Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Famous Phillies

During the latter part of the 1920's and most of the 1930's Philadelphia baseball fans had the double treat of watching Jimmy Foxx with the Athletics and Chuck Klein with the Phillies. After spending 1936 to 1944 with the Red Sox and Cubs, Foxx "came home" to Philadelphia and took a victory lap with the dreadful 1945 Phillies before ending his great career.

Foxx was not the only famous player who spent time with the Phils. In 1919, the Phillies traded a player named Possum Whitted to Pittsburgh for an outfielder named Charles Dillon Stengel aka Casey Stengel. Stengel did not appear in a Phillies uniform until 1920 when he had a very productive year. Midway through the 1921 season, Casey packed his bag and move on to the New York Giants.

Stengel was voted into the Hall Of Fame as a manager in 1966.

Dave "Beauty" Bancroft debuted with the 1915 pennant winning Phillies. He was traded to the New York Giants in 1920 where he blossomed into a Hall of Famer.

The great A's pitcher Chief Bender jumped to the new Federal League in 1915 and joined the Baltimore Terrapins. The struggling Terrapin franchise sold Bender to Phillies in 1916. He spent his last two seasons (except for a one-game comeback in 1925) back in Philadelphia where he performed adequately but not up to his high water mark with the Athletics.

Bender was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1953.

In a side note, Bender attended the Carlisle Indian School and later Dickinson College also in Carlisle.

Napolean "Nap" Lajoie was so good that the Cleveland franchise changed their name from the Bronchos (sic) to the Naps in 1903. After Cleveland sold him to the A's in 1915 they had to rename the team. They chose the name Indians, and therein lies another tale for later. Lajoie first played with the Phillies from 1896 until 1900. Naturally the Phillies somehow let him become a free agent and lost his services.

Lajoie was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1937.

More tomorrow on famous players that you may not realize spent time as a Phillie.




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