1983 Philadelphia Phillies season

The 1983 Philadelphia Phillies season involved the Phillies winning the National League East Division title with a record of 90-72, six games over the Pittsburgh Pirates. As the Phillies were celebrating their centennial season, they defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers, three games to one in the National League Championship Series, before losing the World Series to the Baltimore Orioles, four games to one. The Phils were managed by Pat Corrales (43-42) and Paul Owens (47-30), as they played their home games at Veterans Stadium.

Offseason

• November 4, 1982: Willie Montañez was released by the Phillies.^[1]
• December 9, 1982: Manny Trillo, Jay Baller, Julio Franco, George Vukovich, and Jerry Willard were traded by the Phillies to the Cleveland Indians for Von Hayes.^[2]
• December 14, 1982: Mike Krukow, Mark Davis, and Charles Penigar (minors) were traded by the Phillies to the San Francisco Giants for Joe Morgan and Al Holland.^[3]
• January 13, 1983: Rowland Office was released by the Phillies.^[4]
• January 31, 1983: Tony Pérez was signed as a free agent with the Phillies.^[5]
• March 1, 1983: Kiko Garcia was signed as a free agent by the Phillies.^[6]

Wheeze Kids

The 1983 Phillies were nicknamed the "Wheeze Kids" because of the numerous veteran players on the team. The 1950 National League pennant winning Phillies had been nicknamed the "Whiz Kids" due to their youth; stars Richie Ashburn, Robin Roberts, Willie Jones, Del Ennis, and Granny Hamner were all 25-years old or younger. Prior to the 1983 season, the Phillies acquired Morgan, age 39 and Tony Pérez, age 40, to compliment Pete Rose, age 41, and as Morgan told Sports Illustrated in March 1983, "...help win them a world championship." ^[7] At the time, the Phillies also had Ron Reed, 40, Bill Robinson, 39, Steve Carlton, 38, and Tug McGraw, 38. Philadelphia Daily News sportswriter Stan Hochman gave them the Wheeze Kids nickname^[8] and it was quickly adopted and used by Phillies president Bill Giles. By the 1983 World Series, the moniker was commonly used to refer to the team.

Regular season

Season chronology

• April 13: Bo Díaz hit an ultimate grand slam home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Phillies a 10-9 win over the New York Mets.
• May 1: On the 100th anniversary of their first game, the Phillies defeated the Houston Astros, 11-3, at Veterans Stadium. Tony Perez drove in 5 runs. Johnny Enzmann, 93 years old and the then-living oldest former Phillies player threw out the first-pitch prior to the game.^[9]
• June 7: Steve Carlton temporarily passed Nolan Ryan as the all-time strikeout leader with 3,526 strikeouts to Ryan's 3,524.^[10]
• June 25: Kevin Gross was the winning pitcher in his major league debut. The Phillies defeated the Mets, 4-2, at Shea Stadium.
• July 17: The Phillies lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 5-2. It is the last game for manager Pat Corrales, who was fired despite the team being in first place in the National League East. He was replaced by Paul Owens.
• August 1: Steve Carlton struck out 12 batters in a 2-1 win over the Chicago Cubs. Joe Carter drove in the Cubs' run with his first major league hit.
• August 6: A single by Von Hayes scored Joe Morgan in the 11th inning, giving the Phillies a 1-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. This put the Phillies back into first place, one-half game ahead of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• August 26: The Phillies defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-1, at Veterans Stadium. It was their only win against the Dodgers all season.
• September 18: The Phillies took over first place for good with a 5-3 win over the Cardinals. Mike Schmidt drove in his 100th run of the season with a first inning home run. Joe Lefebvre followed Schmidt with a home run of his own.
• September 23: Steve Carlton won his 300th career game, defeating his former team, the Cardinals.^[11]
• September 28: The Phillies became National League East champions with a 13-6 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field. The clincher was also the 7000th victory for the Phillies in their history.

Season standings

Notable transactions

• May 22, 1983: Dick Ruthven and Bill Johnson were traded by the Phillies to the Chicago Cubs for Willie Hernández.^[12]
• May 22, 1983: Sid Monge was traded by the Phillies to the San Diego Padres for Joe Lefebvre.^[13]
• June 17, 1983: Jim Rasmussen (minors) and Kelly Faulk (minors) were traded by the Phillies to the New York Yankees for Dave Wehrmeister.^[14]
• August 31, 1983: The Phillies traded players to be named later to the San Diego Padres for Sixto Lezcano and a player to be named later. The Phillies completed their part of the deal by sending Marty Decker, Ed Wojna, Lance McCullers, and Darren Burroughs (minors) to the Padres on September 20. The Padres completed their part of the deal by sending Steve Fireovid to the Phillies on October 11.^[15]

Draft picks

• June 6, 1983: 1983 Major League Baseball Draft
  • Ricky Jordan was drafted by the Phillies in the 1st round (22nd pick). Player signed June 28, 1983.^[16]
• June 6, 1983: Mike Henneman was drafted by the^{[clarification needed]} in the 2nd round of the Secondary Phase, but did not sign.^[17]

Roster

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = position; G = Games played; AB = At Bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting Average; HR = Home Runs; RBI = Runs Batted In

^[18]

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At Bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting Average; HR = Home Runs; RBI = Runs Batted In

^[18]

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Other pitchers

Relief pitchers

1983 National League Championship Series

Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Philadelphia Phillies

Phillies win the Series, 3-1

1983 World Series

AL Baltimore Orioles (4) vs. NL Philadelphia Phillies (1)

Farm system

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Portland

Notes

References

• 1983 Philadelphia Phillies season at Baseball Reference
• 1983 Philadelphia Philles at Baseball Almanac