Appalachian History

Baseball pitcher Charles Louis (“Deacon”) Phillippi, of Rural Retreat VA, was drafted into the National League by Louisville in 1898, and began his baseball career with that team on April 21, 1899. On May 29, 1899 he pitched a no-hitter against the Giants in only his seventh major league game. In 1900, he moved to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he spent the rest of his baseball career, through his final game on August 13, 1911.

His claim to fame is that he won the first game of the first World Series in 1903 against Boston’s Cy Young. Deacon is considered one of the greatest control artists of all times, averaging just 1.25 walks per inning per nine innings over his career. This record that has stood for over a century, despite the likes of Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan and Walter Johnson.

Phillippi was born on May 23, 1872, a son of Andrew Jackson & Margaret Jane (Hackler) Phillippi. Sometime around March 1875, the family left Wythe County and moved to Spink County, SD, near the town of Athol, where young Charles grew to manhood. His friends called him Charlie, but he got the "Deacon" nickname due to his humility and easy demeanor.

In 1896, he headed to Minnesota to play semi-pro ball for a team in Mankato. The next year he hooked up with Minneapolis of the Western League, where he pitched for two seasons, in the second of which he posted a record of 21-19. Then he got his chance in 1898 when he was drafted by Louisville. Deacon left his wife Ella and 3 children right around this time. Ella claimed she threw him out when he informed her he was going to become a Pro baseball player, which in those days was akin to joining the circus.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Phillippi was 186-108 lifetime with a 2.88 ERA. He had five seasons with 20 or more wins. He completed 242 of the 288 games he started over his career, while triking out 929. He had his best ERA year in 1902 when he posted a 2.05 mark and a 20-9 record. Over a 4 year period (1900-1903), he pitched 1136.1 innings. He is near the top of the team's ALL-TIME pitching list in Innings Pitched, Wins, Strikeouts, Shutouts, and Completed Games.

BEST YEAR: In 1903, he was 24-7 with a 2.43 ERA. He struck out 123, only walked 29, and gave up just 265 hits in 289 innings.

The World Series, as we know it today, was first played on October 1, 1903 between the National League Pittsburgh Pirates and the American League Boston Pilgrims at the old Huntington Avenue Ballpark in Boston. It was a 9 game series, which Boston won 5 games to 3. Star players in the series included Pittsburgh's Honus Wagner and Deacon Phillippi and Boston's Cy Young.

Phillippi pitched in five of Pittsburgh's eight World Series games against the Boston Pilgrims. He beat Cy Young in the first and third games. He beat Bill Dinneen in the fourth game. He lost to Bill Dinneen in the eight game, 3-0. Each player on the winning Boston Team received $ 1, 182.00. Because the Pirates owner willingly gave up his gate receipts, each player for the Pirates received $ 1,316.25. The price of a ticket was $ 1.50, and there were 16, 242 in attendance for the first game.

After the 1903 World Series, Deacon not only received his salary of $ 1,316.25, but he also received ten shares in the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In the old Federal League during 1912 & 1913, Deacon managed the Pittsburgh Team named the "Filipinos", named so after the Deacon himself. But the poorly organized and financed league collapsed, mainly because of the failure of the NY franchise to attract fans.


sources: www.serve.com/smythgen/Deacon/Deacon.htm
www.southdakotamagazine.com/editors_notebook.php?p=458
baseballcrank.com/archives2/2003/10/baseballpop_cul.php
www.baseball-reference.com/p/phillde01.shtml


Deacon+Phillippi Rural+Retreat+VA Wythe+County+VA minor+league+baseball appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

Pitcher Cole Rohrbough continued his dominance over the Appalachian League with five hitless innings yesterday as Danville VA's Braves shut down the Burlington (NC) Royals 1-0.

The Appalachian League was born in 1911 with teams in Asheville, N.C.; Bristol, Va.; Cleveland, Tenn.; Johnson City, Tenn.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Morristown, Tenn. That first version of the league lasted just four years, with the league disbanding in the middle of the 1914 season when Morristown and Middlesboro, Ky., folded on June 17.

The league reformed in 1921 with six teams: Bristol; Cleveland; Greenville, Tenn.; Johnson City; Kingsport, Tenn.; and Knoxville. That incarnation of the league managed five seasons, before again closing up shop midway through 1925.

In 1937, the Appy League, as many called it, was restarted with the Elizabethton Betsy Red Sox in Elizabethton, Tenn.; the Johnson City Cardinals in Johnson City; Newport, Tenn.; and the Pennington Gap Lee Bears (league champs that year) in Pennington Gap, Va. During World War II, while most other minor leagues ceased operations, the Appalachian League played on. It continued right up until 1955. The league's current incarnation got underway again in 1957 after one inactive year.

Photo: On May 13, 1952, while playing for the Class-D Appalachian League Bristol Twins, pitcher Ron Necciai struck out 27 batters while pitching a 7-0 no-hitter against the Welch Miners.

"After the game, [catcher] Harry Dunlop said, hey, you had 27 strikeouts," Necciai says. "I just assumed it had been done before. It wasn't till the next morning when the phone started ringing that I understood it hadn't." By the next morning Ron Necciai was a celebrity, soon to be the subject of a feature article in The Sporting News. Necciai's accomplishment remains without parallel in baseball history.

The league's season starts in June, after major league teams have signed players that they selected in the annual amateur draft, and ends in September. The league is divided into an East Division and a West Division.

sources: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=l120
http://www.appalachianleague.com/
http://www.blueridgecountry.com/necciai/

Related posts: "Baseball legend Hack Wilson"

Appalachian+League Appy+League minor+league+baseball appalachian+culture appalachian+history history+of+appalachia