page_title: Philadelphia Phillies
section_title: Fightin’ Phils (1949–1970)
hierarchical_section_title: Philadelphia Phillies / History / Fightin’ Phils (1949–1970)
caption_attribution_description: English: Robin Roberts of the Philadelphia Phillies
context_page_description: The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They compete in Major League Baseball as a member of the National League East division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citizens Bank Park, located in South Philadelphia. The Phillies are the oldest continuous same-name, same-city franchise in American professional sports.
  The Phillies have won two World Series championships and seven National League pennants, the first of which came in 1915. Since the first modern World Series was played in 1903, the Phillies played 77 consecutive seasons before they won their first World Series—longer than any of the other 16 teams that made up the major leagues for the first half of the 20th century. They are one of the more successful franchises since the start of the Divisional Era in Major League Baseball. The Phillies have won 11 division titles, including five consecutive division titles from 2007 to 2011; these are ranked sixth among all teams and fourth in the National League. Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt is widely considered the franchise's greatest player of all time.
context_section_description: Like Cox, Bob Carpenter, Jr. was not afraid to spend the money it took to build a contender. He immediately started signing young players and invested even more money in the farm system.
  The Phillies quickly developed a solid core of young players that included future Hall of Famers Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts. This coincided with the final collapse of the A's. Philadelphia had been an "A's town" for most of the first half of the 20th century. Even though the A's had fielded teams as bad or worse than the Phillies for most years since the 1930s, the A's continued to trounce the Phillies at the gate. However, a series of poor baseball and business decisions on the A's part allowed the Phillies to win the hearts of Philadelphia's long-suffering fans.
  Things started coming together for the Phillies in 1949, when they rocketed up the standings to third place with an 81–73 record. Although the season had essentially been a two-team race between Brooklyn and St. Louis, it was still the Phillies' first appearance in the first division in 31 years. It was also a fitting tribute to Bob Carpenter, Sr., who had died in June and left Bob, Jr. in full control of the team.
  The 1950 Phillies led the National League standings for most of the season and were dubbed the "Whiz Kids". In the final months of the season, a tailspin (triggered by the loss of starting pitcher Curt Simmons to National Guard service) caused the team to lose the next eight of ten games. On the last day of the season, the Phillies hung on to a one-game lead when Dick Sisler’s dramatic tenth inning home run against the Brooklyn Dodgers clinched the Phils' first pennant in 35 years. In the World Series, exhausted from their late-season plunge and victims of poor luck, the Phillies were swept by the New York Yankees in four straight games. Nonetheless, this appearance cemented the Phillies status as the city's favorite team.
  In contrast, the Philadelphia Athletics finished last in 1950, and longtime manager Connie Mack retired. The team struggled for four more years with only one winning season before abandoning Philadelphia under the Johnson brothers, who bought out Mack. They began to play in Kansas City in 1955. As part of the deal selling that team to the Johnson brothers, the Phillies bought Shibe Park, where both teams had played since 1938. Many thought that the "Whiz Kids", with a young core of talented players, would be a force in the league for years to come. However, the team finished with a 73–81 record in 1951 and finished nine and a half games out of first place in 1952, with an 87–67 record. The Phillies managed to end up in third place in 1953 with an 83–71 record, however, they would fail to break .500 from 1954 to 1957.
  It became apparent that the flash and determination of the Whiz Kids would not return when the team finished last place in the National League from 1958 to 1961. Manager Eddie Sawyer abruptly quit the team after the season opener in 1960, and was replaced by Gene Mauch.
  The team's competitive futility was highlighted by a record that still stands: in 1961, the Phillies lost 23 games in a row, the worst losing streak in the majors since 1900.
  Things started to turn around for the team in 1962 when the team finished above .500 for the first time in five years. Gene Mauch was named National League Manager of the Year that season and won it again in 1964. The team improved in 1963 when the team finished the season with an 87–75 record. There was confidence that the team would soon become contenders for a return to the World Series. 
  Though Ashburn and Roberts were gone, the 1964 Phillies still had younger pitchers Art Mahaffey, Chris Short, and rookie Ray Culp; veterans Jim Bunning and screwballer Jack Baldschun; and fan favorites Cookie Rojas, Johnny Callison, and NL Rookie of the Year Dick Allen. The team was 90–60 on September 20, good enough for a lead of 6.5 games in the pennant race with 12 games to play. However, the Phillies lost 10 games in a row and finished one game out of first, losing the pennant to the St. Louis Cardina
caption: Robin Roberts, Phillies' pitcher from 1948 to 1961
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