The Athletics were one of the charter members of the upstart American League in 1901, and immediately went about stripping the Phillies roster of it's talent. The A's grabbed future Hall of Famer Nap Lajoie, who led the new league in batting in 1901 with an incredible .426 average (still the AL record). Whereas the Phillies had struggled mightily in their first 25 years of existence, the A's were dominant almost immediately. They won the pennant in 1902, and went to the Series in 1905, where they lost to the New York Giants 4 games to 1. The Giants were managed by John McGraw, who a year earlier had given the A's a symbol they still use today, over 100 years later. McGraw told reporter in 1904 that Athletics owner Benjamin Shibe had a "white elephant" on his hands, and the A's defiantly adopted the Elephant as their logo. The Athletics have long since moved away, but A's players still wear an elephant on the sleeves of their jerseys, and their mascot is an elephant named Stomper.
The 1964 Phils or the 2007 Mets. Who was the bigger choker? The answer: the 2007 Mets. On September 12, 2007, the New York Mets had a 99.4% chance to make the playoffs. The Phillies had a 1.2% chance to win the division. In comparison, the best chance the 1964 Phillies had of making the playoffs was on September 20th, when they had a 96.3% chance. The Cardinals (who did make the playoffs) had a 1.5% chance to make the playoffs on that date. That, however, is not the greatest collapse ever. That belongs to the 1995 Angels. They had a 99.9% of making the playoffs on August 24th and had a 98.9% as late as September 12th. They then proceeded to lose 9 straight and lost a one game playoff to the Mariners. The infamous 1951 Dodgers are 2nd (of Ralph Branca and Bobby Thompson fame), then the Mets are 3rd. The '64 Phils are 8th. Of course, people in LA don't see their city through the prism of the '95 Angels like we do with the '64 Phils. You can kill a lot of time with this: here's the biggest chokes in baseball history.