Lamh Foistenach Abu!
Posted on 05/06/2010 10:15:48 AM PDT by Eagles2003
PHILADELPHIA (AP)—Robin Roberts, the Hall of Fame pitcher who led the Philadelphia Phillies to the 1950 National League pennant as part of the famed “Whiz Kids,” has died. He was 83.
Roberts died Thursday morning at his Temple Terrace, Fla., home of natural causes, the Phillies announced, citing Roberts’ son Jim.
The right-hander was the most productive pitcher in the National League in the first half of the 1950s, topping the league in wins from 1952 to 1955, innings pitched from ’51 to ’55 and complete games from ’52 to ’56. ADVERTISEMENT
He won 286 games and put together six consecutive 20-win seasons. Roberts had 45 career shutouts, 2,357 strikeouts and a lifetime ERA of 3.41. He pitched 305 complete games, but also holds the dubious distinction of giving up more home runs than any other Major League pitcher.
“Workhorse is a weak description,” Philadelphia Daily News writer Stan Hochman wrote about Roberts in 2003. “He was a mule, stubborn, cantankerous and willing to toil from sunup to sundown.”
Phillies fans will remember Roberts as the leading pitcher on the 1950 squad that won the franchise’s first pennant in 35 years. Roberts put together a 20-11 season with a 3.02 ERA and five shutouts.
The team, with several 25-and-younger stars such as Roberts, Richie Ashburn and Del Ennis, was dubbed the “Whiz Kids.” It marked the end a three-decade span in which the Phillies were mostly awful.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
R.I.P.
Lamh Foistenach Abu!
I remember him well from the Fifties. He kept up his high level of playing while the Phillies drifted off to the cellar. I remember the voice of By Saam on the radio describing the exploits of Roberts, Hernandez, Ashburn and the remaining Whiz Kids over the years.
It was more of an interruption than an end. The Phillies finishes from 1951 through 1961 when the National League had eight teams were: 5,4,4,4,4,5,5,8,8,8,8.
It is sad to hear of the death of Robin Roberts who was certainly one of the great pitchers of that time when I was growing up with baseball, the record of his team notwithstanding.
ML/NJ
very well said and dead on the money. thanks for your service also 8.
May he rest in peace.
In the 50’s and early 60’s, tho I was a Dodgers fan, I always thought very highly of him, playing his heart out for second class teams. He won 20 game and sometimes, as I recall, lost 20. But he never stopped trying.
He was the subject of yearly trade rumors with the Yankees. I wonder how his career stats would have done then.
A classy man.
Thx ...
Goodness gracious! I remember him from the many times he pitched against my beloved Cardinals. Many a game I listened to the game narrated by Harry Carey on that old tube type radio out on the patio. I guess this dates me as well. RIP. You lived well. Farewell.
If you read the article it talks about his completed games. Rather amazing to say the least.
I never met Robin, but I played at the golf course he co-owned with Curt Simmons, Limekiln. Curt was manning the club house last time I played.
What really pissed me off was my super lame HS baseball coach bragged about cutting both Robin’s boy and Del Ennis’s boy from the baseball team at Germantown Academy. A**clown was a “special ed” teacher who specialized in the “Gene Mauch” bunt for one run and not the Earl Weaver “hit a 3-run HR and do it again tomorrow” style game. My coach was a super lame fart, what you expect from a guy who takes a job at the bottom of the barrel in a profession that wasn’t respected for a man way back then. Especially in Bucks County.
I won’t post his name but his nickname was Woody if you can put 2+2 together.
Ah, I know Germantown Academy well. :) If I recall, the youngest son made it to the minors (could be wrong).
I don’t know that nickname, but I’m pretty sure I’d know his real name.
Many oldtimers thought the great Mets pitcher Tom Seaver in style and delivery reminded them of Robin Roberts.
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