in 2009. In 2008, however, the Phillies absolutely stormed through the playoffs, losing just three games in three series as they flattened the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Tampa Bay Rays to give Philadelphia its second World Series triumph. The Phillies were back in the World Series again in 2022, and back to losing it, dropped 4-2 by the Houston Astros. But with this close call followed by a heartbreaking Game Seven defeat in the 2023 NLCS by the Arizona Diamondbacks, anticipation is starting to build among Phillies fans that a third title might be within their grasp before long.

Philadelphia Phillies Rivalries

It is impossible to imagine any Philadelphia sports team not having strong rivalries and the Phillies are no different. The team’s spiciest rivalry currently is with the New York Mets, due not only to their recent battles to dominate the NL East but also to several punch-ups in years gone by. Until divisional realignments in the 1990s, the Pittsburgh Pirates were the Phillies’ fierce local rivals, battling not only for Pennsylvania bragging rights but for playoffs spots. The rivalry has cooled off in recent years, but older fans still tend to harbor a grudge against the Pirates. 

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