Nearly two years ago, Pat Gallen and I sat down and were thinking of content for our blog. Site patriarch, and now, newest returned writer, Tim Malcom, had run a list directly after the Phillies won the 2008 World Series of the 100 Greatest Phillies of All Time. Pat and I decided since five years had passed, and the Phillies were out of their franchise-best run, that it was time to update the list. We only wanted to do something that would keep us busy during an offseason in which the Phillies seemingly had little money to spend and few assets to trade. At one point, Pat made an off-handed comment to the effect of “Yeah, and if this goes well, you could probably turn this into a book.”
Youthful ignorance led me to take that comment to heart, not realizing the hundreds of hours of my life that would soon be consumed by research.
For the last 18 months or so, my life has been filled with drafts, re-writes, edits, and so much more. My mother-in-law, award-winning editor Barbara Morris, kindly offered to edit the nearly 80,000 word document. She had no idea what she was getting herself into, either.
The book is 288 jam-packed pages of profiles on the Greatest 100 Phillies of All Time, along with interviews with some of the greatest Phillies ever, statistical rankings, lists of the greatest trades, managers, and draft picks, and so much more. For those who followed along with our winter ’13-’14 countdown, content has been updated, edited, and expanded. In some cases, players have been dropped from the top 100 while others were added. Rankings have been altered based on feedback from you, the readers of Phillies Nation. Never before seen interviews, comparative lists, and individual statistical rankings are featured in the book, as well.
The book will begin ship from Amazon on Tuesday September 15 and will be in retailers such as Shibe Vintage Sports and more shortly thereafter. You can pre-order The 100 Greatest Phillies of All Time today by clicking this link or by clicking the fun Amazon widget.
Thank you all for your support over the last four years that I have been actively writing with Phillies Nation. There are a lot of people I couldn’t have done this without, but I certainly could not have done this without the readers of Phillies Nation.