Mort's Reserve > R

• Series: Mort's Reserve
• City: Philadelphia
• Team: Athletics (NAPBBP)
• League: National Association (NAPBBP)

Alfred James Reach (1840-1928) “served baseball with distinction as player, organizer, club owner and provider of the equipment to attain the highest possible skill in the game” per his own Reach’s Official Base Ball Guide upon his death. “A good man, of the kindest impulses, his name will last as long as we have baseball” expressed the legacy of one of the great men of the early era of America’s game. The London-born, Brooklyn-raised Reach joked that he made the gloves he eschewed in the beginnings of the game in which he starred for the Brooklyn Eckfords and Philadelphia Athletics. He also made the AL’s balls while owning the NL Phillies franchise. A genius for marketing equipment and a lifelong love of the game made him one of the most influential figures of baseball’s first half-century.

• Began play in the amateur era, then founded the NL’s Philadelphia club in 1883
• Built the first modern ballpark in ’87, then rebuilt it with steel after a fire in ‘94
• Al's brother Bob Reach was an MLB shortstop for 3 games, 1872-1873
• Was the 88th player to debut in MLB