Baseball Way Back: This season's Pesky Phils reminiscent of 1950 'Whiz Kids'
This year's World Series matchup between Philadelphia and Houston has conjured inevitable memories of one of baseball's greatest playoff series.
Certainly the opportunity for Astros fans to gain some long-delayed revenge on the Phillies for denying their favorites a trip to the 1980 Fall Classic provides an interesting storyline for those who remember that classic NLCS.
But the incredible rise of this year's Phillies squad, which catapulted itself from a third-place finish in the NL East to a National League pennant, also calls to mind another surprise Phillies team, the 1950 "Whiz Kids."
If Phillies fans this year were frustrated by an 11-year postseason drought, imagine the emotions of fans in the City of Brotherly Love in 1950. The team not only hadn't won a pennant since 1915, it could boast only one winning season from 1918 to 1948, when it finished 78-76 in 1932. During that stretch, the team posted 12 seasons with at least 100 losses.
Its ignominy wasn't limited to its record. When the Brooklyn Dodgers and Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, one of the main voices of baseball's racial backlash was Philadelphia manager Ben Chapman, who shouted racist slurs when the Dodger second baseman stepped up to the plate.
The tide turned when Eddie Sawyer replaced Chapman as skipper midseason in 1948. Sawyer's baseball career bears a strong resemblance to the odyssey of Phillies current pilot Rob Thomson. Neither played major league baseball, and both started in the Yankees farm system.
Sawyer took over a club filled with players Sawyer had developed in the minors, including future Hall-of-Famer and longtime Phillies broadcaster Richie Ashburn, Granny Hamner and Puddin' Head Jones.
This year Thomson also took over a young team, dubbed "the Phillies day care," a nod to its younger talent, including Bryson Stott, Matt Vierling and Alec Bohm.
The 38-year-old Sawyer led the '49 Phils to third place, the highest finish for the team since it finished second in 1917.
In 1950, the Phils caught fire and rode the starting pitching of Robin Roberts, the relief work of National League MVP Jim Konstanty, and the slugging of Del Ennis straight to the World Series.
If the 2022 Phillies raised the gooseflesh of the faithful with thrilling comebacks in Game 1 of their playoff series against the Cardinals and Friday's victory over the Astros in Game 1 of the World Series, the Whiz Kids displayed their own brand of baseball magic, culminating in the final game of the season against defending National League champion Brooklyn before a standing-room-only crowd at Ebbets Field on Oct. 1.
The Dodgers, needing a win to tie the Phillies and force a three-game playoff for the pennant, started 19-game-winner Don Newcombe. The Phillies picked another 19-game winner, Roberts, to face Newcombe.
The two aces dueled for five shutout frames before the Phillies drew first blood in the top of the 6th, when Jones singled home Dick Sisler.
The Dodgers answered in the bottom half of the inning when Pee Wee Reese tagged Roberts for a solo homer.
Matters looked dire in the ninth when Roberts lost the first two batters, Cal Abrams to a walk and Reese to a single. But then Abrams was nailed at home plate trying to score on a Duke Snider single and, after Jackie Robinson was intentionally passed with runners on second and third, Carl Furillo fouled out and Gil Hodges flied out.
That set up the memorable 10th inning. Roberts was allowed to hit and responded with a single up the middle. Eddie Waitkus then dropped a Texas Leaguer in front of Snider. After Roberts was forced out at third on Ashburn's bunt, Sisler came up to bat. The left-handed hitter stroked an opposite-field three-run homer off Newcombe, clearing the bases. Roberts then held the Dodgers scoreless in the bottom of the 10th, sealing the 4-1 victory to capture the NL flag.
The 2022 Phils have a Chicago connection with Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber. So did the 1950 edition, with former Cub Waitkus.
Befitting a team with a storybook season, Waitkus himself inspired a book - Bernard Malamud's novel "The Natural," later made into a movie with Robert Redford in the role.
Like Malamud's anti-hero, Roy Hobbs, Waitkus was shot by a woman, 19-year-old Ruth Ann Steinhagen, who fired a .22 caliber rifle at Waitkus in a hotel room at Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel in 1949.
Waitkus was named Comeback Player of the Year by the Associated Press in 1950 playing for what one might call the comeback team of the century.
But the magic wore off for the Phillies in the 1950 World Series, when they were swept by the Yankees.
And that is where the comparisons between the 1950 and 2022 Phillies end. Although the Astros remain heavy favorites, with a Game 1 victory in their pocket, this Phillies team won't have to worry about getting swept.