Al Reach & Ben Shibe: Bringing the Game to the Quaker City

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #007 Play Ball, Part 2

Al Reach was a cricket player who took up baseball and became an equipment manufacturer and a club owner.  His name was on American League baseballs until the 1970s.

Benjamin Franklin "Ben" Shibe had been lamed by a trolley accident when he was a boy, so he didn't play much.  But he knew the game from a manager's perspective, and a state-of-the-art ballfield was named for him in North Philadelphia.