How Connie Mack built two Philadelphia Athletics dynasties, the 1910 to 1914 teams with the $100,000 Infield and the 1929 to 1931 teams of Foxx, Simmons, Cochrane and Grove, won five World Series, and then broke both up.
Quick answer: The Philadelphia Athletics won five World Series under manager Connie Mack: 1910, 1911 and 1913 with the team built around the $100,000 Infield, then 1929 and 1930 with Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, Mickey Cochrane and Lefty Grove. Both dynasties ended when Mack sold off his stars for financial reasons.
Five of the franchise's nine championships came in Philadelphia, long before Oakland or Las Vegas. This is the story of both dynasties, season by season. For the players on each title team, see the 1911 Philadelphia Athletics roster and the 1929 Philadelphia Athletics roster.
Who Was Connie Mack?
Connie Mack managed the Athletics for 50 seasons, from the franchise's first year in 1901 through 1950, and he was also one of the club's owners. According to his SABR biography, he finished with 3,731 wins and 3,948 losses as a manager, both major league records. He is in the Hall of Fame, and he built the A's twice into the best team in baseball.
Both of his great teams played at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, the ballpark that opened in 1909 and that you can read about in our history of every home the A's have had.
The First Dynasty: 1910, 1911 and 1913
The 1910 Athletics went 102-48, won the American League pennant and beat the Chicago Cubs four games to one in the World Series. Jack Coombs was the ace, going 31-9 with a 1.30 ERA and leading the majors in wins. Chief Bender went 23-5 with a 1.58 ERA, and second baseman Eddie Collins hit .324 and led the majors with 81 stolen bases.
In 1911 the A's went 101-50 and beat John McGraw's New York Giants four games to two, clinching with a 13-2 win in Game 6. In 1913 they went 96-57 and beat the Giants again, this time four games to one. Chief Bender won twice in that series, Eddie Plank clinched it with a 3-1 win in Game 5, and Frank Baker batted .450. That made three titles in four seasons.
What Was the $100,000 Infield?
The core of those teams was an infield that became known as the $100,000 Infield: Stuffy McInnis at first base, Eddie Collins at second, Jack Barry at shortstop and Frank Baker at third. Collins and Baker are both in the Hall of Fame, as are pitchers Chief Bender and Eddie Plank from the same staff.
How Did Frank Baker Become "Home Run" Baker?
Baker earned his nickname in the 1911 World Series. As his SABR biography describes, he hit a two-run home run off Rube Marquard in Game 2 to break a 1-1 tie, then homered off Christy Mathewson in the ninth inning of Game 3 the next day to tie that game. The A's won Game 3 in 11 innings. Baker finished the series batting .375 with two home runs, off two future Hall of Fame pitchers.
Why Did Connie Mack Break Up the First Dynasty?
The 1914 Athletics went 99-53 and won another pennant, then were swept four games to none in the World Series by the Boston Braves. Mack broke up the team that winter. The new Federal League was offering big contracts to established stars, and Mack did not match them.
Eddie Collins was sold to the Chicago White Sox. Chief Bender and Eddie Plank left for the Federal League. Jack Barry was sold to the Boston Red Sox. Frank Baker sat out the 1915 season in a contract dispute and was sold to the New York Yankees for 1916. Without them, the 1915 Athletics went 43-109 and finished last in the American League.
What Happened Between the Two Dynasties?
1 and 1913 with the team built around the $100,000 Infield, then 1929 and 1930 with Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, Mickey Cochrane and Lefty Grove.
The collapse was total. After the first breakup the Athletics finished last in the eight-team American League for seven straight seasons, from 1915 through 1921. The 1916 team went 36-117, and the 1919 team went 36-104.
Mack rebuilt slowly. The A's climbed to fifth in 1924 and second in 1925, then finished second again in 1927 and 1928, when they won 98 games. By then the young core of his next champion was in place, and in 1929 it broke through.
The Second Dynasty: 1929, 1930 and 1931
By the end of the 1920s Mack had four future Hall of Famers in their primes: first baseman Jimmie Foxx, outfielder Al Simmons, catcher Mickey Cochrane and pitcher Lefty Grove. In 1929 Simmons hit .365 with 34 home runs and a league-leading 157 RBIs, Foxx hit .354 with 33 home runs, and Cochrane hit .331. On the mound, George Earnshaw went 24-8, and Grove went 20-6 while leading the league in ERA (2.81) and strikeouts (170).
The 1929 Athletics went 104-46 and beat the Chicago Cubs four games to one, with the series won in two famous games. In Game 1, Mack surprised everyone by starting veteran Howard Ehmke, who threw a complete game in a 3-1 win and struck out 13 Cubs, a World Series record at the time. In Game 4, the Cubs led 8-0 going into the bottom of the seventh inning at Shibe Park. The A's then scored 10 runs in that inning and won 10-8, still one of the greatest comebacks in World Series history. Foxx hit .350 and Cochrane hit .400 in the series, and Grove recorded two saves out of the bullpen.
The 1930 Athletics went 102-52 and beat the St. Louis Cardinals four games to two for back-to-back titles. Lefty Grove and George Earnshaw each won two games, Earnshaw closed it out with a 7-1 win in Game 6, and Al Simmons hit .364 with two home runs. In 1931 they were even better during the season, going 107-45. Lefty Grove went 31-4 with a 2.06 ERA and won the AL MVP, and Al Simmons hit .390 to lead the majors. But the Cardinals got their revenge, beating the A's four games to three in the 1931 World Series. St. Louis won Game 7, 4-2, behind Burleigh Grimes, and Cardinals outfielder Pepper Martin batted .500 with 12 hits and five stolen bases.
For a game-by-game look at the first of those titles, see our page on the 1929 World Series.
Why Did Connie Mack Break Up the Second Dynasty?
This time the reason was the Great Depression. Mack's SABR biography notes that attendance plummeted while the Athletics carried the highest payroll in the league. Mack sold his stars to stay solvent.
- September 1932: Al Simmons, Jimmy Dykes and Mule Haas to the Chicago White Sox.
- December 1933: Lefty Grove, Rube Walberg and Max Bishop to the Boston Red Sox, and Mickey Cochrane to the Detroit Tigers.
- December 1935: Jimmie Foxx, in a four-player trade.
The Athletics did not win another pennant in Philadelphia. The franchise moved to Kansas City in 1955 and to Oakland in 1968, and it would be 1972 before the A's won their next World Series.
How Do the Two Dynasties Compare?
| First dynasty | Second dynasty | |
|---|---|---|
| Pennants | 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914 | 1929, 1930, 1931 |
| World Series titles | 3 (1910, 1911, 1913) | 2 (1929, 1930) |
| Best season | 1910: 102-48 | 1931: 107-45 |
| Hall of Famers | Connie Mack, Eddie Collins, Frank Baker, Chief Bender, Eddie Plank | Connie Mack, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, Mickey Cochrane, Lefty Grove |
| How it ended | Federal League raids and money, after 1914 | The Great Depression, after 1931 |
The first dynasty won more titles, three in four seasons, and it was built on pitching and speed in the dead-ball era: Coombs, Bender and Plank on the mound and Collins on the bases. The second dynasty hit for more power, with Simmons and Foxx combining for 67 home runs in 1929 alone, and it won 313 games over three seasons. It took two championships, not three, because the Cardinals beat it in 1931.
Both ended the same way: with Mack, as owner, deciding he could not afford to keep his best players. That pattern of brilliant teams followed by sell-offs became part of the franchise's identity, and it echoed decades later in Oakland. It is also why fans in Las Vegas will inherit a franchise with nine World Series titles, five of them won in Philadelphia, more than a century before the team's planned 2028 debut on the Strip.
Many of the franchise's oldest records still belong to these players. You can see how Foxx, Simmons, Grove, Plank and the rest stack up against later stars on our A's all-time records page.
Sources
- Baseball-Reference Philadelphia Athletics season pages: 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1929, 1930 and 1931
- Baseball-Reference: 1911 World Series, 1929 World Series and the 1929 Game 4 box score
- SABR BioProject: Connie Mack and Home Run Baker
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many World Series did the Philadelphia Athletics win?
Five, all under manager Connie Mack: 1910, 1911 and 1913, then 1929 and 1930. Those are five of the franchise's nine World Series titles.
What was the $100,000 Infield?
The infield of Mack's first dynasty: Stuffy McInnis at first base, Eddie Collins at second, Jack Barry at shortstop and Frank Baker at third. Collins and Baker are in the Hall of Fame.
Why is Frank Baker called Home Run Baker?
In the 1911 World Series he hit a two-run homer off Rube Marquard in Game 2 and a ninth-inning homer off Christy Mathewson in Game 3, tying that game. He hit .375 for the series.
Why did Connie Mack break up his championship teams?
Money. After 1914 the Federal League lured his stars with bigger contracts. After 1931 the Great Depression cut attendance while the A's had the league's highest payroll, so Mack sold or traded Simmons, Grove, Cochrane and Foxx.
What was the 10-run inning in the 1929 World Series?
In Game 4 the Cubs led 8-0 going into the bottom of the seventh at Shibe Park. The Athletics scored 10 runs in that inning and won 10-8 on the way to the title.
How many games did Connie Mack win as a manager?
3,731, a major league record, over 50 seasons managing the Athletics from 1901 to 1950. He also holds the record for losses, with 3,948.
