1985 Philadelphia Phillies

1985 Philadelphia Phillies / Franchise: Philadelphia Phillies / BR Team Page

Record: 75-87, Finished 5th in NL Eastern Division (1985 NL)

Managed by John Felske

Coaches: Dave Bristol, Lee Elia, Claude Osteen, Mike Ryan and Del Unser

Ballpark: Veterans Stadium

History, Comments, Contributions

The 1985 Philadelphia Phillies entered the season with a new look altogether after an extensively rebuilt Phillies team had stumbled to a .500 record in 1984. John Felske, a young rookie manager, was hired to teach the youngsters and grow with them. The team made very few additions in the offseason, but prepared to install its next generation in a big way. The most telling sign of the times was the move of Mike Schmidt, now quite an elderly Phillie, to first base to make room for prospect Rick Schu at third base, the position he had brilliantly occupied for over a decade.

The problem was that almost none of the prospects were very good. Von Hayes struggled again. Glenn Wilson drove in 102 runs with some timely hitting, but it didn't take a sabermetric genius to see that his RBI total was mainly the result of hitting behind Schmidt and his .375 on-base percentage. Rookie reliever Don Carman pitched very well, but couldn't exactly make up for the loss of Steve Carlton to injury in mid-June. Carlton had been shockingly ineffective anyway, contributing to a team-wide slump early in the year. Kevin Gross and Shane Rawley picked up some of the slack on the pitching staff, but most of the hitters struggled to reach base, and by mid-May the club was ten games under .500 and basically adrift.

No help was on the way, either. Intriguing late-year acquisitions and call-ups like pitcher Freddie Toliver and catcher Darren Daulton were featured briefly, but the Phillies neither packaged youngsters for a star nor unloaded one of their own. In a minor housecleaning, veteran catcher Bo Diaz was part of the price for Toliver, and veteran reliever Al Holland departed early on in exchange for fellow veteran reliever Kent Tekulve.

Phillies fans, unused to seeing the team make so many mental errors and show so little promise, booed the club all the way to a fifth-place finish.

For the first time in many years, no Phillie won a Gold Glove. Second baseman Juan Samuel led the league in at-bats and strikeouts, and but did score 101 runs while not striking out.

Awards and Honors

• All-Stars: Ozzie Virgil and Glenn Wilson