RIP Tony Phillips

Very underrated player. If he played today with the short benches and his high OBP, he'd get paid like Ben Zobrist:

On-base machine and super-utility man Tony Phillips dies at age 56

Heart attack. RIP.

 

I once played an entire Little League season using Tony Phillips' batting stance. I loved it so much.

Worked much better than that season I tried to bat like Mickey Tettleton.

 

This sentence jumped out:

He got on base more times (3,384) than 75 different Hall of Fame hitters, including big names like Joe DiMaggio, Willie Stargell, Duke Snider, Jim Rice, Orlando Cepeda, and Johnny Bench.

That he stuck around for 18 seasons is another good demonstration of his value.

RIP

 

Very good player. RIp

 

Isn't he the drug user who was found in a seedy Anaheim motel one year, and helped derail an Angels playoff push?

 

Yes. They suspended him after he refused to go to rehab.

 

He said, "no, no, no?"

 

Didn't realize he had played for the A's so long. I always thought of him as a Tiger. Never an All-Star? I always thought he was an elite player.

 

Guys who walked a ton but didn't hit for high average were regarded as aliens in those days. He also never stole a ton of bases.

 

I always thought getting a walk or was sometimes worth more than a hit if you are frustrating or wearing down the picther.

 

Yes, in 1997. I don't know if they would have overcome the Mariners that year for the division title even if that hadn't happened, but it sure didn't help.

It was a shame, though. He was a really good player for the Angels in his two stints in Anaheim.

 

Three standout A's from the '89 World Series champs all dying early in the last couple of years (Welch, Hendu and now Philips). Phillips was always one of my favorite players.