As you settle in to watch the 2022 World Series, a thought might have popped into your head: Why are the Philadelphia Phillies named that?
Well, yes, Phillies sounds like it’s what you might name someone from Philadelphia, but there’s a bit of a story behind it!
It turns out they were called the Quakers by some writers for a while.
“Former Phillies vice president of communications Larry Shenk’s research staff (OK, the Baron is a one-man show) flipped through ‘The Philadelphia Phillies,’ a book written by Fred Leib and Stan Baumgartner and published in 1953,” wrote Todd Zolecki on MLB.com. “In the book, Leib and Baumgartner wrote, ‘By general consent, the new team (1883) came to be known as the Phillies, one of the most natural and spontaneous of all big league nicknames. It was easily understood, as any oaf could recognize a Phillie to be a player from Philadelphia. However, the nickname of the old National Association Philadelphias — the Quakers — persisted, and for years a number of Philadelphia dailies referred to the new ball team as the Quakers.”
There you have it!
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