In 1883 Alfred Reach, a former player and a sporting-goods manufacturer, united with Colonel John Rogers, a lawyer and politician, to purchase the Worcester Brown Stockings of the National League and move them to Philadelphia. The name the club adopted as a takeoff on their hometown, Phillies, is now the oldest name in the NL.

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The team would become known more for its failures than its successes, so its first-season record of 17-81 was appropriate. The team named baseball pioneer Harry Wright manager for 1884, and in 1885 the Phillies finished third with their first winning record, 56-54. They contended in 1887, the year they moved into what would become known as Baker Bowl, and finished second. They remained respectable for the rest of the century, and their outfield in the years 1891-95 contained three Hall of Famers: Billy Hamilton, Sam Thompson, and Ed Delahanty.

The franchise's troubles began at the dawn of the 20th century. Reach and Rogers had a falling out, and Reach sold his share of the club in 1902. There would be nine more ownership changes before stability returned to Philadelphia. The crosstown Athletics and Connie Mack were unprecedentedly stable, and their emergence with the new American League caused the Phillies grief. Superstar Nap Lajoie jumped to the Athletics in 1901. Although the Phillies were able to obtain a court order that forced his transfer to the AL's Cleveland franchise and prevented him from playing in Pennsylvania, his loss, and Ed Delahanty's death the following season, left the Phillies' offense crippled. One of baseball's biggest disasters struck in 1903, when the Baker Bowl's leftfield bleachers collapsed, killing 12 and injuring 232.

The Phillies contended off and on, winning their first pennant in 1915 on the strength of Grover Cleveland Alexander's first of three straight seasons leading the NL in wins, ERA, and strikeouts, topping 30 victories each year. Gavvy Cravath led the league in HR and RBI. But the Red Sox won the WS in five games, and the Phillies were not to have another chance at the World Championship until 1950. The pitching was usually to blame. After trading away Alexander following the 1917 season, the Phillies topped .500 only once in the next 31 years, and finished last 17 times. During this period, they were tagged the Phutile Phils. The 1930s Phillies, led by slugger Chuck Klein (1932 MVP), became legendarily bad. The owner from 1933 through 1942, Gerry Nugent, was in constant financial need and sold off or traded (in deals that included cash) most of his promising players. In 1943 the NL took the club away from Nugent, but their choice was no better, as new owner William Cox was barred from baseball for betting on the Phillies. Robert Carpenter, Jr., bought the team before the end of 1943, and he or his son Ruly owned the franchise until 1982. The Carpenters would, by that point, be anachronistic as owners who made their living exclusively from baseball. To stimulate interest in the club, Robert Carpenter conducted a contest to rename the club, and although it was never official, in the years 1944-45 the team was known as the Blue Jays.

Hall of Famer Herb Pennock was named GM in 1943 and spent the last five years of his life building the club that would become known as the Whiz Kids. MVP relief ace Jim Konstanty led the club to the 1950 pennant, leading the NL in appearances and saves. Del Ennis led in RBI, and Richie Ashburn topped NL outfielders in putouts for the second of a ML-record-tying nine seasons. They won the flag from Brooklyn in the last game of the season on a tenth-inning Dick Sisler HR. Ashburn cut down Cal Abrams at the plate in the bottom of the inning. But the Yankees swept the Series, and the Phillies remained without a World Championship. They maintained respectability until 1958, when they began a four-year streak of last-place finishes. Eddie Sawyer, their manager in 1950, came back in 1958 but quit after just one game of the 1960 season, saying, "I'm 49 years old, and I'd love to live to be 50." His replacement was Gene Mauch, who with GM John Quinn rebuilt the team into a contender. The Phillies lost a ML-record 23 straight games in 1961, but by 1962 they were back above .500. In 1964 they lost the pennant on the last day of the season and Mauch was criticized for overusing his three best starters down the stretch. Each appeared in more than 40 games. Jim Bunning, the staff's ace, pitched the NL's first 20th-century perfect game that year, and Richie Allen ran away with the Rookie of the Year award.

After Mauch was fired during the 1968 season, the team dropped below .500 again. They finished last in the NL East for three straight seasons (1971-73) before GM Paul Owens, appointed in 1972, turned things around. The first good signs were the 1972 acquisition of Steve Carlton, who won 27 of the Phillies' 59 victories in 1972 and won the first of a record four Cy Young Awards, and the emergence in 1973 of Mike Schmidt, the greatest third baseman of all time. The Phillies went on to win three straight division titles (1976-78) and finally achieved what had eluded them for so long when they defeated the Royals in six games in the 1980 World Series. No other franchise has waited so long for its first World Championship. Schmidt was the Series MVP.

After the 1981 season the Carpenter family sold the club to a group headed by Bill Giles, who had been with the front office since 1969 and whose father was Warren Giles. The Phillies won another pennant in 1983. (WOR)

FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY » March 1, 1889: The Philadelphia Phillies head for Jacksonville, FL, for spring training. No other ML clubs will train in the Deep South this season. » May 5, 1893: Ed Stein hurls a one-hitter to lead Brooklyn to a 3–1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. » September 6, 1900: The Philadelphia Phillies gang up on Chicago Colts Nixey Callahan, scoring 20 runs on 25 hits, both a Chicago club record. Nixey will have another bad outing on the 11th. » February 28, 1903: A syndicate headed by Pittsburgh owner Barney Dreyfuss and James Potter buys the Philadelphia Phillies from John Rogers and A.J. Reach for $170,000. It will be another seven years before ownership interest in more than one team is prohibited. » September 28, 1930: Bill Terry goes hitless as the Giants edge the Dodgers for third place with a 10-inning win over the Phillies at the Polo Grounds. He finishes at .401, and is the last NL player to hit over .400. The Giants set a 20th-century single season batting average record of .319 (the Philadelphia Phillies hit .349 in 1894). » May 24, 1935: After a day's delay because of rain, the Cincinnati Reds host the Philadelphia Phillies in the first ML night game, winning 2–1 before a crowd of 24,422. On the initiative of Larry MacPhail, FDR throws the switch at the White House to turn on the lights. the Phils Mike Chiozza is the first batter as the Reds Paul Derringer outduels Joe Bowan, though the Reds are outhit, six to 4. The Reds will play seven night games in all, one each against the other National League teams. » May 3, 1941: Hank Gornicki of the St. Louis Cardinals pitches a one-hitter in his big-league debut, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 6–0. Stan Benjamin's single is the lone hit. It is the Cards' 8th straight win. » July 26, 1942: Clyde McCullough hits three consecutive HRs, but the Chicago Cubs lose 4-3 to Philadelphia Phillies. » September 11, 1942: Eddie Freed of the Philadelphia Phillies collects one single, 2 doubles, and a triple in his ML debut, but the Reds win 8-5 in 11 innings. The 5'6" Freed will total only 10 hits during his brief ML career. » September 23, 1942: Larry French of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitches a brilliant one-hitter, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 6-0 for his 197th career win. After a brief relief stint on the 26th, he will join the U.S. Navy, rise through the ranks and retire in 1969 with the rank of captain. Larry MacPhail, the 52-year-old Dodger president, also announces today that he is quitting at the end of the season to reenter the army. » June 4, 1943: Mort Cooper of the St. Louis Cardinals pitches back-to-back one-hitters, beating the Brooklyn Dodgers on May 31 and the Philadelphia Phillies on June 4. Hits by Billy Herman on May 31 and by Jimmy Wasdell of the Phils deprive him of no-hitters. Cooper has six wins and three shutouts on the way to his second 20-win year. » March 4, 1944: The woeful Philadelphia Phillies announce their new nickname—the Blue Jays. The winning entry in the contest was submitted by a Mrs. Elizabeth Crooks, and was chosen over a number of names ranging from Daisies to Stinkers. President Carpenter says he hopes to have the farm system identified by the same blue color, with the Wilmington club called the Blue Rocks and possibly the New Bradford team as the Blue Wings. The Blue Jays will be the unofficial team name for 1944-45 but abandoned in 1946, though the team will still occasionally be referred to in newspaper accounts as the Blue Jays through 1949. Ms. Crooks wins a $100 war bond and a season ticket to the Blue Jays. » July 18, 1948: In the first of two before 39,623, the Chicago Cubs beat the visiting Philadelphia Phillies 3–2. With two outs and the bases loaded in the 9th inning, rookie Robin Roberts hits Phil Cavarretta and Andy Pafko on the back with successive pitches to force home the winner. Chicago's Johnny Schmitz allows just four hits, three by Johnny Blatnik. The Jays (as they are still occasionally referred to in print) win the nitecap, 6–4, collecting 17 hits, including a homer by Del Ennis. Schoolboy Rowe evens his record at 5–5, beating Russ Meyer. » June 2, 1949: The Philadelphia Phillies hit five HRs in the eighth inning, tying the mark set by the 1939 Giants. The Phillie 5 includes Del Ennis, Andy Seminick (2), Pudding Head Jones, and Schoolboy Rowe. Jones adds a triple, and Gran Hamner's 2B jumps the extra base total to 18, still a record. Seminick has three HRs in all. » April 22, 1957: John Kennedy becomes the first black to play for the Philadelphia Phillies, making them the last NL team to integrate. Kennedy pinch runs for Solly Hemus in the 5-1 loss to Brooklyn. He will play only briefly in 5 games, 2 at 3B, and will go hitless. » November 27, 1991: Lee Elia is named manager of the Philadelphia Phillies. » August 12, 1997: Matt Beech ends his string of 22 straight starts without a victory, pitching the Philadelphia Phillies past the Colorado Rockies, 5-0. Beech (1-7) had not won since beating Atlanta in his first major league start on Aug. 8, 1996. He was winless in his first 15 starts this season. » October 28, 1998: Philadelphia Phillies' top draft pick, Pat Burrell of Miami, wins the Golden Spikes Award as the nation's outstanding amateur player. » May 15, 1999: When SS Alex Arias of the Philadelphia Phillies snags Mike Piazza's line drive in the sixth inning he starts the Phillies' 30th franchise triple play and their 10th against a team from New York City. It was just the second triple play turned in Veterans Stadium and the 237th in the National League since 1901. Arias has participated in two triple plays for the Phils, he initiated one last season against the San Francisco Giants. The Mets still win, 9–7. » August 6, 2000: The Blue Jays obtain 2B Mickey Morandini from the Phillies in exchange for a player to be named. He just misses moving into second on the all-time games played list for Philadelphia Phillies 2B having played 926 games at second base for Philadelphia, the third highest total in franchise history, six games short of Otto Knabe (1905, 1907-13). Tony Taylor (1960-71 and 1974-76) holds the record having played in 1,003 games for the Phils at second. » August 27, 2000: Bobby Abreu of the Philadelphia Phillies hits a pair of solo homers, including a game-winning inside-the-park shot off San Francisco Giant reliever Aaron Fultz in the 10th inning to win 2–1. Abreu's homer, his 20th, is the 5th IPHR game-ender in Phillies history and the first since Bob Dernier did it in 1989, also against the Giants. He's the 29th major-leaguer since 1900 to end a game with an IPHR and the 38th extra-inning IP (according to David Vincent). Ed Vosberg (1–0) picks up his 1st win since 1997. » January 31, 2002: Philadelphia Phillies announcer Harry Kalas is voted the Ford C. Frick Award. He will be inducted into the broadcasters' wing of the Hall of Fame on July 28.