• The American League's Philadelphia entry had yet to procure a place to play ball and league president Ban Johnson attributed the problem solely to “red tape” and the “Philadelphia way of doing things” rather than to any effort by the National League's Phillies to block the move

< Dec 14, 1900 Back to Calendar Jan 3, 1901 >

• The American League's Philadelphia team was trying to lease grounds at 26th and Jefferson, the site of the old Athletics during the American Association days, but the city's Property Committee delayed a vote on the matter to give potential opponents more time to submit their arguments

< Jan 1, 1901 Back to Calendar Jan 5, 1901 >

• A bit in Sporting Life repeated a story attributed to the Milwaukee Sentinel that the American League's Philadelphia team was “backed by Milwaukee capital”

< Jan 3, 1901 Back to Calendar Jan 9, 1901 >

• All seven current American League teams, including Philadelphia, submitted 51 percent of their team's stock and rights to land for ballparks in trust to the league to prevent the possibility of defection during what was expected to be a costly battle with the National League for survival

< Jan 5, 1901 Back to Calendar Jan 13, 1901 >

• Connie Mack said he had talked to about 75 potential players so far about joining his team and that he expected to be able to form a roster from that group

• American League president Ban Johnson said that work would begin on a Philadelphia ballpark on the 17th, but didn't say at which site

< Jan 9, 1901 Back to Calendar Jan 16, 1901 >

• The Philadelphia city council considered, but made no decision about, the team's request to lease grounds for a ballpark at 26th and Jefferson

• Representing the team at the meeting were sportswriters Frank Hough and Samuel Jones

• One of the council members said that the terms of the lease—$1,000 per year for three years—were too low and a local land developer complained that a ballpark would reduce property values in the area and would increase vandalism, though several council members objected strongly to this assertion

• Due to procedural reasons, the council could not vote on the measure at this meeting and planned to bring it up again in a week at their next meeting

< Jan 13, 1901 Back to Calendar Jan 19, 1901 >

• The team announced the hiring of Billy Sharsig as business manager

• Sharsig had been a founding member of the Athletics team in the old American Association and had been their field manager for a few seasons in the late 1880s

< Jan 16, 1901 Back to Calendar Jan 20, 1901 >

• Connie Mack voiced his hope that the council would approve the team's lease of the grounds at 26th and Jefferson, but that the team had options three other sites: 29th and Columbia, 22nd and Lehigh, and 6th and Lehigh

< Jan 19, 1901 Back to Calendar Jan 21, 1901 >

• Though the team had yet to announce they had signed a lease on a site, Connie Mack said they were ready to receive bids from construction firms for the building of a grandstand

• American League president Ban Johnson said he expected the team to complete an agreement within a week

< Jan 20, 1901 Back to Calendar Jan 22, 1901 >

• The team announced they would continue a local tradition and call themselves the Athletics

• The team also announced they had signed a ten-year lease on the grounds at 29th and Columbia for the construction of a ballpark

• The site was bounded by 29th Street on the east, 30th Street on the west, Columbia Street on the north, and Oxford Street on the south and enclosed a space 400 feet by 460 feet

• The grandstand would be built by a firm headed by James Foster at an estimated cost of $35,000

• Total capacity would be 12,000, with 4,000 in a single-tier grandstand behind the plate, and the remaining 8,000 to be divided between two sets of bleachers down each foul line

• A separate one-story building was to be built for locker rooms and the completion of all structures was scheduled for April 1

< Jan 21, 1901 Back to Calendar Jan 26, 1901 >

• While attending league meetings in Chicago, Connie Mack said he had signed “many” players, but would not identify any of them

< Jan 22, 1901 Back to Calendar Jan 28, 1901 >

• At the organizational meeting in Chicago, the American League formally granted a Philadelphia franchise to the Athletics and Connie Mack was invested as team president

< Jan 26, 1901 Back to Calendar Jan 29, 1901 >

• Manager Connie Mack was named to the American League's rules committee along with Baltimore manager John McGraw and Chicago owner Charles Comiskey

• While the Inquirer reported a week ago that the team had decided to call themselves the “Athletics”, Mack said nothing had been decided and added that “so long as our team performs to suit the fans, I don't care what name they use to designate our team”

< Jan 28, 1901 Back to Calendar Feb 6, 1901 >

• The team signed left-handed pitcher Billy Milligan

< Jan 29, 1901 Back to Calendar Feb 10, 1901 >

• A story was making the rounds that Connie Mack had signed Phillies second baseman Nap Lajoie, though both Mack and Phillies owner John Rogers said it wasn't true

< Feb 6, 1901 Back to Calendar Feb 12, 1901 >

• The team signed catcher Doc Powers on or before this date

< Feb 10, 1901 Back to Calendar Feb 13, 1901 >

• One of the great mysteries around the new Athletics franchise was who was bankrolling the operation

• Connie Mack wouldn't say who, but he did say the available capital was better than $100,000

• The fence around the new ballpark was complete and work had begun on the grandstand

< Feb 12, 1901 Back to Calendar Feb 17, 1901 >

• The effort to find out who was bankrolling the Athletics franchise turned up the name of Cleveland owner Charles Somers on the ballpark grounds lease and the grandstand construction contract

• Rumor said Somers owned a piece of the Boston team, too, and the news reinforced jibes that the American League was guilty of “syndicalism”

< Feb 13, 1901 Back to Calendar Feb 19, 1901 >

• The team's ownership picture cleared somewhat by the election of Philadelphia sporting goods manufacturer Ben Shibe to the position of team president by the still- unidentified members of the board of directors

• At the same meeting, the team officially named Connie Mack field manager and team treasurer

• Phillies manager Bill Shettsline accused Mack of trying to poach one of his best players, though according to Shettsline, the unnamed player told Mack that he was still under contract to the Phillies and wouldn't break the agreement

• When asked about the matter, Mack said “he really cannot say which player Mr Shettsline refers to” as he had “talked with a number of his men”

• Later reporting in Sporting Life suggested the player in question was center fielder Roy Thomas

< Feb 17, 1901 Back to Calendar Feb 20, 1901 >

• The team reported that they expected ballpark construction to be completed by March 15 and added that work would begin on the playing field by March 1, supervised by John Murphy, considered to be one of the best in the business

< Feb 19, 1901 Back to Calendar Feb 28, 1901 >

• After weeks of rumors and denials from the principals, it was generally reported around the country that the team had signed Phillies second baseman Nap Lajoie

< Feb 20, 1901 Back to Calendar Mar 2, 1901 >