Philadelphia Baseball History

It's a shame that nothing like YouTube was around in the 1970s.  Because if it were, I'm sure that the play I want to discuss would have gone viral.  It was that unusual, and it was that entertaining.  It happened on July 4, 1976, when I was about two weeks shy of my fifth birthday.  So I don't have any independent memory of it.  But, it gave my father and my grandfather such a kick, that they talked about it for years afterward.  And that is Tim McCarver's grand slam that wasn't. Most young baseball fans know Tim McCarver as a broadcaster.  He only retired seven years ago.  But before his TV career, McCarver was a fan favorite among the Phillies faithful.  In fact, he was the player who introduced the world to the Phillie Phanatic in 1978, on the popular local kids' TV show on Channel Six, Captain Noah and His Magical Ark. McCarver had two stints with the Phillies.  The Phillies first acquired McCarver in 1970 from the Cardinals....

Much of what has hurt Dick Allen in reaching the Hall of Fame has been his reputation in the press of creating racial divisions on the teams for which he played. This is a reputation that has been perpetuated unfairly. To the contrary, Allen has been caught in a world where American society in general, and baseball in particular, has had to come to grips with racial discrimination. While white America preferred to sweep the problem of racial discrimination under the rug, players such as Allen were outspoken, refusing to let the issue be covered up. It is his outspokenness, when many Americans preferred to turn a blind eye to societal ills, that handicapped Allen’s chances of being inducted into the Hall, and which to this day haunts his candidacy.  Some have called Allen Philadelphia’s Jackie Robinson. And rightly so. Allen’s career was marred by racial discrimination by fans in Philadelphia. His endurance of this mistreatment, while acting as one of the greatest power hitte...