Philadelphia Baseball History

It’s a trade that most likely would not have happened in the era of free agency. There were two pitchers, both in the mid-twenties, both of whom had relatively good success with their respective teams. And both thought they deserved a substantial raise.  But these were the days of the dreaded reserve clause; that contractual device slipped into every players’ contract that bound the player to the last team he played for in perpetuity.  The reserve clause, interestingly, was not always met with derision by the players. In the very early days of professional baseball, it was only inserted in the contracts of the very best players. If your contract had a reserve clause, that meant your team valued your play, which was a compliment.  But as the reserve clause was extended to cover all professional baseball players’ contracts, the real world effects became obvious. The owners had all the leverage when it came to salary. Whether a player would get a raise depended...

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Rick Wise faced the Reds’ right fielder for the final out.   Up until this point, the only blemish on Wise’s performance had been a sixth inning walk to shortstop Dave Concepcion.   In order to preserve the no-hitter, and make history, Wise would have to retire one of the most dangerous hitters, and indeed, the eventual Major League hit king, Pete Rose. The Phillies led 4-0.   Three of those runs were driven in by Wise himself, with a two run home run in the fifth and a solo shot in the eighth. But now Wise bore down on Rose.   With a full count, Rose hit a line shot, right at third baseman John Vukovich.   The date was June 23, 1971.   It would be another nineteen years before another Phillies pitcher would throw a no-hitter. Despite an All-Star season, where Wise won seventeen games and posted a 2.88 ERA, he would not return to a Phillies uniform in 1972.   Instead, Rick Wise would forever be k...