The Pecan Park Eagle

House of Connie Mack on Lehigh (2nd from right, greenish tint)

On our last day in Philadelphia for SABR 43, the 2013 National Convention of our “Society of American Baseball Research” on August 4th, some of us took a tour of old ballpark sites going back into the 19th century. The tour director for this exciting little exercise was longtime Philadelphia baseball historian Jerry Cassway.  Somewhere along the way, somewhere on the north side of Philadelphia, somewhere between the former locations of old Baker Bowl and Shibe Park, we came across a place that some of us would have taken the tour alone just to see.

We got to see the home of Connie Mack, the Philadelphia Athletics part owner and full-time manager of the AL club for 50 years – as it appeared during the several years he and his family lived there at 2922 Lehigh Avenue in north Philadelphia. At least, I think that was the address that tour director Cassway used for it. I could not find quick and easy confirmation amidst the pile of unseparated words that rolled over these bedraggled eyes in Volume I of the voluminous, but beautifully done work of writer Norman Macht.

Norman: If you are reading this column, perhaps, you won’t mind checking in with a comment on any address correction that may be needed and any other details you might care to offer about the Mack family at this particular house. If you don’t have time, a page reference to where you speak of it in your first book will be appreciated. – Thanks.

NOTE: Two hours after the publication of this column, I heard from Norman Macht, the much respected biographer of Connie Mack. If I read Norman’s comments correctly, Connie Mack never lived at the pictured house on Lehigh Avenue. If that is so, I must apologize for presenting the information we received as accurate, even as I leave it here in its original form for your inspection relative to new information from our Mack scholar.

Here’s what Norman Macht wrote to me within the past hour:

“Bill: The first house where Mack lived in Philadelphia fits the description of the one your tour guide took you to — but at a different location. Mack first rented such a house at 2932 Oxford, near Columbia Park. Three years later he moved to 2937 Columbia Avenue. When Shibe Park opened in 1909 Mack bought a similar row house at 2119 Ontario. He lived there until 1916 when he bought a house at 604 W. Cliveden out near Fairmount Park, the first time he did not live near the A’s ballpark. (Norman Macht, Connie Mack scholar)”

Now we return to the original column text – again, with my apologies:

We wondered if the current residents on Lehigh had any idea about who had lived in that house long before them. Based on the Sunday basketball activity I saw at certain playgrounds nearby, I quietly and privately decided that Connie Mack most likely could now be close to a total unknown to North Philly residents these days. After all, he first lived there over one hundred years ago.

Friend and SABR colleague Bob Dorrill offered that the Mack house would have been a perfect place for a historical plaque. Then he threw in the opinion that historical plaques are easily stolen. They have cash value with collectors and scrap metal dealers.

We also got a pretty good exterior tour of Temple University on the north side and, of course, a nice exterior tour of the current venue, Citizens Bank Park, on the south side prior to the trek north.

Jerry Cassway, Ballpark Tour Director (Close your eyes on the bus, and Jerry sounds like actor Danny Divita.)

I was impressed with the beauty and dedication to preservation we saw in Philadelphia. And why shouldn’t they be good at it? After all, they were the birthplace of our declared independence from England and the residence of Benjamin Franklin, one of our genius-level founders for the better America that we are still striving to become. Add to the mix a diverse racial population that seems to come together very well as the gracious, welcoming face of Philadelphia. I’m sure they have their bad cats and troublemakers too, but the Philadelphians I met at all levels went out of their way to make us SABR visitors feel welcome.

BRAVES EDGE PHILS, 6-4.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Maybe, if we had come to town to play for the Phillies, we could have earned our own share of the Philly-Phan Boo-Bird Salute!