Childhood Memories

                                                                                               By Christopher Kiel

                                                                                                      

We all had our favorite players when we were growing up.  As a lifelong Phillies fan most of my favorite players were Phillies.  So what I thought I would do is share with you some of my childhood heroes.  The players I chose weren’t necessarily the stars of their teams.  In fact for most of my childhood the Phillies were pretty bad (we were the first franchise with 10,000 losses) but I loved them anyway.

You’ll notice I left off some of the obvious choices like Schmidt, Carlton, Kruk, Dykstra, and Daulton.  I wanted to pick some of the players you may have forgotten about. So what follows is a list of just some of those players I loved.  They are listed in chronological order.

Von Hayes- Von Hayes was known as “Mr. Five for one” because the Phillies traded 5 players to the Indians for him. One of the players the Phillies traded was Julio Franco who turned out to have pretty successful career.  Because of this trade Hayes had a lot of expectations that he couldn’t quite live up to.  He wasn’t the first Phillie who had this problem and he certainly wasn’t the last. Pat Burrell I’m looking in your direction. As a kid I didn’t know anything about expectations, all I knew was our best player. Granted when you played for the Phillies in the 80’s that was like saying you were the skinniest kid at fat camp but I still loved him.

Steve Jeltz- I’m going to say this bluntly- Steve Jeltz was a terrible player. He hit .210 in 2,000 career AB’s with 5 homers. The man couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat. Looking back I’m not sure why I liked him, maybe because he was so bad you couldn’t help but like the guy. 

Dickie Thon- I’m not going to lie to you one of the main reasons I liked him was because his name was Dickie. I’m giggling right now as I type this. Early in his career he had a lot of expectations to be a superstar however, he was hit in the face with a fastball in 1984. He was hampered by depth perception problems the rest of his career. On a side note does anybody remember that old SNL skit “Mr No Depth Perception”?.

Jaun Samuel- Samuel actually had a really good career for the Phillies. He finished second in The Rookie of the Year voting in 1984. He won The Sporting News Rookie of the Year award though. In his 5 seasons with the Phils he stole 235 bases, and went to 2 All Star games. Samuel has recently returned to the team as a coach. I just have to say this though with all those stolen bases why is he going to be out 3^rd base coach? Just sayin…….

Ricky Jordan-  I’ll always remember Harry saying “Riiiickyyyy Joooordan” with that drawl of his. Jordan also had that great batting stance with the bat high above his head.  Jordan played 7 seasons with the Phils and had a pretty good career mostly as a platoon player. He was also part of that 93 World Series team. 

Micky Morandini- Here’s another player who I used to love hearing Harry say his name. “Miiiiiiicky Morandini”  Morandini wasn’t the most naturally talented player but he was a “dirtball”. Which in Philadelphia automatically means you’re loved!! This scrappy 2^nd baseman did play in one All Star game and went to the World Series in 93.

            I actually have a few more players I’d like to mention but I realize this is getting long and you’re probably tired of hearing me talk. Maybe I’ll do a part 2. I’d love for you to leave some comments and let me know who your favorite players were.