Philliedelphia

This Day in Baseball History

Posted by Patrick Franklin

August 18th, 2006

On this date, Mike Lieberthal surpasses this gentleman to the left, Charles Sebastion "Red" Dooin, as the Phillies' all time leader in games as a catcher.

Dooin caught 1,124 games for the Phillies from 1902-1914. He is also credited as being the first catcher ever to wear shin guards.

Oddly enough, Dooin was only a .240 career hitter, and had only 10 career home runs. Somebody get this man some steroids. Where is Mike Jacobs when you need him?

Lieberthal went on to catch 1,139 games for the Phillies.

But I have a bone to pick with Mike. He was a fan favorite here, of course, and I loved him as much as the next guy. Yet he was the only Phillies player to snub me for an autograph at spring training, the very same year he broke Dooin's record. He literally stood 3 feet in front of me on the field doing nothing for an hour before warming up and refused to sign for anyone. I am such a crybaby.

That spring training wasn't a total loss for me, though. I went on to get autographs from Charlie Manuel, Bobby Abreu, David Montgomery and (EEWWWW) Abraham Nunez and Alex Gonzalez.

Other stuff to happen on this date in history: in 1982 Pete Rose surpasses Hank Aaron as the all time leader in plate appearances (13,941 at the time) and in 1998 Greg Maddux wins his 200th career game.

That's it and that's all for now folks, @Phils08champs signing off.

Yesterday in Phillies Baseball History

Posted by Patrick Franklin

Well. Here's the deal: I missed yesterday's "Day in Baseball History," and from what I can divulge, not much happened on today's date in baseball hostory. The Padres and Mets played the first ever MLB game in Mexico in 1996. Outside of that, nothing monumental occured.

SO. I am going to go ahead and share what happened yesterday in baseball history, and do my best to not have a life and never miss a day again. So here you go folks, I present you with "Yesterday in Baseball History."

August 15th, 1962

Choo Choo Coleman, pictured above, and teammate Jim Hickman each hit a pinch hit home run in the same game, tying a major league record. In typical Mets' fashion, they still managed to lose to the Phillies 8-7 in 13 innings at the Polo Grounds.

Also on August 15th, 1990, Phillies pitcher Terry Mulholland throws a no-hitter against the Giants in a 6-0 win. I was a year old and living in Ireland at the time, so I remember it vividly.

Another fun fact: all of you just witnessed my first ever attempt at photoshop (well, the Mac version of it). The picture reeks of "dude, cmon." But, I can assure you, they will get better as I go.

This Day in Baseball History

Posted by Patrick Franklin

Hello there. I am the new kid on the block here at Philliedelphia. Some of you will know me as the handsome but pre-maturely balding and occasionally funny @Phils08champs on twitter. I am in the process, and failing, to figure out how TypePad works.

I currently write for Ticket, a MontCo based paper distributed along the East Coast:

 

What I will be doing here at Philliedelphia, however, is more of a "This Day in Baseball History" topic, with my completely unbiased view. I'll keep it as witty, yet informative as possible, and promise that you won't want to pour battery acid in your eyes after reading my posts. At least not all the time.

So, without further ado, I present you with my first ever This Day in Baseball History:

August 14th, 1961

This gentleman right here, who is not Chris Coste in a Cubs uniform, defeated the Phillies 9-2. It was the Phillies seventeenth consecutive loss, and the eleventh (11th!) straight game that an opposing pitcher threw a complete game against them.  

So the next time this current team loses two in a row and half of the fans want to forfeit the rest of the season, bring up this little tidbit of information.

Another fun fact: among the players on that Phillies roster was one Ruben Amaro, the father of the legend that brought us such big name players as Jack Cust and Dave Bush, among others.

Props to my always handy "This Day in Baseball History" book and calender for the info used here.

That's it and that's all for now folks. Feedback is always welcomed.