April 1968: The Phillies Respond to MLK Assassination

Given their respective histories, it may be surprising that the Philadelphia Phillies got on the right side of baseball's racial history in a controversy with the Los Angeles Dodgers over the assassination of Martin Luther King. Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. His funeral and interment were set for Tuesday, April 9. All major sports, including basketball, hockey, horse racing, soccer, and golf announced they were rescheduling activities in deference to the funeral of the civil rights leader.

The Phillies were scheduled to play their season opener in Los Angeles against the Dodgers that evening. Alone among Major League baseball teams. the Dodgers announced they would go ahead and play. 

The Phillies brass, including President Robert R. M. Carpenter and General Manager John Quinn, said they would refuse to play and risk forfeiting the game. As the home team, the Dodgers had the right to insist the game be played, and with no word from baseball's league office, it appeared that the Phillies might have to forfeit.

On Sunday morning, April 7, Quinn told the press, "We have already informed the Dodgers we will not play Tuesday night. Mr. Carpenter and I discussed it. The players had nothing to do with it. We are not going to play Tuesday. The decision is irrevocable."

Reached at a Dodgers exhibition game in San Diego on Sunday April 7 (the only major professional sports event that had not been cancelled that day), Dodgers General Manager Buzzy Bavasi said, "It is unfortunate that a premature announcement has been made, because as far as the Dodgers are concerned the game will be played on Tuesday." 

Quinn shot back, "The Dodgers have the right as the home team to have the game played, but we have decided not to participate. If we do not field a team..., then the league president [Warren Giles] could forfeit the game to the Dodgers. We have made our decision and it is entirely up to the Dodgers whether or not they want to play the game."

Bavasi told the Philadelphia Inquirer, "I have talked with Willie Davis and coach Jim Gilliam (the Dodgers two African American team members). They said as long as the game would not be played before Dr. King's interment, there was no sense in canceling it."

African American players on the Phillies, Bill White, Grant Jackson, Dick Allen, John Briggs, and rookie Larry Hisle, applauded the team's decision. The veteran White acted as their spokesperson. "Mr. Carpenter showed me a lot," White said. [Dodger President] O'Malley showed me nothing. It angers me that the team that pioneered the advent of the Negro into baseball would take such a stand. Here you have an owner like O'Malley who wants to count dollars and a sportsman like Carpenter who wants to do the right thing. It's an affront to the 150-160 Negroes who play in the National League."

White wasn't finished. "I suppose that Giles and the O'Malleys have their side, but if I was a Dodger, I would not play this ball game. I would tell them where they could put their uniforms."

Finally on Monday, April 8, the Dodgers relented and agreed to postpone the game. The two teams would make up the game on April 16, meaning that both teams would lose a scheduled off day for travel to Philadelphia.

When the season finally did begin one day late on April 10, the Phillies added insult to injury by beating the Dodgers, 2-0. Chris Short pitched the four-hit shutout, besting Claude Osteen. Rookies Larry Hisle and Don Money were the hitting stars. 

As a footnote, I would point out that in 1968, Bill White said there were "150-160" African Americans in the National Leage alone. Today there are approximately 68 in all of Major League Baseball.

Taking Command for One Day: Jim Command's Grand Slam for the Record Books

Jim "Igor" Command

On June 18, 1954, the Phillies recalled utility man Jim "Igor" Command from their minor league affiliate in Syracuse, NY. Shortstop prospect Mickey Micelotta* was sent down to Syracuse for "more seasoning" according to the Phillies' brass. The twenty-five-year-old Command was already a seven-year veteran of the Phillies minor leagues, with stops at Salina, Terre Haute, Wilmington, Schenectady, Baltimore, Spokane, and Syracuse along the way. He hit .321 for Single-A Spokane in 1953. The left-handed hitting Command was signed as a free agent out of Grand Rapids (Michigan) High School in 1947. 

Command made his major league debut on June 20th, striking out as a pinch hitter in a game the Phillies lost, 15-6 to the Cincinnati Reds. Through July 9, Command had made just two appearances, both as a pinch hitter in games where the Phillies were far behind. On July 10, Phillies regular third baseman, Willie Jones, tripped over first base while trying to run out a ground ball and injured his leg. Command ran for him and then took over at third base. Two more at bats produced no hits.

With Jones temporarily on the shelf, Command got his first Major League start on July 11 at Ebbett's Field in Brooklyn in the first game of a doubleheader against the Dodgers. Carl Erskine was on the mound for the Dodgers. Command was batting eighth. In three at bats against Erskine, Command had struck out, grounded out, and walked. As the eighth inning began, the Phillies trailed, 7-1. Shortstop Ted Kazanski led off the inning with a home run. Richie Ashburn walked, and catcher Smoky Burgess singled. The inning looked about to die when left fielder Danny Schell flew out and second baseman Granny Hamner struck out, but right fielder Del Ennis singled home Ashburn. Burgess and Ennis moved up on a wild pitch and Erskine walked first baseman Earl Torgeson. 

With the bases loaded, Jim Command and his .000 batting average walked to the plate. Dodger manager Walter Alston went to the mound to confer with Erskine. He asked Erskine what he knew about this rookie hitter. Erskine said, "Nothing." Alston replied, "Screw it! Just pitch to him." Command took a rip at an Erskine fastball and deposited into the left field stands for a game tying home run. It was the first time a player had hit a grand slam for his first major league hit since 1898, when "Frosty Bill" Duggleby achieved the feat. Duggleby was a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies. Many players have achieved this feat since, including another Phillie, Chase Utley, who connected on April 24, 2003.**

Unfortunately for Command and the Phillies, relievers Jim Konstanty and Stu Miller conspired to cough up the lead in bottom of the inning and the Phillies lost the game, 8-7. 

Command wasn't finished though. Perhaps as reward for his first game heroics, or perhaps because Jones was still limping around the clubhouse, Command got the start at third in Game 2. This game turned out to be a tight pitcher's duel between the Phillies Herman Wehmeier and the Dodgers Don Newcombe. The Phillies struck first in the fifth inning when Hamner doubled and Command doubled him home. The Phillies eventually won the game, 3-1 as Robin Roberts came in to get the save by pitching out of a bases loaded jam in the eighth and closing out the Dodgers in the ninth. 

The line score for Command on the day: 6 AB  2 H  1 R  5 RBI.

After the All-Star break, Command was again in the starting lineup for another doubleheader, this time against the Cincinnati Reds in Cincinnati. In game one he had two more hits and knocked in the only Phillies run as Curt Simmons fell to the Reds Dick Fowler, 2-1. Those two hits would be Jim Command's final two major league hits. He was sent back to Syracuse on July 31 so that the Phillies could recall pitcher Thornton Kipper. Command was a September callup in 1955 but failed to hit in five pinch hitting appearances.

Jim Command was no quitter though. He made himself into a catcher and hung on in the minor leagues for five more seasons as a backup catcher with several organizations, eventually finishing up back with the Phillies Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo, NY in 1959. After his playing days, Command had a long and distinguished career as a scout for the Detroit Tigers. 

Fifty-five years later, Jim Command's son, Tim, ran into Carl Erskine at a luncheon in Anderson, Indiana where Erskine lived. "When we parted ways,' said Tim, "He gave me an autographed baseball that said, 'To Tim, I did survive the grand slam your dad hit off me in 1954.'" Later Tim and Carl encountered each other in the parking lot. "As he was getting into his car, with a wink and a chuckle he said, 'Tell your Dad I took a little off that pitch."

Told the story later, Jim Command said, "If I hit that pitch, he probably did."

The native of Grand Rapids, Michigan was inducted into the Grand Rapids sports Hall of Fame in 1996 at the same ceremony as former University of Michigan football player and President of the United States, Gerald Ford. 

Command died August 10, 2014 at the age of 85. Carl Erskine is 96-years-old and still living in Anderson, IN.

*Mickey Micelotta was touted for a while as the next great thing at shortstop for the Phillies. He never fulfilled that promise, however. He played just 17 games in the Major Leagues with the Phillies, mostly as a pinch runner. He had a long minor league career.

** Chase Utley's first Major League Hit is a Grand Slam.

Those 1957 Phillies Pennant Contenders: A Last Hurrah for the Whiz Kids

Jack Sanford

If you grew up a Phillies fan in almost any era, save 2007-2011, you were accustomed to your favorite team being out of contention by July. The first year I was aware enough about baseball to really call myself a fan was 1954. I was seven. That year, by July 15, the Phillies were in fifth place in the National League, 15.5 games behind the league leading New York Giants. Between 1954 and 1975, in fact, the Phillies were out of contention by July 15 every year except 1957 and 1964. 

The collapse of the 1964 team has been well documented. But what of that 1957 team? I was by then a ten-year-old shortstop on the Food Fair Little League team, an avid collector of baseball cards, and a rabid Phillies' fan. The Phillies themselves were a collection of fading "Whiz Kids" from the 1950 pennant winners, five rookies having breakout seasons, and a couple of veterans brought in via trade. This bunch, under manager Mayo Smith, managed to make a run at the pennant that lasted into the summer, only to fade in a flurry of losses by summer's end.

The former "Whiz Kids on the team included Robin Roberts, Curt Simmons, Richie Ashburn. Granny Hamner, Bob Miller, and Stan Lopata. None of these players was yet 32 years old, but all of them, save perhaps Ashburn, was on the downside of his career. Roberts would have a particularly difficult season, going 10-22, just two years removed from having six consecutive 20-win seasons. Third baseman Willie Jones hit just .218. Whiz Kid shortstop Granny Hamner had been moved to second base. He hit .227. Slugger Del Ennis had been dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals for another slugging outfielder, Rip Repulski. Repulski hit 20 home runs, but he was no Ennis as an RBI man. 

The bountiful rookie crop included twenty-eight-year-old Jack Sanford, who had toiled for years in the Phillies minor league system, before suddenly discovering how to get his devastating sinker over the plate. Sanford mowed down National League hitters consistently throughout the season, finishing with a 19-8 record. He was named Rookie of the Year for his efforts, just outpointing the Phillies new first baseman, Ed Bouchee. Bouchee, a chunky left-hander signed out of Spokane, Washington, hit a strong .293 with 17 home runs and 76 RBIs. Delaware native and West Chester State College product Harry "The Horse" Anderson, took over leftfield for the Phillies and had a very solid rookie campaign, hitting .268 with 17 homeruns. The sweet swinging Anderson quickly became a fan favorite. 

Flame-throwing Turk Farrell was another product of the Phillies farm system who had a breakout rookie season. He became the team's chief relief pitcher, recording a 10-2 record, 2.38 ERA, and 10 saves in 52 games. The new shortstop was rookie Humberto "Chico" Fernandez, who was acquired in a trade with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Fernandez played flashy defense and ignited the fans with his daring and dynamic baserunning. He hit a solid .262 and led the team with 18 stolen bases.

This mix of veterans and rookies started slowly, but by the end of May were winning consistently. On June 1, when Sanford shutout the Brooklyn Dodgers, 3-0, at Connie Mack Stadium, the Phillies moved into second place 2.5 games behind the Cincinnati Reds. Repulski gave Sanford all the runs he needed with a two-run home run off Roger Craig in the first inning. Sanford struck out 11 and walked one. He moved his record to 6-1 on the season.

In his next outing, Sanford tossed a three-hit shutout, beating the Chicago Cubs, 1-0, at Connie Mack Stadium. This time he struck out 13. Fernandez plated the winning run with a sacrifice fly. The Phillies crept closer to the first place Reds. With five teams, (Cincinnati, Brooklyn, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and the Phillies) contending, the lead exchanged hands often and even a short losing streak could send one of the teams down to fifth place. 

Finally, on July 15 the Phillies ascended to the top.

Jack Sanford was again on the mound for the Phillies. Again, the game was at Connie Mack Stadium. Attendance, which had been good all year, was 33,900, the largest crowd since opening day. The Phillies fans were again backing a (hoped for) winner. Sanford beat the St. Louis Cardinals. 6-2. Willie Jones' two-run homer was the big blow. The Phillies, 48-36, were in a virtual first-place tie with the Redbirds. Sanford's record was 12-2.  

Unfortunately for the Phils and the fans, that was the team's high-water mark. The team lost seven of their next eight games. On July 17 against Milwaukee, Robin Roberts, who had lost six straight starts, was tossed from the game after pitching a scoreless first inning. He got into a heated argument with umpire Jocko Conlan, who had made a mysterious ruling on a phantom tag play that ended a possible Phillies rally in the bottom of the first. The umps got it wrong, but Roberts said he deserved to get tossed because he called Jocko. "a little Irish prick." Roberts, who had never been so angry on the ball field, had to be pulled away from Conlan by manager Smith. The Phillies filed a formal protest of the game, but to no avail. Jack Meyer replaced Roberts on the mound and the Phillies lost, 10-3. 

The losses kept coming. Milwaukee's Bob Buhl beat Curt Simmons twice during this stretch, 4-2 and 1-0. The Phillies fourth starter, diminutive lefty Harvey Haddix, also lost two of those seven games, 6-2 to Milwaukee and 6-4 to Cincinnati. A little over a week after they ascended to first place the Phillies were in fifth place five games behind the surging Braves. A 9-18 month of August finished the Phillies off for good. They ended the season a .500 ball club, 77-77-2, in fifth place, 18 games behind the pennant winning Braves. 

In many ways this season was a last hurrah for the Whiz Kids. While Roberts bounced back to have a good 1958 season and Ashburn won a batting title, the team finished in eighth place in the eight-team league. In fact, the Phillies finished in last place from 1958-1961, by the end of which all the former Whiz Kids had moved on. Ashburn to the Cubs, Roberts to the Yankees and then Orioles, Simmons to the Cardinals, Jones to the Reds. Hamner was with Kansas City trying to revive his career as a knuckleball pitcher. Bob Miller and Stan Lopata were retired from baseball. An era had ended. 

Remembering Tim McCarver's Phillies Career

Tim McCarver was an established Major League star before he ever put on a Phillies uniform. In seven years as the St. Louis Cardinals' starting catcher, McCarver had been an All-Star twice, had played on three National League pennant winners and two World Series Champions, was the star hitter on the 1964 World Champion team, was second in the 1967 MVP balloting, and had caught future Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson during his incredible 22-9, 1.12 ERA season in 1968. When McCarver was traded to the Phillies in the infamous Curt Flood/Dick Allen deal, he was expected to slot in as the Phillies starting catcher, but in his nine seasons with the Phillies, McCarver was the #1 catcher for only one season: 1971. His impact with the Phillies eventually rested on his becoming Steve Carlton's personal catcher and on his consistent, timely hitting.

McCarver's first season with the Phillies in 1970 was not even a month old, when he broke a finger on his throwing hand on a Willie Mays foul tip. That injury led to one of the more bizarre incidents in Phillies injury history, when backup catcher Mike Ryan broke a couple of his glove hand fingers in the same inning, trying to tag out an on-sliding Willie McCovey. Ryan somehow finished out the inning but could not continue and was replaced by utility man Jim Hutto, for his first ever Major League appearance behind the plate. You can read the full story of that fateful day here.  McCarver returned to the Phillies in September and hit .316 for the final month. 

After a slow start with the bat in 1971, McCarver recovered to hit a solid .278, He struck out only 26 times in 525 plate appearances over 134 games. Hitting highlights included a game on June 30 where he had two hits including a home run and scored three runs in a 4-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds, a three-run home run off the Montreal Expos Mike Marshall that gave the Phillies a come from behind 7-5 victory on July 8 at Veterans Stadium, and a four-hit game against his former team the Cardinals on August 1. The season also featured a fistfight with former Cardinal teammate Lou Brock, when Brock had the temerity to laugh after McCarver dropped a foul popup.

Despite the good offensive numbers, much of the talk after the 1971 season was about McCarver's defensive liabilities, particularly his throwing. McCarver admitted he had never been the strongest throwing catcher, and years of catching and finger injuries had not helped when he went to grip the ball out of his mitt. McCarver was candid about the problems, "I've just never been a strong throwing catcher," he told the Daily News' Bill Conlin. "I got the job done in my good years, but then I started thinking about throwing the ball instead of just throwing it."

McCarver worked hard to improve his throwing under the tutelage of his backup, Mike Ryan, and maintained his starting role for the start of the 1972 season, during which he was reunited with his former Cardinal battery-mate, Steve Carlton. Carlton would, of course, go on to have one of the greatest seasons a pitcher has ever had, but McCarver would not be around for most of Carlton's success. McCarver caught Carlton in 12 of his first 14 starts, compiling a 7-6 record, but he got off slowly with the bat, hitting only .237. On June 14 he was traded to the Montreal Expos for journeyman John Bateman. The trade was precipitated by McCarver's relatively high salary of 70K, more than the Phillies were willing to pay for a hit first catcher who wasn't hitting. Bateman went on to catch most of Carlton's victories in his 27-10 season.

After the trade McCarver wandered from the Expos, back to the Cardinals, and then to the Boston Red Sox. He was used primarily as a first baseman and pinch-hitter. His days as a catcher seemed to be winding down. In July of 1975, however, the Phillies signed McCarver as a free agent and almost immediately he became Steve Carlton's designated catcher. Bill Conlin wrote, "McCarver is to Carlton what Rasputin was to Czarina Alexandra. Carlton and McCarver mix like vodka and tomato juice." The pairing, of course, worked. In 1976, with McCarver doing most of his catching, Carlton regained his 1972 form and led the Phillies to their first playoff appearance in 26 years. When Carlton took the mound in game one of the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, McCarver was behind the plate. 

The Phillies, with McCarver usually catching Carlton and otherwise acting as a pinch hitter, won the National League East Division in 1976, 77, and 78. McCarver was still a good hitter. He hit .277, 320, .247, during those years. While he did not hit for high average as a pinch hitter, he contributed enough hits, along with a considerable number of walks to make him valuable in that role. On July 4, 1976, McCarver celebrated the Bicentennial by hitting a grand slam home run in Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium. Unfortunately, in his excitement, he passed baserunner Garry Maddox between first and second base. He was ruled out at second base and credited with only a three-run single.

By 1979, McCarver's skills on the field had eroded considerably and he retired to the broadcast booth, as had long been his plan. The Phillies brought him back for a cameo at the end of the Championship 1980 season, so that he could become one of the very few players to play in the Major Leagues over four decades, 1959-80. From there McCarver became one of the most insightful and entertaining baseball analysts ever. 

It as a fine ballplayer I prefer to remember him, however. McCarver often spoke for Carlton during Steve's silent years in the Phillies' locker room, but here I would like to turn the tables and give Carlton the final word. In his Hall of Fame induction speech in 1994 Carlton said, "Behind every successful pitcher there is a very smart catcher and Tim McCarver is that man [for me]. Timmy forced me to pitch inside. Early in my career I was reluctant to pitch inside. Timmy had a way to remedy this. He used to set up behind the hitter. There was just the umpire there. I couldn't see him [McCarver}, so I was forced to pitch inside."

Death Knell for a Dynasty: Halladay Drops 1-0 Decision to the Cardinals

This past 2022 season the Philadelphia Phillies made their first entry into the post-season in 11 long years. When I say long, of course, it is a relative term. I lived through the 25 years between post-season appearances of earlier Phillies teams (1950-1976) and my father lived through an even longer drought during the 35 woebegone years from 1915-1950. This latest season of qualified success, the Phillies just sneaked into the post-season with the final NL Wild Card spot, had me looking back on the last Phillies team to make the playoffs. That was a truly great team, which rode the pitching of the four aces, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt, to a 102-win season. It was also a team that had reached the playoffs for five consecutive years under manager Charlie Manuel, including two World Series appearances and one World Championship.

This great team went into the National League Division Series against the red-hot St. Louis Cardinals (90-72) and proceeded to lose the five-game series, 3-games-to-2. The final game saw the Phillies and Roy Halladay drop an excruciating 1-0 decision to Chris Carpenter and the Cardinals, at Citizens Bank Park before 46,520 stunned and silent Phillies fans. As Ryan Howard grounded out weakly to second base to end the game, he fell to the ground in agony with a ruptured Achilles tendon. That game and that final play became the symbols of the end of the Phillies greatest run of success in their 125-year history. The fall was precipitous. It would be 10 years before the Phillies would even finish above .500 again.

The Division Series began in Philadelphia with a Phillies 11-6 win. After Halladay gave up three runs to the Cards in the first, the Phillies hitters drove former teammate and Cardinals’ starter Kyle Lohse from the mound with a five run sixth inning. Howard hit a three-run homer and Raul Ibanez followed with a two-run blast to put the Phillies ahead for good. The Cardinals took the next game, 5-4, when Lee could not hold the four-run lead he was given. The Phillies got to Cards starter Carpenter for those four runs in the first two innings, but six Cardinal relievers held the Phillies off the rest of the way. An Albert Pujols seventh-inning single drove home the winning run.

Cole Hamels pitched six strong innings for a 3-2 Phillies victory in Game 3 as the series moved to Busch Stadium III. The Phillies Ben Francisco won the game with a pinch-hit, three-run home run in the seventh. The Cardinals battered Oswalt in Game 4 for a 5-3 win. David Freese was the Cardinal hitting star with two hits and four RBIs.

The series returned to Philadelphia for a winner take all Game 5. Halladay would face Carpenter.

The Cardinals took the lead in the top of the first inning, when Rafael Furcal led off the game with a triple and scored when Skip Schumacher doubled. That was it for the scoring as Halladay shut the Cardinals down for the next seven innings. Meanwhile the Phillies hitters could generate nothing against Carpenter, who they had handled easily in Game 1. In this game they could only manage a Shane Victorino double in the second and single in the fourth, and a Chase Utley single in the sixth. The series and the season came down to the bottom of the ninth inning. Carpenter was still on the mound. Utley led off and hit the first pitch for a fly ball out to center field. Hunter Pence grounded out to Daniel Descalso, Freese’s defensive replacement at third base. Howard was the Phillies’ last hope. Despite a home run in the first game, he had had a poor series, going 2-for-18 as he stepped in. He worked Carpenter to 2-2, then swung mightily, started to run, and crumpled to the ground as second baseman Nick Punto fielded the slow grounder and threw him out. What followed was a bizarre scene as the Cardinals rushed out to celebrate on the mound with Carpenter and the Phillies medical personal dashed out to aid the fallen Howard.

The Cardinals stayed hot and went on to win the NL Championship Series over the Milwaukee Brewers, and the World Series in seven games over the Texas Rangers.

Howard was never the same. He played just 71 games in 2012 and averaged just .229 with 19 home runs over his final five seasons with the Phillies. Halladay was never the same either. Suffering from arm miseries, he won just 15 more games in his career as his ERA rose two full runs per game in 2012. Chase Utley was slowed by bad knees, and while he managed two more decent seasons for the Phillies, he was a shadow of his former All-Star self. He was shipped to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2015. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins was solid for the next three years for the Phillies, even winning his third Gold Glove in 2012, but his batting average hovered around .250. Lee struggled in 2012, bounced back well in 2013 and played his final season in 2014, when injuries caught up with him. In mid-2013 manager Charlie Manuel was fired, and the Phillies 2007-2011 dynasty was officially declared dead.

The Phillies got a small measure of revenge on the Cardinals in the 2022 playoffs, downing them in two straight games in St. Louis. Meanwhile, the New York Mets proved once again that 100-win seasons do not necessarily translate into post-season success, as they dropped their Wild Card Series to the San Diego Padres, 2-games-to-1. In the playoffs, it is often the hot team, and not necessarily the best team, that wins.

 

The Mad Monk Delivers a Little Good Luck

Whiz Kid Russ Meyer came by his many nicknames honestly. Monikers like "The Mad Monk", "Russ the Red", and "Rowdy Russ" would indicate a player with a temper. Meyer certainly had one. He is probably better remembered today for his antics on and off the field, than he is for being a pretty good pitcher. Meyer's best season as a Phillie was 1949, when he went 17-8 with a 3.08 ERA. 

Meyer was counted on to be a big winner in 1950, too, but a spring training elbow injury, plus a midseason encounter with a water bucket that resulted in a broken toe, limited his effectiveness. Meyer had shown he was a danger to himself before. In 1947, while pitching for the Chicago Cubs, he injured an ankle kicking the pitching rubber in anger. Meyer's greatest contribution to the pennant winning Phillies in 1950, was one game during the pennant run , when he beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-3 at Shibe Park.

Coming into that September 8 game, the Phillies were in freefall, having lost five games in a row, three of them to the Dodgers. Their seven-game lead had shrunk to five and one-half games. Star left-hander, Curt Simmons, had been called up to military duty. Rookie sensation Bob Miller was on the shelf with a sore arm and aching back. Roberts had just dropped a 3-2 decision the night before. The Phillies needed someone to step up. Meyer answered the call. 

In the first inning, after Meyer got Jackie Robinson to popout with Pee Wee Reese on second, the Phillies staked him to a 2-0 lead, when Granny Hamner slashed a two-out single off Brooklyn starter Erv Palicka, driving home Richie Ashburn and Willie Jones. A Jones error in the second helped the Dodgers get one run back, when catcher Bruce Edwards singled home Carl Furillo. The Phillies got that run right back in the bottom of the inning, when Mike Goliat singled, Meyer sacrificed, and Eddie Waitkus singled home Goliat. The same three players increased the Phillies lead to 4-1 in the 6th. Goliat singled and again was moved up by a Meyer sacrifice. Waitkus drove home Goliat with a double this time.

As it turned out, every one of those runs was needed, because the Dodger's Duke Snider blasted a two-run home run over the high rightfield wall in the top of the eighth. With the score 4-3, Meyer took the mound in the ninth to try to preserve a much-needed Phillies win. He retired Furillo, Gil Hodges, and Edwards on three easy ground balls to notch the complete game victory. The win righted the ship for a while. "The slump's all over," a jubilant manager Eddie Sawyer declared.

What nobody knew until after the game was that the "Mad Monk" had luck on his side for this game. As Meyer related the story, "As I walked into the clubhouse, the guard stopped me. 'Here, he said. Maybe this will bring you some luck.'" Meyer showed the reporters a well-worn piece of copper with the barely discernable inscription, "Good Luck Penny," He kept the coin in his hip pocket throughout the game. Monk grinned, "I guess it did some good at that." 

The Phillies, of course, held on to win the pennant on the final day of the season behind the heroic pitching of Robin Roberts. Meyer appeared in two games in relief in the World Series and was the loser in Game 3, when he gave up a walk off single to the Yankees' Jerry Coleman.

After a couple more mediocre seasons with the Phillies, Meyer was dealt to the Brooklyn Dodgers in a deal that brought the Phillies first baseman, Earl Torgeson. Meyer seemed to find himself with the Dodgers and had an excellent season, going 15-5, helping the Bums win the 1953 pennant. 

Meyer's season was not without incident, however, as two encounters with the Phillies in 1953 illustrate. In the fourth inning of a game at Connie Mack Stadium on May 24, Meyer gave up a single to Richie Ashburn and then walked Johnny Wyrostek and Mel Clark. Meyer was incensed by several of the ball calls and let feisty homeplate umpire Augie Donatelli know about it. Finally, in frustration, Meyer threw the rosin bag thirty feet in the air. When it returned to earth it landed squarely on top of Meyer's head in an explosion of white powder. That was enough for Donatelli who tossed Meyer from the game. 

Meyer was not done, though. He stalked to the dugout, turned, yelled at Donatelli again, and grabbed his crotch. As it happened this gesture was captured by television cameras and touched off a storm of protest from viewers. The incident caused Major League Baseball to adopt the "Meyer Rule" banning TV cameras from the dugout. The rule lasted about 10 years.

In his autobiography Throwing Hard Easy (written with C. Paul Rogers) Phillies great Robin Roberts tells another Mad Monk story. The Phillies were playing the Dodgers. Ashburn was at the plate with the bases loaded. The Dodgers had a big lead. Richie, as he was very capable of doing, fouled off seven or eight consecutive pitches. That was enough for Meyer, who plunked Ashburn in the middle of the back with the next pitch and yelled into Whitey, "Foul that one off you sonuvabithch."

The Sultan of Sawatski

Carl Sawatski

In March of 1956, aging Connie Mack Stadium got a facelift in the form of a huge new electronic scoreboard. The new edifice was positioned in right-center field, 405 feet from home plate. It cost $175,000, was 64 feet high (79 feet if you included the Longines clock on top) and 75 feet wide and was clearly visible wherever you sat in the stadium.  The new scoreboard was nearly a carbon copy of the scoreboard at Yankee Stadium in New York City; in fact, it was built by the same company, All American Scoreboards in Pardeeville, Wisconsin.* The Phillies reported their scoreboard was the "biggest in baseball." It certainly would prove to be a daunting barrier for major league sluggers. The behemoth was dubbed "The Ballantine Beer Scoreboard" because of the large beer advertisement at the top.

In its first two years of existence, while many smacked drives off the scoreboard, no one managed to hit one over it. Finally, on May 25, 1959, in a game against the Milwaukee Braves, a stocky backup catcher for the Phillies named Carl Sawatski got hold of a Bob Buhl fastball and launched it on a high arc up and over the formidable barrier. I saw Dick Allen hit a ball over the roof in left center at Connie Mack Stadium; I saw Greg Luzinski hit a ball off the Liberty Bell in Veterans Stadium; I saw Ryan Howard hit a ball onto Ashburn Alley at Citizens Bank Park, but I have never seen as majestic a home run as that one hit by Sawatski. The flight of that ball is burned in my memory.

Carl Sawatski was born in the town of Shickshinny, in the coal regions of Pennsylvania, about 130 miles north of Philadelphia. The family moved to North Jersey, where Carl played baseball for Pompton Lakes High School and American Legion teams. A fine hitter, Sawatski signed with the Phillies and began to work his way through the minor leagues as an outfielder. Always stocky of build and always battling his weight, Carl decided the best way to get to the major leagues was as a catcher. Despite displaying prodigious power (he led four different minor leagues in home runs), he was dropped by the Phillies and Boston Braves, He finally found his way to the major leagues with the Chicago Cubs, making his debut in 1948. 

Sawatski's career was interrupted by military service in 1951 and 52, after which he served as a backup catcher for the Cubs, Chicago White Sox, and Milwaukee Braves for five seasons. In June 1958, he was dealt to the Phillies for another backup catcher, Joe Lonnett. The Phillies wanted a left-handed bat to complement regular catcher Stan Lopata.

Despite reporting to the Phillies out of shape and overweight, Sawatski's bat made an immediate impact with his new team. Platooning with Lopata, Sawatski went four-for-four including a home run to support Curt Simmons in a 5-1 win over Milwaukee on July 4. Two days later he went three-for-five as Ray Semproch beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-1. A week later he had four more hits, including one of the five triples he hit in his career, in a Phillies loss to the San Francisco Giants.

In 1959 Lopata was traded away and Sawatski found himself platooning with light hitting Valmy Thomas. Sawatski had a fine offensive season, hitting .293 with nine home runs and 43 RBIs in 74 games, including, of course, that blast off Buhl over the Ballantine Beer scoreboard. He also had a pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning to win a game on July 24. Defense was an issue though. In a September 7th game in Cincinnati, he lost track of a pitch that bounced off his foot as two runners raced around to score. Despite being a part time player, Sawatski managed to be among the league leaders in errors, passed balls, and stolen bases against.

The 1959 Phillies were a bad team and despite his success in Philadelphia, Sawatski demanded to be traded, threatening to retire if he wasn't. General Manager John Quinn obliged the big catcher by trading him to the St. Louis Cardinals where Sawatski enjoyed four more productive seasons as a backup catcher and pinch hitter. 

Carl Sawatski was a career long backup catcher with a good bat, below average defensive ability, who was an always pleasing presence in the dugout and locker room. His career spanned baseball eras. When he first came up to the big leagues in 1948, he backed up the Cubs' veteran Mickey Owen, who caught his first game in 1938. He finished his career in 1963 as the backup to the Cardinals' Tim McCarver, who caught his last game in 1980. After his playing days, Sawatski became a successful minor league general manager and in 1976 was named president of the Texas League, a position he held until his death, from leukemia, in 1991.

* Many readers have no doubt heard the story that the scoreboard was actually purchased second hand from the Yankees and moved to Philadelphia. This story, while ubiquitous, is apocryphal. The Yankees did not get a new scoreboard until 1959 and the Yankee Stadium scoreboard differed in significant ways to the one built in Connie Mack Stadium.

Read more on Carl Sawatski and his career in his SABR biography by Gregory H. Wolf here.