Skip to main content

Sunday School: History Lesson 18


Harry "The Hat" Walker played with the Phillies for less than two full seasons, but made the all star team and won a batting title as a Phillie. Walker came to Philadelphia just a month into the 1947 season in a trade for Ron Northey, after having played parts of 5 seasons with the Cardinals and driving in the winning run in game 7 of the 1946 World Series.


Walker arrived with a chance to play every day as the Phillies' centerfielder. His batting average took off and he finished the season with a .363 mark to win the NL batting crown. Harry winning the batting title marked the only time brothers had both done so. Harry's brother Fred "Dixie" Walker hit .357 for the Dodgers in 1944 to win his own NL battinh title.


The nickname "The Hat" came about as a result of Harry's constant fidgeting with his ball cap both prior to batting and on the mound between pitches. The press reported that Walker went through dozens of caps in a single season.


In 1948, Walker had a tough time finding his batting champ stroke and his average dipped to .292. He was traded to the Cubs after the season. Walker played just one more season as a regular prior to returning to St. Louis as a backup for two more seasons.


In 1951, Harry began managing in the Cardinals' minor league system and later managed St. Louis for one season. He also later managed both the Astros and Pirates.

BallHype: hype it up!

Comments

Shay Roddy said…
Nice job, Jay. Love these walks back into history.

Popular posts from this blog

PhoulBallz Q&A with Mike Stutes

Mike Stutes completes "The Reading Phils Mike Tri-fecta" over three days, here on PhoulBallz.com. Stutes, a 22 year old, was an 11th round selection by the Phillies in the 2008 amateur draft. Stutes, a right handed starting pitcher, helped lead Oregon State to the College World Series championship in both 2006 and 2007. Stutes and teammate Vance Worley are the first players to begin a season at Reading the year after being drafted since Pat Burrell did it in 1999. Stutes was the Phils' minor league pitcher of the month in August '08, when he went 4-1 with a 1.72 ERA in 6 starts. Check out my Q&A with the third Mike below. Can I get you to talk about the coaching staff and how they help you deal with ups and downs? They've been real positive with me. I started out good and then I hit a rough patch. They've stuck with me through it all. I haven't heard any negative words from them. Every day they try to come out, work with me, try to get me turned around...

Jason Knapp Q&A

PhoulBallz .com was fortunate enough to meet with Phillies prospect Jason Knapp just one day after he caught the attention of the baseball world with his 7 shut out innings, 14 strike out performance against the Indians' Lake County team. - I asked Jason, the Lakewood BlueClaw , for some thoughts about his big game... I had pretty good command of three pitches (fastball, curve, change up). I was on the same page with my catcher, D'Arnaud , and I ended up, ya know, I felt pretty good. - In a great performance like that, how much credit goes to Travis D'Arnaud , the catcher? More than you might expect, definitely. I didn't shake him off once. He told me what to throw and I do what I'm told. And if it works out, a lot of the credit goes to the catcher. - Does the lack of run support (Lakewood has scored 3 total runs in his 3 starts), in your few starts, increase your stress level, or enhance your focus? No, I just try to go out and do my job every outing. Ya know, we...

Yankees Fans Misled By Pepsi Promotion

**** Today, New York Yankees fans attended a Pepsi promotion in Times Square hoping for chances to win opening day tickets to the new stadium, but the tickets, which were difficult to track down due to poor organization on Pepsi's part, were actually for a game in June. Furthermore, the 250 pairs that were promised were actually only 100 pairs. The fans, who were made to sprint through traffic over multiple city blocks when locations for the promotion changed, quickly turned against the soda brand by pooring out their beverages and chanting anti-Pepsi phrases. Yankees fans are even threatening a boycott of Pepsi. An appearance by Yankee great Goose Gossage could not even settle the angry mob, as he had to be whisked away, as a precaution, according to the Daily News . Ooo , I'd hate to see what "the worst fans in sports" (Philadelphia fans) would have done to their free Pepsi cans and beloved reliever in that situation. Because this happened in a non-Philly city, th...