and named them all Blue Jays: the Class C Salina Blue Jays, Class C Schenectady Blue Jays and Class D Green Bay Blue Jays. However, the new Blue Jays moniker was ultimately unpopular, and although the team in the 2000s claimed that it was quietly dropped by 1949, news reports at the time indicate that the nickname, which "never caught on anyway", was not officially dropped by the team until January 1950. (The Blue Jays moniker would be used by Toronto's MLB club when it started play in 1977.) Fightin’ Phils (1949–1970) Like Cox, Bob Carpenter Jr. was not afraid to spend the money it took to build a contender. He immediately started signing young players and invested even more money in the farm system, and the Phillies quickly developed a solid core of young players that included future Hall of Famers Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts. This coincided with the final collapse of the A's. Philadelphia had been an "A's town" for most of the first half of the 20th century. Even though the A's had fielded teams as bad or worse than the Phillies for most years since the 1930s, the A's continued to trounce the Phillies at the gate. However, a series of poor baseball and business decisions on the A's part allowed the Phillies to win the hearts of Philadelphia's long-suffering fans. Things started coming together for the Phillies in 1949, when they rocketed up the standings to third place with an 81–73 record. Although the season had essentially been a two-team race between Brooklyn and St. Louis, it was still the Phillies' first appearance in the first division in 31 years. It was also a fitting tribute to Bob Carpenter Sr., who had died in June and left Bob Jr. in full control of the team. The 1950 Phillies led the National League standings for most of the season and were dubbed the "Whiz Kids". In the final months of the season, a tailspin (triggered by the loss of starting pitcher Curt Simmons to National Guard service) caused the team to lose the next eight of ten games. On the last day of the season, the Phillies hung on to a one-game lead when Dick Sisler’s dramatic tenth inning home run against the Brooklyn Dodgers clinched the Phillies' first pennant in 35 years. In the World Series, exhausted from their late-season plunge and victims of