The video has gotten around a good bit has been featured on all the nighttime talk shows Fallon, Kimmell, Letterman's top ten list, and The Daily Show's moment of Zen.
Most outlets had an abbreviated version of the video, this clip shows the beginning of the reportt where Steve Keeley mentions that he is in Woodstown New Jersey, a small town across the river from Wilmington Delaware. Then he goes on to mention that one of the town's notable natives was Hilly Flitcraft who played three games for the 1942 Philadelphia Philllies.
Who was Hilly Filtcraft?
Sounds like a good time to do some research on Mr Flitcraft. The 1942 Phillies struggled mightily, and due to the WWII military draft they also had a depleted roster. This did give Hildreth Milton Flitcraft his opportunity. "Hilly" was only 19 at the time and was the youngest player in the NL. Unfortunately for him, his inexperienced showed, Flitcraft got into 3 games pitched 3 1/3 innings. It was the 1/3 of an inning that got him. In an outing on September 6th he faced five batters 4 reached base - Flitcraft was charged with 3 runs 2 earned.
Hilly returned to Phillies spring training in 1943 (which was held in Hershey PA) but it appears that he was called into the service prior to the season. Flitcraft returned to baseball, but never made it out of the minor leagues. One of his minor league stops was with the 1945 Wilmington Blue Rocks who were at the time affiliated with the Phillies. Following his career Hilly Flitcraft was involved in the Insurance business locally and later moved to Boulder Colorado, where he lived until passing away in 2003 at the age of 79.
Fun Fact
Hilly Flitcraft only played in 3 games with the Phillies but wore 2 different uniform numbers, 16 and 8.
Sources
Baseball-ref
Larry Shenk - PennLive.com
Historic WoodstownGoogle Maps
Janice Flitcraft Obituary - Daily Camera (Boulder CO)
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