Best Athletics season

Founded in 1901 as the Philadelphia Athletics, the A’s have enjoyed some success, especially in the beginning of their franchise. They've won nine World Series titles, five of which came before 1930 while the team was in Philly. The team moved to Kansas City in 1955 before moving to Oakland in 1968. But for the team’s best season, we go back to Philadelphia.

The 1930 Philadelphia Athletics are the best team in franchise history.

After winning the World Series in 1929, the team followed it up by going 102-52 in the regular season, winning the American League by eight games, then going on to beat the Cardinals in 6 games to claim the team’s 5th championship. 

A team with six Hall of Famers in Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Eddie Collins, Al Simmons and manager Connie Mack, the A’s proved to be one of the most loaded and talented teams in the game’s history. As a group, this team won back to back World Series and won the pennant again in 1931. 

At the plate, the team was fourth in RBIs with 985 and fifth in home runs with 125. 

However, the team was built through great pitching, posting a 4.28 ERA, which was third-best and a league-best 672 strikeouts. The staff was led by Grove, who posted a record of 28-5 with a 2.54 ERA, and 209 strikeouts, all best in the league. Grove would have probably won MVP if there wasn’t a financial issue going on that season, so no MVP award was handed out, but he did win it in 1931 when it came back. 

A team that won 100 games the previous season and a World Series comes back and does it again. Unheard of in the game of baseball. It made the 1930 A’s a legendary team and their best season in franchise history.