The
Whiz Kids was a nickname given to the
1950 Philadelphia Phillies
in
Major League Baseball. This
team, averaging only 26.4 years of age, won the
National League pennant during that season.
After owner
R. R. M. Carpenter, Jr. built a team of
bonus babies, the 1950 team won for the
majority of the season, but slumped late, allowing the defending
National League champion
Brooklyn
Dodgers to gain ground in the last two weeks. The final series
of the season was against Brooklyn, and the final game pitted the
Opening
Day starting pitchers, right-handers
Robin Roberts and
Don Newcombe, against one another. The Phillies
defeated the Dodgers in extra innings in the final game of the
season on a three-run home run by
Dick
Sisler in the top of the tenth inning. In the
World Series which followed, the Whiz Kids
were swept by the
New York Yankees,
their second of five consecutive
World
Series championships.
The failure of the Whiz Kids to win another pennant after their
lone successful season has been attributed to multiple theories,
the most prominent of which is Carpenter's unwillingness to
integrate his team after winning
a pennant with an all-white team.
Before 1950
The Phillies' last appearance in the
World
Series was in , which had been the franchise's only foray into
the
postseason to
date. In that series, they were defeated by the
Boston Red Sox, four games to one. From 1933
to 1948, the Phillies posted 16 consecutive losing seasons, a major
league record that stood until 2009 (broken by the
Pittsburgh Pirates).
Ben Chapman, who
managed the Phillies from 1945 to 1948,
bemoaned the loss of
general
manager Herb Pennock, who passed
away during Chapman's final season.
Bob Carpenter, the new owner of the
team, replaced Chapman after his comments to media sources that
Pennock needed to be replaced with "another strong baseball man".
The new manager,
Eddie Sawyer, arrived
in the 1948 season and led the Phillies to a winning record in 1949
(81–73). Carpenter's team-building approach was built on provision
of ample
bonuses for players.
Signing bonuses for the players on the 1950
squad ranged from $3,000 ($ in present-day dollars) to $65,000 ($
present-day).
The Dodgers, meanwhile, had appeared in the and
1949 World Series, losing to the
New York Yankees in both.
Indeed, the Phillies'
appearance against the Yankees in the 1950 World Series was the only time in the
Yankees' run of five consecutive championships (1949–1953) wherein
they did not face one of the other teams from New York City
(the Dodgers or the New York Giants).
The 1950 season
April–May
The Phillies opened the season with a 9–1 defeat of the Dodgers on
April 18. The starters in the game were
Robin Roberts for Philadelphia and
Don Newcombe, Brooklyn's 17-game winner
from the prior season. After a split with the Dodgers, the Phillies
played four games against the
Boston Braves, losing two, tying
one, and winning one; reliever
Jim
Konstanty earned his first win in the final game of the series.
Three games in New York against the Giants and the Dodgers did not
improve the team's record, but they took three of the next four
from Boston. In May, the team amassed its longest winning streak of
the season, when they won six consecutive games—one against the
St. Louis Cardinals, a
three-game sweep of the
Cincinnati
Redlegs, one against the
Pittsburgh Pirates, and the last against
the Giants. Konstanty earned another win against New York as the
Phillies took two wins from the three-game set, and the end of the
Phillies' May was strong with a five-game winning streak against
Pittsburgh and the Giants. Two doubleheaders against New York and
Brooklyn resulted in three losses to finish the month.
June–July
In the middle months of the season, the Whiz Kids played strongly,
notching winning records of 14–11 in June and 21–13 in July. Early
in July, the Phillies put together a four-game winning streak
against the two National League teams from New York, sweeping the
Giants in a two-game set and taking two of three from Brooklyn. The
1950 All-Star
Game was played on July 11, with four Phillies selected to the
roster.
Willie Jones started
at
third base and led off the game, while
Roberts was selected as the
starting
pitcher. Konstanty and
Dick Sisler
were named to the team as reserves out of the bullpen and in the
outfield, respectively. The Phillies played twelve
doubleheaders in June and July,
including three sets on consecutive game days (July 16 and 18
against the
Chicago Cubs and July 19
against Pittsburgh).
August–September: Pennant race
August was the Whiz Kids' strongest month, with a 20–8 record and a
.714 winning percentage. During August and September, the Phillies
put together two five-game winning streaks and a four-game winning
streak as well. By September 20, the Phillies had a
seven-and-a-half game lead over Boston and a nine-game lead on
Brooklyn. However, injuries began to mount, and with injuries came
losses—of players and of games. Among the casualties were pitcher
Bob Miller, who
injured his back slipping on wet stairs; outfielder
Bill Nicholson, diagnosed with
diabetes, was out for the
remainder of the season.
In the last week of the season, with their
lead over the Dodgers at four games, the Phillies dropped
back-to-back doubleheaders to the Giants, and lost the next game to
Brooklyn to fall into their longest losing slump of the season and
set up the final game of the season at Ebbets Field
. Another loss to the Dodgers would force a
one-game playoff for the National
League pennant.
Final game against Brooklyn
No one in the Phillies clubhouse knew who would pitch the final
game of the season against the Dodgers, except Sawyer, until an
hour before the game, when the manager handed Roberts the ball.
Opposing Roberts was Newcombe, who had opened the season against
the Phillies in their 9–1 victory. Roberts walked a batter in the
bottom of the first inning, but no other runners reached base for
Brooklyn until the fourth inning. The Phillies had four baserunners
on three singles and a walk against Newcombe, but no one advanced
beyond first base. In the bottom of the fourth,
Pee Wee Reese hit a double for the Dodgers,
but Roberts retired the next three batters in order. In the sixth
inning, Sisler was on base, having hit a single through the gap
into right field between first baseman
Gil
Hodges and second baseman
Jackie
Robinson. Jones singled to left field, driving him in for the
first run of the game; his hit has been called "the most important
in Phillies history to that point". The Dodgers tied the game on a
home run by Reese in the bottom of the sixth; the ball landed on a
ledge in right-center field and, caught by a wire screen along the
foul line, stayed in play but out of
Del
Ennis' reach.
The Phillies got men on base in the seventh, eighth, and ninth
innings, while Roberts allowed a single to Dodgers catcher
Roy Campanella in the eighth, but the score
remained tied, 1–1. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Roberts
walked
Cal Abrams, who advanced to second
on a single by Reese and came around to home plate on
Duke Snider's hard single up the middle.
Richie Ashburn threw the ball to the
catcher (sources disagree whether
Stan
Lopata or
Andy Seminick was
playing) from his position in center field, and the catcher tagged
Abrams out at the plate. With runners now on second and third,
Roberts walked Robinson intentionally to load the bases, then
induced
Carl Furillo to foul out to
Eddie Waitkus. After Roberts retired
the last batter, the game went to extra innings. Newcombe allowed
hits to Roberts and Waitkus, who advanced to second and third when
Ashburn
sacrificed himself. Sisler
came to the plate and hit a high outside
fastball from Newcombe over the left-field wall,
dancing to first base as he watched it fly out. Comfortable on the
mound again with a 4–1 lead, Roberts retired the side in the tenth
inning to secure the complete-game victory and the Phillies' second
pennant in
franchise
history.
World Series
Sawyer turned heads around the league by naming Konstanty, his
closer, the starter for Game 1; he
had few options without Roberts, who had started four games in
eight days, rookie
Bubba Church, who
had been hit in the eye with a line drive, and
Curt Simmons, who was activated into military
service on September 10. Konstanty lost the game; though he allowed
only one run on five hits in eight innings pitched, Yankees starter
Vic Raschi pitched a complete game
shutout, striking out five. Roberts returned to the mound to face
Allie Reynolds in the second game,
but one run scored could not win the game for the Phillies, as
Joe DiMaggio hit a home run to lead off
the top of the tenth inning to put the Yankees ahead in the game
2–1, and in the series 2–0. With
Ken
Heintzelman on the mound in Game 3, the Phillies outhit the
Yankees, but could not push enough runs across the plate. The Whiz
Kids lost, 3–2. Miller was the Phillies' last hope for a victory,
but the ailing rookie was no match for 21-year-old
Whitey Ford, as the Phillies lost the last game,
5–2, and became the first team swept in the World Series since the
1939 Cincinnati
Reds.
Records and legacy
Konstanty became the second Phillie to win the
Most Valuable
Player Award, after
Chuck Klein
(1932); his 22
saves and 16 wins by
a reliever were both National League records at the time. Ennis led
the team in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in, while
Roberts' 20 wins in 1950 were the beginning of six consecutive
seasons with 20 or more wins for the pitcher. Six players have
since been elected members of the
Philadelphia Baseball Wall of
Fame: outfielder Ashburn; pitchers Roberts, Konstanty, Simmons;
and infielders Hamner and Jones.
National
Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
inductees from the Whiz Kids include Roberts, who
entered the Hall in 1976, and Ashburn, elected in 1995. The
"Whiz Kids" name endured for the Phillies franchise into the 1980s,
when the
1983
Philadelphia Phillies, a team of veteran players who faced the
Baltimore Orioles in the
World Series that season, were coined the
"Wheeze Kids".
Aftermath and integration
Many thought that the Whiz Kids, with a young core of talented
players, would be a force in the league for years to come. However,
it was not to be, as the team finished with a 73–81 record in 1951,
and did not finish higher than third place in the National League
again until 1975. Different players on the Phillies attributed the
team's decline to multiple factors. Roberts believed that the
Phillies were "good, but never quite as good as the teams that beat
us". Ashburn, however, had a different opinion:
"We were the last to get any black ball
players.
We were still pretty good, but they were just getting
better."
The Phillies, as the
last team in the National League to integrate, exhibited
racist behavior on several occasions. When
Jackie Robinson broke the
baseball
color line in 1947, Chapman instructed his players to
spike Robinson and pitch
at his head. These activities and attitudes continued through the
Whiz Kids era and beyond. Carpenter tended to pass by
African-American players; his Whiz Kids had
won the pennant while fielding an all-white team, and he, as other
owners, tended to pass over any non-white players who did not have
superstar-level talent. The Phillies did not integrate until 1957,
a decade after Robinson's entry, and did not have their first true
African-American star until the arrival of
Richie Allen.
Roster
* – Starters,
not including pitchers
Name |
Age |
Position |
Selected statistics |
* |
23 |
Outfielder |
*.303 [[batting average]] *14 [[triple (baseball)|triples]] *14
[[stolen base]]s |- | {{sortname|Johnny|Blatnik}} || 29 ||
[[Outfielder]] || *1 [[hit (baseball)|hit]] in 4 [[at-bat]]s (6
[[plate appearance]]s) |- | {{sortname|Jimmy|Bloodworth}} || 32 ||
[[Second baseman]] || *.229 [[batting average]] *2 [[double
(baseball)|doubles]] *13 [[runs batted in]] |- |
{{sortname|Hank|Borowy}} || 34 || [[Pitcher]] || *4 [[earned run]]s
allowed in {{frac|6|1|3}} [[innings pitched]] |- |
{{sortname|Jack|Brittin}} || 26 || [[Pitcher]] || *2 [[earned
run]]s allowed in 4 [[innings pitched]] |- |
{{sortname|Putsy|Caballero}} || 22 || [[Infielder]] || *4 [[hit
(baseball)|hits]] in 26 [[plate appearance]]s |- |
{{sortname|Milo|Candini}} || 32 || [[Relief pitcher]] || *1–0
record *2.70 [[earned run average]] (9 earned runs) *30 [[innings
pitched]] in 18 [[games played|games]] |- |
{{sortname|Bubba|Church}} || 25 || [[Starting pitcher]] || *8–6
record *50 [[strikeout]]s in 142 [[innings pitched]] *2.73 [[earned
run average]] |- | {{sortname|Blix|Donnelly}} || 36 || [[Relief
pitcher]] || *2–4 record *4.29 [[earned run average]] *10
[[strikeout]]s and 10 [[base on balls|walks]] |-
|bgcolor="#ddeeff"| {{sortname|Del|Ennis}}* || 25 || [[Outfielder]]
|| *.311 batting average *31 [[home run]]s *126 [[runs batted in]]
|- |bgcolor="#ddeeff"| {{sortname|Mike|Goliat}}* || 28 || [[Second
baseman]] || *.680 [[on-base plus slugging]] percentage *13 [[home
run]]s *64 [[runs batted in]] |- |bgcolor="#ddeeff"|
{{sortname|Granny|Hamner}}* || 23 || [[Shortstop]] || *.270
[[batting average]] *27 [[double (baseball)|doubles]] *82 [[runs
batted in]] |- | {{sortname|Ken|Heintzelman}} || 34 || [[Starting
pitcher]] || *3–9 record *4.09 [[earned run average]]
*{{frac|125|1|3}} [[innings pitched]] |- |
{{sortname|Stan|Hollmig}} || 24 || [[Outfielder]] || *3 [[hit
(baseball)|hits]] in 12 [[plate appearance]]s |- |
{{sortname|Ken|Johnson|Ken Johnson (left-handed pitcher)}} || 27 ||
[[Relief pitcher]] || *4–1 record *3 [[home run]]s allowed in
{{frac|60|2|3}} [[innings pitched]] *4.01 [[earned run average]] |-
|bgcolor="#ddeeff"| {{sortname|Willie|Jones|Willie Jones
(baseball)}}* || 24 || [[Third baseman]] || *.267 [[batting
average]] *25 [[home run]]s *88 [[runs batted in]] |- |
{{sortname|Jim|Konstanty}} || 33 || [[Closer (baseball)|Closer]] ||
*16–7 record *22 [[Save (baseball)|saves]] in 152 [[innings
pitched]] *56 [[strikeout]]s and 50 [[base on balls|walks]] |- |
{{sortname|Stan|Lopata}} || 24 || [[Catcher]] || *.209 [[batting
average]] *2 [[double (baseball)|doubles]] and 2 [[triple
(baseball)|triples]] *11 [[runs batted in]] |- |
{{sortname|Jackie|Mayo}} || 24 || [[Outfielder]] || *8 [[hit
(baseball)|hits]] in 38 [[plate appearance]]s |- |
{{sortname|Russ|Meyer}} || 26 || [[Starting pitcher]] || *9–11
record *74 [[strikeout]]s in {{frac|159|2|3}} [[innings pitched]]
*5.30 [[earned run average]] |- | {{sortname|Bob|Miller|Bob Miller
(1949–1958 pitcher)}} || 24 || [[Starting pitcher]] || *11–6 record
*9 [[home run]]s allowed in 174 [[innings pitched]] *3.57 [[earned
run average]] |- | {{sortname|Bill|Nicholson|Bill Nicholson
(baseball)}} || 35 || [[Outfielder]] || *.224 [[batting average]]
*3 [[home run]]s *10 [[runs batted in]] |- |
{{sortname|Steve|Ridzik}} || 21 || [[Pitcher]] || *2 [[earned
run]]s allowed in 3 [[innings pitched]] |- |
{{sortname|Robin|Roberts|Robin Roberts (baseball)}} || 23 ||
[[Starting pitcher]] || *20–11 record *146 [[strikeout]]s in
{{frac|304|1|3}} [[innings pitched]] *3.02 [[earned run average]]
|- |bgcolor="#ddeeff"| {{sortname|Andy|Seminick}}* || 29 ||
[[Catcher]] || *.288 [[batting average]] *24 [[home run]]s *68
[[base on balls|walks]] |- | {{sortname|Ken|Silvestri}} || 34 ||
[[Catcher]] || *5 [[hit (baseball)|hits]] in 26 [[plate
appearance]]s |- | {{sortname|Curt|Simmons}} || 21 || [[Starting
pitcher]] || *17–8 record *146 [[strikeout]]s in {{frac|214|2|3}}
[[innings pitched]] *3.40 [[earned run average]] |-
|bgcolor="#ddeeff"| {{sortname|Dick|Sisler}}* || 29 ||
[[Outfielder]] || *.296 [[batting average]] *13 [[home run]]s *83
[[runs batted in]] |- | {{sortname|Paul|Stuffel}} || 23 ||
[[Pitcher]] || *1 [[earned run]] allowed in 5 [[innings pitched]]
|- | {{sortname|Jocko|Thompson}} || 33 || [[Pitcher]] || *4
[[innings pitched]] in 2 [[games played|games]] |-
|bgcolor="#ddeeff"| {{sortname|Eddie|Waitkus}}* || 30 || [[First
baseman]] || *.284 [[batting average]] *32 [[double
(baseball)|doubles]] *.993 [[fielding percentage]] |- |
{{sortname|Dick|Whitman}} || 29 || [[Outfielder]] ||
|
References
- Inline citations
- Marshall, p.365.
- Roberts, pp.8–9.
- Roberts, p.9.
- Roberts, p.10.
- Roberts, p.11.
- Kashatus, p.24.
- Blue, p.31.
- Marshall, p.24.
- Blue, p.30.
- Roberts, p.12.
- Blue, p.29.
- Roberts, p.9.
- Kashatus, p.25.
- Kashatus, p.23.
- Blue, p.34.
- Bibliography