The Philadelphia Athletics was an original team in Major League Baseball's National League. In 1876 toward te end of the season, the Athletics refused to make a western trip, and were expelled from the league.

The team should not be confused with later teams of the same name: the Philadelphia Athletics (American Association), which lasted for most of the life of the American Association, and the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League, which moved first to Kansas City, Missouri and eventually to Oakland, California, where they now play as the Oakland Athletics.