The City of Philadelphia first broke onto the major league base ball team in 1883 when they were awarded an expansion team in the National League. They were then known as the Quakers. In 1884 the name was chanded to the Philadelphias. Because the name was to long for the newspaper headlines, the press began to refer to the team as the Phillies. This name is the longest continually used nickname in professional sports by a team in the same city.
The Phillies struggled to win for many years. They are widely known for the "Phold" of 1964. The Phillies achieved some success in the mid-1970s. With such players as Carlton, third baseman Mike Schmidt, shortstop Larry Bowa, and outfielder Greg Luzinski, the Phillies won three straight division titles (1976-78). However, they fell short in the NLCS, against the Reds in 1976 and the Dodgers in 1977-78. In 1979, the Phillies acquired Pete Rose, the spark that would put them over the top.
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On July 15, 2007, the Phillies lost their 10,000th game, 10-2 to the St. Louis Cardinals on a nationally televised ESPN game. The Phillies became the first North American professional sports franchise to lose 10,000 games.
In 2007 the Phillies made an incrediable push for the division title. On September 12, the Phillies were seven games behind the New York Mets in the National League East, and it appeared as if their division hopes were dashed. However, the Mets suffered an epic collapse on the likes of the "Phold of 1964," going 4–11 over the next fifteen games while the Phillies parried with a strong 12–3 record.
On September 27, the Phillies clinched the 2008 National League East for the second year in a row, once again helped by a late September slump from the New York Mets. The Phillies redeemed their previous years playoff performance by winning the NLDS three games to one against the Brewers, and they defeated the Dodgers in Los Angeles as well, 4–1. As the National League champions, the Phillies advanced to the 2008 World Series to play the Tampa Bay Rays. After a power outage by the offense in which they went 1 for 33 with runners in scoring position and the first-ever suspended postseason game in World Series history in game five, the Phillies rode their pitching rotation to a four games to one win.
