Buying the house

Connie Mack Stadium in 1953

With the Philadelphia Athletics packing to move to Kansas City, the Phillies 70 years ago today purchase 45-year-old Connie Mack Stadium from new A's owner Arnold Johnson for $1.7 million.

The Phillies play another 16 seasons at the corner of 21st and Lehigh in a rapidly deteriorating neighborhood before moving 10 miles south in 1971 to Veterans Stadium.

In that time, the A’s move from Philly to Kansas City to Oakland – and now with a pending move to Las Vegas with an upcoming three-year stopover in West Sacramento.

“The highlight of my baseball career came in Philadelphia’s Connie Mack Stadium when I saw a fan fall out of the upper deck,” former catcher Bob Uecker once says.

“When he got up and walked away, the crowd booed.”