Talk about a double whammy for the history books. Ben Shibe created both the modern baseball and the modern baseball stadium. The former Bala Cynwyd resident was an owner and the team president of the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901 until his death in 1922. During his tenure, the A’s were the gold standard of the American League, taking the pennant on six occasions and winning three World Series.
For decades, Shibe was also the sport’s leading manufacturer and innovator. Traditionally, a piece of rubber served as a baseball’s core. In 1909, Shibe earned a patent for a more durable cork-centered ball. A secondary benefit proved more significant in the long run: It traveled much farther. Shibe’s “live ball” would be adopted by both leagues in 1911 and lead to the emergence of power hitters like Babe Ruth.
The ballpark Shibe built with his own money had nearly the same impact as his ball. Opened in North Philadelphia in 1909, Shibe Park was the first in the country made of steel and concrete. Every stadium before that had a wooden frame that either deteriorated quickly or burned down. “Shibe wanted to build something safe, strong and durable,” says Rich Westcott, author of several books on the region’s baseball history and past president of the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association.
Shibe Park went up four miles north of Center City at Lehigh Avenue and 21st Street, erected for a reported $500,000—$17.3 million in 2025 dollars. A grand French Renaissance-style cupola served as the main entrance. Terra-cotta brickwork covered the exterior, while the interior offered a kind of pastoral intimacy within city limits. At 23,000, its seating capacity was enormous, yet the distance between spectator and participant was narrow. It also was the first stadium with a large, permanent scoreboard.
The park bore Shibe’s name from 1909 to 1953, when it was renamed Connie Mack Stadium. It retained that moniker until its demolition in 1975. By then, it was the dearly departed former home of the A’s (1909-1953), the Phillies (1938-1970) and the Eagles (1940, 1942-1957).
Born on Jan. 23, 1838, to John and Rachel Shibe, Benjamin Franklin Shibe grew up along Girard Avenue at several residences in Fishtown and Kensington. Following a childhood leg fracture, he wore a brace of his own making for his entire adult life. “[Shibe] was a tough guy,” Westcott says. “He didn’t take a lot of grief.”
For a time, Shibe worked as a teamster before joining his father’s leather workshop, crafting harnesses for horses. Working with his siblings and nephews, the younger Shibe expanded the family business to include sporting goods. He married Josephine Freyhardt in 1866. The couple had two sons, Tom and John, and two daughters, Mary and Elfrida.
As baseball gained popularity after the Civil War, Shibe started making balls by hand that were more tightly wound than others on the market. Most proved undependable—they were irregular in shape and composition, fell apart easily and didn’t travel far. Shibe developed a reproducible pattern for stitching baseballs more tightly, which he patented. Later, he developed an automated stitching machine that helped standardize the shape, weight and composition of baseballs and facilitated their mass production.
Ben, his brothers and a nephew established John D. Shibe & Co. in the 1870s. They joined forces in 1882 with Al Reach, a former star for the original Philadelphia Athletics baseball team of the 1860s and 1870s. A.J. Reach Company became the country’s largest manufacturer of baseballs and a major supplier of baseball bats. Shibe served as president.
During the heady days of A.J. Reach, Shibe and his wife moved to Bala Cynwyd, following the railroad out to what was a far-flung settlement in 1887. They built a home at 52 Conshohocken State Road, which served as a base for the entire family.
In 1900, with the formation of the American League, well-known former ballplayer and manager Connie Mack purchased a quarter of the Athletics and asked Shibe to become a major investor. Mack made them into a powerhouse on the field, and Shibe built them the most prestigious stadium in the sport.
Over time, Shibe returned his focus to sporting goods, entrusting his sons with major roles in the A’s organization. Their father retained his position as club president into his 80s, before a car accident in Elkins Park left him with a serious head injury from which he never recovered. He died just nine days short of his 84th birthday on Jan. 14, 1922.
Tom and John Shibe remained executives in the A’s organization until their deaths in the late 1930s. After John’s passing in 1937, his estate sold his shares to Mack, giving him control over both the baseball and business side of the operation. Chicago real estate magnate Arnold Johnson bought the team in 1954, moving it to Kansas City.
The A’s have since become the most frequently relocated franchise in baseball history. That may be part of the reason why Shibe, one of the game’s great innovators, has yet to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. His significant foundational feats took place so long ago, and he lacks a cogent base of support in a longtime major-league city.
But Shibe isn’t forgotten. A few years after the 1993 publication of his book on Shibe Park, To Every Thing a Season, author and historian Bruce Kuklick met with a member of the Shibe family in his office at the University of Pennsylvania. Arriving with all sorts of personal ephemera, the young man bemoaned the fact that his family sold their shares in the club. Kuklick never saw the man again after that day.
“There was a group of fans who came to Philly not too long ago when they were trying to rescue the Oakland A’s from extinction,” Kuklick recalls. “Their idea was to rescue them by building a retro stadium that would resemble Shibe Park out in Oakland.”
Alas, despite Kuklick’s help in assembling a plan, the stadium never materialized.
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