The Whiz Kids And the 1950 Pennant

Baseball in America

by Robin Roberts, C. Paul Rogers III, Pat Williams (Foreword)

The 1950 Phillies unexpectedly captured the hearts and imaginations of Philadelphians. A young upstart team—in fact, the youngest major league baseball team ever fielded—they capped a Cinderella season by winning the pennant from the heavily favored Brooklyn Dodgers in Ebbets Field on the last day of the season. It was the first National League pennant for the team since 1915. With that dramatic victory the 1950 Phillies went into the history books, known forever as the Whiz Kids. This inspiring era in Phillies history comes alive with the personal reflections of Robin Roberts, a Hall of Famer and arguably the best right-handed pitcher in Phillies history. Roberts recounts the moves, the trades, and the developments that put this young and talented team together. Co-author C. Paul Rogers III interviewed many of the other players from that memorable season, and even manager Eddie Sawyer. Their recollections, accompanied by more than 80 black-and-white photographs, offer an uncommon look at what went into building the extraordinary Whiz Kids. Rich with anecdotes never before published from players like Hall-of-Famer Richie Ashburn, Bubba Church, Andy Seminick, Curt Simmons, Del Ennis, Dick Sisler, Russ Meyer, and many others, this book relives the success of the Whiz Kids in all their glory.

Genres: Baseball, Nonfiction

390 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 1996

Reviews

[Harold Kasselman]

Robin Roberts did a fine job reconstructing the precursor to the Whiz Kids stunning 1950 pennant winning Phillies team and the aftermath. I'm always awestruck by the ability of major league players to remember details of games decades earlier. In Robie's case, he has a virtual photographic memory of game situations. He wrote the book in 1996 over four decades after the near miraculous season. I enjoyed the short segments of interviews with his teammates throughout the book from Andy Seminick, Curt Simmons, Richie AshburnRuss Mad Monk Meyer, Bubba Church, Bob Miller, Mike Goliat, Del Ennis, Dick Sisler, and even short term guys like Johnny Blatnick and Dick Whitman. Granny Hamner died while waiting to be interviewed and Eddie Waitkus had passed twenty years before. Robie falls short when it comes to the World Series. It seemed like he had written too many pages, so we get very little insight into the series or the personality of the Yankee opponents. But the march to the pennant was exciting especially since I had not known that the Phillies had been 7 and a half games up in the standings with only eleven to play and the wondrous season came down to the last day of the season in Ebbets Field against the Dodgers with Roberts against Newcombe for what seemed like an every day occurrence. Of course the famous throw by Ashburn to nail Cal Abrams at the plate in what would have been the winning run and a pennant for Brooklyn and the clutch home run by Dick Sisler is still magical. I loved the insight into manager Eddie Sawyer as portrayed by all the members of the team. Once a Cornell Professor, he let the players play the game and encouraged them rather than micro manage the team. Sadly the high hopes for the Whiz Kids faded with the loss of Simmons and some veterans after 1950 and as Ashburn said, the failure of owner Bob Carpenter to obtain black players may have been the worst mistake for the teams chances. Roy Campanella wanted to play for the Phillies, but Carpenter was not interested, and he paid the price:the Phillies never won again with those youngsters and a few key veteran players. One other fact I found particularly interesting. When Robie was inducted into the Hall of Fame his plaque did not mention the Whiz Kids. He was very upset and launched a one man campaign to have the museum change the plaque to reflect the team that Roberts was so proud to have been a member. Overall, this is a fine piece of history. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I had recently read Robin's autobiography in which he replicates in full many chapters that are in this book so it was a rehash for me.

[Joe Santoro]

While the actual writing is not the best in this book (much of it is simply quotes arranged around anecdotes by Roberts), the story of the team (and the lead up to the season), is fantastic.. it gives you a real insight into the team and the characters that made it up... more than 1/2 the book is devoted to mini-biographies of the various players on the roster and the building of the team.

The story of the actual season is a very good account, it's clear Robin Roberts has an amazing memory, with the details provided.

Now just to resist the temptation to stick with what I have and not go buy the 1950 APBA season....

[Robert Morrow]

I usually avoid the athlete-as-author sub genre, as the books are usually full of self-serving fluff (Bob Gibson's Stranger to the Game being a notable exception). However, I really wanted to read a book about The Whiz Kids and this was my only option. Lucky for me, it turned out to be a near five-star read, with Roberts combining with C. Paul Rogers III to produce a well-written narrative about the formation of this unusual team and the story of their 1950 pennant chase. Balancing you-were-there observations with continuing story lines and background, they manage to relate the story of the 1950 season without boring the reader with an endless parade of game summaries. This is a great story about a fabulous pennant race that makes you realize how much we've lost through a ridiculous playoff system with too many teams with no loyalty to community.

[Scott Breslove]

Interesting due to the baseball history but Phillies…eww. Haha. I mean, it was ok, I didn’t know much about the Whiz Kids, but they don’t seem thaaaat relevant. They were a bad team before they took the pennant in 1950, they lost the World Series and were a bad team after again. I mean, I guess anyone and everyone can get a book, and this one wasn’t the worst I’ve ever read, but it stays on the shelf due to being signed by a hall of famer (the real reason it’s in the collection and why I picked it up in the first place).

[Matt]

Robin Roberts is one of my favorite pitchers from times past, but here we also get to know teammates like Jim Konstanty, Putsy Caballero, Dick Sisler, and the whole 1950 Whiz Kids right down to the last man. It is a straightforward and steady read, just like the kind of pitcher Roberts was.

[Ian]

Cannot watch new baseball? Read about old baseball!

[Aristotle Blasi]

I had wanted to read this book for a while now but never got around to doing it until now. First off, I just want to say I think it's incredible how Robin Roberts can remember events that happened decades ago in great detail. This provided me with in depth detail of what it was like for him to play baseball in his time and allowed me to become engrossed in the many interesting stories he shared, especially the journey of the Phillies to the 1950 Pennant.

The book shows a few of the ups and many of the downs the team and management of the Phillies had to contend with over many decades to get to the position they needed to be in for that miracle run in 1950. However, one scene in particular that stuck with me from this book was the shooting of Eddie Waitkus. To make a long story short, an overzealous fan of Eddie shot and almost killed him in what has become known as one of the earliest cases of fan stalking. The events leading up to it and afterwards are very tragic and should be a life lesson for anyone who knows the whole story.

Anyway, I thought it was cool how the staff, players, and managers had some of their viewpoints and commentary sprinkled throughout the book as it showed how they felt during certain events while giving the reader a personal connection to the Whiz Kids and what they went through. However, most of the games described blended together and almost bored me from reading the rest of the book. (Mind you I had started out reading the first three chapter of the book but had to set it aside due to the slow narrative which was a downer for me.) Don't get me wrong a few of the games were pretty exciting to read about but compared to the not so well known games, they were too few and far between.

Overall, I would recommend this to sports readers, especially those who like reading about baseball. Also, if you're a Pennsylvanian like me, you get to enjoy the legacy of the Whiz Kids that can never be taken away from us and will live on in history!

[Andrew Fletcher]

I thought the author did a masterful job of telling the tale of his team, the 1950 Philidelphia Phillies, and their magical quest for the National League pennant. This story was a different baseball story than I was used to because of the era it was written about and the era the authors paid the most attention to the game. This story shows how much the game has been corrupted over the years and how the playoffs have been ruined. Never again will we have a story like the 1950 Phillies. I have a new appreciation of our National Pastime, and the memories it creates. I learned lots and enjoyed lots while reading this book. It is a must read for baseball fans.

[Jim]

I recently met Robin Roberts, a fine gentleman indeed and charter member of the legendary 1950 Phillies. He gave me the book. It's a real insider's look at baseball when it truly was our national pastime.