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Henry Lee Meadows was a pitcher with the Phillies from 1919-1923. Meadows was the first player in the 20th century to take the field while wearing eyeglasses. At the time this was quite unique. Journalists wondered how Meadows could find home plate, while opposing batters claimed to fear for their safety. The attention earned Meadows the nickname "Specs". Meadows, a right-handed hurler, made his Major League debut with the Cardinals at age 20 in 1915 after two winning season in the minor leagues. He was originally a spitball pitcher. In July 1919, Meadows was traded to the Phillies, along with infielder Gene Paulette, for Doug Baird, Elmer Jacobs and Frank Woodward. Out of his 17 starts for the Phillies that year, Meadows completed 15 of those games and threw 3 shut outs. The following season, in 1920, Meadows posted wins in 8 of his first 10 starts, but he struggled down the stretch and finished the season with a 16-14 record and a 2.84 ERA. Meadows threw 3 shut outs for the...

Emil "Irish" Meusel patrolled the outfield for our Phillies from 1918-1921. His best years in the majors came after he left the Phillies. His nickname also fits in with the weekend festivities that many of us have been enjoying. Initially signed by the Washington Senators, Irish joined our Phillies in 1918 after batting .311 for Los Angeles in the Pacific Coast League. As a rookie, Meusel batted .279 with 18 steals. Meusel would then raise his batting avg., with the Phils, each of the next three seasons, batting over .300 each year. In 1921, Irish got off to a terrific start, but Meusel became a prime example of the Phillies' front office, at the time, selling off their best players to help pay the bills. While ripping through National League pitching with a .353 avg., Meusel was stunned, along with the phans and press, when owner William Baker traded Irish to the NY Giants for two players and $30,000. Meusel helped the Giants erase a 7 1/2 game deficit in the standings e...

I got a lot of baseball books for holiday gifts and as I read through them, I find many remarkable stories. These have inspired me to share and teach some Phillies history. Who has heard of Eppa Rixey? I hadn't either. Eppa Rixey was a Phillies pitcher during the 19-teens into the 19-twenties. In 1916, Rixey had a break-out season, when he won 22 games for our Phillies and had an ERA of 1.85. The tables turned the following season. In 1917, Eppa Rixey's record was 16-21. His high loss total was mainly due to a lack of run support. There was one stretch when Rixey lost 5 straight starts, while the Phillies offense could only amass 3 total runs in those 5 games. Rixey even threw 4 shutouts that season. The tales of this solid pitcher not being able to shine continued. Rixey served in the military in 1918, and saw action in World War 1. He returned in mid-1919 to put up a 6-12 record. But in 1920, Eppa led the National League with 22 losses, despite completing 25 of his 33 starts!...