The Philadelphia Phillies are famous for being one of the oldest sports teams known in American history because its formation dates back to 1883. The team began under the name “Quakers”. After the Quakers came the “Philadelphians”, which later on got shortened to be the name that we now know and love, the Phillies.
Since the club has such a broad history behind it, we decided to find some of the most interesting and fascinating facts about the baseball team. We are betting you haven’t heard of these before!
* Even though nowadays the Phillies can easily gather an audience even larger than three million people in a season, this wasn’t always the case. The first time this happened was in 1993, when they went from last-to-first on their way to the World Series.
* The most iconic closer in the history of the Phillies is Jose Mesa. Mesa collected a whopping 112 saves during his four season stay in the team.
* Bob Carpenter Jr. bought the team in 1943 and changed the club’s nickname to the Philadelphia Blue Jays. His intention was to bring something fresh, new, and exciting to the team because it was struggling to boost its attendance during a game.
* Hugh Mulcahy, also known as “The Losing Pitcher” because he would win as many games as he’d lose, was the first MLB player to serve in the military during World War II.
* The Phillies made history in 1935 when they played a game with the Cincinnati Reds during nighttime – a first in MLB.
* Danny Litwhiler was the first ever player to record a fielding percentage of 1.000 back in 1943.
* Bob “Death to Flying Things” is probably the greatest nickname to ever exist in the history of the club. He played for the Phillies during the inaugural year of the club, 1883. The nickname came from his excellent defense.
* Sam Thompson, the Phillies outfielder from 1894, managed to knock in sixty-one runs in one month. This record has yet to be broken.
* Have you ever seen the movie “The Natural”? Did you know that it was based on the life of Eddie Waitkus? One day, when he got to his hotel room he saw that he had received a note from a woman telling him that she needs to see him. Waitkus decided to comply with the woman’s request so he went to her room, where she shot him in the stomach.
What did we miss? Make sure to come back on our page to find out more about our beloved club.
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