May 8th, 1993: Philadelphia Phillies (20-7) vs St. Louis Cardinals (15-13)
It’s Been Rheal
An Introduction…
I’m the guy who gets over the excruciating existential crisis that was the end of the Sixers postseason by diving deep into the 1993 Phillies. Now that the 2021 season has begun, my attention has returned to the current Phillies, but as too the heartbreak of being a fan of this franchise has also begun, I’ve decided once more to go back in time and revisit the greatest season of baseball of my childhood, the 1993 Phillies. Thanks to the internet and more specifically the saint who runs the ClassicPhilliesTV youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWb6dGkCnKBlrQLJAjZ-4-w), I’m going back and watching every 1993 Phillies I can find just like if it was 28 years ago (but with the internet)... Previously I attempted to go day for day with every Phillies game in the month of June, which was a bold idea but proved to be futile. Now the plan is to start from the beginning of the season and attempt 1 game recap per week until we get to game 5 of the 1993 World series and then decide if I really want to torture myself with game 6. Come along for the ride to reminisce about the legends of John Kruk, Mitch Williams, and Darren Daulton, to mix the knowledge we have now, with jokes of how dumb things were then.
Where We Last Left Our Intrepid Heroes (and Villains)
After returning to Philadelphia with a 5-2 record on their West Coast swing, the Phillies opened their series against the St. Louis Cardinals last night (28 years ago) with a 4-3 victory thanks to a 2 run home run by Dave Hollins and seven strong innings from Tommy Greene. The win pushed the Cardinals into third place in the NL East behind the Montreal Expos who are now 4½ games behind the Phillies with the Cards 5½ out. Almost 30 games into the season, the Phillies have uncharacteristically been playing a majority of their games out of division, playing only 10 games against their NL East foes. Which makes their start only the more impressive as the West is a far tougher division in 1993.
The St. Louis Cardinals are in a weird place as a franchise, they’re now 11 years removed from their last World Series victory and 13 years till their next (which is the longest drought in the much ballyhooed franchise). They still have stalwart shortstop Ozzie Smith, but the rest of the team is full of question marks and oddly enough future Philadelphia Phillies. Pitching for the Red Birds is Rheal Cormier (whom I’ll delve into more so in the pitching section), playing third is Todd Zeile, who in his one season with the Phils had a Jayson Werth-esque 20 Homer 80 RBI line which was enough to become trade bait and sent to the Baltimore Orioles (with Pete Incaviglia) in one of those last minute waiver wire trades that are now barred. At first base is almost-Lenny-Dykstra Gregg Jefferies, the most perpetually over-hyped crappy player of my childhood, and in left field is Mark Whiten, a personal favorite of my memories because of the dope ass nickname “Hard Hittin’” Mark Whiten. Now while the 93 Phillies were analytically ahead of their time with their ability to get on base and score runs with “spare part” players, it’s important to note that the Phillies organization was not ever leading the charge in that actual direction. To better articulate the argument look no further at the Phillie careers of Gregg Jefferies and Mark Whiten. The Phils signed Jefferies in the 94 offseason for 4 years and 20 million dollars (4/20 bruh), Whiten was traded to the Phils from Seattle in exchange for Dave Hollins in the middle of the 1995 season. In 120 games (July 95 to June 96) on the team Mark Whiten had a .361 OBP, hit 18 home runs, stole 20 bases, and garnered an above average 113 wRC+. In the three full seasons (and the 125 games of 1998) Jefferies was a Phillie, Gregg never had an OBP higher than .348, never hit more than 11 home runs, never got higher than 108 wRC+ (averaging 95.5 wRC+) and only stole more than 12 bases once when he stole 20 in 1996. Jefferies was eventually traded for a player to be later after starting for his entire tenure with the team, Mark Whiten was unceremoniously released in June of 1996, then signed by the Braves where he hit 3 home runs and 17 RBI before being traded for a prospect (The Phillies released him for NOTHING). Why did the Phillies front office stick with Jefferies (who was also the inferior defensive outfielder) and not Whiten? Because Jefferies always had a better batting average. Mark Whiten, with cool nickname, was supposed to be a power hitter for the Phillies after he made a name for himself bashing 4 home runs in one game (in 1993), but when he didn’t get enough RBIs (which are luck based and strongly influenced by Greg Jefferies’ inability to get on base in the batting position in front of Whiten), and only hit .243 (with a .360 OBP! 29th best in the NL), the Phillies brass decided to cut bait from the (checks notes) 800,000 dollars (Jefferies made 5.5 million in 96). Long story short, the Cardinals aren’t very good and the Phillies are idiots who decided to take ⅓ of the Cardinals lineup and try it 3 years later. Joe Torre is the coach of the Cardinals in 1993, which is pretty weird to see.
Today’s Game:
Tonight is Saturday, May 8th 1993 at Veteran’s stadium, where the Phillies are 11-3 to start the season. Once again the broadcast is on PRISM’s weird little brother Sportschannel where Andy Musser and Kent Tekulve will do the full 9 innings in the booth. Over forty thousand fans are in attendance tonight as it’s boy scout night where all those tiny kids in the uniforms get in for free.
Watch for yourself at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiI_CYXYYcE (watch out the first 7 minutes repeat)
The Line-up
CF Lenny Dykstra .
SS Mariano Duncan
1B John Kruk 4th in NL in Runs
3B Dave Hollins Batting .400 Left Handed
C Darren Daulton
LF Pete Incaviglia
RF Wes Chamberlain
2B Mickey Morandini
SP Terry Mulholland
On the Mound:
Once again manning the bump for the home team is ace of the staff Terry Mulholland, coming off a complete game 9-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers, Terry Mo is now 3-3 with 2.60 ERA. While Mulholland is one of the better pitchers of the early 90’s (as chronicled quite a bit in previous posts), he had one skill that was unrelated to his pitching ability that was elite. Terry Mulholland had arguably the greatest pick off move in the history of baseball. If you were to create a baseball pitching Frankenstein’s monster, he would have Terry Mulholland’s pickoff move (because the pitching Frankenstein’s monster would inevitably be left handed). Mulholland had this amazing ability to go from looking at ease to whip snap throwing to first base in what seemed instantaneously. In 1992, Terry Mulholland picked off 15 runners trying to steal bases, at this point in 93, base runners were basically terrified of even trying to take a lead, which affected Mulholland’s place in history. Other than 92, Terry never accumulated huge numbers in pickoffs because no one was stupid enough to try him. Steve Carlton, who leads all pitchers in pickoffs all time (because players ran way more in the 70s), only had 15 or more 3 times in his career. Neither Mark Buehrle and Andy Pettite who are the modern answer for best pickoff move (ranked 2nd and 3rd all time behind Carlton in pickoffs, respectively) were ever able to achieve 15 pickoffs in one season.
Pitching for the visiting St. Louis Cardinals is the aforementioned Rheal Cormier, who is 8 years away from joining Philadelphia himself and becoming an above average reliever on some very fun if not particularly successful Phillies teams. A former 6th round pick in the 1988 amateur draft, the Canadian Cormier was brought through the St. Louis system as a starter and found some success in 1992 while going 10-10 with a 3.68 ERA and 3.19 FIP over 186 innings and accruing 3.0 WAR. Sadly for his starting pitching career, Cormier would never be able to replicate those numbers. So far in 1993, Cormier is 1-2 with a 3.53 ERA over 35⅔ innings, but hasn’t won since his first start on April 7th. It wouldn’t be until Cormier was traded from the Montreal Expos to the Boston Red Sox in 1999 that he would fully be converted to the bullpen, and become a highly adequate reliever. In 2001 the Phillies signed Rheal to a four year deal that went so well they retained his service for another one and half years before finally moving Cormier to the Reds in 2006. During his time with the Phillies Cormier found arguably his most success in the majors, in 2003, with 84⅓ innings pitched, he had a microscopic 1.70 ERA and 2.98 FIP. He’s also the answer to the trivia question “What pitcher won the last game for the Phillies at Veteran’s Stadium, and won the first game for the Phillies at Citizen’s Bank Park?”. Cormier would lose his major league job in 2007, but decided instead to focus on making the Canadian Olympic team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. he had previously represented his country in the Pan-American games of 1987 and the 1988 Olympics (when Baseball was just a demonstration sport) as well as the first World Baseball Classic in 2006. Despite not being able to secure a job in the Majors, Cormier made the Canadian roster and at 41 years old was the oldest player in the Baseball event ar. In 2012, Cormier was elected into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Sadly, Rheal Cormier passed away in March of 2021 due to Pancreatic Cancer at the age of 53.
Highs (Hopes) and Lows
LOW- Early hole- Top 2nd
The Cardinals have scored 24 runs in the first inning this season, but it’s not till the 2nd when they are able to get on the board tonight. Mulholland is in an early jam with the bases loaded with one out with back-up catcher and coolest looking player I’ve ever seen Hector Villanueva at the plate.
Hector hits a grounder to Dave Hollins who attempts to turn two by going to second, but the slow roller makes the second out impossible, allowing a run to score. This is 1 of 9 RBIs for Villanueva in the 1993 season, his last year in the majors (fun fact he won the Triple Crown during the 1991 Puerto Rico Winter Baseball season). One pitch later, Mulholland induced a double play to end the threat. 1-0 STL
HIGH- Evening it up- Bottom 5th
Cormier has been mowing down the Phillies so far in the game allowing just one hit (to Wes Chamberlain) through the first four innings, but finally has a hiccup in the 5th. Pete Incaviglia gets a one out double to bring Wes Chamberlain back up to the plate. Chamberlain had been once thought of as a future asset for the Phillies after a strong 1991 season, but his 1992 campaign led to the acquiring of Jim Eisenreich for the 1993 season to create a platoon. Still Chamberlain had gained enough trust with the coaching staff to be named the opening day Right Fielder, but a faulty alarm caused Chamberlain to show up late to the field and push Manager Jim Fregosi to start Jim Eisenreich in Chamberlain’s stead. At this point in the season, Chamberlain is still trying to get out of Fregosi’s doghouse as well as earn back the respect of his veteran (and extremely judgmental) teammates. Chamberlain earned some points with the team by knocking in Inky with a single to tie up the game 1-1. It would be the only run allowed by Cormier all day.
HIGH- Terry’s Move- Top 6 and Top 8
As stated above, Terry Mulholland had one of the more devastating pickoff moves in all of baseball, and while he doesn’t pickoff any one this game, the move is highly important. With one out in the 6th and future Phillie Mark Whiten on first, Mulholland attempts to snag Whiten multiple times to keep him close to the base while working a 2-2 count to Ray Lankford. On the fifth pitch of the count, Mulholland gets Lankford to swing through a fastball, and Darren Daulton throws out Mark Whiten trying to steal second to end the 6th inning. Two innings later, Mulholland finds himself in the same situation with future Phillie Gregg Jefferies on first base with one out. This time Mulholland strikes out future Phillie Todd Zeile on a fastball, and Darren Daulton throws out Greg Jefferies trying to steal to end the 8th inning. The Cardinals have been famous for years as “the running Red Birds”, but Mulholland’s ability to keep them honest while taking leads directly affected the outcome of this game.
Wild Rides
In a tied 1-1 ball game, both managers send out their starters to work the 9th inning, and each starter comes through. Mulholland retired the Cards in order and Cormier gave up his first walk of the game but immediately wiped the mistake away by forcing a double play, sending this game into extra innings.
Extra Wild Rides
Sitting at something like 107 pitches (an estimation since no one mentions pitch count during these games), Fregosi sends out Terry Mulholland for the top of the 10th inning, as one is wont to do. Mulholland continues to do what he’s done all night by allowing one batter to reach base (his first walk of the game), but retiring the side in short order. For the game Terry Mo has 10IP 10 hits 1 ER 1 walk and 6 strikeouts, while throwing 119 pitches (72 strikes) and lowering his ERA on the season to 2.29.
With Rheal Cormier’s spot in the line-up up, Joe Torre decides to lift him for a pinch hitter (who Mulholland got out on one pitch) so that Rheal finished with 9 IP 1 ER 5 hits 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. Incaviglia starts off the bottom of the 10th with a grounder to Todd Zeile who throws too low for Gregg Jefferies allowing Inky to reach on error. After Milt Thompson comes in as a pinch runner (and steals second base), Ricky Jordan is brought in as a pinch hitter for Terry Mulholland with one out, and he delivers a little magic.
The Phillies win on a walk off Ricky Jordan single.
Final: Philadelphia Phillies 2 (21-7) St Louis Cardinals (15-14) 1
Words of Wisdom from Musser and Tek
“Gregg Jefferies is not a good thrower” Musser explains why Gregg Jefferies was moved to First base. The Phillies would of course move Jefferies to the outfield 2 years later.
“Just about perfect here” Musser describes the night at the Vet. I bet it was.
“The day and age of the computer, those numbers are available to anyone” Musser mentions after Tek says that Torre is going with Zeile at the clean-up spot today because he’s batting .458 against Mulholland. Not really Musser, but you’re getting there.
Final Conclusions
The Phillies take the first two games of the homestand and the first two games of the series against the Cardinals. If you enjoyed this wonderful blast from the past please feel free to share, like, or comment on it. The hope is to have more people watching 93 Phillies games on youtube and talking about it. So hit me up @Kevin_Seamus on twitter or @loudphilliesguy on Instagram. Tomorrow (in 1993) the Cardinals and the Phillies play a game on mother’s day, a mother’s day game that lives forever in Phillies lore.
