On April 10, 1912, the Saint Joseph’s College baseball team defeated the Philadelphia Athletics, then Major League Baseball’s reigning World Champions, during a preseason exhibition game.
The Athletics, nicknamed the Mackmen, had won the World Series in 1910, 1911, 1913, 1929 and 1930 while in Philadelphia.
The 1912-13 St. Joseph’s College Annual, located in the St. Joe’s Archives Collection, highlights that achievement: “St. Joseph’s nine trims World’s Champions at Shibe Park. Score, 8-7.”
Shibe Park, located at 21st Street and Lehigh Avenue in North Philadelphia, was home to the Philadelphia Athletics and later the Philadelphia Phillies until 1970. In 1953, Shibe Park was renamed the Connie Mack Stadium. Connie Mack was manager of the Athletics from 1901 to 1950.
The nine St. Joe’s players in the 1912 starting lineup included captain Joe Neubauer, Ray Considine, Joe Rawle, Ed Kelly, Harry Stoll, Pop Stewart, David Bennis, Francis Tighe and Joseph Yates, with Louis Buchy, Paul Harron and Jim Scanlon pitching, according to the annual.
An April 11, 1912 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the game, “Mackies Ease Up, St. Joseph’s Win,” undercuts St. Joe’s victory by suggesting the professional reserve players didn’t try that hard against the college team’s best.
“None of the Mackmen broke a leg in trying to prevent St. Joe’s from winning,” the article reads. “They could have put the game away at any time they felt so inclined.”
Still, Don DiJulia ’67, former athletic director and now an officer in university advancement, said he believes that moment helped form the identity of St. Joe’s athletics.
“That carry over of the small school beating a big school had a lot to do with continuing that spirit of the grit and never-give-up mentality that we still have today,” DiJulia said.