In October 1954, the Philadelphia Athletics relocated to Kansas City, putting an end to more than a half-century of American League baseball in the City of Brotherly Love. However, of all the professional sports teams ever to play in the city, Connie Mack’s Athletics remain the most successful — and frustrating. Their five World Series titles and nine pennants were balanced with seventeen last-place finishes.

Mack’s 3,776 victories as a manager were only exceeded by the 4,025 defeats he suffered — still a record for most losses by a single manager. In The Philadelphia Athletics, William C. Kashatus tells the story of Connie Mack’s talented and comedic team.

Eighteen Philadelphia Athletics are enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, including players as famous as Ty Cobb, Mickey Cochrane, Eddie Collins, Jimmie Foxx, and Lefty Grove and as colorful as Rube Waddell, Chief Bender, and Al Simmons. From the early days of the American League, when the Athletics were ridiculed as the “White Elephants,” through the glory years and their final decade in Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Athletics tells the poignant story of a manager and a team who were among the greatest of all time.