Tom Phoebus Died

[OFFNY]

o

 

I was hoping that this could get some airtime here before being transferred to the Orioles History section.

 

 

Tom Phoebus, the ‘Fireplug’ Who Won Game 2 of the 1970 World Series, Dies at 77

(By Baltimore Sun Staff)

https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-tom-phoebus-orioles-pitcher-dies-at-77-20190907-gm3sdopos5azholkj4hohmgfiu-story.html

 

 

 

 

o

[mdbdotcom]

Curt Blefary caught his no-hitter. Only Blefary's fourth major league game as a catcher.

[DrungoHazewood]

22 minutes ago, mdbdotcom said:

Curt Blefary caught his no-hitter. Only Blefary's fourth major league game as a catcher.

I don't want to hijack the Phoebus thread, but could you imagine?  Blefary had never caught a professional game until they had him start after he'd been the majors three years.  Never caught an inning in the minors.  It would be like just deciding Trey Mancini was a catcher right now. 

[DrungoHazewood]

Phoebus was before my time, I don't have a good image of him.  Apparently was about my height, but more... stout.  Relied on a big curve.  From 50 years away his career seems to have been somewhere between Chris Tillman and Jeremy Guthrie, comparing to modern Orioles.

[Tx Oriole]

10 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Phoebus was before my time, I don't have a good image of him.  Apparently was about my height, but more... stout.  Relied on a big curve.  From 50 years away his career seems to have been somewhere between Chris Tillman and Jeremy Guthrie, comparing to modern Orioles.

Prayers for his friends and family.

[Moose Milligan]

RIP to a good Oriole.  

Here's a writeup about his no-hitter: https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/april-27-1968-tom-phoebus-throws-orioles-3rd-no-hitter

[spiritof66]

Here's what I remember about Phoebus:

1. He was a local product, and the radio announcers (including Chuck Thompson) seemed to mention that a lot. And I mean a lot. 

2. He didn't look at all like my image of a ML ballplayer, more like a softball catcher/third baseman or just a guy you'd see in the hardware store.

3. He seemed to have a knack for keeping in the Orioles in games -- even games that the Orioles didn't win or when someone else got the W.

4. His name seemed to me unusual for a ballplayer. Pretty much every time I heard it, including today, I thought of the handsome, deceitful Captain Phoebus in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The captain turned out to be no Tom Phoebus. 

I only vaguely remember the no-hitter, and it's odd to me that I have no memory of Curt Blefary -- one of my favorite Orioles for a brief time -- catching that game, or catching at all. It looks like Curt did all his catching as an Oriole in 1968. (Earl took from Hank Bauer during the 1968 season. I guessed that trying Blefary behind the plate was an Earl move to get a LHed-hitting catcher in the Oriole lineup, but Bauer's the one who put Blefary there.)

 

[Frobby]

Back in the days before cable, and when WJZ-TV broadcast about 20 games a year, my brother and I watched Tom Phoebus throw a no-hitter on our very snowy, black & white TV.    April 27, 1968.

[bobmc]

11 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Back in the days before cable, and when WJZ-TV broadcast about 20 games a year, my brother and I watched Tom Phoebus throw a no-hitter on our very snowy, black & white TV.    April 27, 2003.  

Wow Phoebus was 61!  Bartolo Colon can make a comeback!  

[LA2]

Tommy Phoebus! This stubborn, sweating pug of a hometown guy comes up at the end of the 1966 campaign, in which the Oriole starting rotation had lost its ace Steve Barber mid-season and Wally Bunker continued a sore-arm-plagued descent from his 19-5 RoY 1964 (but somehow manages to throw a World Series gem), looking like the perfect grunt for ex-Marine Hank Bauer and pitches two CG shutouts in his three starts, giving hope that the pitching had a future, along with McNally, Palmer and one-season sensations like Jim Hardin. You could feel the effort in every pitch. Wins 14, 15, and 14 as a bridge to the glory years. Could field his position and wasn't a bad hitter for a pitcher. Never mouthed off.

Everytime one of these guys passes away without me having ever met him or found some way to express my thanks, it hurts and, I'll say it even if it's such a cliché, a little part of me dies, too.

[Redskins Rick]

His overall career stats are probably not as great as most kids would wish for, growing up.

But, this is nothing to sneeze at:

• World Series champion (1970)
• Pitched no-hitter on April 27, 1968
• American League Rookie Pitcher of the Year, 1967^[1]

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, bobmc said:

Wow Phoebus was 61!  Bartolo Colon can make a comeback!  

Oops, not sure where I came up with that year.   We apparently were a little late getting cable!

April 27, 1968.    And RIP Mr. Phoebus.   He was fun to watch when he was on his game.   

[bobmc]

Just now, Frobby said:

Oops, not sure where I came up with that year.   We apparently were a little late getting cable!

April 27, 1968.    And RIP Mr. Phoebus.   He was fun to watch when he was on his game.   

Hear hear!  Because of the no-hitter, he remains embedded in my memory!

[tntoriole]

I was 10 years old and was in the safety patrol in 1968.  You know, the elementary school organization that gave kids badges and we would yell at the really little kids to stay on the sidewalk.  

Anyway, every year, 12,000 safety patrol kids would get into Memorial Stadium free for a game.  And that Saturday in April 1968 was safety patrol day.   But then...my Little League team decided it was going to have opening day on that same day in Linthicum-Ferndale.  

So, I did not get to see the Tommy Phoebus no-hitter.   All the years and all the games before and since I have never seen a professional no hitter. 

But my friend and neighbor, Phil, also in the safety patrol went to his very first and last Oriole game that day and saw a no hitter.  He detested baseball but went out of troop loyalty. 

He always said “It was so boring, nobody got a hit.” 

Both Phil, who died way too young, and now Tommy Phoebus are gone and I mourn their passing.  God bless them! 

[Number5]

On 9/9/2019 at 6:14 PM, tntoriole said:

I was 10 years old and was in the safety patrol in 1968.  You know, the elementary school organization that gave kids badges and we would yell at the really little kids to stay on the sidewalk.  

Anyway, every year, 12,000 safety patrol kids would get into Memorial Stadium free for a game.  And that Saturday in April 1968 was safety patrol day.   But then...my Little League team decided it was going to have opening day on that same day in Linthicum-Ferndale.  

So, I did not get to see the Tommy Phoebus no-hitter.   All the years and all the games before and since I have never seen a professional no hitter. 

But my friend and neighbor, Phil, also in the safety patrol went to his very first and last Oriole game that day and saw a no hitter.  He detested baseball but went out of troop loyalty. 

He always said “It was so boring, nobody got a hit.” 

Both Phil, who died way too young, and now Tommy Phoebus are gone and I mourn their passing.  God bless them! 

I went to a safety patrol game right around that time in which both Phoebus and the Kansas City A's pitcher threw one-hitters.  Orioles won the game 1-0.