DBWI switch records of NY and Philly sports teams

One striking thing about sports history is how successful teams from Philadelphia have been compared to teams from New York. This is of course most striking with Major League baseball, where you have the record 27 World Series wins by the Phillies compared to just one World Series win each for the Yankees and the Mets (before they left New York, the Giants won five titles, equal to the Athletics when they were in Philly, of course the Dodgers never won anything before they moved to LA). The Yankees recently became the first team to lose 10,000 games.

Even with the NFL, no New York area team has ever won a Superbowl, compared to five for the Eagles.

What would be the minimum number of changes to make sports teams from New York as dominant as the teams from Philly turned out to be?
 
Well, worse ownership in PHilly for one thing.

let's face it, it was one thing when they refused to sell "Old Pete" Alexander to the Cubs despite cries for it during WW1, but then when they bought Babe Ruth from the Red Sox, becasue ban Johnson was throwing fits about how he hated Frazee and would't let him get sold to the yankees, why that changed all of New York history.

ironic, becauge the Red Sox had gotten a number of players from the A's when Connie Mack sold his players off after 1914, so a few like Pennock and Home run Baker were coming home again.

Trying to think who the owner was who bought the Phillies in 1913, but a guy named William F. Baker was going to, but then he got sick and couldn't, meanign another prominent businessman did. That Ruth deal got them moved out of their old ball park and into that shiny new Franklin Field in 1922.

he lived a long while, too - long enough to integrate baseball in 1939when it was the "in thing to do" after the Jesse Owens Olympics and the Joe Louis win in boxing. Kind of surprising but Ruth and Gehrig had been playing with the black players barnstorming all those years, it made a lot of ssense.

(OOC: Someone on othertimelines had William Randolph earst having a ball club - I think he'd be good if he could integrate the game as this other writer did, but if someone else has an idea go for it. Or, it could be before 1913 that the baseball POD is, too.)
 
You are thinking of Albert Greenfield, and the funny thing is that before 1913 he had shown no interest in sports, at least in public.

Though not as well known, George Steinbrenner was also an important owner, and he was originally from Cleveland, not Philadelphia. It so happened that the deal to build the new stadium fell through in 1971, right when Steinbrenner had tried and failed to buy the Indians, and the Phillies were being shopped around instead. If nothing else, he was more willing to spend money on the team than typical of National League owners, and alot of the their championships came during his period of ownership.
 
You are thinking of Albert Greenfield, and the funny thing is that before 1913 he had shown no interest in sports, at least in public.

Though not as well known, George Steinbrenner was also an important owner, and he was originally from Cleveland, not Philadelphia. It so happened that the deal to build the new stadium fell through in 1971, right when Steinbrenner had tried and failed to buy the Indians, and the Phillies were being shopped around instead. If nothing else, he was more willing to spend money on the team than typical of National League owners, and alot of the their championships came during his period of ownership.

Funny, as a baseball purist I just remember that - after 3-4 years of artificial turf - Steinbrenner's first action as owner was to order it ripped up nd replaced with natural grass again, like they did at Candlestick and Comiskey in the '70s. He famously said, "Dick Allen was right - if a cow won't eat it, a great team like the Phillies should not play on it!"

I suppose a good way to swap Philadelphia and New York sports records would be for Greenfield, as a Ukranian immigrant, to stay in New York, but were the Yankees for sale then?

Of course, even if they were, he might not have met a boy like he did who was so enthusiastic about the Great Alexander that he convinced Greenfield to come to the game with him. (Okay, the story is probably apocryphal, but I do like the notion of a young lad whose family was down on its luck, without a father, looking up to Greenfield and working in his office being part of it. It was one of the sweeter parts of "The Winning Team: The Grover Alexander Story." That 1923 World Series win after beating the Giants in a close pennant race was the first of several for Ruth.)

As for football, they say it traces back to Jackie Robinson, who as a publicity stunt for the Eagers played for them after the PHilllies' season was over 1-2 years before he concetrated fully on baseball. Boy, if the PHillies don't integrate in '39, Robinson's a man who would have been perfect to be the first to integrate the majors. He, Campanella, Gilliam(edit: No, he wasn't quite up yet), Newcombe, formed a great team in 1950 - what an incredible comeback by the Giants the next year, with Bobby Thomson's home run to win the pennant then! That and then Willie Mays leading the Giants' 1954 World Series winning team were the just about the high points of New York baseball.

Or, if you don't want to use Robinson as a positive force, you could always point to the Curse of Chuck Bednarik for football. Poor guy. It was normal hit on Frank Gifford, but just the wrong place at the wrong time...:(
 
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