Philadelphia Athletics - The Depression Era (1930-1939)  
   
 

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        Yr P W L   Yr P W L   Yr P W L               1930  
        1930 1 102 52   1933 3 79 72   1937 7 54 97               Decade  
        1931 1 107 45   1934 5 68 82   1938 8 53 99               Click  
        1932 2 94 60   1935 8 58 91   1939 7 55 97               on Logo  
                  1936 8 53 100                            
                                                       
   
  Titles:  Top Athletics Players of the Thirties  
  1930 World Champs (Beat Cards)  
  1931 AL Champs (Lost to Cards) Pitchers:  
    Lefty Grove (38.2) -   70  
  BallPark:     George Earnshaw (9.31) -   35  
  Shibe Park  Rube Walberg (11.16) -   28  
    Johnny Marcum (7.03) -   23  
  Team Name:   Roy Mahaffey (5.86) -   22  
  Athletics George Caster (8.1) -   20  
    Harry Kelly (4.54) -   17  
  Owner:   Bill Dietrich (1.41) -   11  
  Shibe Familly & Connie Mack   Buck Ross (1.11) -   10  
       
  General Manager Catchers:  
  Connie Mack   Mickey Cochrane (22.81) -   64  
    Blimp Hayes (5.94) -   21  
  Manager:     
  Connie Mack   First Basemen:  
    Jimmy Foxx (48.68) -   87  
  No Hitters:     
  None Second Basemen:  
    Max Bishop (17.51) -   35  
  Hall of Famers: Dibril Williams (3.18) -   11  
  Jimmie Foxx    
  Lefty Grove ShortStop:  
  Mickey Cochrane Eric McNair (4.85) -   20   
  Connie Mack   Skeeter Newsome (4.37) -   11  
  Al Simmons    
    Third Base:  
  MVP: Pinky Higgins (12.8) -  25  
  Lefty Grove (1931) Billy Werber (4.98) -   21  
  Jimmie Foxx (1932) Jimmie Dykes (6.9) -   12  
  Jimmie Foxx (1933)    
    Outfield:  
  Notable Events: Indian Bob Johnson (33.04) -   77  
    Al Simmons (19.42) -   42  
  1930 - One thing about Connie Mack, nobody could build a great Wally Moses (13.55) -    41  
  baseball team better than he could. The starting lineup coming into Doc Cramer (7.09) -   32  
  the decade had three bonafide young superstars in first baseman  Mule Haas (6.15) -   25  
  Jimmy Foxx,22, catcher Mickey Cochrane, 27, and outfielder Al Bing Miller (5.19) -   22  
  Simmons, 28. Other than outfielder Mule Haas, 26, the other Sam Chapman (1.67) -   12  
  starters, all above average players, were in their thirties.    
  Meanwhile, all the A's had on the mound were the best pitcher Notable Events:  
  in the game in Lefty Grove (who went 28-5 in 1930) and one of     
  the best in George Earnshaw (who won 22 in 1930). Incidently, 1935 - It's over. The A's hit rock bottom finishing last. They average a  
  both hurlers had been pried away from the great Baltimore  paltry fifty five wins over the last five seasons of the decade. This   
  International League teams of the Twenties. time, Mack has neither the energy nor the inclination to build another  
    dynasty to tear down. The A's will stink until they're finally driven out  
  1930 - The A's win 102 games and the World Series of Philadelphia as a result of their perpetual putrid play.   
     
  1931 - History repeats itself. The A's win their third pennant in a 1936 - Apparently Connie Mack feels that he can't get rid of Jimmie Foxx  
  row, dominating the league with 107 wins. However, they lose as long as he's winning MVP's. Foxx wins the 1932 and 1933   
  the World Series and, once again, Mack feels betrayed - that his MVP awards even though the A's don't win the pennant and   
  team quit on him. Things start to sour from there. Jimmie gets rewarded with a stay of execution each time. Mack  
    will hold on to Foxx for two more years before mercifully dealing  
  1933 - After a second place finish in 1932, the dismantling, once him to the Red Sox after the 1935 season. It's hard to say if Mack   
  again, begins. Once again, baseball historians will tell you that it loved Foxx or hated him  
  was all the Great Depression that motivated the breakup of the    
  club. Once again, I say that altho' the financial climate was  1936 - Tom Shibe dies. Tom had taken over the business end of  
  certainly a factor, a lot more must have been going on. Once  running the team from his father Ben fourteen years earlier when Ben  
  again, this process was brutal, particularly for A's fans. died. Tom's son John took over at ths point, but after a few months,   
    the strain was too much for John and he suffered a nervous breakdown   
  1933 - Outfielders Al Simmons and Mule Haas and third baseman from which he never recovered. John died in 1937. Ben Shibe's  
  Jimmy Dykes are all sold to the Chicago White Sox daughters now owned half of the club, but did not actively participate  
    in the running of the team from this point on.  
  1934 - Mickey Cochrane is sold to Detroit.     
    1937 - The Mack family is now running the team. However, family   
  1934 - Lefty Grove, Rube Walberg and Max Bishop are sold to infighting turns the club into a rudderless ship as Connie, at 75, is too  
  Boston.    weak to command his offspring. The chaos would continue until 1950   
    when Connie stepped down as team president.   
       
    1939 - The A's install lights in Shibe Park becoming the first American  
    League team to play under the lights, altho' as bad as the team was,   
    they would probably have been better off playing in the dark