By Tom Ruane
What was the greatest hitting team in modern baseball history? There are many ways to answer that question. If one were to rank offense the way newspapers used to, by batting average, the 1930 Giants and their .319 batting average would top the list. That same year, the Phillies collected the most hits in a season with 1783, and the following summer, the Yankees set a record that still stands when they crossed the plate 1067 times.
But there was a "team" that scored almost a run per game more than those Yankees, that collected nearly 2000 hits and whose .346 batting average far surpassed that of the Giants. They were the opponents of the 1930 Philadelphia Phillies.
Here are the top five teams in runs, hits and batting average compared to the 1930 Anti-Phillies:
Year Team Runs Year Team Hits Year Team BAvg 1931 NY A 1067 1930 PHI N 1783 1930 NY N .319 1936 NY A 1065 1930 NY N 1769 1921 DET A .316 1930 NY A 1062 1930 STL N 1732 1930 PHI N .315 1950 BOS A 1027 1921 DET A 1723 1930 STL N .314 1999 CLE A 1009 1930 CHI N 1722 1922 STL A .310 1930 ^PHI 1199 1930 ^PHI 1994 1930 ^PHI .346
The difference between the 1st and the 5th place teams in the chart above is 58 runs, 61 hits and 9 batting average points. The difference between the Phillies opponents and the top of the list are 132 runs, 211 hits and 27 points.
So how did they do it? Well, they had three things going for them. First of all, they hit in a year when offense was at a historic high. Of the fifteen teams on the three lists above, 7 are from 1930. And the 1930 Cubs finished 4th in the league that season in hits and still made the list. If the Cubs had gotten two more hits in 1930, the top four hit totals would all have been from the 1930 NL. The league that year amassed 13260 hits; the second highest total in a modern 8-team league was the 12657 collected by the 1936 AL.
Secondly, they played half their games in Baker Bowl a park that was extremely friendly to hitters. It had a short right field fence that was 280 feet down the line and only 310 feet to right-center. The park didn't increase home runs by that much because of the 40 foot wall, featuring a huge ad for Lifebuoy soap ("which tells how ball players manage to be accepted socially after they are through with their daily exercise"), topped by another 15 foot wire screen. What it did increase, however, was singles and doubles. Here are the records of Philadelphia and their opponents both at Baker Bowl and elsewhere that year:
AB R H 2B 3B HR BB BAVG SLG
Home 5789 1187 2034 446 28 144 503 .351 .513
Away 5642 956 1743 299 97 124 490 .309 .462
According to a 1937 Chicago Tribune article1:
"The right fielder who plays most of his games at Baker bowl has a better chance than men on other teams to make assists than any outfielder on any other team in the National league. But he had a hard time building up his record for catching line drives. He must play with the seat of his bloomers against the soap ad and his main job is to judge bounces off the soap."
Still, had the Phillies opponents that year played all their games away from Baker Bowl, they still would have broken the record for most runs, hits and highest batting average in a season. Here's what they did in each city:
City G AB R H 2B 3B HR BB AVG OBP SLG RPG STL N 11 396 103 155 34 12 6 40 .391 .452 .583 9.36 CHI N 13 513 117 172 26 7 13 64 .335 .410 .489 9.00 BRO N 11 393 98 146 23 6 18 40 .372 .431 .598 8.91 PHI N 77 2961 644 1062 246 17 72 272 .359 .416 .526 8.36 NY N 11 388 76 129 20 6 20 43 .332 .400 .570 6.91 PIT N 11 390 68 121 20 16 6 30 .310 .361 .490 6.18 BOS N 11 358 48 109 19 10 2 20 .304 .346 .430 4.36 CIN N 11 365 45 100 12 7 5 34 .274 .338 .386 4.09 ^PHI 79 2803 555 932 154 64 70 271 .333 .394 .508 7.03
The last line is the sum of all the non-Philadelphia totals. Expanded to a full season, that would have resulted in 1096 runs and 1840 hits, which along with the .333 batting average, would have still broken all three team records.
The third thing this team had going for it was the good fortune to face perhaps the worst pitching staff in modern major league history. Not that bad pitching staffs were anything new to Phillies fans. Bad pitching and the Phillies had been synonymous for years - ever since December 11, 1917 to be exact. On that date, owner William Baker sent Pete Alexander, who had just completed his third successive 30-win season, along with his starting catcher, to the Cubs for Pickles Dillhoefer, a .126 hitting scrub catcher, Mike Prendergast, a 3-6 pitcher, and $55000. What followed was the National League's version of "The Curse of the Babe," as the Phillies went from having the second-best pitching staff in 1917 to allowing the most runs-per-game in 1918.
And it didn't stop there. In what could be the single greatest domination of any statistical category, the Phillies' pitchers kept right on allowing the most runs-per-game year after year until their string was finally stopped by the 1940 Pirates. Think about it: with all the great-hitting teams the New York Yankees had throughout the years, they never led their league in runs-per-game more than 4 years in a row. Phillies' pitchers led their league in allowing the most runs-per-game for 23 consecutive years.
As they entered the 1930 season, Philadelphia was 12 years into that record run. The 1929 staff had out-done themselves, setting a modern single-season record for most runs allowed. At the start of 1930, here were the top ten runs allowed totals in modern major league history:
Year Team Runs 1929 PHI N 1032 1911 BOS N 1021 1923 PHI N 1008 1928 PHI N 957 1925 PHI N 930 1929 DET A 928 1925 BOS A 922 1922 PHI N 920 1921 PHI N 919 1925 STL A 906
If it hadn't been for the 1911 Boston Braves, the Phillies would have set the record for most runs allowed four times during the 1920s.
So what had been done after the 1929 season to improve their pitching staff? The only move of consequence had been to try to eliminate "The Curse of Old Pete" by bringing back Alexander in a trade with the Cardinals 12 years to the day after he had been traded away to the Cubs. He turned 43 years old before opening day and was coming off a turbulent, 9-8 season with the Cards. They kept the rest of their record-setting pitching staff pretty much intact.
Despite this, there was hope going into the season. They had won 71 games in 1929, their highest total since the original Alexander deal, ending up in fifth-place. In addition, they had finished strongly. From August 14th to the end of the season, they had gone 30-18, the best record in the league.
Spring training in 1930 was an unusually rainy one, but the team left Winter Haven, Florida and headed north with a great deal of optimism. Or as James Isaminger of The Sporting News put it2:
"Shotton and his Phillies face the barrier with the feeling that scarcely any position in the percentage table is beyond their reach"
Seldom has an opening game given a more misleading indication of things to come than the Phillies' April 15th 1-0 victory over the Brooklyn Robins. According to Isaminger3, Lee Sweetland's 3-hit shutout "belied the current Spring fiction that Burt Shotton has no dependable pitchers".
On April 23rd, the sixth game of the season and the second in Baker Bowl, the Phillies scored 2 ninth-inning runs to defeat the Robins 16-15. This would be the first of 45 games in which Phillies' opponents would score in double-digits. In the next game, a 13-2 Giant victory, Freddie Lindstrom became the first opponent of the Phillies to get five hits in a game. He would not be last. A list of them:
Game Team Player AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI Result
4-26(1) NY N Freddie Lindstrom 5 4 5 1 0 0 2 W 13-2
5-20 BRO N Babe Herman 6 2 5 0 0 1 6 W 16-9
5-30(2) BRO N Del Bissonette 5 3 5 1 0 1 3 W 11-9
6-23 CHI N Hack Wilson 6 3 5 1 1 1 5 W 21-8
7-10 NY N Shanty Hogan 6 3 5 2 0 0 3 W 19-8
Freddie Lindstrom 5 3 5 1 0 0 1
7-23(2) PIT N Pie Traynor 7 4 5 1 0 1 4 W 16-15
7-31 BRO N Babe Herman 5 1 5 2 0 1 4 L 7-12
8-19(2) CHI N High Pockets Kelly 7 1 5 0 1 0 1 T 6-6
9-12 CHI N Hack Wilson 5 4 5 2 0 1 6 W 17-4
A modern major league record of 19 extra-base hits was set May 7th during the Cardinals 16-11 victory. Chick Hafey knocked in 5 runs in one inning, ending the day only a single shy of hitting for the cycle. On August 21st, he'd correct that oversight during a 16-6 romp and join Hack Wilson (on June 23rd - see chart above) as the second player to hit for the cycle against the Phillies that year. Once again, he'd drive in 5 runs.
After the Phillies dropped their sixth straight game on May 8th, Isaminger wrote4:
"It's the old trouble with a daily example of slovenly pitching to nullify the batting power of a team, but flinging is as much a part of baseball as anything else and a team not equipped with pitching strength never can hope to get anywhere no matter how they boast about their battles"
In other words, the Spring fiction had become fact.
Benny Frey, rookie pitcher for the Reds, ran his record to 4-0 with a 5-4 victory over the Phillies on May 11th. Pete Alexander was his mound opponent, making his last major league start. He gave up 8 hits in less than 4 innings and would make his last appearance on May 28th. in a mop up role against the Braves.
On Memorial Day, Brooklyn swept the Phils in a double-header at Ebbets Field, by 11-1 and 11-9 scores. In the opening contest, Del Bissonette, hit a home run only to be called out for passing Babe Herman on the base paths. He was credited with a single instead, but made up for his blunder by rapping out five successive hits in the second game.
The Phillies ("although badly bent of late," according to Isaminger5) opened a lengthy home-stand on June 2nd, which would be interrupted midway through for a Sunday jaunt to Cincinnati to play a double-header. This was a frequent way schedule-makers got around the Pennsylvania Blue Laws prohibiting baseball on Sunday, although the Dodgers and the Giants were more common opponents.
One of the Phillies' few losses during their stay at Baker Bowl was the Cardinals 11-10 victory on June 3rd. Syl Johnson was the winning pitcher despite giving up 20 hits and 9 runs in 8 1/3 innings. In the Pirates 19-12 victory in the opening game of the June 14th double-header, Pie Traynor may have tied a record for the most RBIs in a game without an extra-base hit when he drove home 7 runs with 3 singles. During the years covered by Retrosheet's box scores, only Jack Fourier and Tracy Jones managed to do this as well, Fournier on July 2nd, 1925 and Jones on June 9th, 1989. Two days later, in a game that The Sporting News6 described as "wild and woolly," the Phillies built up a 16-3 lead over the Pirates before hanging on for a 18-14 decision.
Heading west, the Phillies dropped three of four to the Cardinals before being ambushed by Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, as the Cubs racked up 40 runs in three games, highlighted by a 21-8 pounding in the first game. In the finale, a 13-12 slugfest, Kiki Cuyler and Gabby Hartnett combined for 3 home runs and 11 RBIs. The Cubs were in the middle of a 24-7 June run that would land them in first place, while the Phillies were simply dropping three more games on their way to their third 17-60 road record in four years.
The next day, the Phillies demonstrated that they could lose low-scoring games as well, falling 1-0 to the Pirates. The only run scored when, with a man on third, Phil Collins dropped the ball during his wind-up.
After the road trip, the Phillies had five days off before their next scheduled game. The Sporting News7 called it the "longest mid-season voluntary lay-off in history" and it occurred because a series with the Reds, originally scheduled for the end of June, had been cancelled and the games moved to create three additional Sunday double-headers. During this extended holiday, they attempted to shore up their pitching staff by purchasing Snipe Hansen from the Richmond Roses of the Central League. After winning 11 games (and walking over 100 batters) in two months for Richmond, Hansen would go 0-7 for the Phils.
All but 6 of their 31 games during the month of July were played at Baker Bowl. The Phillies won only 8 of them, cementing their hold on last place. The frustration of their fans reached its height on July 23rd and 24th, when their team scored 15 runs in back to back games only to lose them both by scores of 16-15 and 19-15.
Their opponents scored in double-digits 12 times during the month ("huge gobs of runs," according to Isaminger8) and were held to less than a hit an inning only twice. Included in this month were games described by The Sporting News9 as "a slugging orgy" (July 7th, 13-12 Giants), "a thorough beating" (July 10th, 19-8 Giants), "a dizzy slugfest" (July 17th, 14-9 Reds), and another "wild and woolly game" (July 24th, 19-15 Cubs). A 16-2 Cubs victory on July 26th featured three home runs by Hack Wilson, bringing his season total to 32.
In early August, the Phillies departed on a road trip that would take up most of the month. The trip featured some of the best pitching of the year, including 21 straight games in which they held their opponents to less than ten runs and a string of 12 games in which they allowed an average of less than 4 runs a game. Not surprisingly, this streak coincided with trips to Boston and Cincinnati, by far the two weakest-hitting teams in the league.
By the time they reached Wrigley Field in mid-August, things had returned to normal. That seven-game series included 10-9, 17-3, 9-8 and 10-8 scores, Hack Wilson's record-tying 43rd home run of the season, and a fight between Philly pitcher Hap Collard and his his catcher over who'd been responsible for a recent rally. Hack's home run was hit over the head of Chuck Klein, Philadelphia's right fielder and the man whose record he'd tied. Chuck saluted Hack as he rounded first-base and was given an ovation from the Wrigley fans for his display of good sportmanship. From there, it was on to St. Louis, where the Cards averaged 10 runs a game in sweeping a five-game series.
They returned to Baker Bowl near the end of August with a record of 40-83, 13.5 games out of seventh place. All but six of their remaining games would be played at home. One of their brief trips away was to Ebbets Field for a Sunday game on August 31st, where they lost 14-3 to the Robins in the first game ever played with a new 20-foot screen installed in right-field to cut down the number of cheap home runs. Modeled after the screen at the Baker Bowl, it didn't have the desired effect as the two teams combined for five home runs.
Returning six days later, the Phillies were clobbered once again, this time by a 22-8 margin, in a game that featured another five home runs. The 22 runs were the most scored against the Philly pitchers in 1930 and followed an 18-5 defeat at the hands of the Giants, who were led by Bill Terry's seven RBIs. Freddie Fitzsimmons and Dolf Luque, the pitchers benefiting from all this offense, both pitched complete games despite giving up a combined 28 hits, 13 runs and 12 doubles. Luque went the distance in his six starts against the Phillies in 1930, winning them all despite giving up an average of over 11 hits and 5 runs a game. His teammates supported him in these games with 80 runs, ensuring that he wouldn't have to pitch too carefully.
The Phillies then took a brief break from high-scoring games, as they traveled to Boston and split a double-header with the Braves, winning 1-0 and losing 2-1. The losing pitchers in these games allowed only 2 and 5 hits. respectively. But rather than signaling a late-season pitching resurgence, these games were simply an anomaly that wouldn't be repeated. Over the final 20 games, Phillies' opponents would be held under 10 hits only once, when the Cards needed only 8 to defeat them 6-5 on September 18th, and would post a .383 batting average during the month of September.
In early September, the Phillies took advantage of some off-days to play their first two night games, exhibitions against the Eastern League's Allentown and Baltimore of the International League. Although losing to the Allentown Buffaloes 7-5, the Phillies managed to beat the Orioles 9-6 in ten innings, despite a three-run home run by Joe Hauser, who'd finish the year with 63 homers (not counting the one hit in this game), a record for organized baseball which would stand until he'd break it a few years later (with 69) while playing for the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association.
Down the final stretch, Phillies' opponents averaged more than 10 runs per game over a 12-game span, starting September 12th with a 17-4 Cubs romp highlighted by Hack Wilson's 5 hits (including his 45th home run). Prior to coming to Baker Bowl, the Cubs had scored only a single run in three straight losses to the Robins. They scored 39 in their four games in Philadelphia, but only managed a split of the series (including a thrilling 12-11 loss) and dropped out of first place for good.
The Pirates came into town next and won two of three, their only loss by the score of 15-14 in ten innings. This was yet another game described by The Sporting News10 as "wild and woolly." They seemed to be running out of ways to describe games in which the losing team scored in double-digits. The Phillies would drop 9 such contests over the course of the year.
The Phillies missed out on an opportunity to play spoiler when first-place St. Louis followed the Pirates into Baker Bowl. The Cardinals took 4 of 5 games, the final two by scores of 15-7 and 19-16. That last one was witnessed by Connie Mack and his Athletics, who were taking advantage of an off-day to scout their likely World Series opponent. According to The Sporting News11, they "left Baker Bowl somewhat confused as to whether they must play baseball or cricket in the World Series." The Cards scored more runs in that game than they would in all six games of the World Series.
Five days later, the season came to a merciful close in the Polo Grounds with the Giants taking a 7-6 10-inning affair.
Philadelphia's oppenents came within a single run (Del Bissonette's lost home run on Memorial Day) of scoring 1200 runs. Here what this team did by batting order position:
POS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SH HBP SB AVG OBP SLG 1 720 149 247 35 15 10 84 52 30 16 4 13 .343 .390 .475 2 688 181 239 46 9 16 97 72 28 18 2 6 .347 .411 .510 3 659 176 261 58 14 21 157 72 35 26 4 25 .396 .459 .622 4 625 162 244 56 17 24 172 89 40 29 3 9 .390 .469 .650 5 625 146 233 57 10 27 178 80 48 20 5 11 .373 .448 .626 6 628 113 222 50 5 13 137 56 30 31 4 13 .354 .410 .511 7 616 92 219 48 5 16 140 48 39 23 6 4 .356 .407 .528 8 611 101 169 26 4 10 88 44 42 14 5 4 .277 .330 .381 9 592 79 160 24 2 5 71 30 92 31 0 2 .270 .305 .343 TOT 5764 1199 1994 400 81 142 1124 543 384 208 33 87 .346 .405 .517
If this had been an actual team (and of course assuming all the regulars never left the lineup), the first three batters would have set modern records for at-bats, runs and hits, respectively. The fifth-place hitter's 178 RBIs would have set the modern major league record if Hack Wilson (aided by his 38 RBIs in 24 games against the Philly pitchers) hadn't knocked in 191 that season. They produced so many hits that the seventh-place hitter's 219 hits would have been bettered by six of his teammates. The lineup didn't feature a lot of home runs by modern standards, but their 140 home runs had been topped by only one other National League team (the 1929 Phillies) prior to that year. In addition to setting modern team records for runs, hits and batting average, this squad would have also owned the marks for most doubles and highest slugging percentage.
It's a little surprising that the eighth-place hitter, preceded by five batters averaging .374 and over 50 doubles, could've hit .277 and yet knocked in only 88 runs. By comparison, Sam Mele of the Senators had a very similar year in 1951 (.274 average, 153 hits and 5 home runs) and had 94 RBIs in the middle of a lineup that boasted one .300 hitter and a .263 team batting average.
Here's how they hit by defensive position:
POS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SH HBP SB AVG OBP SLG P 530 72 147 24 2 5 66 23 85 30 0 2 .277 .307 .358 C 618 104 196 41 4 19 134 37 37 18 7 2 .317 .363 .489 1B 639 140 239 46 11 20 157 59 38 35 4 11 .374 .430 .574 2B 654 125 215 42 9 8 94 55 23 24 4 12 .329 .384 .457 3B 655 153 246 48 6 12 134 77 36 23 2 14 .376 .443 .522 SS 607 107 200 43 7 12 109 57 34 22 2 4 .329 .389 .483 LF 654 159 230 54 19 19 132 77 50 15 5 16 .352 .424 .580 CF 662 147 236 39 9 19 109 63 38 23 4 8 .356 .416 .529 RF 656 177 267 62 14 28 174 82 32 15 5 18 .407 .476 .672 PH/PR 89 15 18 1 0 0 15 13 11 3 0 0 .202 .304 .213
The right-fielder's stats stand out the most and he would've set modern NL marks for most runs, hits and doubles, but all the regulars in the lineup except the pitcher would have hit over .300 and scored over 100 runs and all but one of them would have more than 40 doubles and 100 RBIs. I was a little surprised at how poorly the pinch-hitters did, with an OPS just slightly over .500 in 89 at-bats.
To get some idea of how much of this was caused by Baker Bowl, here's how the Phillies' opponents did there by batting order position:
POS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SH HBP SB AVG OBP SLG 1 371 77 134 30 3 5 50 28 16 2 4 5 .361 .412 .499 2 357 86 128 29 1 8 55 34 11 7 2 1 .359 .417 .513 3 336 99 138 37 1 12 81 38 17 11 3 12 .411 .475 .634 4 319 87 128 35 6 11 96 47 18 14 2 4 .401 .481 .652 5 331 71 122 33 2 12 92 33 26 9 3 3 .369 .431 .589 6 326 66 122 28 1 7 69 26 11 14 2 7 .374 .424 .531 7 310 52 120 27 2 11 75 26 12 14 3 2 .387 .440 .594 8 311 57 89 14 0 3 49 26 17 6 2 1 .286 .345 .360 9 300 49 81 13 1 3 39 14 48 22 0 1 .270 .303 .350 TOT 2961 644 1062 246 17 72 606 272 176 99 21 36 .359 .416 .526
So who were these guys? 44 players that year had 60 or more at-bats against the Phillies. Their median batting average and slugging percentage were .379 and .564. This including two with batting averages over .500 and 14 who hit better than .400. They were:
Name Team AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB AVG OBP SLG Babe Herman BRO N 91 28 47 10 1 8 38 9 .516 .564 .912 Freddie Lindstrom NY N 92 28 47 11 0 3 24 9 .511 .554 .728 Hack Wilson CHI N 98 36 47 8 1 9 38 20 .480 .568 .857 Johnny Frederick BRO N 98 37 46 10 1 4 18 10 .469 .519 .714 Mel Ott NY N 73 25 34 12 1 6 32 25 .466 .602 .904 Gus Mancuso STL N 65 16 30 9 0 2 26 5 .462 .507 .692 Dick Bartell PIT N 87 15 40 14 0 0 15 9 .460 .515 .621 Tony Cuccinello CIN N 68 14 31 6 2 1 19 12 .456 .538 .647 Jim Bottomley STL N 82 17 36 11 1 1 24 6 .439 .489 .634 George Watkins STL N 78 22 34 10 2 4 21 5 .436 .476 .769 Glenn Wright BRO N 76 19 33 10 1 5 30 7 .434 .482 .789 Bill Terry NY N 90 25 38 4 4 7 28 11 .422 .485 .789 Freddy Leach NY N 76 23 32 5 0 4 13 6 .421 .463 .645 Del Bissonette BRO N 91 21 37 9 2 5 27 6 .407 .443 .714
Here's how each team hit against the Phillies that season:
TEAM AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB AVG OBP SLG CHI N 930 218 326 47 9 29 201 105 .351 .418 .514 BRO N 823 196 309 66 7 27 186 75 .375 .433 .571 STL N 804 190 294 74 16 14 183 77 .366 .426 .550 PIT N 822 166 279 61 17 17 157 91 .339 .407 .517 NY N 829 176 298 52 11 30 165 71 .359 .411 .557 BOS N 779 128 249 50 12 8 113 50 .320 .366 .445 CIN N 777 125 239 50 9 17 119 74 .308 .369 .461
The 218 runs scored by the Cubs set a modern major league record for the most runs scored by one team against another in a season. At the time, Brooklyn's 196 and St. Louis' 190 were the second and third highest totals (they were since passed by the 207 runs scored by the 1931 Yankees against the White Sox and the 216 runs the 1950 Red Sox scored against the Browns). Every team scored at least 1.5 more runs a game (and hit at least thirty points higher) against the Philadelphia pitching staff than they did against the rest of the league.
Fourteen different pitchers took the mound for the Phillies in 1930. Here's a capsule summary of the worst pitching staff ever assembled:
Name Age W L G GS IP ER ERA Phil Collins 28 16 11 47 25 239 127 4.78 Ray Benge 28 11 15 38 29 225.2 143 5.70 Lee Sweetland 28 7 15 34 25 167 143 7.71 Claude Willoughby 31 4 17 41 24 153 129 7.59 Hap Collard 31 6 12 30 15 127 96 6.80 Hal Elliot 31 6 11 48 11 117.1 100 7.67 Snipe Hansen 23 0 7 22 9 84.1 63 6.72 Chet Nichols 32 1 2 16 5 59.2 45 6.79 Harry Smythe 25 0 3 25 3 49.2 43 7.79 Buz Phillips 26 0 0 14 1 43.2 39 8.04 Lou Koupal 31 0 4 13 4 36.2 35 8.59 John Milligan 26 1 2 9 2 28.1 10 3.18 Pete Alexander 43 0 3 9 3 21.2 22 9.14 By Speece 33 0 0 11 0 19.2 29 13.27
As bad as the starting pitching was (42-86 with a 6.15 ERA in 991.1 innings), the relief pitching was even worse. In 383.1 innings, the Phillies gave new meaning to the word relief by allowing 415 runs and 347 earned runs, for a 8.15 ERA.
This was not simply a bad pitching staff; it was one with very little promise of getting better. No pitcher under the age of 28 won more than a single game. With Alexander as the obvious exception, and he made only a brief appearance that year, none of these pitchers had done much prior to the season. Among the pitchers not named Pete, Claude Willoughby led the staff entering the season with 34 lifetime victories and only Phil Collins (10-7) had a winning record. Even their nicknames12 gave comfort to the enemy, led by Fidgety Phil Collins and Weeping Willie Willoughby, who was also known as Flunky.
Despite his nickname, Collins was clearly the ace of the staff. At one point in late July, he was 10-3 while the rest of his teammates were 21-53. Imagine what the season could have looked like if he didn't have the best year of his career in 1930.
1-9 as a starter, Hal Elliot finished 5-2 in relief, only 2 behind Jim Heving's league-leading 7 relief victories. This was quite an accomplishment for Hal in light of his relief ERA of 7.99. He should not be confused with Jumbo Elliot, who came to the Phillies during the off-season and ended 1931 tied for the NL lead in victories with 19. Jumbo weighed at least 65 pounds more than Hal and won as many games in half of the next season as Hal did in his entire career. Jumbo did follow Hal's example, however, and lead the league in games pitched in 1931, perhaps the only time two different teammates with the same last name have led the league in the same category in consecutive years.
Chet Nichols was a holdout in 1930, after getting drafted from Montreal of International League. He had previously pitched ineffectively in trials with the Pirates and Giants and fared little better once he finally showed up for work in Philadelphia. His son, born after the 1930 season, would become the youngest pitcher to lead a league in ERA when he posted a 2.88 ERA in 1951 at the age of 20. His final career ERA of 3.64 would be roughly half that of his father.
After the season, the Phillies made some moves to bolster their pitching staff, dumping Lee Sweetland and Claude Willoughby, while trading Lefty O'Doul and Fresco Thompson to Brooklyn for Elliot and Clise Dudley, outfielder Hal Lee and (as usual with Philly deals during the Baker era) a pile of cash.
In 1931, the Phillies would once again allow the most runs in the National League, but the total would be only 828, a drop of 271 runs from the previous year. Jumbo Elliot's good showing would be one factor, as would the best year of Ray Benge's career, but a larger one would be a drastic decline in scoring throughout the league. Something happening during the winter of 1930-1931. Whatever had been done (and, of course, no one was admitting anything) prior to 1929 to boost offenses had been undone by the time 1931 rolled around. After scoring a combined 11.4 runs a game in 1930, National League teams would see that total drop nearly 2.5 runs a game to 9.0 - the largest single-season scoring decline in modern history.
The Phillies wouldn't allow more than 900 runs in a season again. William Baker sold the team in 1931 and they moved out of Baker Bowl in the middle of the 1938 season. By the late forties, they would start to assemble a strong pitching staff, and in 1950, led by Robin Roberts, Jim Konstanty and Curt Simmons, would allow the fewest runs in the league for the first time since 1915's pennant winners. They would also reach the World Series, losing in 4 games to the Yankees a little less than a month before Pete Alexander, whose trade precipitated their long decline, would die in St. Paul, Nebraska, at the age of 63.
Retrosheet has box scores for every game played in the National League in 1930. This information was used extensively in this article and would not exist without the work of several volunteers, including Dave Lamoureaux, Wade Coble, Ron Carron, Jack Myers, Tom Bradley, Joe Murphy and Steve Vetere.
1 Edward Burns, "Introducing Baker Bowl and That Short Right Field Fence", Chicago Daily Tribune, June 13, 1938, page A2. The earlier quote also came from this article, which was part of a series designed to persuade Cubs and White Sox fans to appreciate their home parks.
2 James C. Isaminger, "A's Break Camp at Fort Myers; Six of Mack's Rookies Make Good", The Sporting News, April 3, 1930, page 1.
3 James C. Isaminger, "It'll Be Long Time Before Philly Fans Forget Al Simmons' Debut", The Sporting News, April 24, 1930, page 1.
4 James C. Isaminger, "Champion A's Run True to Form in A.L.", The Sporting News, May 15, 1930, page 1.
5 James C. Isaminger, "A's Regain Winning Ways of Balmy Days", The Sporting News, June 5, 1930, page 1.
6 The Sporting News, June 19, 1930, page 7.
7 James C. Isaminger, "When A's Speed Up, Rivals Step on Gas", The Sporting News, July 10, 1930, page 1.
8 James C. Isaminger, "Macks Say It with Big Innings, As They Did in World Series", The Sporting News, July 24, 1930, page 1.
9 The Sporting News, July 10, 1930, July 17, 1930, July 24, 1930 and July 31, 1930, all page 7.
10 The Sporting News, September 25, 1930, page 7.