Philadelphia Quakers/Athletics (PL/AA)

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The Philadelphia Quakers, later known as the Philadelphia Athletics, was a professional American baseball team of the Players League and later the American Association. They played their first season in the Players League in 1890. The team played their home games at Forepaugh Park, though commonly referred to as Brotherhood Park. The Quakers finished 5th with a record of 68-63 and were managed by Jim Fogarty and Charlie Buffinton.

The Players League, formed in an attempt to liberate baseball players from the reserve clause, folded after only one season. At the same time, the American Association expelled the Philadelphia Athletics after the 1890 season, and the Quakers were admitted as their replacement and took over the Athletics' nickname and hired the previous manager, Billy Sharsig.^[1] The Quakers performed almost exactly the same in the AA as they did in the Players' League, posting a 73-66 record and again finishing fifth. After the season the American Association, crippled by financial losses dating back to the previous year's labor disputes, folded, and this time the Athletics folded too. John Rogers and Al Reach, the owners of the National League's Philadelphia Phillies, paid $50,000 for the territorial rights to the city of Philadelphia.

Notable players on the Quakers/Athletics included George Wood and Lave Cross. Pitcher Bert Cunningham set a dubious record when he threw five wild pitches in one inning on Sept. 15, 1890, a record that would go unmatched for 110 years until Rick Ankiel tied it in a playoff game.

This franchise has no relation to the later Philadelphia Athletics team that started operation with the founding of the American League in 1901 and later moved to Oakland.