The Philadelphia Phillies are a professional baseball team based in Philadelphia that competes in Major League Baseball as a member of the National League East division. The teams nickname, "Phillies," is a shortened version of "Philadelphias" and was first used in The Philadelphia Inquirer on April 3, 1883, in the papers coverage of an exhibition game by the new National League club. The name is one of the longest continually used nicknames in professional sports by a team in the same city.

The Phillies name came about because it was common to call other teams by where they were from, and "the Philadelphias" didnt really roll off the tongue. Newspapers began shortening the name to "the Phillies" to save space in the headlines. The team quickly adopted the new, shorter nickname and the rest is history.

In summary, the Philadelphia Phillies are a professional baseball team, and their nickname "Phillies" is a shortened version of "Philadelphias" that was first used in The Philadelphia Inquirer on April 3, 1883, in the papers coverage of an exhibition game by the new National League club.