Sunday, February 12, 2023

Philadelphia Baseball History, Concluded: The Phillies and a Century of Losing

 

As the Eagles make a run towards the Super Bowl this weekend, some fans have wondered which will cause more property damage: victory or defeat. Interviewing fans in the opening of his show, sportscaster/entertainer Bomani  Jones had this discussion with another sports fan who said it would be far worse if the Sixers or the Flyers ever won again.

As has been said over and over, Philadelphia fans are not the nicest people. I made an argument to the tragedy part of this in an article I wrote last month about the Philadelphia Athletics, a truly great franchise who because of its owners flaws led to the team leaving Philadelphia in 1954 and making a huge hole in the lives of Philadelphia baseball fans. I’m relatively sure after that the Philadelphia sports fan, if he wasn’t already damaged by that point, was basically doomed. Because they were left with the Phillies.

Several years ago, the Phillies became the first franchise in history to lose 10,000 games. I’m relatively confident that they are the losingest franchise in baseball and unless they are somehow squeezed out of existence, they always will be. Because to lose that many games, any franchise had to lose a hundred games a year for an entire century. The thing is during the twentieth century, if a Phillies team lost a hundred games, that was a good year.

The Phillies were one of the original National League franchises in 1876. They were almost always one of the worst. I have a feeling that was one of the reasons the A’s became as popular as they did as quickly as they did when the American League was founded; for the first thirteen years of their existence, they were either winning pennants are almost in contention. The Phillies by contrast were mediocre, usually no better than fifth or sixth place.

In 1911, things began to improve for the Phillies. Most of the reasons were because of two men. One was arguably the most famous home run hitter of that era: Gavvy Cravath. Between 1912 and 1919, Cravath led the National League in home runs six times. In 1915, he hit 24 home runs which was the most anyone had hit in the twentieth century to that point. There is, however, a huge asterisk on that record as well as most Cravath’s marks. The Phillies at that time played in the Baker Bowl, a park so friendly to sluggers (I believe Center field was less than 250 feet away) that one year Cravath hit all of his home runs at home and none on the road. That said, Cravath still was a good hitter, leading the National League in RBIs, slugging percentage and on percentage twice each.

The more important factor in the Phillies’ success was a pitcher who arrived that year: Grover Cleveland Alexander. Alexander was one of the three or four greatest pitchers of all time, winning 373 games tied with Christy Mathewson for third most in history. He stormed into the majors in 1911 winning 28 games and striking out 270. His years on the Phillies are among the most impressive in any pitchers repertoire, even in an era when they were dominant. He won thirty games or more three seasons in a row. In 1915, he pitched four one-hitters. In 1916, he threw sixteen shutouts a record that I’m pretty sure will never be equaled. And twice he won both games in a double-header, something that was beginning to become scarce by that point.

The result put the Phillies into contention for the first time in their history. In 1911, they finished in fourth place after contending most of the season. In 1913, they finished second, the highest any Phillies team had managed to that point. And in 1915, the same year Connie Mack’s A’s dropped from the pennant to last place, the Phillies won the first pennant in their history.

The World Series, however, was a disappointment with the Red Sox taking the Phillies in five games. Grover Cleveland Alexander won the first game of the World Series. The Phillies would not win another for sixty five years.

The Phillies finished in second the next two years, but when World War I began their time ran out. They officially ended when they sold Alexander to the Cubs before the 1918 season, suspecting they would soon lose him in the draft (which did happen.) Alexander was never the same pitcher after his sale, and the Phillies went into the cellar very quickly.

The 1920s was an era where hitting utterly dominated, and parks like the Baker Bowl were murder on pitchers. During the 1920s, the Phillies would be the worst team in the major leagues particularly for its pitching staff. In a game that was all too typical in 1922, the Phillies lost 16-15, despite managing twenty-nine hits.

During the times the A’s were at their peak, the Phillies were at their nadir – as far as pitching went, they’d actually get worse after the A’s stopped contending. 1930 was the most offensive  year when it came to batting – it is referring to in parlance as ‘the year everyone hit .300.” That year, the Phillies finished in last at 52-102, a whopping forty games out of first place. But that year every pitcher who threw for the Phillies must have dreaded coming out to the mound.  That year, the team ERA for the Phillies was 6.71, the worst in baseball history.

Now just to be fair, no one was pitching particularly well in 1930 and the Baker Bowl was a pitcher’s nightmare. And it’s not like the Phillies offense was not willing to help: Chuck Klein, the future Hall of Fame right fielder hit .386 with forty home runs and 170 RBIs. The Phillies scored 944 runs, fifth of all sixteen major league teams. But they gave up 1199.

The sad part is, based on win loss record, the 1930 Phillies actually were decent in terms of Phillies teams for the next decade. The 1938 Phillies went 45-106. It tells you a lot about how truly terrible the Phillies were that one of the better pitchers for them: Hugh Mulcahy, gained a nickname that is among the saddest of all time: “Losing Pitcher,” because that’s how most times the box scores had him in Philadelphia. He led the league in losses four times, which is unfair because he was just a bad pitcher for a terrible team. (He also has the distinction of being the first major leaguer drafted by the military for World War II.)

Because of the horrible condition of the Phillies at the time, it was easy for one to believe the now certainly apocryphal story that Bill Veeck planned to buy the Phillies and staff them with Negro Leaguers because anything would have been an improvement. Whether or not this is true, Landis did sell the Phillies to someone else: William Cox. Ten months later, Cox was thrown out of baseball for betting on the Phillies. The joke around the league was that Cox wasn’t thrown out for illegality but rather stupidity: he had bet on the Phillies to win.

The Phillies would be sold to the Carpenter family, which would eventually become one of the most successful ownerships in the post WWII era. In 1950, it looked like it might pay dividends quickly: the Phillies, nicknamed ‘the Whiz Kids’ because of the average age of the regulars, dominated the National League for most of the season. Led by the superb place hitting of Richie Ashburn, one of the best centerfielders of the decade, the power hitting of sluggers like Del Ennis, the relief work of Jim Konstanty, who was that year’s 1950 NL MVP and the consistent pitching of Robin Roberts, who would win 20 or more games six seasons in a row, the Phillies reached the end of the season with a seven game lead with eleven games to play. Then they lost eight of ten games and the Dodger’s surged. Only the superb pitching of Roberts’ on the last game of the season over Brooklyn led to the Phillies avoiding a one-game playoff and clinched the pennant. They were swept by the Yankees in four games in the World Series. 

They would contend for a while, but the dominance of Brooklyn and New York in the National League ensured they would never get above third place for the rest of the decade.

By the time the A’s left Philadelphia, in addition to a hostile fan base, the newspapers had only become poisonous toward the Phillies players and management in general. Combined with the Phillies failures to integrate until nearly the end of the decade, the 1960s looked no more promising than any other. The 1961 season looked like business as usual, as the Phillies had a twenty-three game losing streak finishing 47-107.  But new manager Gene Mauch, 36 when he took over, seemed like he was able to have the talent to help the Phillies contend. When he got them over five hundred the next season, he was named Manager of the Year.  The next year, they finished in fourth place, twelve games behind the first place Dodgers.

1964 is a year that will live in infamy in Philadelphia. The Phillies were not expected to be a contender, with most people thinking the Dodgers would repeat. But when Sandy Koufax developed a sore arm early in the season, the National League Pennant race became a whole new ballgame and the Phillies would find themselves in the hunt for the pennant from the start.

It was not a team filled with great players, though there were some good ones. Jim Bunning, one of the American Leagues best pitchers, was traded to the Phillies and was superb throughout the season, pitching a perfect game over the Mets that year. Johnny Callison was having the kind of year that usually won an MVP. Many skilled veterans who had been part of winning teams throughout the 50s were there, but the most promising player was a rookie 1st baseman named Richie Allen, who quickly became the first African-American sensation for the Phillies. He batted .318 with 29 home runs and 91 RBIs and seemed destined for greatness.

In the middle of July, the Phillies went into first place and built a fairly convincing margin over the Reds and the Cardinals.  With twelve games to go, they had a six and a half game lead over Cincinnati. Then playing the Red in a scoreless tie, utility infielder Chico Ruiz stole home with Frank Robinson at the plate. The Reds won 1-0.

The Phillies would then lose ten consecutive games, six of them against the Cardinals and the Reds. Much of that was due to Mauch’s unexpected juggling of the pitching. Bunning and Chris Short would each start three times with two days rest and lose all six games. At the same time, the Reds won nine straight games and the Cardinals won eight straight. With two games, the Phillies were in third, with their only chance for the postseason coming if they beat the Reds twice and the Cardinals were swept by the worst team in baseball the expansion Mets.

It almost seemed like it would happen. The Mets beat the Cardinals twice and the Phillies managed to beat the Reds twice. In the fifth inning, the Mets were ahead 3-2 before the Cardinals went on a tear and won 11-5. The Cardinals won the pennant.

The ripples seemed to affect everybody connected with the team in the worst way. Mauch managed for twenty three season but never won a pennant. Allen would be the victim of bad press and behavior from a rival teammate that created a horrible atmosphere in the club. When he was finally traded in 1969, he’d been branded as a malcontent and despite one of the best careers in baseball never received the credit he deserved. His statistics are that of a Hall of Famer but his reputation – which was sullied by no less than baseball scholar Bill James, in a rare example of him getting his facts wrong – made certain he never got elected in his lifetime.

And in that trade Allen was part of a package to St. Louis that included Gold Glove outfielder Curt Flood. In large part because of the Phillies horrific reputation, Flood made it clear he refused to be traded, triggering a lawsuit that would play a crucial part in toppling the reserve clause seven years later.

The Phillies slowly but surely built themselves up during the 1970s, mainly through a superb farm system and some astute trades. The most prominent of which was that of Rick Wise to St. Louis for a left-hander named Steve Carlton.

Carlton had the potential to be a great pitcher – in 1969 he had broken the single game strikeout record when he fanned nineteen Mets – but he was still considered only average. That all changed in 1972. Pitching for a team that won only 59 games, Carlton had one of the greatest seasons in baseball history. He won 27 games, struck out 310 and had an ERA of 1.97.  A great season for anyone, it’s exceptional when you consider how poor an offense he had and how few games the team won that year. He won the first of his four Cy Young Awards.

But when he did not immediately repeat his success, the already volatile Phillies press turned on him and the fans did too. After a particularly nasty article during the 1974 season, Carlton never gave another interview to the press during his career – or to this day. He would not even give interviews for his own biography.

By the 1976 season, the Phillies were a powerhouse. Led by one of the greatest offenses of all time and arguably its greatest third baseman Mike Schmidt, who led the National League in home runs eight times, is one of the few to hit four in a single game and hit 548 over his long career. With Carlton and steady pitchers like Jim Kaat and Jim Lonborg as starters, and anchored by the legendary Tug McGraw in the bullpen the Phillies won three consecutive division titles between 1976 and 1978.  But for all their talent and power, the curses of the franchises still overshadowed them: they would only win two division games in those same three years and never win a pennant.

Finally in 1979, Ruly Carpenter, who had been reluctant to participate in the impending free agency rush, decided to invest in the market. He took the most valuable free agent out there: Pete Rose, who had just left the Reds.  Rose was the missing piece the Phillies needed. The next year, they narrowly won their division, defeated the Houston Astros in an intense five game divisional series, and on October 21, 1980 won the first World Series in their history, inspiring writers such as James Michener, a long time fan to write an ode to their triumph on an airplane.

But even this triumph quickly soured. One month after the Phillies had won, Atlanta owner Ted Turner announced the big free agency signing to date: 3.5 million dollars for outfielder Claudell Washington, one of the most mediocre players in history. This decision made Carpenter finally realize that the game he had loved for so long was irrevocably changed. After several months of discussion, the Carpenter family sold the franchise after thirty-seven years of ownership.

The dynasty that seemed to be building in Philadelphia never materialized. The 1981 players strike destroyed the Phillies chance to repeat their title, even after they managed to get to a protracted postseason. And by the time they won the 1983 NL Pennant, their talent had grown so old that they were mockingly referred to as ‘The Wheeze Kids’. After being defeated by the Orioles in five games in the World Series, the dynasty collapsed and despite the occasional pennant and a World Championship in 2008, the Phillies have never been the same team since.

But maybe the momentum around Philadelphia is changing. This year, the Phillies managed to go from a wild-card berth all the way to the National League Pennant before finally losing to Houston. Perhaps another victory by the Eagles in the Super Bowl will be enough to finally shift the momentum in Philadelphia away from being horrible losers – and winners – to cautious optimism throughout the city. Just don’t expect things to change automatically or quickly – I’m quite sure no matter what happens tonight, there will be some form rioting in Philadelphia whether out of joy or sorrow.

 

Postgame: Eagles Lose Super Bowl. Prepare for More (Emotional) Wreckage.

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