Philadelphia A’s old-timers game in 1939 brought together two generations of legends

More than three dozen former Athletics suited up for the game, the list of returning stars being a virtual “who’s who” of legends from Philadelphia’s glory days. Standout players such as Max Bishop, Jack Coombs, Harry Davis, Jimmy Dykes, Stuffy McInnis and Jack Quinn took the field alongside future Hall of Famers Frank “Home Run” Baker, Albert “Chief” Bender, Mickey Cochrane, Stan Coveleski, Lefty Grove, and Herb Pennock.

Red Sox executive and former second baseman, Eddie Collins, who had been inducted into the Hall of Fame just months earlier, also took part in the game. Jimmie Foxx, then the Red Sox first baseman who would be elected to the Hall of Fame a dozen years later, was unable to take part in the festivities after undergoing an emergency appendectomy the day before.

Hall of Famer Connie Mack, who managed each and every one of the ball-playing alumni, was on hand to greet the players – and prior to the old-timers game the long-time Athletics manager posed with members of both clubs for photographers and newsreel cameramen. Yet another future Hall of Famer, Tommy Connolly, umpired the contest, a fitting role for the arbiter as 30 years earlier he officiated the first game ever played at Shibe Park.

After two-and-a-half innings, the game ended in a 6-4 victory for the 1910-1914 club, though the fans cared little about the result. But thanks to Philadelphia sportswriter James Isaminger, who kept score of the shortened game, a record of the day is preserved. That record is part of an Isaminger scorebook at the Hall of Fame. Isaminger, who covered Philadelphia sports for more than 30 years, was posthumously awarded with the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s 1974 J.G. Taylor Spink Award.