Hail to the champs

The Phillies recently made history by losing their 10,000th game as a franchise. But they do have one World Series victory to their credit, and here's a rundown of the men who made it possible (please scroll down):

The 1980 Phillies: World Champions
	Bob Boone, C. When Boone retired in 1990 at age 42, he had caught 2,225 games, more than anyone in history to that point. (The White Sox let Carlton Fisk hang on until he broke the record by one, then they released him.) Boone had a decent bat and was steady behind the plate, although at one point Steve Carlton opted for Tim McCarver as his personal catcher. In '80, Boone hit only .229 following four straight .280-plus seasons, and the Phillies shipped him off to California after a .211 showing in '81. That seemed like kind of a sad ending in Philadelphia for a three-time All-Star.
	Larry Bowa, SS. Early in his career, Bowa was regarded as a light hitter whose glove kept him in the lineup. Then he started hiking up his average, and the Phillies started posting winning records. The five-time All-Star left Philadelphia after the 1981 season in what may have been one of the worst trades in history: He and an unproven Ryne Sandberg went to the Cubs for Ivan DeJesus, who was coming off .194 season. Ouch. As for Bowa, he returned to manage the Phillies in 2001 but was shown the door after four seasons after failing to lead them to the postseason.
	Warren Brusstar, RP. The Phillies always seemed to have a decent bullpen during the mid-'70s through mid-'80s, and Brusstar is a prime example of a pitcher who turned in a couple of decent seasons. As a rookie in 1977, the righthander endeared himself to Philadelphia fans with a 7-2 record and 2.33 ERA; he followed that in '78 with 6-3, 2.33. Unfortunately, he was belted around quite a bit in '79 and pitched for the Phillies only part of the World Championship season, going 2-2 with a 3.72 ERA. The Phils sold him to the White Sox in the middle of the '82 season.
	Marty Bystrom, SP. One of the main reasons the Phillies won the NL East title in 1980 was the pitching of Bystrom, a 21-year-old September callup who was pitching for the first time in the majors. He pitched a five-hit shutout in his first start, then won each of his next four starts, compiling a 1.50 ERA. Unfortunately, his early promise fizzled in subsequent years, and the Phillies ended up trading him to the Yankees for Shane Rawley in mid-1984. Following his 5-0 start, his career record in Philadelphia was just 19-22, and he pitched just 15 games with New York before his major-career ended at age 26.
	Steve Carlton, SP. Phillies fans didn't know what to make when the team traded its best hurler, Rick Wise, to St. Louis for Carlton just before the belated start of the 1972 season. Carlton, who'd won 20 with the Cardinals, proceeded to turn in perhaps the most amazing season ever by a pitcher, going 27-10 for a squad that won just 59 games. The rest was history: a then-record four Cy Young Awards for the Phils, including 1980, when he won 24 games and became the last pitcher in major-league history to work more than 300 innings, although on one knew that at the time. With 329 career victories, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1994.
	Larry Christenson, SP. Oh, what might have been … Christenson broke into the majors with a bang, winning a 7-1 complete game over the Mets in April 1973 as a 19-year-old. He wowed Phillies fans, but that proved to be his only win of the year. He recovered to post four straight double-digit-win seasons starting in 1975, with a high of 19 in '77. Prior to the 1979 season, he broke his collarbone in a charity bicycling event, and he never again was an effective pitcher. He went 5-1 in 1980 and earned himself postseason starts, but against the Royals in the Series, he gave up four runs while getting just one out. The Phillies hung onto him until more injuries ended his career in '83.
	Mark Davis, P. The Phillies' first pick in the 1979 amateur draft, Davis debuted in the majors in September '80, about a month before his 20th birthday. He pitched two shutout innings of relief in his first appearance, then made his first career start on the last day of the season, giving up two runs in five innings in an eventual loss to Montreal. Davis was hit hard when the Phils called him up in the summer of '81, and they traded him to the Giants in the deal that brought Joe Morgan to Philadelphia. Later, as a reliever for the Padres, Davis won himself a Cy Young Award and a lucrative free-agent contract with Kansas City, which saw extremely little return on its investment.
	Nino Espinosa, SP. The Phillies made an effort to bolster their starting rotation in 1979 by acquiring Espinosa from the Mets for an aging Richie Hebner, and Nino responded by winning 14 games. Injuries kept him off the field, though, in the first half of 1980, and he won only three games, his best start being a complete-game five-hitter against his former team. The Phillies left him off the postseason roster, and despite a decent start the following season, his ERA eventually ballooned to 6.11. Philadelphia released him, and he appeared in one more game with Toronto before his career ended. He died of a heart attack in 1987 at age 34.
	Greg Gross, OF. In a full decade with the Phillies, Gross hit exactly one home run: on May 27, 1987, off the Padres' Lance McCullers. But he still was a fan favorite, hailing from nearby York, Pa. Plus, even if he wasn't hitting the ball over the fence, he was putting it in play; his lifetime batting average is .287. Gross helped the Phillies in their '80 playoff victory over Houston, with three hits in four at bats, including an RBI single that provided a cushion in Philadelphia's 3-1 win in the opener. Coincidentally, Gross started his career with the Astros, finishing second to future Phillies teammate Bake McBride in the 1974 NL Rookie of the Year vote.
	Randy Lerch, SP. When the left-handed Lerch broke in with the Phillies, many fans confused him with Barry Lersch, who had spent five less-than-successful seasons in Philadelphia. Lerch (without the "s") fared a little bit better, winning 10 games twice and 11 games once from 1977-79. In '80, though, he turned in perhaps the poorest performance ever for a member of a starting rotation on a World Series winner: 4-14, 5.16 ERA. Manager Dallas Green finally took him out of the rotation in August, and Lerch was left off the postseason roster. He was shipped to Milwaukee prior to the '81 season for journeyman outfielder Dick Davis.
	Greg Luzinski, OF. For about half a decade, Luzinski and Mike Schmidt formed one of the most feared slugging tandems in baseball. Luzinski hit for average, too, turning in three straight .300-plus seasons. His apex came in 1977, when he set career highs with .309, 39 homers and 130 RBI, and was second to George Foster in the NL MVP vote. Just 26 at the time, Luzinski looked to be headed for a long, productive career. But his productivity started slipping, and by 1980 his batting average fell to .228. His swan song with the Phillies came in the World Series, when he failed to get a hit in nine at bats. He finished his career as designated hitter for the White Sox.
	Garry Maddox, OF. An acknowledged master of patroling center field - his nickname was the Secretary of Defense - Maddox was rewarded with eight consecutive Rawlings Gold Glove awards. He was a fine hitter, too, peaking at .330 (and finishing fifth in the NL MVP vote) in 1976, the year after he came to Philadelphia in exchange for the popular Willie Montanez. Injuries started catching up with Maddox after he turned 30, and he retired a few weeks into the 1986 season, hanging around long enough to garner that year's Roberto Clemente Award, which honors players based on their values.
	Bake McBride, OF. One of the most savvy deals made by Phillies general manager Paul Owens was acquiring Arnold Ray McBride on the day of the trading deadline in 1977, basically giving up pitcher Tom Underwood. Why the Cardinals gave up on McBride, then 28, seems to be a mystery: The 1974 NL Rookie of the Year had hit over .300 in each of his first three full seasons. He continued to hit well with the Phillies, posting a .339 average the rest of the way in '77 and batting .309 in '80. Following an injury-plagued '81, the Phillies decided to ship him to Cleveland. where he wrapped up his career with a lifetime average of .299.
	Tim McCarver, C. Prior to 1980, only a handful of players had appeared in the major leagues in four different decades. McCarver, who debuted in 1959 at age 17, added his name to the list when he joined the Phillies' active roster in September '80. He appeared in half a dozen games and netted his final major-league hit, No. 1,501, in the final game of the season; his double drove in two runs. Interestingly, he entered the game pinch-running for Pete Rose, who is about six months older than McCarver. In his two stints with the Phillies, McCarver's best season was in 1977, when he hit .320 in part-time duty, including serving as Steve Carlton's personal catcher.
	Tug McGraw, RP. When Frank Edwin McGraw Jr. died Jan. 5, 2004, baseball lost one of its most colorful personalities. Tug first made a name for himself as a brash youngster for the Mets on Aug. 26, 1965, when he jumped off the mound clicking his heels after beating a fellow lefty named Sandy Koufax. Eight years later, he led the Mets' unlikely charge to the World Series with the rallying cry of "Ya gotta believe!" The Mets were unimpressed with his 6-11 record in '74 and dealth him to Philadelphia, where he regained his status as a top relief pitcher. And of course, he recorded the final out in the Phillies' one and only Series victory.
	Keith Moreland, C. By 1980, longtime Phillies catcher Bob Boone's batting average had tailed off significantly. In stepped rookie Moreland, who hit .314 as primarily a backstop, and he went 4-for-12 in the World Series. In 1981, Moreland saw even more action behind the plate, but his average fell nearly 60 points. After the season, Moreland was shipped to the Cubs in a package deal that brought starting pitcher Mike Krukow to Philadelphia. Chicago made Moreland a starting outfielder, and he responded with several strong seasons, including .307-14-106 in 1985, when he showed up among the players receiving MVP votes.
	Dickie Noles, RP. In July 1979, the three-time defending NL East champion Phillies were sputtering, mired in fourth place and playing barely above .500. To bolster a starting rotation that was temporarily missing an injured Dick Ruthven, the Phils called up righthander Noles for his first trip to the majors. He responded somewhat impressively, compiling a 1.98 ERA in his first four starts, including seven innings of shutout ball vs. the Dodgers. But there were warning signs: He walked nine Giants despite winning his second start. Noles ended up 3-4 with a 3.80 ERA in 14 starts, but found himself in the bullpen the following year, contributing six saves.
	Ron Reed, RP. Back in the days before every team had a one-inning closer, the bullpen duties were shifted around quite a bit among competent arms. From 1976 through '83, the Phillies had an exceptional righty-lefty relief tandem of Reed and Tug McGraw. Although McGraw usually led the team in saves, Reed notched double digits in four seasons, and in 1979 he won 13 games in relief. The following season, he went 7-5 with nine save to help the champions' cause. A forward for the NBA's Detroit Pistons in the mid-'60s, Reed possessed one of the biggest shoe sizes in baseball.
	Pete Rose, 1B. When the Phillies signed Rose as a free agent in December 1978, he was one of the two most popular players in baseball, along with Reggie Jackson. Rose didn't disappoint, hitting over .300 in two of his first three seasons in Philadelphia, and some sources credit him with the '81 NL batting championship. Perhaps if the Phils would have made him player-manager after 1983, instead of releasing him, history would have worked out differently and the Hit King would have his plaque in Cooperstown. But of course, people do place bets in the City of Brotherly Love, too.
	Dick Ruthven, SP. When the Phillies shipped Ruthven to the White Sox in a trade that brought Jim Kaat to town, fans generally liked the deal. From 1973-75, Ruthven had compiled a lackluster 17-24 record, with an ERA over 4. He ended up in Atlanta, where he didn't fare much better, so it came as a surprise when Philadelphia reacquired him at the deadline in '78, in exchange for popular reliever Gene Garber. Ruthven, though, was a different pitcher during the last half of the season, going 13-5 for the Phillies as a major contributor to the team's division championship. Following an injury-riddled '79s season, he won 17 games in '80 as the No. 2 starter behind Lefty Carlton.
	Kevin Saucier, RP. Another fixture in the Phillies bullpen in 1980, Saucier went 7-4 in 40 games and added an inning and a third of scoreless ball during the postseason. A few weeks after the World Series, he started a whirlwind journey: The Phils sent him to Texas as the player to be named in the deal that brought Sparky Lyle to Philadelphia for the stretch drive. Three weeks later, the Rangers shipped Saucier to Detroit, where he excelled in '81, posting a 1.65 ERA and 13 saves. He pitched only one more year, though, leaving the game reportedly because of a fear of hitting and seriously injuring batters.
	Mike Schmidt, 3B. By 1980, Schmidt had captured three home run titles, was named to four All-Star teams and won four Rawlings Gold Glove awards, but he wasn't anywhere near being acknowledged as the greatest third baseman in history. The perception started tilting in his favor in '80, when he hit 48 homers, then a record for third sackers, on his way to being voted the unanimous NL MVP, then the MVP in the World Series. Two more MVP awards followed, and by the time he retired, he had totaled 548 home runs, among the top 10 in the pre-steroid era. His Hall of Fame induction came in 1995, his first year of eligibility, of course.
	Lonnie Smith, OF. Following a few cups of coffee with the Phillies in 1978 and '79, Smith played semi-regularly in 1980, often spelling the notoriously poor-fielding Greg Luzinski in left field. Smith provided an element of excitement by hitting .339 and stealing a team-leading 33 bases. The 24-year-old then hit .333 in the postseason. He followed up with a .324 mark in '81, including a 23-game hitting streak to conclude the season, but the Phillies decided to deal him away in a three-team trade that netted catcher Bo Diaz. Smith ended up in St. Louis, where he hit .307 and was second in the NL MVP balloting for the '82 World Series winners.
	Manny Trillo, 2B. In 1974, the Phillies traded pitcher Ken Brett to Pittsburgh for second baseman Dave Cash, who provided the spark the team needed to start making runs for division titles. After Cash left as a free agent following '76, Philadelphia struggled to fill the void at the keystone sack, relying on the likes of Ted Sizemore, Bud Harrelson and Jim Morrison. Prior to the '79 season, the Phils pulled off an eight-player deal with the Cubs, including Trillo as part of the package. He was an integral part of the '80 championship, hitting .294 and winning the Sporting News Silver Slugger award at his position. Trillo was part of the five-for-one deal for Von Hayes in late '82.
	Del Unser, OF. The Phillies first acquired the slick-fielding center fielder in late 1972. During two seasons, Unser established himself as a fan favorite, but he was dispatched to the Mets in the Tug McGraw deal. When Unser returned to the Phillies as a free agent in 1979, he was used primarily as a pinch-hitter and flourished in the role in '80; for example, his pinch-single in the 10th inning vs. the Mets on Sept. 24 set up the only run in a 1-0 victory that kept the Phils a half-game behind the Expos. Unser stayed in Philadelphia in 1981, getting only 9 hits in 59 at bats, and was released in June 1982 after starting the season 0-for-14.
	Bob Walk, SP. He's the answer to one of my favorite baseball trivia questions: Who was the second pitcher to win a World Series game for the Phillies, after Grover Cleveland Alexander? Walk, a rookie, gave up six runs in the '80 Series opener, but Philadelplhia provided him with enough support for the victory. After a few shaky outings to begin his career, Walk improved to 9-2 by mid-August before leveling off at 11-7 in his only season in Philadelphia. He bounced from Atlanta to Pittsburgh, where he made the All-Star team in 1988, pitched a complete-game victory in the '92 playoffs and has worked as a Pirates announcer for 14 years.

9,999 and counting

Prior to the 1883 season, the National League put a franchise in Philadelphia, figuring a team in what then was America's second-largest city would fare better financially than the club it was replacing in Worcester, Mass.

The Philadelphia squad got off to a rocky start, to say the least. The Quakers, as they originally were called, played 98 games and lost 81 of them, giving up more than twice as many runs as they scored. Taking the pitcher's mound in a majority of games was a 20-year-old rookie named John Francis Coleman, who must have had either a strong sense of loyalty or a strong sense of humor: He surrendered 772 hits and 510 runs for the season while going 12-48.

The team became better known as the Phillies, but in 124 years its situation has rarely gotten all that much better. Besides a couple of isolated pennants, a dozen or so years of consistent winning and the magical season of 1980, the Phils have been associated with losing throughout most of their history.

And they're about to rack up their 10,000th loss as a franchise, an occasion some Philadelphians no doubt will celebrate in some kind of perverse tribute to the city's general sense of ineptitude.

Personally, I've always had a warm spot for Philly. My grandparents lived in the suburbs, just outside the city limits, and many of my fondest childhood memories are from there. Some of my earliest, too; I remember a visit to the Philadelphia Zoo in 1965 and still feel the pain of seeing the helium balloon I got there float away just as I was about to show it to my great-grandmother.

I'm too young, though, to remember what happened in Philadelphia in 1964, when the Phillies committed The Choke. For anyone who was there, the numbers still are agonizing four decades later: a 6.5-game lead on Sept. 20, with just 12 games to go, then 10 losses in a row and a tie for second place. My dad says that after one of those defeats, he was so disgusted that he threw his radio out the window.

My own memories of the Phillies start when they were lousy again, around 1970, when they used to give away 8-by-10 glossies of the players at the gas station (along with free road maps and guys checking your oil, all at 33 cents per gallon). So I ended up with a bunch of nice photos of the likes of Deron Johnson, Barry Lersch, Woodie Fryman and Byron Browne.

None of that meant much of anything to me until 1972, when everyone was talking about a new Phillies pitcher, Steve Carlton, who refused to lose. By the end of the year, he had racked up 27 wins for a team that posted a grand total of 59 victories, as far as I'm concerned the most remarkable accomplishment in baseball history.

By the following season, I listened to Phillies games on the radio every night, rapidly building enthusiasm for a team that managed, once again, to finish last.

In 1974, the situation started to look promising, with second baseman Dave Cash coming from the rival Pirates to provide a needed burst of energy and young third baseman Mike Schmidt leading the league in home runs while raising his batting average nearly 100 points.

The Phillies rose from third in '74 to second in '75 to their first National League East title during the Bicentennial. Three straight divisional championships, though, provided more frustration for long-suffering fans: Philadelphia faltered in the playoffs each fall.

Then came 1980, and as a freshman in college, I watched the Phillies finally put it all together. First was the playoff win over Houston, in which the final four games all went to extra innings. Then came the World Series against Kansas City, which had exorcised its own demons by finally beating the Yankees in the Royals' fourth try.

I've seen the deciding sixth game several times, but only on videotape. While it was being played live, I was obligated to be somewhere besides in front of a TV screen. That's the way it goes sometimes.

The strike of '81 started to erode my interest in baseball in general, and the Phillies in particular. I was attending school on the other side of Pennsylvania and had a whole lot else going on in my life.

I watched the "Wheeze Kids," featuring aging members of the '70s Big Red Machine, somehow make it to the '83 Series, only to be humiliated by Baltimore. A few years later, I was living in Pittsburgh and started the gradual process of switching my allegiance. (Oh, why didn't I move to Minneapolis?)

One like still remained from my years of following the Phillies: Schmidt, who in early 1987 was closing in on 500 home runs, which was a huge deal in the pre-steroid era. The Phillies happened to be visiting Three Rivers Stadium for a weekend series with Schmidt at 498. I saw him hit a home run on Friday night, then I returned for Saturday, April 18.

Steve Bedrosian had just coughed up a lead and the Phillies trailed, 6-5, going into the top of the eighth inning. The Phils got two runners aboard, and Don Robinson ran a 3-0 count on Schmidt. At that point, I figured I'd have to come back the next day, but Schmidt smacked the ball over the left-field wall, not only for No. 500 but to win the game for Philadelphia.

On April 23, 1989, I attended another Phillies-vs.-Pirates game at Three Rivers. Schmidt, now 38 years old, came to bat in the first inning against John Smiley and smashed the ball over the left-field wall.

"He always hits a homer when I see him!" I said to my companions as I stood and clapped.

Turns out that I never saw him in person again. A month later, mired in a slump, Schmidt announced his retirement. After that home run in Pittsburgh, he hit only one more, No. 548.

As for the Phillies, I cheered when they beat the Braves in the '93 playoffs, and I turned off the television when manager Jim Fregosi brought Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams in to pitch late in the sixth game of the World Series. I had a feeling about what might happen.

And that was about it. I don't have a rooting interest anymore in the team I loved as a kid, which is kind of a shame.

Then again, I probably shouldn't admit I used to love a team that's about to lose its 10,000th game.

Philadelphia story

Today's standings show the Pittsburgh Pirates in the lofty position of second place, a ranking that has a lot more to do with the mediocrity of the National League Central than anything the Buccos are doing.

No matter where they show up in the final standings, the Pirates are on their way to a 15th consecutive losing season, which will be only one year away from tying the major-league record.

The Phillies went from 1933 to 1948 without ever seeing .500, but that's only part of the story of the suffering of Philadelphia baseball fans.

Our story starts with the final out of the 1914 World Series, with the Philadelphia Athletics being swept in four straight games by the Boston Braves, a team that had been in last place in the National League as of mid-July. According to legend, A's manager/owner Connie Mack was so humiliated by his team's performance that he sold off most of his star players. More likely, Mack was feeling financial pressure from the Federal League, the last "third" major league, the presence of which was driving up salaries throughout baseball. Earlier in 1914, Mack had passed on acquiring a lefthanded pitcher who was tearing it up for the minor-league Baltimore Orioles. If Mack hadn't already been planning to dump payroll, George Herman Ruth might have spent his early career in Philadelphia.

As it turned out, the A's went into a free-fall of epic proportions in 1915, blundering their way to a 43-109 record. It got worse in 1916, when the Athletics fielded a team that compiled a winning percentage that was lower than the '62 Mets. One member of the pitching staff, Jack Nabors, lost 20 games while posting only a single victory. The A's went on to finish last in the American League a record seven straight seasons.

Meanwhile, the situation was much better across town, where the Phillies won their first pennant in 1915, losing to the Red Sox in the World Series. With Grover Cleveland Alexander winning at least 30 games annually from 1915-17, the future didn't look so bad.

All that changed when the Phils, wary of Alexander's draft status during World War I, traded him to the Cubs prior to the 1918 season. Sure enough, Alexander went into military service, but Chicago had the last laugh, making it to the World Series without much of a contribution from him. The Phillies, meanwhile, won 33 fewer games than the previous year. They stayed below .500 for 14 straight seasons.

Meanwhile, Mack decided to spend some money again in the mid-'20, including doing substantial business with the Orioles. In fact, he paid a then-record price to obtain another left-handed pitcher, Robert Moses Grove. With several future Hall of Famers on the squad, the A's won three straight pennants, 1929-31.

Even though the Athletics fell short in 1932, it was a milestone year for Philadelphia baseball, one of only two seasons between 1913 and when the A's bolted for Kansas City during which both of the city's major-league teams finished above .500. The Phils finished at 78-76, with star outfielder Chuck Klein winning the MVP award and having the rare distinction of leading the National League in home runs and stolen bases. He won the Triple Crown in 1933, but the cash-strapped Phillies shipped him to the Cubs after the season.

Blaming the Depression this time, Mack started dismantling his team again, and by 1934 the A's were below .500 again.

Thus began the most horrible stretch of baseball a city has had to endure, which might help explained the ingrained bitterness of Philadelphia fans. For 13 straight seasons, neither the A's nor the Phillies came anywhere near cracking the .500 mark. The Phils finally moved out of the half-century-old ballpark known as the Baker Bowl in 1938, but it didn't help matters. The team lost more than 100 games five straight seasons, culminating with a wretched '42 club that finished 42-109 while finishing last in batting average, earned run average and fielding average.

The final year of World War II might have been the worst of all for Philadelphia. Both teams finished dead last, the Phillies at 46-108 the A's slightly better at 52-98.

Mack's team had a bit of a resurgence in the late '40s, winning more than it lost each year from 1947-49. But it was back to the basement in 1950, and after managing the franchise since the day it started operating in 1901, the 87-year-old Mack, who attended every game dressed in a shirt with starched collar instead of a uniform, finally called it quits.

The Phillies meanwhile started winning, too, after finally producing a decent crop of young players, including future Hall of Famers Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts. The so-called Whiz Kids finally made it back to the World Series in 1950, although the celebration was short-lived, as they were swept by the Yankees.

So, Pittsburgh fans, it could be a lot worse for you. That's not to say it won't in the future ...