1915 Phillies 100th Anniversary - Gavvy Cravath

The Offensive Leader of the 1915 Phillies was Clifford Carlton "Gavvy" Cravath.

 2006 Toyota Phillies Wall of Fame Gavvy Cravath

The then 34 year old Right Fielder led the NL in Home Runs, RBIs, Runs Scored, Total Bases, OBP and Slugging.  His 24 Homers sound modest by today's standards, but at the time it was the highest total in either league during the first 18 years of the 20th Century - more on this later.

If SABRmetics had been around a hundred years ago it would also have been mentioned that Gavvy Cravath led the NL in WAR at 7.0 or 6.4 oWAR for those of us who are skeptical about defensive metrics. Had their been an MVP award at the time I am pretty sure that Cravath would have won it. 

Unfortunately Gavvy's great regular season didn't continue into the World Series. He only picked up 2 hits in 16 At-Bats.  Cravath did get the Go-Ahead RBI in the 8th inning of game 1 on a ground out to Shortstop - it was the only game the Phillies would win in the Series. The Victory would remain the Phillies lone World Series game W until Game 1 of 1980.

2006 Toyota Phillies 
I am pretty sure this post card set was a giveaway item for the Phillies in the early days of Citizen's Bank Park. We are almost a decade beyond the original issue and these are probably in need of an update.

2006 Toyota Phillies Wall of Fame Gavvy Cravath (b-side)

The back of the cards include brief demographics and lifetime stats atop a profile photo. Gavvy Cravath's stats include a few brief stints with various clubs prior to joining the Phillies for the bulk of his career. 

Above we spoke of Cravath's 24 homer season in 1915. It was one of SIX TIMES that he would lead the NL in Home Runs. When he retired in 1920 Cravath was the Active Leader in Home Runs with 119 which was 19 behind the All Time Leader Roger Connor. A Year later Babe Ruth would eclipse both Connor and Cravath.

Retirement
After retirement Gavvy Cravath returned to his native California and became a prominent judge in Laguna Beach California

Sources n Links  
1915 Phillies NL Champions  
SABR Bio by Bill Swank
SignOn San Diego

1915 Phillies 100th Anniversary - Stan Baumgartner

We are returning to our 1915 Phillies retrospective after a LONG hiatus. Today we look at a player who didn't even make the original cut for the feature, Relief Pitcher Stan Buamgartner.

Stan Baumgartner (Photo swiped from the Philly.com)

At twenty years old Stan Baumgartner was in his second season with the Phillies in 1915. He got into 16 games including a single start at Ebbets Field on June 2nd. 

The 1915 Phillies pitching staff was anchored by two future Hall of Famers in Grover Clevland Alexander and Eppa Rixey thus they had no need for Baumgartner in the postseason. It is unfortunate as it was Baumgartner's only shot at pitching in the World Series. He spent the remainder of his playing career in Philadelphia Five seasons with the Phillies and 3 with the A's.

Originally Baumgartner didn't make the cut for our 1915 Phillies Series. He had a minor role with the club, and I didn't have a baseball card of him - two major strikes against. However, last week I came across an interesting Frank Fitzpatrick article on Philly.com.

Fitzpatrick appears to base much of his article off a forthcoming bio by SABR researcher Phil Williams - one of the interesting aspects of Baumgartner's career is that he went on to become a baseball beat reporter following his playing career. The article goes into greater depth about his journalism career plus Baumgartner's football playing and coaching experiences with University of Chicago and at Nearby Delawarare.


Sources and Links
1915 Phillies - NL Pennant Winners
Philly Inquirer - Frank Fitzpatrick
Baseball-ref

Phillies to celebrate 100th Anniversary of the 1915 NL Pennant Winning Team

As part of their Opening Week festivities the Phillies will salute their 1915 team which the franchise first National League Pennant Winner. 

The Phillies will honor the 1915 team by wearing throwback caps from the era as will their opponent the Boston Red Sox. The then pre-curse Red Sox were the AL rep the Phillies faced in 1915.  The Phils are also offering fans free mini pennants as part of the festivities

Also found out that the first pitch will be thrown out by a former President....

Woodrow Wilson, well actually by an impersonator. Woodrow Wilson was the President when the two teams faced off for the 1915 Series.

I sincerely doubt the team will be able to bring back any living alums for the event.

2001 Before there was Topps #BT9 Grover Alexander 

The 1915 Phillies had Three Hall of Famers on the roster, the most prominent of the troika was Pete Alexander who also went by his birth name Grover Cleveland Alexander. According to his SABR bio by Jan Finkel Alexander is the only baseball player to be named after a President who was also played by one on Film (Ronald Reagan).

Pete Alexander recorded the only Win for the Phillies in the 1915 World Series and prior to 1980 he had the only Series Victory in franchise history.

While he came up short as a member of the 1915 Phillies, Alexander did eventually win a World Series ring at age 39 as a member of the 1926 St Louis Cardinals. He was the key pitcher for the Redbirds notching two complete game victories and posting a 2 inning save in game 7. 

The Right Handed Ace spent eight of his 20 major league seasons with the Phillies, for whom he pithhed 190 of his 373 career victories. Alexander Led the league in Ws and Strikeouts six times each and ERA four times.  Advanced metrics were of course not used at the time, but he stacks up well there leading the NL in WAR five times and six times for pitchers.

In 1938 Alexander became the 9th player enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Grover Cleveland Alexander died in November of 1950 at the age of 63.

2001 Before there was Topps
Topps BT is an insert set featuring 10 players who played prior to Topps baseball cards. Alexander is the sole Phillies player in the set that features the true icons of the game - Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson etc. 

Pete Alexander HoF Index
2006 Phillies Toyota Wall of Fame Postcard

Sources and Links
Phungo 1915 NL Champion Philadelphia Phillies Index 
baseball-ref
SABR bio by Jan Finkel
Baseball Cardpedia

1915 Phillies 100th Anniversary - Fred Luderus

2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the Phillies first pennant winner - The 1915 Philadelphia Phillies. 

To honor that team we are going to dedicate this years Featured Teams series to the club.  The first player that we are taking a look at is First Baseman Fred Luderus

2010 Phillies Baseball Heroes 3-Clubs Fred Luderus


Last week the Phillies announced the candidates for the teams 2015 Wall of Fame election. I knew most of the names but came across one I was not familiar with, Fred Luderus. 

Fred Luderus was the captain of the 1915 Phillies squad. That season was arguably the best campaign of Luderus' career, he finished 2nd in the NL in batting average, Slugging, OPS, and oWAR. He took his fine season into the World Series where he batted .438 and hit the first Home Run in Phillies Postseason history.

As a left handed power hitter, Luderus had 84 career Home Runs. That number may seem modest today, but he placed himself in the leagues top 10 for the category eight times. He also found himself on leader boards for RBIs, Total Bases, and Games a number of times. 

At one time Fred Luderus was the owner of the consecutive game streak record that would later be the property of Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken. Luderus played his 479th consecutive game on August 3rd, 1919 surpassing Eddie Collins record of 478. The streak extended for the remainder of the 1919 season ending at 533 games on September 28th. The record held until 1927 when it was broken by Glass Arm Eddie Brown. 

Following his Baseball career Luderus returned to his native Wisconsin and worked at the Milwaukee Yacht Club. He eventually started his own toy business that sold yarn dolls and animals nationwide. Fred Luderus died of a heart attack in 1961 at age 75.

1964 Phillies @ 50
Just wanted to let you know that I still have at least a half dozen posts left in the 1964 Phils series. I hope to get to them, but I didn't want that to hold up the new 1915 series. 
 
Sources n Links
1915 Phillies NL Champions  
SABR bio by Joe Dittmar
Phillies
Baseball-ref

1915 National League Champion Phillies

This is an index of posting related to the 1915 NL Champion Philadelphia Phillies. The Series originally ran in 2015, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the team.

1911 T206 George McQuillan

Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander
Dave Bancroft
Stan Baumgartner
Beals Becker
Gavvy Cravath
Fred Luderus
George McQuillan
Pat Moran
Eppa Rixey
Bud Weiser

Bill Killefer
Bert Niehoff
Bobby Byrne
Possum Whitted

Erskine Mayer
Al Demaree
George Chalmers
Ed Burns
-
Pat Moran

Sources n Links

T206 Museum