Opening day in North Philly
Shibe Park in 1909
Left-hander Eddie Plank delivers the first pitch in the first game at Philadelphia’s sparkling new Shibe Park 115 years ago today in North Philly.
Plank’s first pitch for the Philadelphia Athletics and the 1909 season comes shortly after 3 p.m. to Boston Red Sox leadoff hitter Amby McConnell, who begins Plank’s fast 1-2-3 dispatch of the Sox in the top of the first inning.
A couple of hours later, Plank retires Harry Lord for the final out of Philadelphia’s 8-1 victory before a Monday afternoon, overflow crowd of 30,162.
The ballpark holds 23,000 seats for its opener, but the crowd swells above 30,000 when more than 7,000 fans without tickets push through closed gates to see the game.
The victory is Plank’s first of 19 that season for the Athletics, as well as the 168th in a Hall of Fame career that ends in 1917 with 326 victories.
In between Plank’s first pitch and his last from 115 years ago today, the A’s pick up 13 hits off Red Sox starter Frank Arellanes and reliever Jack Ryan.
The first of those hits comes with one out in the bottom of the first inning on Simon Nicholls’ one-out, roller back to Arellanes.
Nicholls soon scores the ballpark’s first run as future Hall of Famer Eddie Collins singles over second base and Danny Murphy follows with an RBI single to right.
Nicholls, the Athletics’ third baseman, finishes with two singles and a double, while Murphy, their right fielder, drives in five runs with two singles and two doubles.
As for Shibe Park – the first steel-and-concrete ballpark of its era – the stadium takes a year to build at the cost of approximately $300,000.
With four city blocks of North Philly tightly surrounding Shibe Park, the ballpark’s original dimensions are 378 feet to left field, 515 to straightaway center – that is not a typo – and 340 to right field.
Another 30,000-plus fans – 31,822, to be exact – will attend the ballpark’s final game on Oct. 1, 1970, when the Phillies beat the Montreal Expos 2-1 in 10 innings on a two-out RBI single to center by Oscar Gamble off Howie Reed.
Between the first game in 1909 and the finale in 1970, the ballpark hosts 6,047 games for either the Athletics or the Phillies, who share the facility with the Athletics from 1938 until the A’s move to Kansas City following the 1954 season.
Just before the A’s move out, the ballpark is renamed Connie Mack Stadium in honor of their Hall of Fame manager.
By the time the ballpark closes in 1970 after 52 seasons, more than 47 million fans watch games there.
Connie Mack Stadium during its final day game on Sept. 27, 1970