Danny Litwhiler: The Phillies' "Slugging School Master"

On September 2, 1940, as the Phillies swept a doubleheader from the New York Giants, twenty-three-year-old Danny Litwhiler, in just his eighth and ninth games in the Major Leagues, had one of the greatest offensive days in Phillies history. Litwhiler smashed out six hits, including a grand slam home run, a triple, a double, two singles and drove in a total of eight runs. In game one, Litwhiler's seventh inning, two-RBI double broke a 2-2 tie and sent the Phillies ahead 4-2. His grand slam off the Giants' Red Lynn in the eighth inning put the game out of reach. The Phillies won going away 11-2. In the second game, Litwhiler's sixth inning triple drove in two, tying the score at five. The Phillies won the game 6-5 in the 10th on a Bobby Bragan walk-off home run. Litwhiler's big day launched him into a 21-game hitting streak. In fact, after his August callup from the minor leagues, Litwhiler hit safely in 31 of the 33 games he started. He finished the season with a .345 batting average.

Daniel Webster Litwhiler was born in 1916 in the tiny Pennsylvania coal region town of Ringtown (pop 750). He followed several of his brothers in attending Bloomsburg State Teachers College (now Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania) about 20 miles from home. At Bloomsburg, Danny starred for the baseball team as an outfielder and graduated with a degree and a teaching certificate. Litwhiler began his professional career in the Detroit Tigers organization, while simultaneously pursuing a teaching job near the Tigers affiliate in Alexandria, Louisiana. A knee injury led to his being released by Detroit, but the Phillies owner Gerry Nugent and his farm system director John Ogden saw him work out and liked his hitting.  They signed him to a contract and agreed to pay for his knee surgery.

The surgery was performed by Dr. H. Carter Boyle, the Phillies team physician, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown, PA. The surgery was a success and after Danny was promoted to the Phillies and had that 21-game hitting streak at the end of the 1920 season, he thanked Dr. Boyle by giving him the bat he had used during the streak.

Great things were expected of Litwhiler in 1941, but he got off to a very slow start and by June 1 he was hitting just .236. Whispers around the league were that the new Phillies phenom was "just another false alarm." In desperation, Litwhiler called Dr. Boyle. "You remember that bat I used when I hit in those 21 straight games? Can I have it back?"

"I gave it away to a boy in Allentown," said the doctor, "but I'll try to get it back."

The next day Litwhiler and Dr. Boyle found the boy playing ball and doing some slugging of his own with the bat and induced him to part with it. No record exists of just what the inducement was, but Litwhiler came back with the bat. On June 2, with his lucky stick in hand Litwhiler went 3-for-4 with two home runs to help the Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs 3-2. Litwhiler tore up the league the rest of the year and finished with a .305 batting average, while leading the team with 18 home runs. *

Litwhiler had proven himself as a hitter, but he was a liability in the field. He made fourteen errors in the outfield in 1941. In spring training 1942 new manager Hans Lobert told Litwhiler that he noticed that Danny's errors all occurred on ground balls. He ordered Litwhiler to take infield practice with the second line infielders each day. The strategy worked spectacularly. Litwhiler set a major league record in 1942 by not making a single error in the field the entire season. In 151 games, mostly in left field, he made 308 put outs and 9 assists and made not one error. To recognize this accomplishment, Litwhiler's game glove from the 1942 season was placed on display in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Litwhiler's errorless streak stretched into the next season and through 187 games until he finally made an error on a rain soaked Shibe Park on May 20, 1943. That was the only error Litwhiler made for the entire 1943 season.

Now about that glove on display in Cooperstown. Litwhiler credited the glove, in part, for his record. As he told his Society for American Baseball Research biographer, Glen Vasey, "I may be wrong, but I think that my glove was the first one that had the fingers tied together by rawhide. I thought if I tied them together, if I catch the ball, maybe it would stay. Sure enough, during the time of the record, I fielded the ball two times right in the end of the fingers. No way in the world I would have caught [them] if it weren't tied together." ** By the 1950s almost all players were using gloves with the fingers tied together by rawhide.

Almost from the moment Litwhiler appeared in the Phillies lineup. rumors swirled about an impending trade to a contending team. The trade happened on June 1, 1943, when Danny was sent to the St. Louis Cardinals along with outfielder/pitcher Earl Naylor, for Buster Adams, Coaker Triplett, and Dain Clay. Litwhiler became a big part of the Cardinals teams that won back-to-back National League pennants in 1943 and 1944 and whipped the St. Louis Browns in the World Series in 1944.

Litwhiler had a productive 11-year Major League baseball career, including stints with the Cincinatti Reds and Boston Braves, as well as the Phillies and Cardinals. He finished with a career .281 batting average, 982 hits and 107 home runs. After he retired, he went on to a distinguished career as a coach for college teams, first at Florida State University and then at Michigan State. His philosophy was "teach baseball and the wins will come." He took FSU to the College World Series three times and is the all-time winningest coach in Michigan State history with a record of 488-362. His Michigan State teams won the Big Ten Championship twice. 

Danny was a great baseball teacher and also a great baseball innovator. Besides his innovation with the fingers of the baseball glove, he developed the first prototype of the JUGGS machine to calibrate the speed of pitches, Diamond Grit, used to dry out a wet field, and a special sawed-off bat to use in bunting instruction. In all, Litwhiler had more than 100 inventions credited to him.

Danny's autobiography, Living the Baseball Dream, written with Jim Sergent, was published by Temple University Press in 2006. Litwhiler died in 2011 in Clearwater, FL, at the age of 95.

* This account of the lost and found bat is taken from an article "Danny Litwhiler, Frilly Young Flychaser of Phillies", by Stan Baumgartner, published in The Sporting News, January 15, 1942.

** Glen Vasey, "Danny Litwhiler," Society for American Baseball Research. accessed on May 31, 2022.

Cartoon by Bob Coyne from The Sporting News, January 19, 1942

Why Stop at the Designated Hitter?

Designated Runner Roman Quinn

This article originally appeared in Here's the Pitch, the newsletter of the Internet Baseball Writers of America Association (IBWAA)

I have been a Philadelphia Phillies and therefore a (mostly) National League fan, ever since the A’s moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City in 1954. My fealty to the National League was reinforced when the American League adopted the designated hitter in 1973. While I am not usually a Luddite who resists all change to the National Pastime, I was then, and remain now, of the opinion that the designated hitter takes too much of the strategy out of the game. Neither of the leagues have consulted me on my feelings, however, so I am now determined to embrace the designated hitter with the full fervor of a manager trying to find a way to fit Nelson Cruz into the lineup.

My only question at this point is, “Why stop at the designated hitter?” If we are to embrace increasing specialization in baseball, why not go all in. One obvious need comes to mind as we move to the universal DH. With all these aging sluggers a part of the everyday lineup, the chances are pretty good that once or twice in a game these behemoths will be clogging the basepaths and thereby slowing the game, not to mention everyone on the bases behind them, down. The solution is simple: the designated runner. Each game the manager gets to designate a player who will be used exclusively as a designated runner for the designated hitter. This is a win-win. Management gets a sped-up game, and the players union gets another roster spot. The designated runner will also give speedy players who can’t hit, like Roman Quinn and Jackie Bradley, Jr., a job.

Next, we need to have the designated pitcher. Seems only fair. If the offense can have a designated hitter for the pitcher, the defense should be allowed to have a designated pitcher for the pitcher. The leagues have already experimented with this in spring training. When the starting pitcher’s pitch count rises over 25 or so, the manager can bring a pitcher in from the bullpen so his starter can rest and then go back out for the next inning. So, let’s make this experiment the rule. No one wants pitchers like Luis Severino or Zach Wheeler to overextend their million-dollar arms. Once the starter reaches 25 pitches in an inning, the designated pitcher can come in. Again, it’s a win-win. The organization gets to preserve its investment in a premium arm and the players union gets a roster spot for a marginal relief pitcher.

Logic now demands that we also have a designated fielder. Picture this scenario. The Phillies are in the field. Aaron Nola is in a jam in a one run game, with runners at first and third, one out, and the Rockies’ slugger Kris Bryant at the plate. This is no time for Nola to need to worry about the shaky third base defense of an Alec Bohm. So, Phils’ manager Joe Girardi calls timeout and sends his designated fielder, Ronnie Torreyes, out to replace Bohm at third. With any luck, Bryant grounds sharply to third and “Toe” starts an around the horn double play. Next inning, Bohm, and his bat are back in the game.

Speaking of the Phillies, my hometown team seems to have gone all in on this “designated” thing. They have even adopted it into the radio booth where they now have a designated announcer for those games that long time color man Larry Andersen doesn’t feel like working, which is most days. The Phillies front office has responded by inviting a small army of former Phils to sit in at the microphone this season. Among the designated announcers will be Kevin Stocker, Chad Durbin, Erik Kratz, and Michael Bourn. Heck in a pinch, I bet Bourn could still serve as a designated runner.

I have lamented in these pages in the past that the designated hitter removes the bunt as a key strategic play in the manager’s arsenal. No one is paying Nick Castellanos 25 million a season to lay down a bunt. Now analytics tells us that usually bunting is not advantageous to a team, but still, there are occasions where getting a runner into scoring position is crucial- like when the game is in extra innings and there is a “ghost runner” on second base. The obvious answer is the designated bunter. A player who, during batting practice, for example, actually practices bunting. A player who has a track record of getting a bunt down. Former second baseman Jay Bell, who had 39 sacrifice bunts for the 1990 Pirates, could have a whole career revival if they install the designated bunter.

Of course, all this designating may prove to be difficult to keep straight if you are a major league manager. Imagine all those changes that a guy like Buck Showalter, returning to the bench this season with the Mets after four years in the broadcast booth, would need to keep track of. That is why I would suggest a new coach be added to all major league teams’ benches – the designated designator. This coach would have the sole responsibility of deploying the designated hitters, runners, bunters, pitchers, and fielders during the game. The designated designator would also keep full analytics on all the designees and aid the manager in deciding which designee to designate on a designated day.

I do believe all this designation could go too far, however. I sincerely hope that there is no truth to the rumor that the Houston Astros are seeking a designated trash can banger. I also hope that Tom Brady has not decided to come out of retirement because football’s Tampa Bay Bucs were able to hire a designated ball deflator.

As you can see, I have fully embraced this whole designated thing. I now look forward to attending some games this season, where I can find my way to my designated seat, seek out my designated beer vendor, and hope I can talk my companion into being the designated driver.

Three of Baseball's Most Suspect Hall of Famers

George "High Pockets" Kelly

This article originally appeared in Here's the Pitch, the newsletter of the Internet Baseball Writers of America Association (IBWAA). 

Recently three Hall of Fame worthy players fell off the Hall of Fame ballot, basically because off the field they were Hall of Fame jerks. There can be no question that Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Curt Schilling have the on-field qualifications to earn a plaque in Cooperstown. The baseball writers who hold the ballots, however, have determined that cheating by using performance enhancing drugs (Bonds and Clemens) or loudly proclaiming repugnant political beliefs and disdain for those writers (Schilling) are disqualifiers.

Former major league player, Doug Glanville, has made a persuasive argument for the exclusion of Bonds and Clemens in an article for the ESPN website, “Why I’m Ok with Barry Bonds Not Being Elected to the Hall of Fame,” and I will defer to him on this issue. The current Hall of Fame, however, is full of bad actors and players of questionable merit, so it seems odd to exclude anyone based on some vague and unevenly enforced moral code.

While the Hall balloting was taking place, I was researching an article for the SABR BioProject on 1920s Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Heinie Sand. Sand’s most notable achievement in baseball was that he turned in a fellow player who offered him a bribe.

On Saturday, September 27, 1924, with the New York Giants locked in a battle for the pennant with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Giants were set to play the Phillies in a critical end of season game. Sand was standing on the field while the Phillies took batting practice, when he was approached by Giants utility outfielder Jimmy O’Connell. O’Connell offered Sand $500 to avoid “bearing down” in the game. Sand replied, “Nothing doing,” and later reported the incident to Phillies manager Art Fletcher. Fletcher informed Phillies officials, who reported the incident to Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

The reported bribe was the biggest gambling scandal in baseball since the Black Sox threw the World Series of 1919. With the World Series getting underway, Landis acted quickly. He interviewed O’Connell, who immediately confessed to the bribe attempt and said that Giants’ coach Cozy Dolan had instigated the bribe. He also told Landis that three star players on the Giants team, Frankie Frisch, George “High Pockets” Kelly, and Ross Youngs all knew about and approved the scheme.

Landis interviewed everyone implicated in the bribe attempt and came down with a quick decision. O’Connell and Dolan were banned from baseball for life. O’Connell, because he had confessed, and Dolan, because his denial was confused and not believable. Frisch, Kelly, and Youngs, who flatly denied any knowledge of the scheme, were completely exonerated. No one ever discovered who was putting up the $500.

It is interesting that Landis was swift to condemn two marginal major leaguers like O’Connell and Dolan, while star players like Frisch, Kelly, and Youngs got a free pass. Landis never answered why he fully accepted O’Connell’s confession as it related to his own actions and to those of Dolan, but not as it related to the other Giants O’Connell implicated. In Mystery and Tragedy: The O’Connell-Dolan Scandal, SABR author Lowell Blaisdell painstakingly reviews all the evidence and concludes, “it seems fairly likely” that Frisch, Kelly, and Youngs were supporting players in the bribe attempt.

Flash forward to 1947. Frankie Frisch, after a 19-year career as a second baseman, four World Series appearances, a long managerial career, and a stint as a popular radio broadcaster, is elected to the Hall of Fame. No question that based on his career as a player and manager he deserves the honor. His alleged involvement in the O’Connell-Dolan affair is a distant memory. His official biography for the Society of American Baseball Research makes no mention of it.

Flash forward again to 1972. The affable and popular Frisch is now on the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee. That year, he shepherds the candidacy of his old teammate, and alleged co-conspirator, Ross Youngs through the committee and Youngs is elected to the Hall of Fame. In 1973, Frisch advocates for the election of another former teammate, you guessed it, George “High Pockets” Kelly. Baseball scholars generally agree that Youngs and Kelly are among the least qualified players ever inducted. No less an eminence than baseball scholar Bill James has called Kelly, “the worst player in the Hall of Fame.”

Gambling on games has been the third rail in baseball since the Black Sox scandal in 1919. The magnificent Shoeless Joe Jackson, a possibly unwitting participant in that scandal, was banned from baseball for life and has never been considered for the Hall of Fame. Four generations later, the great Pete Rose suffered the same fate. Yet, Frisch, Kelly, and Youngs reside in the Hall alongside Lou Gehrig and Henry Aaron and Mike Schmidt and Greg Maddux as if they are in the same class. It might be the right thing to keep cheaters like Bonds and Clemens out, but let’s not pretend that the Hall is a repository for a group of players of exemplary character.

Afterword: Cozy Dolan, who had been a close confidant of Giants manager John McGraw, settled in Chicago after the scandal and operated a string of night clubs on Chicago’s north side. He died in 1958, one week after the shortstop he allegedly tried to bribe, Heinie Sand. Sand had a mediocre six-year career as the Phillies shortstop and finished his career playing several years with Baltimore in the International League. Jimmy O’Connell, a young player with a promising future, wound up playing for the Ft. Bayard, New Mexico team in the outlaw Copper/Frontier League with other disgraced players like Hal Chase and Chick Gandil. He died in Bakersfield, California in 1976.

Spud Davis Digs in for the Phillies

If you were awakened in the middle of the night and asked to name the top offensive catcher in Phillies history, what name would you blurt out? Darren Daulton? Mike Lieberthal? Stan Lopata? Smoky Burgess? J. T. Realmuto? Chances are you wouldn't name Virgil "Spud" Davis, but ol' Spud is the correct answer and it is not even especially close. Over an eight-year Phillies career and 814 games from 1928-33 and 1938-39, Spud Davis hit .321 with a high of .349 in 1933 and six .300 seasons. Burgess, who played only 3+ seasons for the Phillies, had a .316 average in his time with the club. Of players with a longer tenure, the next closest batting average is Jack Clemens .289 from 1884-1897 and Mike Lieberthal's .275 from 1994-2006.

The rookie Spud Davis came to the moribund 1928 Phillies team in April 1928 in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals for veteran catcher Jimmie Wilson. The Phillies also got first baseman Don Hurst and outfielder Homer Peel in the deal. while the Cardinals got pitcher Art Decatur and first baseman Billy Kelly. In his first two seasons with the Phils, Spud split duties behind the plate with Walter "Peck" Lerian. After Lerian was killed in a tragic trolley car accident in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware in the winter of 1929, Davis became the Phillies primary catcher. The extra work seemed to agree with him. He hit .313, .326. .336, .349 for the next four seasons averaging 120 games a season. He was second to teammate Chuck Klein in the batting race in 1933. Klein hit .368 to Spud's .349.

Virgil Lawrence "Spud" Davis was born in 1904 in Birmingham, Alabama. He got his nickname as a youngster because of his fondness for potatoes, but he said he loved baseball more than potatoes, so he gave them up to get in better shape. Despite all these efforts, Davis struggled with weight issues throughout his career. Reporters at the time dipped into their thesauri to dub him as burly, big, stocky, heavyweight, rotund, and the like. Perhaps because of this, Davis was never considered a great defensive catcher. Records indicate that he held his own, however. He was consistently among the league leaders in gunning down runners attempting to steal, generally throwing out 45% of would-be base thieves. He was also usually among the top five catchers in fielding percentage, leading the league with a .994 mark in 1931.

It was as a hitter that Spud really made his mark, however. The Burt Shotton managed Phillies were a hard-hitting team in those days, no doubt aided by the hitter-friendly Baker Bowl. Davis joined with sluggers like Hurst, Chuck Klein, and Lefty O'Doul to terrorize National League pitchers. With such a formidable lineup, Spud generally batted seventh, but he was a very potent seventh place hitter. Unfortunately, a weak pitching staff kept the Phillies from rising in the standings. 

Davis was a remarkably consistent hitter as well, generally avoiding long slumps and injury. Here are a few highlights of his time with the Phillies.

On May 10, 1930, Davis went five-for-five with a double and three RBIs as the Phillies drubbed the Brooklyn Dodgers, 14-6 at the Baker Bowl. It was the only five-hit game of his career, but he had more than 80 career games with three or more hits. 

In 1932, the usually cellar dwelling Phillies made a surprising run at the pennant. Davis' bat was right in the middle of the team's surge. On July 22, Spud bashed home runs in consecutive innings to lead the Phillies to a 9-5 win over the Dodgers. He drove in three and scored three in the game. Ten days later on August 1, Davis was at it again. His four hits, including a home run and six runs batted in, led a Phillies' onslaught as they battered the Pittsburgh Pirates, 18-5. The Phillies, of course, fell short of the pennant, but they did finish with the only winning record that they had between 1917 and 1949.

On September 30, 1933, Davis singlehandedly defeated the Boston Braves, 2-1. Spud homered in the fourth inning off Braves 20 game winner Ben Cantwell and, with the game tied at one in the 10th inning, slugged another solo shot into the left field bleachers off Cantwell to give the Phillies the 2-1 walk-off victory. It was a fitting end to Davis' finest season. 

In November of 1933, Phillies president Gerry Nugent traded Davis back to the St. Louis Cardinals for the man he traded for him six years earlier, catcher Jimmie Wilson. Speculation was that Nugent made the trade because he wanted to make Wilson, a Philadelphia native, the team's new manager. Nugent and Wilson denied the rumor and Shotton was under contract, nonetheless in January, Wilson replaced Shotton as manager.

Nugent had nothing but good things to say about Davis. "I can assure you of one thing, Jimmie Wilson is the only catcher in baseball I would have exchanged for Davis. While [Davis] played for my club, he gave everything he had every moment of the time, and my sincerest wishes for success go with him to St. Louis." 

In 1938, after three good years in St. Louis and one+ mediocre year in Cincinnati with the Reds, the now 33-year-old Davis returned to the Phillies. After a down year in 1938, Davis regained his form, hitting .307 in 1939. The Phillies sold Davis to Pittsburgh before the 1940 season. Spud finished out his career there, becoming a coach in 1942, but returning to the active roster to catch when the Pirates catching ranks were depleted by World War II. 

Davis also coached for manager Frankie Frisch with the Chicago Cubs for a few years in the early 1950s, before retiring to Birmingham. Spud Davis died there at age 79 in 1984. 

J. T. Realmuto may well be regarded as the best all-around catcher in Phillies history when all is said and done, but it is unlikely that the Phillies will ever have another catcher who consistently put the bat to the ball like Spud Davis. 

Good Deals: The Trades the Phillies Got Right

Steve Carlton                Rick Wise   

Last week's post, Bad Deals: Phillies Trades Throughout History, generated a lot of comments from readers and requests that I look at the good deals the Phillies made through the years. I admit that I might have a bit of a different view of what makes a good deal than others. Perhaps it is my background as a labor negotiator from both sides of the table, union and later in my career, management, that leads me to the conclusion that the best deals are those that are Win/Win. That is, trades where all participants get something that they wanted. Why? Because Win/Win deals build relationships of trust. When you build a trust relationship with an opposing general manager, you develop opportunities to make other deals when your team has a need. Of course, most general managers think the deals they make are Win/Win when they make them. They don't always turn out that way.

For the purpose of this analysis, I have divided the Phillies "good trades" into Win/Win and We Win/You Lose. We can all feel good about the Win/Wins. And those We Win/You Lose trades do give us long suffering fans a chance to gloat. Here is how they breakdown to me.

Win/Win Trades

Feb 1972: Rick Wise (Phillies) for Steve Carlton (St. Louis Cardinals)

This trade is probably the single most important in Phillies history and yet it truly was a Win/Win. It is also useful to remember that the trade was not a popular one in Philadelphia when it was made. Rick Wise had been with the Phillies since he was an 18-year-old bonus baby on the 1964 team. The 1971 season was his finest yet. He went 17-14 with a 2.88 ERA. He pitched a no-hitter at Cincinnati in a game where he also hit two home runs. Wise was one of the few positives on that 1971 team. Willie Montanez was another (more on him later). 

At this point in their careers, Wise and Carlton looked pretty similar on paper. Carlton was 27 and had a 77-62 record. Wise was 26 and had a 75-76 record. Tim McCarver, who had caught both pitchers said the trade was "a good one, for a good one." Not really. It was a good one for a great one as history would prove. Carlton had far superior "stuff" to Wise. In time, as he got greater command of that "stuff", the difference became clear. Still after Carlton's spectacular 1972 season when he went 27-10 on a bad Phillies team, he followed with a down 1973 when he went 13-20. leading the league in losses. In 1973, Wise was 16-12 for the Cardinals and made the All-Star team.

The trade came about because both players were in salary disputes with their respective teams. It was the second such dispute between Carlton and the Cardinals and Cardinal general manager Bing Devine thought that he detected a pattern. Signing Carlton was going to be a recurring problem. Wise had asked the notably parsimonious John Quinn of the Phillies for a 100% raise coming off his finest season. Quinn balked and called Devine. The rest, as they say, is history. Very good history for the Phillies.

Dec 1963: Don Demeter and Jack Hamilton (Phillies) for Jim Bunning and Gus Triandos (Detroit Tigers)

Jim Bunning had won 118 games for the Detroit Tigers in his nine years with the team. He was a perennial American League All-Star. But the Tigers thought that Bunning was embarking on the downside of his career. He was coming off his worst season ever in 1963, 12-13. His ERA had risen in each of the previous three years. 

Don Demeter was an excellent all-around player for the Phillies after coming over from the Los Angeles Dodgers in a trade that sent Turk Farrell to LA. Demeter had good power and good speed. He had averaged 24 homers and 85 RBIs as the Phillies chief right-handed power threat. Demeter was also speedy enough to play center field and even spent time at third base for the Phillies. The Tigers were in the market for an outfielder after trading away Rocky Colavito. Detroit general manager Bob Campbell said "Demeter is a better all-around player than Colavito. He is a better runner and a better fielder."

Demeter was a solid if not spectacular performer for the Tigers in 2+ seasons. Bunning, of course, became the mainstay of a young Phillies staff that just failed to carry the Phillies to the 1964 pennant. Bunning won 89 games in a Phillies career 1964-1967 and 1970-71.

Pitcher Jack Hamilton, who Tiger manager called "the real dark horse" in the deal, never did much for the Tigers or anybody else in his eight-year career. Catcher Triandos was a capable backup to Clay Dalrymple for the Phillies for one+ season. 

December 1974: John Stearns, Mac Scarce, and Del Unser (Phillies) for Tug McGraw, Don Hahn, and Dave Schneck

The Mets got future All-Star catcher Stearns and the Phillies got the heart and soul of their championship team of the future, Tug McGraw. McGraw racked up 94 saves for the Phillies over his 10 years in Philadelphia and won the heart of the city. Don Hahn played nine games in a Phillies uniform, which was nine more than Dave Schneck. Mac Scarce pitched in one game for the Mets. Unser came back to the Phillies to become a key bench player for the 1980 World Champions. 

May 1975: Willie Montanez (Phillies) for Garry Maddox (San Francisco Giants) 

After three fine seasons in centerfield for the San Francisco Giants, Garry Maddox was in a hitting slump and languishing unhappily on manager Wes Westrum's bench. Willie Montanez was the Phillies lone left-handed hitting regular. Paul Owens made the deal anyway. Phillies manager Danny Ozark had called Maddox "Secretariat" for the way he could run down fly balls. The Phillies got the "Secretary of Defense" for their future run at the World Championship and a player who burst out of his slump to become a reliable line drive hitter for many seasons The Giants got the slick fielding Montanez, who hit .306 for them over 2+ seasons before going on to Atlanta and becoming an All-Star. "Willie the Phillie" did not want to leave Philadelphia. "I hate to leave, but that's the game. It's a good ball club. A bunch of good guys. They gonna' win." They did.

We Win/You Lose

Dec 1917: Dode Paskert (Phillies) for Cy Williams (Cubs)

Dedicated Phillies fans know that the team has a poor history of trades with the Chicago Cubs. Any mention of Hall of Fame players Ferguson Jenkins or Ryne Sandberg can bring howls of pain from Phillies faithful. Perhaps those trades were Karma coming back to bite the Phillies for this trade. Dode Paskert was a popular 37-year-old fly chaser who had seven solid years as the Phillies centerfielder. Fred "Cy" Williams was a fleet left-handed outfielder with a weak throwing arm and lots of power potential, who was coming off a down year in 1916.

The trade was not immediately popular in Philadelphia, but most pundits of the day felt the Phillies got far the better of the deal. They indeed did. Paskert had two decent seasons in Chicago before age caught up with him. Williams became one of the National League's premiere sluggers as the Live Ball Era dawned. He took full advantage of the short right field wall in the Baker Bowl to lead the league in home runs in 1920, 1923, and 1927. He finished second two other times and third four times. When he retired, Cy Williams was briefly the National League leader in home runs hit with 251. He was surpassed by Rogers Hornsby. Williams' swing was so honed to the Baker Bowl's dimensions that he once said, "I couldn't hit the ball to left field if my life depended on it." Williams was more than just a home run hitter, however, in his thirteen years in a Phillies uniform he averaged .306.

December 1959: Gene Freese (Phillies) for Johnny Callison (White Sox)

Gene Freese played only one season with the Phillies. It was a good one. He hit 23 home runs and hit .268. Freese was a good offensive player and defensive liability. The White Sox felt they needed to add some right-handed power to their lineup, and the highly publicized phenom Johnny Callison had been a bust in his first major league opportunity. The Phillies were trying to build a contender, so general manager John Quinn was willing to take a chance on a player that many felt was the next Mickey Mantle.

While Callison never quite lived up to the Mickey Mantle label, he was a very, very good player for many years as the Phillies became pennant contenders in the 1960s. He is still pointed to by Phillies fans of a certain age as their favorite Phillies player ever. Freese had two solid years with the White Sox and then drifted from team to team as a bench player/pinch-hitter for a few seasons.

June 1989: Juan Samuel (Phillies) for Lenny Dykstra, Roger McDowell, and Tom Edens (New York Mets)

The Phillies needed a leadoff hitter. Manager Nick Leyva tried Juan Samuel in that spot, but Sammy struck out too often and was having a hard time adjusting to his new position in centerfield. The Phillies had just traded closer Steve Bedrosian to the San Francisco Giants for a young infielder named Charlie Hayes. They needed relief help. General manager Lee Thomas filled both needs when he traded Samuel to the Mets for Dykstra and McDowell and a player to be named later (Tom Edens). The Mets sought out Samuel as someone that manager Davey Johnson said, "Could jump start our offense."

Dykstra, though beset by injuries during his time in Philadelphia, became one of the best leadoff hitters in Phillies history and the catalyst for the 1993 surprise pennant winners. McDowell revived his career and pitched very effectively for the Phillies for most of his 2+ seasons in South Philly. The popular Samuel was a bust in New York, hitting only .228. The Mets traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the end of the season. Tom Edens pitched in three games for the Phillies in 1994.

April 1992: Jason Grimsley (Phillies) for Curt Schilling (Houston Astros)

The Phillies had run out of patience with Jason Grimsley and Grimsley had run out of patience with the Phillies. When he was optioned to the minors at the end of spring training in 1992, Grimsley asked to be traded. The Phillies obliged and in return they got a future Hall of Famer. Schilling, who had bounced between four organizations in his brief career, was pleased to be coming to the Phillies with the promise that he would eventually move into the starting rotation. Schilling was known for having great stuff and erratic control. In Philadelphia he found his control and became a dominant pitcher, leading the Phillies to the 1993 National League pennant and pitching memorable games in the playoffs and World Series.

Grimsley bounced around among seven different organizations and never did realize his considerable potential, but he hung around for 15 years and was often in the headlines.  In 1999, he confessed to being the thief who stole Albert Belle's bat in the famous 1994 "Batgate" incident. Grimsley was pitching for the Cleveland Indians, whose star slugger was Albert Belle. White Sox manager, Gene Lamont, had been tipped off that Belle's bat was corked and asked the umpires to confiscate it. They did and stored it in their locker room for inspection. Grimsley, in a maneuver he called "Mission Impossible, snuck into the umpire's room and stole the bat back.  Eventually, the bat was recovered and was found to be corked. Belle was suspended for seven games. 

Grimsley had a brief resurgence with the Yankees in the late 90s, which brought accusations that he was doctoring the baseball. His career ended when, while pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks, his house was raided by the FBI. He was accused of procuring and using illegal Human Growth Hormone (HGH). Grimsley confessed and left baseball for good.

November 1997: Kevin Stocker (Phillies) for Bobby Abreu (Tampa Bay Devil Rays)

This trade is likely the biggest steal in Phillies history. Stocker had been a savior to the Phillies in 1993, when as a rookie he hit .324 and provided steadying defense at shortstop for the surprise pennant winners. In the subsequent four years, Stocker maintained his starting role, but his hitting fell off precipitously. The Devil Rays had chosen Abreu in the recent expansion draft, but felt they needed an established big-league shortstop for their new team. 

Abreu, of course went on to become one of the finest offensive players in the game over his 8+ years with the Phillies, slashing .303/.416/.513 with 348 doubles, 195 home runs and 254 stolen bases. Stocker struggled from the outset with the Devil Rays and was out of baseball by 2000.

December 2009: Travis d'Arnaud, Michael Taylor, and Kyle Drabek (Phillies) for Roy Halladay (Toronto Blue Jays)

The Phillies sent their three top prospects to the Blue Jays for the best pitcher in baseball. Drabek and Taylor never did make the major league grade. d'Arnaud became a very good, if inconsistent, catcher for the Mets and Atlanta Braves. Halladay was everything the Philles thought he would be, albeit for a shorter time than most expected. Halladay pitched some of the most memorable games in Phillies history, including the second Phillies perfect game ever and the second no-hitter in major league playoff history. An aging Phillies offense prevented Halladay from taking the Phillies to another World Series.

Honorable Mention:

June 1977: Tom Underwood, Dane Iorg, and Rick Bosetti (Phillies) for Bake McBride and Steve Waterbury (St. Louis Cardinals)

February 1979: Henry Mack, Derek Botelho, Barry Foote, Jerry Martin, Ted Sizemore (Phillies) for Manny Trillo, Greg Gross and Dave Rader (Chicago Cubs)

June 1989: Chris James (Phillies) for John Kruk and Randy Ready (San Diego Padres)

While fans may lament the many bad trades the Phillies have made over the years, a glance at this list shows that they have taken as well as they have given.