Phillies 1980!: Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Pete Rose, and Philadelphia's First World Series Championship

by Lew Freedman

How the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies Won the First World Series Championship in Franchise History The road was rocky and the suspense intense as a make-or-break 1980 baseball season unfolded for the Philadelphia Phillies under a new, often-unpopular manager who sought to shape a collection of All-Star talent into champions.   In the end, Dallas Green’s gruffness, Pete Rose’s clubhouse leadership, Mike Schmidt’s Most Valuable Player performance, Steve Carlton’s almost unbeatable pitching, Tug McGraw’s irrepressible personality—plus contributions from young, unheralded players and savvy veterans—led the club to the franchise’s first World Series in history.   Although the Phillies had risen to prominence and relevance in the late 1970s, they could not get past the National League Championship Series. Management was tempted to blow up the team. Wooing Rose as a free agent to add spirit, as well as a clutch bat, and the promotion of the reluctant Green from the farm system in place of well-liked Danny Ozark, helped change the dynamics of the team.   The risky strategy led to some internal discord and relentless challenges from Green, but after months of seeming slow to emerge as a team prepared to grab a championship, the Phillies clutch ballplaying through the end of September to qualify for the playoffs, and then played inspired baseball when most needed in October.   Some forty years later, that Phillies group is especially prized for the breakthrough in a near-century-long wait for a title for a club that began play in 1883. Only once since then have the Phillies claimed another crown.   The mix of superstars, with the major influence of such players as Bob Boone, Larry Bowa, Greg Luzinski, Lonnie Smith, Manny Trillo, Garry Maddox, and Bake McBride helped take the Phillies on a months-long-ride, culminating in the glory they and their fans both hungered for for so long.  

Genres: Baseball, Sports

307 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 2, 2020

Reviews

[Brad B · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've worked with journalists my entire career, and because I witness how much work they have to do to verify facts before they're published, I hold them in high regard. But I also hold them to higher standards. In fact, I prefer to read nonfiction books when they're written by journalists (especially print journalists), because I know they will contain information I can trust.
And that's why I was greatly surprised that Lew Freedman, a much-decorated journalist and author of over 100 books, would make so many critical errors in his recounting of the 1980 Phillies championship season.
In the center spread of photographs, he misidentifies Garry Maddox and Bake McBride, mixing them up in multiple photos. This is annoying enough, but there is an iconic moment after the Phillies clinched the National League crown where they carry Garry Maddox off the field. It's a beautiful moment in Phillies history, because in a prior year Garry Maddox dropped a critical fly ball that cost them their chance at the World Series. When he caught the final out in the series against Houston, his teammates recognized it and gave him that redemptive celebration. That's one of the photos where he is identified as Bake McBride being carried off the field by teammates after catching the final out in the NCLS. Sad.
He botches another iconic moment from the World Series. Phillies pitcher Dickie Noles throws a brush-back pitch at Royals MVP George Brett. Every Phillies fan is aware of this moment, and it is credited with a change in momentum in the Series. How the author can identify the batter incorrectly as Willie Akins is stunning to me.
The errors aren't limited to mistaken identities, either. The author remarks multiple times how the Phillies won three in-a-row in Houston during the National League championship series This is such an obvious mistake, I can't believe it made it past even a minimal editing process. The Phillies won one game in Philadelphia and two games in Houston.
I also noticed that in a blurb about the Phillies next world championship in 2008, he says the best starting pitcher on that team was Jamie Moyer. This was obviously done making a cursory look at numbers on a piece of paper, because although Moyer had one more win than anyone else on the staff, Cole Hamels was far and away the team's best pitcher. Again, I question the depth of the research, which really disappoints me from a journalist.
As a long time fan, I love reading books about my favorite teams to pick up additional nuggets that I never knew, but based on the mistakes in the information I DID know, I can't be sure any of the new information is really correct.
I corrected the information in the margins and donated this book to a thrift store, so I know at least one of the reader will have the obvious mistakes corrected.
(This review is based on a hardcover edition of the book published in 2020. Maybe future additions have been corrected???)

[David Bowers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reliving the Phillies First World Series Championship

This book brought back a lot of memories to this life long baseball fan. Schmidt, Carlton, Rose, Ruthven who went to Fresno State. Gruff Dallas Greene. The Manager. What a fun team to watch play.
I

[Jeff Jezewski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some cool stories. Good history for a Phillies fan who wasn’t alive during it. Not the most exciting writing style. Some weird factual/grammatical errors as well.

[Sam Spade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was 22 years old when my beloved Phillies won their first World Series. The franchise had only been to 2 other Series and lost both. They have been in existence for 98 years when finally they beat the Kansas City Royal to break through. Led by the great Mike Schmidt ( the best 3rd baseman in history), Steve Carlton, Pete Rose, Tug McGraw the Phillies were pushed to the highest level by their boisterous manager Dallas Green.

The parade was attended by over 1 million people. It was such a great moment for me in my fandom.

I will always remember where I was when the Phillies won it all.
Stretched out on my mom's living room floor watching.

[Steve · Rating 1 out of 5]

Won’t even bother with this book if they get the subtitle so wrong. If the subtitle is that blatantly wrong, the rest of the book is pointless to read.
1980 was the Phillies’ first World Series championship, not Philadelphia’s.
And for anyone saying “oh that’s just semantics”- what other semantics are wrong in the book?
If you don’t know that Philadelphia had 5 World Series championships before the Phillies finally won, there are other better and more informative books you need to read

[Chris Haak · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was only five years old when the Phillies won the World Series in 1980, so too young to remember any of it. Some of the great personnel of that era - Green, Owens, Bowa, Schmidt, Rose, Carlton, McGraw - remained local legends and even played through the mid/late 1980s when I started paying attention to baseball. It was fun to dive deeper into that first championship team.