This is written by Johnny Goodtimes, best known for his pursuit of trivia throughout the Philadelphia area.
With the Phillies out of contention, it is now time to turn our attention to that “other” Philadelphia team…the 1929 A’s! Considered by most historians to be one of the 5 greatest teams in MLB history, the 1929 A’s crushed Gehrig, Ruth, and the rest of the Yankees to win the pennant by 18 games to go to the World Series against the Chicago Cubs, led by Rogers Hornsby and Hack Wilson. And over at Phillysportshistory.com, I’m covering that Series as if it were going on live. Wasting way too much of my time in the library on microfiche, and scouring the darkest, baseball-geekiest corners of the internet, I am rounding up tons of old articles, pictures, interviews, and even a little video of that 1929 Fall Classic, and will be presenting them over on the Philly Sports History site for the next week in real time (plus 83 years) with the games themselves. Last year, I covered the 1911 A’s run in much the same way, and the readers and I had so much fun with it I decided to try it again.
And the ’29 Series was a classic, with one of the most memorable innings in baseball history, and the last game ending in a walkoff in Philly with the President of the U.S. in the stands, blisfully unaware that the country was 2 weeks away from it’s greatest economic collapse of all time.
So with Rollins, Howard, and Utley on the golf course, come on over to
phillysportshistory.com and cheer on Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Lefty Grove. And as an extra feature this year, I’ve interviewed a man who was there. Jack Rooney, whose parents owned a house across the street from Shibe and who remembers watching that Series as a child, will give us his recollections about that World Series! Jack’s parents (and almost all of their neighbors) had people pay to sit on their roofs and watch the games. Connie Mack was furious, and the week before the Series was filled with court cases and stern warnings from L&I. We’ll cover that controversy too.
So find out why the great Al Simmons was booed in his home stadium, which Cub superstar choked massively in Game 4, and which Philly pitcher “Could throw a lamb chop past a wolf.” And hopefully we’ll have a live World Series to cheer on next year.
