Trapped in the Basement: The Philadelphia Phillies (1942 - )

[PotatoOfCouch13]

DECEMBER 7, 1945

It was unanimous. We were all angry about the lack of expansion, especially Phil Wrigley. Of course, he had a lot to gain from expansion…

“This was ridiculous! I thought we had pulled power away from the Commissioner! How the h*** can he just revoke our promise to expand?”

“Gentlemen”, interjected Ford Frick, “I know you’re all upset about the commissioner, but I’ll handle this. You just worry about your teams. Leave everything to me.”

*

So, with expansion put on the back burner (again), it was the same boring league business.

Bob Quinn was in fact selling the Braves, and he introduced the new ownership group. 3 construction owners, Joe Maney, Guido Rugo, and Lou Perini, had ventured into baseball, with Perini leading the charge. The new owners unveiled some flashy new uniforms too.

Not bad. I really like the addition of red to the navy blue. It really adds a nice touch.

*

Meanwhile, I’m proud to present our new jerseys!

With Franklin Stadium getting primed for Opening Day, I felt that it would be a great idea to open a new stadium with some new uniforms. Pretty nice, huh?

[PotatoOfCouch13]

DECEMBER 8, 1945

With the AL and NL meeting together, the first order of business was the reassignment draft proposal. First suggested in 1942 by yours truly, the powers that be proposed that we wait until 1945 until we enact such a radical design. With the Yankees continuing to dominate the American League, it was really a no-brainer. With a landslide margin of 14-1 (Yankees against, Giants abstaining), the measure passed!

RULES FOR REASSIGNMENT DRAFT (HENCEFORTH KNOWN AS THE RULE V DRAFT)

1. Open to players in the minor leagues on January 1 of each season.
2. In order to be eligible, players must be 26 years old (as of 1/1), be a Major League caliber player (OVR > 80), and hold a roster position of AAA or AA.
3. There will be 2 rounds; one will consist of AAA players, and the other will consist of AA players. Each team will get 1 selection per round.
4. A team may not draft a player that was originally theirs.

The draft will be held on a trial basis for the next 3 years on January 1, after which we will reconvene for rule changes and stuff of that nature.

*

And that about wraps up a hectic weekend in Miami. Now it’s back to Philadelphia, where I’ve got to take care of Sam for the next 2 months: that is, until Spring Training begins again!

[PotatoOfCouch13]

DECEMBER 10, 1945

Well, it was supposed to be relaxing. Problem is, I return to my desk one last time to find 2 notes.

*

Andrew,

I regret to inform you that I must resign from my position as bench coach. My wife gave birth to my son Pat in March, and has had to run the house all by herself. Being a family man, I feel that I must spend more time with them. Thank you for the opportunity.

Lee Riley

*

Mr. Walsh,

Thank you for the opportunity to coach your team, but I feel that I’ve been living a lie for the past few seasons. You see, I have been drinking, but I owe it to you and to this team to try and get sober. I’ll be resigning effective immediately to focus on ridding myself of alcoholism.

Thank you for believing in me,

Hack Wilson

*

TO-DO LIST
1. Find Manager
2. Find Hitting Coach
3. Find Bench Coach
4. Win World Series in 1946

[gosensgo101]

Save yourself the trouble and just do it all yourself.

[RedsoxRockies]

Yea, I am sure you can multi task

[filihok]

Shaking things up eh...it's like no one wants to work for you. You must be a dick

[OregonDuck1989]

Save yourself the trouble and just do it all yourself.

lol while you're at it Andrew Walsh can become the staff ace too

[RedsoxRockies]

Shaking things up eh...it's like no one wants to work for you. You must be a dick

He probably sold his on EBay lol

[PotatoOfCouch13]

gosensgo101: An interesting option for sure. I'm not sure if I'm quite cut out to own, GM, and manage a team. Mr. [Connie] Mack has played those roles for almost 50 years now, and it's taken an incredible amount of strength and willpower for him to keep doing it. I'll be looking for a manager and a hitting coach for sure.

filihok: Well, I'm competitive. I also hate to lose. Getting swept out of the World Series last year left a really bad taste in my mouth. That's why I flipped out on Bucky Harris during the series: because I want to win. I have this Steinbrenner-esque urge to be the best every season. Is that so wrong?

OregonDuck1989: Welcome! And I have Robin Roberts to be staff ace, so I'm pretty good there.

RedsoxRockies: First of all, no. Secondly, eBay wasn't even around yet, so ha!

JANUARY 20, 1946
RULE V DRAFT

ROUND 1
1. St. Louis Browns – 3B Nap Reyes (NYG)
2. St. Louis Cardinals – SP Hank Bowory (NYY)
3. Philadelphia Athletics – SP Red Munger (NYY)
4. Pittsburgh Pirates – SP Charlie Gassaway (CHC)
5. Washington Senators – RP Steve Roser (NYY)
6. Boston Braves - RP Clem Hausmann (BOS)
7. Detroit Tigers – SP Hank Wyse (CHC)
8. Chicago White Sox – C Aaron Robinson (BOS)
9. Chicago Cubs – 3B John Antonelli (STL)
10. Brooklyn Dodgers – LF Russ Derry (NYY)
11. New York Giants – SP Murry Dickson (NYY)
12. Cleveland Indians – 3B Bob Maier (DET)
13. Cincinnati Reds – RF Dave Bartosch (NYY)
14. Boston Red Sox – 1B Mike Schemer (NYG)
15. Philadelphia Phillies – LF Butch Nieman (BSN)
16. New York Yankees – SP Pinky Woods (BOS)

ROUND 2
17. St. Louis Browns – NONE
18. St. Louis Cardinals – SP Tommy Byrne (NYY)
19. Philadelphia Athletics – SP Mel Queen (NYY)
20. Pittsburgh Pirates – 1B Al Gardella (NYG)
21. Washington Senators – SP Ernie White (NYY)
22. Boston Braves – 1B John Douglas (BRO)
23. Detroit Tigers – SP Eli Hodkey (PHI)
24. Chicago Cubs – C Roy Partee (BOS)
25. Chicago White Sox – RP Al Gettel (NYY)
26. Brooklyn Dodgers – RP Sam Nahem (NYY)
27. New York Giants - PASS
28. Cincinnati Reds - NONE
29. Cleveland Indians - PASS
30. Boston Red Sox – RF Glenn Crawford (BRO)
31. Philadelphia Phillies - PASS
32. New York Yankees - PASS

*the Browns and Reds only received 1 choice because they had no one to add to the pool of available players.

*

As it turns out, I felt like dealing, and after missing out on Bobby Doerr, I needed a good second baseman. So I threw Vince DiMaggio and an outfield prospect in Ed Sanicki in a deal, and I got exactly what I wanted: a good 2nd baseman.

Chicago White Sox receive:
CF Vince DiMaggio (90)
LF Ed Sanicki (75/82)

Philadelphia Phillies receive:
2B Don Kolloway (86)

Well, the Vince DiMaggio experiment has come to a conclusion, but I did get a solid 2Bman that can play full time for me this season as Hamrick, Walczak, and Fox develop some more. The acquisition of Nieman in the reassignment draft allows me to deal away some of my outfield depth.

*

Meanwhile, I was a little worried about the home opener. I was worried that I didn’t have a huge celebration planned for the opening of our new home, Franklin Stadium. I mean, the last time we had a huge party was when we retired Chuck Klein’s number.

I wonder whose number we can retire this year…

*

[RedsoxRockies]

Retire F's #! Btw, Looks like the Yanks lost a lot. Which is good

[PotatoOfCouch13]

RedsoxRockies: Yeah, I (purposely) drafted away a lot of their depth. While they did manage to add 1 player, I hope that the 11 that they lost will come back to bite them, making a closer, more hard fought American League race.

As for the retired number...

FEBRUARY 2, 1946

An older woman was working around the kitchen. She was finished preparing, and about to put the roast in the oven.

*RING RING*

“Well, it only figures that the danged telephone rings when I’m doing something important. Grover? Can you get that?”

59-year-old Grover Cleveland Alexander put down the newspaper, slowly got out of his easy chair, and made his way to the phone. A Hall-of-Fame pitcher, Alexander won 373 career games as a Major Leaguer, and won quite a few more pitching for the House of David semi-pro team.

However, he was 9 years removed from pitching. In fact, he was really a shadow of his former self. Years and years of alcoholism (brought on by a war-time depression) had taken its toll on him. His muscles ached, his bones creaked, and his arm was sore. He had retired to farm-life in St. Paul, Nebraska, and the great pitcher had accepted his role as a farmer.

“Hullo?”

“Mr. Alexander?”

“Yes, who is this?”

“This is Andrew Walsh, owner of the Philadelphia Phillies. I was wondering…”

“Mr. Walsh, sir, I ain’t interested in pitching for you. My arm is sore, I’m old, and I don’t want to deal with the travel.”

“Wait, Mr. Alexander, I’m not asking you to pitch for us. We’re actually quite set in that department. I was calling to ask you to come to Philadelphia this season. You see, we’re opening a brand-new stadium, and we want to honor you.”

“Honor me? How so?”

“By retiring the number 1 for you.”

“How’d you get #1?”

“Well, you’re number one in our hearts!”

That came off weird. I searched for something better to say.

“And you are, in my opinion, the #1 pitcher of all-time.”

Nice save!

“Eh, that’s nice. So when are we doing this?

“Well, I was originally planning on doing it during Home Opening Day, but I found out that April 15 will be the 35th anniversary of your Major League debut. Unfortunately, we have an off-day, but we’ll oblige and make it either the 14th or the 16th, if you approve.”

“When’s the home opener?”

“The 12th.”

“Who are you playing on the 14th?”

“Chicago.”

“Let’s do it then. So what, I’ll just show up in Philadelphia the morning of?”

“No need for that, Mr. Alexander, sir. I’ll make all the arrangements. You just need to have your bags ready when your car arrives.”

*

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

Shaking things up eh...it's like no one wants to work for you. You must be a dick

LOL.

In all seriousness, good work and a very good read .

[RedsoxRockies]

nice new Avatar Yeah Daaawg!

[PotatoOfCouch13]

YEAH DAAAAWG: Thank you! The positive (and negative) comments are always appreciated!

RedsoxRockies: Agreed. That new avatar is off the hook.

FEBRUARY 9, 1946

The facility at Clearwater has been set up to a near-perfect replica of Franklin Stadium. The only things missing are thousands of seats and a beautiful view of downtown Philadelphia. The beautiful view of the ocean, however, would have to be put on hold for now. The season was a month and a half away, and the Phillies still didn’t have a manager.

So I imposed an ultimatum on myself: I’ll check the locker room every day at 9 AM, and the first person I see will be the new manager.

*

I woke up early the next morning, and poked my head into the locker room.

The only person I saw was my 73-year-old equipment manager.

Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow.

*

I did the same thing the next day.

It was the 10-year-old ball boy.

That won’t do. Third time’s a charm?

*

The third day, I repeated the process.

It was my 25-year-old starting catcher.

“Andy, how would you like to be player-manager?”

“Well, I suppose. But I already have a lot of responsibility on the field…”

“Don’t worry about that! I’ll do my best to take the pressure off you, and get you the best possible lineup on the field! This way, you’ll just have to worry about on-field substitutions.”

“I guess you’re right. I can’t turn that offer down. Now, if I’m going to be manager, I’m going to need an increase in pay…”

“Yeah, yeah, $5,000 increase.”

Andy smiled as I walked away.

*

Well, now that I had a manager, I guess I only really need a hitting coach for now (bench coach is a somewhat unnecessary commodity when your manager is a player, in my opinion), so I made a few calls, and lured Chuck Klein back to Philadelphia. He’ll be our new hitting coach.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

lol, thanks .

Nice strategy for hiring your new manager, btw.