A’s Bad as It Gets

This work is a game-by-game account of the Philadelphia Athletics’ pitiful 1916 season, in which they won just 36 of 154 games. It starts with a brief biography of the team’s living symbol—A’s manager and co-owner Connie Mack—and moves through the birth of the franchise and into its first era of glory in which the A’s won world championships in 1910, 1911, and 1913. Following the A’s stunning defeat in the 1914 World Series to the underdog Boston Braves, Mack dismantled his championship club and finished last in the American League for seven straight seasons. The 1916 campaign was the nadir. The team’s few solid veterans had a supporting cast of underachievers, college boys, raw rookies, no-hopers, and sub-par pitching. The book chronicles the daily grind of a team that had no chance to begin with and quickly became the laughingstock of the AL. Many humorous anecdotes, needless to say!

John G. Robertson is a private tutor and sports historian who lives in Cambridge, Ontario. He is the author of numerous books on baseball, hockey and boxing history.
Andy Saunders is a baseball buff who hosts trivia shows in his hometown. He lives in Guelph, Ontario.

John G. Robertson and Andy Saunders
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 196
Bibliographic Info: 6 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2014
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7818-7
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1347-5
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1
The Last Hurrah: The 1913 Victory Banquet 5
Connie Mack: The Architect of the A’s (Part 1) 7
Connie Mack: The Architect of the A’s (Part 2) 13
Connie Mack’s First Dynasty: 1910 to 1914 20
Prelude to Disaster: Spring Training 1916 33
April: Despair and Hope 46
May: Hope and the ­High-Water Mark 55
June: Reality Tramples Optimism 70
July: The Depths of Ineptitude 84
August: The “Little Tonic Team of Baseball” Rises from Its Nadir 104
August 26: The Masterpiece Among the Rubbish 120
August 28 to Season’s End: Playing Out the String 126
Heroes and Pleasant Surprises, Villains, Disappointments and Busts 149
The Aftermath and Beyond 154
Whatever Happened To…? 165
Were the 1916 A’s Really the Worst MLB Team of the 20th Century? 170
The 1916 Philadelphia Athletics Season 175
Chapter Notes 179
Bibliography 180
Index 181

“Robertson and Saunders do a commendable job in tracing the events of this awful season for the A’s. The writing is clear, the authors have a sense of humor, and they know their baseball…solid addition to anyone’s baseball library”—SABR Deadball Era Committee Newsletter.