RIP Tony Phillips

[Steak Snabler]

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.

 

[Brian]

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.

 

[cranberry]

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

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Very good player. RIp

 

[poindexter]

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

 

[Steak Snabler]

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.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

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

He said, "no, no, no?"

 

[Ace]

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.

 

[Steak Snabler]

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.

 

[Ace]

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.

 

[mpcincal]

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

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.

 

[DanOregon]

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.

 

[exmediahack]

If I'm Walt Weiss, Stan Javier or Carney Lansford, I'm taking it easy for a while.

 

[Steak Snabler]

If I'm Walt Weiss, Stan Javier or Carney Lansford, I'm taking it easy for a while.

Managing the Rockies could certainly drive him to an early grave.

 

[spikechiquet]

First MLB game I went to was Tigers at Brewers in Aug. 1993. Phillips was walking by me before the game and I asked for an autograph. He spit on the ground, laughed and mumbled something like "**** that...".
I was 16.
RIP, but damn that stung.

 

[exmediahack]

First MLB game I went to was Tigers at Brewers in Aug. 1993. Phillips was walking by me before the game and I asked for an autograph. He spit on the ground, laughed and mumbled something like "**** that...".
I was 16.
RIP, but damn that stung.

Whoa. I may have been at that game as an 18 year old kid. Left center $4 bleachers and jammin with Freeway thanks to my two free sodas for being a designated driver.

 

[spikechiquet]

I think it was an afternoon game. Then we went and watched "A League of Their Own" at cheap theater that played second-run movies later that night.

 

[Guy_Incognito]

A friend of mine wrote: " rip to the guy who was in every pack of baseball cards I ever bought.
I knew exactly what he meant.