Eddie Sawyer
October 4, 1950: With his ace Robin Roberts exhausted and on just 2 days' rest, his Number 2 starter Curt Simmons having been drafted into the Korean War, rookie Bob Miller on 3 days' rest and struggling with a shoulder injury, and veterans Ken Heintzleman and Russ Meyer rookie Bubba Church fully-rested but struggling all season, Philadelphia Phillies manager Eddie Sawyer rolls the dice, and starts Jim Konstanty in Game 1 of the World Series against the New York Yankees, at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.
Sawyer, himself only 40 years old, had become the Phils' manager midway through the 1948 season, and had managed some of the current players in the minor leagues. He trusted the young players who had given the team the nickname "The Whiz Kids," boosting their confidence. He had classed them up by upgrading their uniforms, asking the sporting-goods company he worked for in the off-season to give them red versions of the Yankees' Pinstripes. And he had gambled all season long, including on Konstanty. It worked, as they beat the Brooklyn Dodgers on the last day of the regular season to win the team's 1st Pennant in 35 years, the 1st for any Philadelphia team in 19 years.
Konstanty had made 74 pitching appearances that season, a new major league record. All of them were in relief. He had been a starter in his 1st major league season, with the Cincinnati Reds in 1944. Since then, however, he had started exactly once.
Sawyer tells the press that starting Konstanty is not quite the gamble that it seems, because he had pitched long relief during the season, including one game where he went 9 innings. The 33-year-old native of Western New York had mastered an off-speed pitch he called a "palm ball," going 16-7 with 22 saves, a 2.66 ERA, and a 1.039 WHIP. (It should be noted that saves was not an official statistic until the 1969 season, and "WHIP" -- Wins plus Hits, divided by Innings Pitched -- was not created until 1979.)
Konstanty was named to the All-Star Game in 1950, and, had people understood relief pitching better, he probably would have been named one the year before, too. He was about to become the 1st relief pitcher ever to be named either League's Most Valuable Player. Had there been a Cy Young Award at the time, he probably would have won that, too.
The gamble nearly paid off: Konstanty was fantastic, pitching 8 innings, allowing only 1 run, in the top of the 4th, on a double by Bobby Brown and 2 sacrifice flies, on 4 hits and 4 walks. But Vic Raschi of the Yankees was even better, tossing a shutout with 2 hits and 1 walk, and the Yankees won, 1-0.
The next day, Sawyer started Roberts on 3 days' rest, and he, too, was magnificent in defeat. The Phils lost the 1st 3 games of the Series, all by 1 run, before the Yankees completed the sweep with a 5-2 win. For the Series, in 37 innings, the Phillies allowed only 11 runs, but the Yankees allowed only 5. The pitching looks even better when you look at earned runs: The Phils allowed 9, the Yanks only 3. The Phils' team batting average for the 4 games was just .203, while the Yanks' was not much better, .222.
Konstanty had a rough season in 1951, but was good again in '52 and '53. In 1954, he struggled, and the Phillies waived him. The Yankees picked him up, and he helped them win the Pennant in 1955. He retired after spending the 1957 season in the Pacific Coast League. He ran a sporting-goods store in Oneonta, New York, and was pitching coach and athletic director at nearby Hartwick College. He was only 59 years old when he died in 1976.
Sawyer was fired as Phillies manager in mid-1952, but was brought back in mid-1958. After losing on Opening Day in 1960, he resigned, saying, "I'm 49 years old, and I want to live to be 50." He remained in baseball as a scout, and lived to be 87, until 1997. He was able to see the Phils' infamous collapse of 1964, but also their 1976-83 run of success that including the 1980 World Series win and the 1983 Pennant, and the 1993 Pennant.
His most lasting impact is that the Phillies still wear white uniforms with red pinstripes to this day. After wearing a stylized "P" logo from 1970 to 1991, they went back to the script "Phillies" they used from 1950 to 1969, and have used that since 1992.
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October 4, 1950 was a Wednesday. Football was in midweek. And it was too early for the 1950-51 NBA and NHL seasons to start. So there were no other scores on this historic day. Actor Alan Rosenberg, known for playing lawyer Eli Levinson on TV shows on 2 different networks, Civil Wars on ABC and L.A. Law on NBC, was born on this day.
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