Launching a new team

Philadelphia’s Columbia Park

After two days of rainouts, the Philadelphia Athletics play their first game 123 years ago today as a Friday afternoon crowd of 10,547 turns out at old Columbia Park to watch manager Connie Mack’s new American League team lose 5-1 to the Washington Senators.

Right-hander Chick Fraser delivers the first pitch to Washington’s John Farrell, who goes 0-for-4 with a walk in the game.

The 1901 Philadelphia Athletics

While he takes the loss in this game – thanks mostly to six errors by Philadelphia’s leaky defense – Fraser goes on to win a career-high 22 games for the A’s in their first season.

Future Hall of Famer Nap Lajoie accounts for the Athletics’ only run in the opener, scoring on a seventh-inning single by Socks Seybold off Washington starter – and winner – Bill Carrick.

The A’s play at the Columbia Avenue facility through the 1908 season before moving crosstown into just-built, state-of-the-art-for-the-era Shibe Park at 21st and Lehigh.

The A’s stay there from 1909 through the 1954 season before moving to Kansas City, Mo., and then, in 1968, to Oakland, Calif.

As for Connie Mack, the inaugural game back in 1901 is the first of his 7,396 regular-season games and 43 World Series games as the Athletics’ Hall of Fame manager – a span of 50 seasons in which the A’s win nine American League pennants and five World Series titles.

Connie Mack in his early years with the Philadelphia Athletics