By Woodrow Carroll
Former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Curt Simmons celebrated his 93rd birthday May 19. Along with wishing the man continued good health, we know that Simmons is the last surviving member of the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies team, called by many the “Whiz Kids” which captured the National League pennant.
Simmons, a lefty, first broke in with the Phillies in 1947. In 1950, Simmons really took off and with a month to go in the season was a 17-8 in won-loss record. Then came a military call-up for the Korean War.
Top players such as Simmons and Willie Mays, among others found out, there were no exemptions granted to athletes at that time. The Phillies, who were ahead by 7.5 games in the National League race late in the campaign, needed a victory on the final day of the season over the hard-charging Brooklyn Dodgers to lay claim to the National League championship.
Simmons did put in for leave to appear in the 1950 World Series that was not granted.
The 1950 Phillies were strapped for pitching by the time the World Series was under way. It gave Phillies manager Eddie Sawyer a chance to make a mini-legend out of relief pitcher Jim Konstanty.
Konstanty, 33, pitched in 74 games for the Phillies in 1950 and finished up in relief in 62 of those games. Over the course of the regular season Konstanty compiled a 16-7 won-loss record. To the surprise of all, Sawyer tabbed Konstanty to start game one of the World Series against the New York Yankees. Even with a couple of days off between the finish of the regular season and the start of the World Series there were some tired arms among the Phillies’ pitching staff members.
Konstanty did his part in game one of the 1950 World Series by limiting the Yankees to one run in eight innings. However, the Phillies were scoreless by New York’s Vic Raschi in what was a 1-0 Yankees’ victory.
Konstanty returned as a relief pitcher in game four of the 1950 World Series, And, not in a favorable situation.
Bob Miller was the starting pitcher for the Phillies in game four and lasted one-third of an inning and left with his team behind, 2-0. In came Konstanty who pitched six-and-two-third innings. He gave up three runs on five hits in the Yankees’ 5-2 victory which closed out the World Series four games to zero in favor of the Yankees.
Konstanty, whose spectacular 1950 campaign earned him National League Most Valuable Player Award that year, never came close to marching his ‘50 performance. However, Simmons still had plenty in his tank.
After military service, Simmons returned to the Phillies and was selected to the NL all-star team in 1952, 1953 and 1957. The fates still had more in surprise for Simmons.
By 1964, Simmons was pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals. Bob Gibson was the man on the mound for the Cardinals that season, however, not to be discounted were the 18 victories by Simmons.
The fates! Simmons’ old team the Phillies had a 6.5-game lead in the NL pennant race with 12 games left in 1964. That lead melted and the Cardinals roared past the Phillies to win NL the pennant..
Fourteen years removed from his time with the 1950 Phillies, Simmons ended up pitching in the 1964 World Series. He was the losing pitcher in game six against the Yankees, the latter the champion, four games to three.
Simmons, who had a brief run with the Chicago Cubs in the 1966 and 1967 seasons, closed out his MLB career with the California Angels at the end of 1967 campaign at age 38.