The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball’s National League. Since 2004, the team’s home has been Citizens Bank Park in the South Philadelphia section of the city.

The Phillies have won two World Series championships (against Kansas City in 1980 and Tampa Bay in 2008) and seven National League pennants, the first of which came in 1915. The franchise has also experienced long periods of struggle. The age of the team and its history of adversity has earned it the distinction of having lost the most games of any team in the history of American professional sports.

The franchise was founded in Philadelphia in 1883, replacing the team from Worcester, Massachusetts. The team has played at several stadiums in the city, beginning with Recreation Park and continuing at Baker Bowl; Shibe Park, which was later renamed Connie Mack Stadium in honor of the longtime Philadelphia Athletics manager; Veterans Stadium; and now Citizens Bank Park.

The team’s heated rivalry with the New York Mets has been an issue of contention within the division in recent seasons. The team’s spring training facilities are located in Clearwater, Florida, where its Class-A minor league affiliate Clearwater Threshers play at Bright House Field.

After being founded in 1883 as the “Quakers”, the team changed its name to the “Philadelphias”, after the convention of the times. This was soon shortened to “Phillies”. “Quakers” continued to be used interchangeably with “Phillies” from 1884 until 1890, when the team officially became known as the “Phillies”.

Though the Phillies moved into a permanent home at Baker Bowl in 1887,they did not win their first pennant until nearly 30 years later, after the likes of standout players Billy Hamilton, Sam Thompson, and Ed Delahanty had departed.

Player defections to the newly-formed American League, especially to the cross-town Athletics, would cost the team dearly over the next several years. A bright spot came in 1915, when the Phillies won their first pennant, thanks to the pitching of Grover Cleveland Alexander and the batting prowess of Gavvy Cravath, who set what was then the modern major-league single-season record for home runs with 24.

Poor fiscal management after their appearance in the 1915 World Series, however, doomed the Phillies to sink back into relative obscurity; from 1918 to 1948 they only had one winning season. Though Chuck Klein won the MVP in 1932 and the National League Triple Crown in 1933, the team continued to flounder at the bottom of the standings for years.

Phillies fans have earned a reputation over the years for their occasional unruly behavior. In the 1960s, radio announcers for visiting teams would frequently report on the numerous fights breaking out in Connie Mack Stadium.

Immediately after the final game at the old park, many fans ran onto the field or dislodged parts of the ballpark to take home with them. Later, at Veterans Stadium, the 700 Level gained a reputation for its “hostile taunting, fighting, public urination and general strangeness.”

Phillies fans are known for harsh criticism of their own stars such the 1964 Rookie of the Year Richie Allen and Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt. The fans, however, as just as well-known for heckling the visiting team. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Burt Hooton’s poor performance during game three of the 1977 National League Championship Series has often been attributed to the crowd’s taunting.

J. D. Drew, the Phillies’ first overall draft pick in the amateur draft of 1997, never signed with the Phillies following a contract dispute with the team, instead re-entering the draft the next year to be drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals.

Phillies fans were angered over this disrespect and debris, including two D batteries, was hurled at Drew during an August 1999 game. Subsequent visits by Drew to Philadelphia continue to be met with sustained booing from the Phillies fans.

Many sports writers have noted the passionate presence of Phillies fans, including Allen Barra, who wrote that the biggest roar he ever heard from Philadelphia fans was in 1980 when Tug McGraw, in the victory parade after the World Series, told New York fans they could “take this championship and shove it.”

In Phillies fan culture, it is also not unusual to replace an “f” with a “ph” in words, such as the Phillie Phanatic.The club surpassed 100 consecutive sellouts on August 19, 2010, selling out over 50% of their home games and averaging an annual attendance of over 3.1 million fans since moving to Citizens Bank Park