April 12, 1909: Shibe Park Opens

April 12, 1909: Shibe Park opens, at 21st Street and Lehigh Avenue, in North Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-1.

Right fielder Danny Murphy went 4-for-5 with 5 RBIs for the A's. 3rd baseman Simon Nicholls went 3-for-4. Eddie Collins, early in a Hall of Fame career for the A's and the Chicago White Sox, went 2for-2 with 2 walks, and an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Eddie Plank went the distance for the win, allowing 1 run on 6 hits and 3 walks. Tris Speaker, early in a Hall of Fame career for the Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians, went 0-for-3.

There was a touch of tragedy to this grand event: A's catcher Michael "Doc" Powers -- ironically, a practicing physician as well as a big-league ballplayer. crashed into a wall while chasing a foul pop-up. He suffered internal injuries, and was taken to a hospital. Following 3 intestinal surgeries -- keep in mind, this was before the development of antibiotics -- he developed peritonitis, and died on April 26. 

Doc Powers

He is often cited as a player who died as a result of an in-game injury, but his death was not directly caused by one. In 1920, Ray Chapman of the Indians was hit in the head with a pitch, and died the next day, so, officially, he is the only MLB player to die as a result of an in-game incident.

After playing their 1st 8 seasons a few blocks away at Columbia Park, the A's moved into the 1st ballpark made of concrete and steel, rather than having wood as a base. It was also the 1st ballpark to have sunken dugouts, rather than simply benches. It started a concrete and steel ballpark building boom:

1909: Shibe Park, Philadelphia Athletics

1909: Sportsman's Park, St. Louis Browns

1909: Forbes Field, Pittsburgh Pirates

1910: League Park, Cleveland Indians

1910: Comiskey Park, Chicago White Sox

1911: Polo Grounds (rebuilt after a fire), New York Giants

1911: American League Park (rebuilt after a fire), Washington Senators

1912: Redland Field, Cincinnati Reds

1912: Navin Field, Detroit Tigers

1912: Fenway Park, Boston Red Sox

1913: Ebbets Field, Brooklyn Dodgers

1915: Braves Field, Boston Braves

In 1913, the New York Highlanders renamed themselves the Yankees, and moved into the Polo Grounds. They also played in the only other game played on April 12, 1909, a Monday, losing to the Senators, 4-1 at the previous American League Park. This was early in Walter Johnson's career: It wouldn't be until the next season that he would be the Senators' Opening Day starting pitcher. In 1923, the Yankees opened the original Yankee Stadium.

In 1914, the Chicago Whales of the Federal League opened Weeghman Park. In 1916, after the FL folded, their owner, Charlie Weeghman, was allowed to buy the Chicago Cubs. Weeghman Park became Cubs Park in 1920 and Wrigley Field in 1926.

In 1920, former pitcher Clark Griffith bought the Senators, and renamed their ballpark Griffith Stadium. That same year, the St. Louis Cardinals abandoned wooden Robison Field, and moved into Sportsman's Park as tenants of the Browns. In 1953, Gussie Busch bought the Cardinals and the ballpark, and renamed it Busch Stadium. New Busch Stadiums would open in 1966 and 2006.

In 1934, Powel Crosley bought the Reds, and renamed their ballpark Crosley Field.

In 1938, Tigers owner Walter Briggs fully enclosed Navin Field, and renamed it Briggs Stadium. In 1961, new owner John Fetzer renamed it Tiger Stadium.

Also in 1938, the National League's Philadelphia Phillies abandoned Baker Bowl, the last wooden ballpark, and became tenants of the American League's Athletics at Shibe Park.

Benjamin F. Shibe was a sporting-goods executive, who got his start working for Al Reach, the sporting-goods titan who had played for a previous professional team called the Philadelphia Athletics. Shibe is credited with the invention of the automated stitching machinery to make standardized baseballs. He hired former Pittsburgh Pirates catcher and manager Connie Mack as manager and part-owner. Together, from 1901 to 1914, they won 6 Pennants and 3 World Series.

Ben Shibe

After Shibe died on January 14, 1922, Mack shared ownership with Shibe's sons Tom and Jack. They won 3 straight Pennants in 1929, 1930 and 1931, winning the World Series in '29 and '30. But Mack lost all his non-baseball assets in the stock market's Crash of 1929, and ended up having to sell off his better players to keep the franchise afloat.

Connie Mack

To make matters worse, on February 16, 1936, Tom Shibe died. A year after that, on July 11, 1937, so did Jack Shibe. Mack, team treasurer from day one, bought their widows out, and controlled 75 percent of the team. He gave his sons Roy, Earle and Connie Jr. minority stakes and management positions.

And he was still the manager, and couldn't be fired, no matter how badly he did. The owner wasn't going to force him out: He was the owner. No other manager or head coach in North American professional sports has ever enjoyed that kind of job protection.

But he couldn't hold off the effects of advancing age. In 1937, and again in 1939, Earle, who had briefly played for him and was serving as one of his coaches, had to manage the team for a time due to Connie being ill. And that was just the tip of the iceberg.

In hindsight, once he bought the Shibe widows out, what he should have done was make Earle the manager, and "kick himself upstairs," and stick to being the owner and the GM. But, like Wenger, he believed he could turn it around one more time.

In 1943, Bob Carpenter bought the Phillies. In 1950, they won the Pennant, while the A's finished last. Earle, Roy and Connie Jr., agreeing on little else, ganged up on the old man, and forced him into retirement, but couldn't run the A's any better. In 1953, they sold Carpenter the ballpark, although he admitted, "I need Shibe Park like I need a hole in the head."

In recognition of the old man's achievements, he renamed the place Connie Mack Stadium. After the 1954 season, Earle and Roy, having bought Connie Jr. out, sold the A's to Arnold Johnson, who moved them to Kansas City. Carpenter allowed old Connie to keep his office in the bell tower behind home plate until his death in 1956.

The NFL's Philadelphia Eagles played there from 1944 to 1957, including winning the 1948 NFL Championship Game there, beating the Chicago Cardinals, 7-0 in a blizzard.

Of Connie Mack Stadium, Phillies Hall-of-Famer Richie Ashburn once said, "It looked like a ballpark. It smelled like a ballpark. It had a feeling and a heartbeat, a personality that was all baseball." But as North Philadelphia incurred white flight, urban decay, and a race riot in 1964, the demand for a new ballpark intensified. Veterans Stadium was supposed to open in 1968, but delays pushed it back to 1971.

The last game at Connie Mack Stadium was played on October 1, 1970. The Phillies beat the Montreal Expos, 2-1 in 10 innings. Fans stormed the field, and ripped the oldest remaining Major League Baseball stadium apart.

On August 20, 1971, a fire set by two boys who had broken in gutted the place. It became a public fire and health hazard. But it couldn't be demolished, because there was a dispute as to who owned the structure. (The Carpenter family had sold it in 1961.) Trees were growing on the field, and the structure became a haven for winos and a sale point for drug dealers. Finally, on June 22, 1976, overstepping his authority as he often did, but probably acting in the best interest of the city, Mayor Frank Rizzo gave an order: "Tear the fucking thing down!" On July 13, mere hours before the All-Star Game was played at Veterans Stadium, 63 blocks to the south, the bell tower, the last remaining part of the park, was taken down.

When I first visited the site in 1987, it was an empty lot, and the only evidence that baseball had been played there for 62 seasons was a strip mall across 21st Street with a store called The Phillies Pharmacy. In 1992, the Deliverance Evangelistic Church was built on the site. A historical marker now stands on Lehigh Avenue, telling of the glory days of the A's and the Phils.