Long before interleague play became a yearly annoyance to hard-core baseball purists, the Phillies and Athletics played an annual 8-game series of exhibition games. The first two took place prior to the season opener, and I was lucky enough to turn up box scores.
April 1, 1911
The World Champs take the first game of the series, 8-4, in front of 6,000 spectators at the Phillies' Baker Bowl.
April 3, 1911
The Phillies strike back two days later to take the second game, 5-1.
They'll play six more games throughout the year - hopefully I'll be able to find more information as they come up. These box scores come from the "Quaker Quips" column by Francis Richter in Sporting Life magazine. I think this column is going to be a great source for this project.
Richter was optimistic about the upcoming season:
The base ball season of 1911 in this city was inaugurated on Saturday, when the Athletics and Phillies played their first game for the local championship; and henceforth there will be no surcease for base ball until next October, when if local hopes are entirely fulfilled, the battle for the World's Championship will be wholly confined to this grand old base ball town.Will his hopes be fulfilled? We'll have to wait and see*.
* No, of course they won't; we know that already.
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