Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts died Thursday morning at the age of 83, according to the Philadelphia Phillies. His cause of death was not immediately known.
Roberts spent 15 years with the Phillies, including as a member of the famed 1950 Whiz Kids. He also spent time with the Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs, compiling a 286-245 record with a 3.41 ERA for his career.
He pitched in a time when endurance was the norm. Over the course of 609 career starts, Roberts threw over 300 innings in six straight seasons. He acrued a total of 305 complete games, including a stretch of 28 in a row.
During the 1950 season, Roberts, a 20-game winner, started three of the Phillies’ final five games, including their Pennant clinching victory over the Brooklyen Dodgers. It was the Phillies’ first Pennant in 35 years and the first time a Phillies pitcher had won 20 games in a …
In a surprising move, the Philadelphia Phillies announced Monday that they have signed first baseman Ryan Howard to a five-year extension worth $125 million. The deal reportedly contains a club option for a sixth year, which would increase the contract’s worth to $138 million.
The five-year extension will pay Howard $20 million in each of the 2012 and 2013 seasons and $25 million per year from 2014-16. The club option is worth $23 million with a $10 million buyout. The deal also reportedly contains a limited no-trade clause.
Howard is currently making $19 million a season after he agreed to a contract renegtotiation in 2008. That deal was worth $54 million over the final three years of his contract. At the time, the expectation was that those would be the final three years Howard would be a member of the Phillies.
Here are some amazing statistics, courtesy of David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily …
So former MVP shortstop Jimmy Rollins could miss up to four weeks on the disabled list. Who cares?
“Jimmy is a tremendous player, but that’s part of what you go through,” said manager Charlie Manuel. “You’ve got to make the best out of it you possibly can.”
In their first official game without Rollins, who is having the best start of his career, the Phillies walloped the visiting Washington Nationals in a purely offensive game by a score of 14-7. The score at the end of the third inning was 7-7, over an hour and a half after the game started.
Rollins’ replacement at the leadoff spot, centerfielder Shane Victorino, went 4-for-5 with a homerun, five RBIs and three runs scored. The five RBIs were a career high for Victorino, and in one night he raised his batting average from .161 to .250.
Second baseman Chase Utley went 2-for-4 with two homeruns, four RBIs and a walk. Ryan Howard added two RBIs of his own.
The Phillies, who …
According to a report by Philadelphia Daily News reporter David Murphy, Philadelphia Phillies’ manager Charlie Manuel announced on a Sirius XM satellite radio show Wednesday morning that shortstop Jimmy Rollins suffered what Manuel is calling “between a Grade 2 and 1″ calf injury that will sideline him for the forseeable future. That was confirmed in a press release Wednesday afternoon by general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr.
Rollins underwent an MRI on Tuesday after suffering the injury during pregame warmups before the Phillies’ home opener on Monday. Amaro announced that they were placing Rollins on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to April 13.
“We believe it to be a mild to moderate strain and we’re hopeful it will be a two-to-four week recovery,” said Amaro. “As in all of our injuries, precautions will be taken so that Jimmy is 100% when he returns to the field.”
The news comes as a blow to the Phillies, who, …
Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins was scratched from Monday’s home opener after he suffered what appeared to be a calf strain during warmups. He was replaced by Juan Castro at short.
According to Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com, Rollins suffered was is being called a “a Grade 2 strain of his right calf muscle – an injury that usually requires a trip to the disabled list – while completing a final few wind sprints before the first pitch.”
Rollins was not available for comment after the Phillies’ 7-4 victory over the Washington Nationals, but according to those who saw him the leave the stadium, he was not moving well.
“Personally, from my experience, it’s not fun,” said centerfielder Shane Victorino said. “It’s a frustrating thing, especially for a guy who runs, who needs his legs, who needs his speed. Hopefully, it’s not as bad as mine.”
Rollins could be placed on the disabled list and miss up to 2-4 weeks. He is scheduled to undergo an MRI …
Phillies’ shortstop Jimmy Rollins has once again stirred the pot of controversy, this time by questioning his own front office.
While on Dan Patrick’s Radio Show, Rollins reignited the debate of why the Phillies couldn’t keep Cliff Lee when they traded for Roy Halladay.
“I have no idea. I’m sure we could afford him. We turned nearly 4 million people through the turnstiles last year. I don’t know. You should have (Phillies GM) Ruben (Amaro) on here… When the trade happened, I actually got a text from Jayson Werth and he was like, ‘What are we doing?’ And I was like, ‘Didn’t we get Halladay?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, but we traded Lee.’ And my mouth dropped like, ‘That wasn’t part of the deal.’
“I really don’t know. I thought we had enough to keep him. I thought we could have done enough to keep him. I guess that’s just a move the Yankees do… That’s just the truth. …
The results are in.
In one of the most hotly contested, uh, contests in Philly history, the winner of the Phillies’ Signature Hot Dog competition has been announced.
The winning dog is the South Philly Hot Dog, which is an all-beef wiener topped with spicy roasted red peppers, sharp provolone and broccoli rabe.
Fans voted for their top dog at phillies.com and at Citizen’s Bank Park during the two exhibition games leading up to the start of the season. Voting ended on Sunday.
The runner up was the Summer Hot Dog, an all-beef dog, topped with cucumbers, pickled onion salsa and rancho pepper sauce on a pretzel roll. The Olde Philadelphia Dog, which is topped with Amish pepper hash, dill pickle and yellow mustard on a poppy seed roll, came in third.
The South Philly Hot Dog will be served all around Citizen’s Bank Park for $5.75 starting on April 12, the Phillies home opener.
The Phillies claimed right hander Nelson Figueroa off of waivers Wednesday. He is expected to join the big league club.
Figueroa spent the Spring with the New York Mets, but failed to make the 25-man roster after allowing seven runs in one inning against the Florida Marlins on March 26. He made 16 appearances (10 starts) for the Mets in 2009, going 3-8 with a 4.09 ERA.
The Phillies are in need of pitching depth with Joe Blanton, J.C. Romero and Brad Lidge on the disabled list. Figueroa is 13-28 with a 4.54 ERA over his seven year career, including one with the Phillies in 2001.
It was one year ago today that Harry Kalas, The Voice of the Philadelphia Phillies, collapsed in the broadcasting booth of Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., and died at the age of 73. Kalas will be forever be remembered for his majestic voice and historic calls, as well as a man who never forgot how lucky he was. Frank Fitzpatrick of the Philadelphia Inquirer has a stirring article in today’s paper of Kalas’ final moments.
There will no doubt be many tributes and remembrances written about HK today, so rather than doing the same, I have posted a couple stories I wrote last year.
We miss you Harry.
Harry Kalas, the Hall of Fame voice of the Phillies, dead at age 73
By Jonathan Atwood on April 13th, 2009 1:22 PM
Harry Kalas, the Hall of Fame voice of the Philadelphia Phillies, has died. He was …
This is a column I did for digitalsportsdaily.com about the recent tiff between Mark Attanasio, the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, and Randy Levine, the President of the New York Yankees. I thought it was a topic piece for the Phillies, as they have gone from being a team that can’t compete financially to a team with the fourth largest payroll in the major leagues.
It’s baseball’s version of the boy who cried wolf.
Small market team complains that they cannot compete with big market team (usually the New York Yankees) when trying to sign the better free agents, or keep their own star players. It happens every year. It stopped being interesting or newsworthy a long time ago.
Until the big bad wolf decided to finally speak up and say, enough is enough.
That is what Yankees’ President Randy Levine did in response to comments made by Milwaukee Brewers’ owner Mark Attanasio on Monday in a USA Today story. Attanasio said, “We’re struggling to sign (Prince Fielder) …
I still find the current sports culture in Philadelphia surreal. I still find it hard to believe that the two of the biggest sports stories yesterday, including the biggest story (the news that the Eagles had traded Chris Gocong, Sheldon Brown and some other guy), included Philly sports teams.
I still can’t believe that not only did the Phillies win the World Series in 2008, but they got back there in 2009, and are a favorite to make it back for a third straight time in 2010.
I still have trouble believing that not only do the best players in baseball, including the best pitcher of the past decade, want to play for the Phillies and that they now have the luxury of casting off recent Cy-Young award winners like so much yesterday’s news.
Before yesterday, the Phillies have won their season opener just three times since 2000. They have had a winning record in their first ten games of the season just once since 2000, when they …
After meeting with Phillies’ team physician Michael Ciccotti, it was determined that starting pitcher Joe Blanton will be placed on the 15-day disabled list to the start the season. Blanton suffered a mild oblique strain during a bullpen session on Wednesday that will need between three to six weeks to heal, Ciccotti said.
This will be the first time in his six-year career Blanton will need to go on the disabled list.
The news comes on the heels of a report on Wednesday that closer Brad Lidge received a cortisone shot in his right elbow on Tuesday, further setting back his recovery from two off-season surgeries. Lidge is also expected to start the season on the DL.
The injury to Blanton means that Kyle Kendrick will start the season in the rotation. Kendrick spent the Spring battling Jamie Moyer for the fifth spot in the starting rotation, and despite pitching some of the best baseball of his career (he allowed just four earned runs in 21.2 …
