The "Fighting Phils" Live up to Their Nickname: August 12, 1950

 

In the left circle players work to separate Andy Seminick and Bill Rigney. Richie Ashburn (1) can be seen with his hand on Alvin Dark's (19) head. Dick Whitman (37) obscures home plate umpire Augie Donatelli and Robin Roberts (36).  In the second circle, the Phillies Bubba Church has his arms around Giants manager Leo Durocher. In the third circle, Phillies coach Dusty Cooke restrains Giants first baseman Tookie Gilbert. Umpire Lon Warneke has a hold on the Phillies Granny Hamner (2) in the fourth circle. The Phillies Bob Miller, Curt Simmons (28) and Bill Nicholson (12) stand at left.

While the nickname "Fighting Phillies" had been hung on the team almost from its inception in 1883, the 1950 Phillies, a young bunch of upstarts intent on winning the National Leaue pennant, took the name to a whole new level. On August 12, 1950, the Phillies and the New York Giants engaged in a donnybrook for the ages in what journalist Stan Baumgartner described as "the most riotous player demonstration" at Shibe Park since the Detroit Tigers Ty Cobb spiked the Philadelphia Athletic's Home Run Baker in 1910.

Emotions were already running high as Robin Roberts took the mound for the Phillies to face the Giants Sheldon Jones for a Saturday day game before a "Kid's Day" crowd of 23,741. The kids were in for quite a show. The Giants had beaten the league leading Phillies the night before, 3-1, in a game where the Phillies charged that Giants second baseman Eddie Stanky was guilty of unsportsmanlike "bush league" behavior. It seems that, with Andy Seminick at the plate, Stanky positioned himself in Seminick's line of sight and started waving his arms around in an obvious attempt to distract the hitter. The Phillies complained, but to no avail. The umpires said nothing in the rule book prohibited Stanky's actions. The Phillies were not pleased, and the anger spilled over to the next day.

Before the Saturday game, the umpiring crew asked Giants' manager Leo Durocher to ask Stanky to cut it out. Durocher did and Stanky behaved himself at the start of the game. The Giants took the lead in the second inning on two singles, a sacrifice bunt by pitcher Jones and a Stanky sacrifice fly. In the bottom of the inning, Granny Hamner doubled with two out, Seminick walked and Mike Goliat singled, scoring Hamner and sending Seminick barreling to third. Seminick slid hard into third baseman Hank Thompson (the Giants later claimed he threw an elbow at Thompson's head) knocking him out. Left fielder Whitey Lockman's throw got away. Seminick scored and Goliat moved up to second. Thompson was carted off the field and recovered consciousness in the locker room. He was sent to the hospital for observation. Bill Rigney replaced Thompson at third base. After the lengthy timeout, Roberts singled driving in Goliat. The Phillies led 3-1, but Stanky's wrath had been aroused.

When Seminick came to the plate with two out in the fourth inning, Stanky went into his jumping around, arms waving act again directly in Seminick's line of sight. Second base umpire Lon Warneke ejected Stanky for "actions detrimental to the game." Jack Lohrke came in to play third base and Rigney shifted over to second. Durocher argued strenuously and then announced to home plate umpire Augie Donatelli that he was playing the game under protest because there was no rule that said Stanky couldn't do what he was doing.

Unfortunately for fans of decorum in baseball, Seminick then reached base on an error by shortstop Alvin Dark. Goliat followed with another ground ball to Dark, who this time fielded cleanly and threw to Rigney at second for the force out. As Rigney fielded the throw, Seminick slid in hard with spikes high. Rigney, thrown off balance, took exception. 

An enraged Rigney charged at Seminick. Seminick got to his feet and the two swung punches at each other and then wrestled to the ground. Alvin Dark tried to separate them to no avail. Both benches emptied. Players and coaches - 49 in all - streamed onto the field. Phillies coach Dusty Cooke tried to drag Rigney off of Seminick. Richie Ashburn was in the middle of the scrum trying to aid Seminick. The Giants Monte Irvin charged onto the field, bat in hand and was intercepted by the Phillies Bubba Church. The two traded punches. Jimmy Bloodworth landed a left-cross to Leo Durocher's chin and was swinging indiscriminately at others. One unidentified Phillie took a swing at an umpire and missed. Players were pushing and shoving and grabbing each other all around the main battle. The umpires tried valiantly to break things up, but order was not restored until the police came out of the stands onto the field. One officer threatened to arrest Giants first baseman Tookie Gilbert, but umpire Lee Ballanfant talked him out of it.

Once peace was restored, only Seminick and Rigney were ejected. Each was later assessed a $25 dollar fine. Ironically, Eddie Stanky, who started it all was languishing in the clubhouse after his ejection and was not involved in the dust-up. 

When the game continued, Roberts got uncharacteristically wild, walking three batters in the sixth inning and giving up the tying runs on a Don Mueller bases loaded single. In the seventh inning, a Bobby Thompson home run gave the Giants the lead, 4-3. The Phillies tied the game in the bottom of the inning on an unearned run. Goliat reached on a Tookie Gilbert error. Bill (Swish) Nicholson batted for Roberts and singled Goliat up to second. Goliat scored from there on an Eddie Waitkus base hit.

Jim Konstanty replaced Roberts on the mound and pitched four shutout innings as the game went into extra innings. In the bottom of the tenth, Stan Lopata, who had replaced Seminick behind the plate, tripled with one out. Goliat and pinch hitter Jimmy Bloodworth (apparently recovered from the fists he bruised in the fight) were both intentionally walked. Waitkus then lofted a flyball to centerfield, deep enough to score Lopata with the winning run. Phillies 5, Giants 4.

This game, Stanky's actions, and the resultant melee had significant impact on the game of baseball moving forward. As a result of Stanky's flaunting of the rules of good sportsmanship, National League Commissioner Ford Frick gave the umpires wider latitude to rule on players' actions that might be detrimental to the game. Frick said, "I have told our umpires that in all matters not covered in the rules, they may make interpretations and rulings that would be in the best interests of baseball."

For his part, Stanky was unrepentant, saying that he would continue to do anything he could to win. His manager backed him up. Durocher "snorted" at the suggestion that good sportsmanship had any place in a situation of this kind. Leo made it clear that, to him, the only issue is winning.

The game had a few other oddities. The Giants tied the game in an inning where Robin Roberts, statistically the greatest control pitcher of all times, walked three batters. Richie Ashburn, one of the fastest players in the National League, hit into two double plays in this game. And the Giants, due to injury, ejections, and moving players around, fielded four different third basemen (Thompson, Rigney, Lohrke, Irvin) and three different second basemen (Stanky, Rigney, Lohrke) in the first five innings of the game. Hard to believe any of these things happened very often. Topping it all off, the famously feisty Stanky was a native Philadelphian, born in Kensington and a graduate of Northeast High School.