Phil Lewis

Philip Lewis

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 195 lb.
• School Cornell University
• Debut April 14, 1905
• Final Game September 29, 1908
• Born October 8, 1884 in Pittsburgh, PA USA
• Died August 8, 1959 in Port Wentworth, GA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Phil Lewis was a shortstop in college (1902-1904), the Major Leagues (1905-1908) and the minors (through 1916). He was born on Sunday, 7 October 1883, in Pittsburgh, PA. He attended Cornell University (1902-1904) and was 21 years old when he broke into the big leagues on 14 April 1905, with the Brooklyn Superbas, where he played until 29 September 1908. He played with Cornell University (1902-1904) and the Brooklyn Superbas (1905-1908).

The 6' 195-lb Lewis was big for a turn-of-the-century shortstop, yet he was no slugger, and in four years as Brooklyn's shortstop was found lacking defensively. (JK)

On 20 July 1905, Lewis had a busy afternoon at Washington Park in the Brooklyn 2-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds, when he had 18 chances and came up with seven assists, six putouts and five errors, the latter tying the National League record.

Lewis played in the minors mostly in the American Association (1910-16) as well as a couple years for Baltimore (1904 and 1909).

In 1904 he was at Cornell with Joe Birmingham.

He was a World War I Veteran (BN). He later became a logger in the Adirondacks, retiring as a woodlands supervisor for Union Bag-Camp Paper Corporation. He died at age 74 at his home in Port Wentworth, GA after a long illness and is buried at Dorchester Cemetery in Liberty, GA.

Sources

Principal sources for Phil Lewis include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs {{{WW}}} (WW), old Baseball Registers {{{BR}}} (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN {{{DAG}}} (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) {{{MORE}}} and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.