Philadelphia Phillies - The Roaring Twenties (1920-1929)

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1920

1923

104

1927

103

Decade

1921

103

1924

1928

109

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Titles:

Top Phillies Players of the Twenties

None

Pitchers:

Ballpark:

Jimmy Ring (16.44) - 41

Baker Bowl

Lee Meadows (8.38) - 26

Hal Carlson (13.95) - 23

Team Name:

Bill Hubbell (0.51) - 19

Phillies

Claude Willoughby (2) - 13

Clarence Mitchell (8.53) - 13

Owners:

George Smith (3.28) - 13

William F. Baker

Dutch Ulrich (8.37) - 8

Huck Betts (4.67) - 3

General Managers:

None

Catchers:

Butch Henline (9.28) - 34

Managers:

Jimmie Wilson (3.59) - 19

Gavvy Cravath (1920)

Wild Bill Donovan (1921)

First Basemen:

Kaiser Wilhelm (1921-1922

Don Hurst (4.57) - 18

Artie Fletcher (1923-1926)

Stuffy McInnis (1927)

Second Basemen:

Burt Shotton (1928-1929)

Fresco Thompson (1.53) - 16

Bernie Friberg (0.88) - 11

Hall of Famers:

Dave Bancroft

ShortStop:

Eppa Rixey

Heinie Sand (0.24) - 20

Chuck Klein

Artie Fletcher (4.81) - 13

MVP

Third Base:

None

Russ Wrightstone (5.94) - 35

Pinky Whitney (4.86) - 14

No Hitters:

None

Outfield:

Cy Williams (27.36) - 84

Notable Events:

Fred Leach (4.93) - 27

Johnny Mokan (1.06) - 20

1920 - A horrific decade for whatever few Phillies fans are left around. The

George Harper (6.4) - 19

Phils went 47-90 in '19 and proceed to lose 90 or more for the first nine years

Cliff Lee (2.13) - 18

of the Twenties including four hundred loss seasons. Owner William Baker is a

Irish Meusel (5.38) - 16

pox on Philadelphia baseball.

Chuck Klein (7.21) - 16

Lefty O'Doul (7.42) - 15

1920 - Baker sells Hall of Famer Dave Bancroft to the Giants for $100K

Curt Walker (2.63) - 11

1920 - Baker trades Hall of Famer Eppa Rixey to the Reds for

Notable Events:

Jimmy Ring - One suspects that there must have been a significant amount

of cash involved in this lopsided deal, as well

1923 - An absolute low point in this horrific decade. The Phillies

have an eleven year old fan arrested and put in jail (overnight)

1921 - Baker sells slugger Irish Meusel to the Giants for $30K

for refusing to return a foul ball hit into the stands. The case

set the precedent for foul balls belonging to the fans.

1921 - First baseman Gene Paulette is banned from baseball for

associating with gamblers. Back in the teens and twenties gambling

1927 - A section of the grandstand at Baker Bowl collapses

was widespread and it wasn't until after the Black Sox scandal that

and a person dies. The penurious Baker hasn't maintained

baseball dealt with it. Look at the steroids situation in recent times.

the stadium bearing his name and it's falling apart and dangerous.

Baseball officials turned a blind eye to what was obivous to everyone

It's one thing for your cheapness to cause your team to lose games,

and didn't want to deal with it until they were absolutely forced to.

it's quite another when your cheapness causes lives to be lost.

Then they become pious and conduct a righteous witch hunt for scapegoats

Pretty much the same situation regarding gambling in the late Teens and early 20's.

1927 - Business manager, former manager, owner and team

president Bill Shettsline, a man of considerable girth, is chased

1922 - Cy Williams wins his third straight home run title. The

across Baker Field by a ram, one of three sheep that penurious

big reason that Williams isn't sold away is that nobody with $ wants him.

owner William Baker used to keep the grass trimmed rather than

The old schoolers like John McGraw of the Giants don't like one dimensional

pay a grounds crew to do it. There's a wealth of jokes that were

sluggers, they still like defensive / speed / slap hitter types - the guys that they've

probably made at the time relating sheep pies and the state of

won with all along. Too soon for them to have adjusted to the live ball era

the Phillies organization

that Williams was made for.

By the way, the Williams shift, where the shortstop ends up on the right side

1928 - Future Hall of Fame outfielder Chuck Klein, 23, is obtained

of the diamond started with Cy Williams. A common misconception was that

in a trade from Ft. Wayne

it was named for Ted Williams. Anyway, a hundred years later everyone was

thinking what an awsome new analytic innovation shifting was.

1928 - Promising young catcher Walter Peck Lerian is killed as

a pedestrian on a Baltimore street corner

1923 - Lee Meadows is sold to the Pirates for 50K

1928 - The Phillies have their worst year of the decade going 43-109