Hang around for 133 years and you're bound to come across all sorts of people. The history of the Phillies franchise is decorated with saints, sinners, stars and screwballs _ and even a few war heroes.
There were a few Phillies who were overwhelming, but many more who were simply overmatched, especially in the first half of the franchise's existence.
Jake Thompson's debut on Saturday, uninspiring as it may have been, made him the 2,000th different player to don a Phillies uniform. Here is just a passing glance at some of the first 1,999.
They used to call Jack Lohrke "Lucky," but it had nothing to do with the two seasons he spent with the Phillies (1952-53). Lohrke survived a troop-train crash, the landing at Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, he was bumped from a plane ride home "for some big shot." The plane crashed, killing everyone on board. He learned of his promotion from AA to AAA during a lunch break on a bus trip in 1947. He went to AAA. The bus continued on and crashed, killing nine of his former AA teammates.
Whiz Kids utilityman Putsy Caballero claimed to make more money playing cards against teammates on train trips than he did as a ballplayer. Made sense, Richie Ashburn used to say, "because he was a lot better gambler than ballplayer."
Cole Hamels made five postseason starts in 2008. The Phillies won all five games and Hamels was 4-0 with a 1.80 ERA in 35 innings. He did not throw a wild pitch in 262 1/3 innings the entire season.
Charlie Ferguson pitched four seasons for the Phillies, including 1885 when he tossed the first of the club's 13 no-hitters. He died of typhoid in 1888 at age 25.
Babe Ruth and Rogers Hornsby are the only players to hit more home runs during the 1920s than Phillies outfielder Cy Williams.
Andy Carter from Springfield (Montco) pitched 24 games for his hometown team. In his very first, in 1994, he hit two of three batters he faced and was promptly ejected by Jim Quick.
Of Pete Rose's all-time record 4,256 hits, 826 came while he was with the Phillies. Rose was the key acquisition to the Phillies' 1980 World Series club.
The Phillies were 10 years behind the times, not signing a black player until 1957. John Kennedy, an infielder who was terrific in spring training that year, played in just five games and was gone within two weeks.
Pitcher Jocko Thompson earned two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star, and a bridge in the Netherlands _ which he led the way in securing during World War II's Operation Market Garden _ is named in his honor.
The Phillies were curious about Lehigh County high school pitcher Curt Simmons, so they arranged an exhibition game. Simmons, 17, struck out 12 Phillies and was quickly signed to a contract. He won 115 games for the club, one more than Cole Hamels. Stan Musial called Simmons the toughest pitcher he ever faced.
Neal Finn was a second baseman in 1933. He played in 51 games before going into the hospital with an ulcer. He never came out. Finn was 29.
First baseman Eddie Waitkus was shot in a hotel room by a deranged fan in Chicago in 1949. He returned to the field two months later and hit .284 for the 1950 Whiz Kids to earn Comeback Player of the Year. The incident served as the inspiration for the 1952 book The Natural, which was Waitkus' nickname. Robert Redford starred in a movie of the same name in 1984.
Hall of Famer Robin Roberts started seven of the Phillies' final 18 games of the 1950 season, pitching four complete games. He pitched all 10 innings of the season finale when the Phillies won the pennant by beating the Dodgers in Brooklyn on Dick Sisler's three-run homer in the top of the 10th.
A number of future major league managers were Phillies players, including Casey Stengel, Danny Murtaugh and Bob Boone. Twenty-two former Phillies eventually went on to manage the club, including Dallas Green, Larry Bowa, Ryne Sandberg and Pete Mackanin.
Dick Sisler was the manager of the Reds in 1964 when Chico Ruiz stole home in a 1-0 Cincy win that ignited the Phillies' epic collapse. He took over the Reds job when Fred Hutchinson was stricken with lung cancer. Hutchinson died that November and Sisler guided the Reds for two more seasons.
Greasy Neale played 22 games for the Phils in 1921. He served as the Eagles' head coach from 1941-50, winning championships in 1948 and 1949, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969.
Starting pitcher Hugh Mulcahy was the first major leaguer drafted into World War II. Mulcahy, who was 40-76 from 1937-40, had the unfortunate nickname "Losing Pitcher."
The highlight of Jimmy Ring's career was tossing a three-hitter and outdueling Eddie Cicotte to win Game 4 of the 1919 World Series for Cincinnati _ a series that baseball subsequently ruled had been fixed in Cincy's favor, known as the Black Sox Scandal. With the Phillies, Ring was the losing pitcher to Pittsburgh on Aug. 5, 1921 _ the first broadcast of a major league game on radio.
At the ceremony following the 2008 title, Chase Utley boasted to a packed house at Citizens Bank Park that the Phillies were "world (bleepin') champions." Utley hit five home runs in the 2009 World Series to tie Reggie Jackson's record.
Adam Eaton was the losing pitcher in 2007 when the Phillies lost their 10,000th game.
Hedy Lamarr was a beautiful Hollywood actress in the 1940s. Her son-in-law, Larry Colton, pitched two innings for the Phillies in a 1968 game and never pitched in the majors again.
Reliever Larry Andersen would wear masks and atrocious fake teeth while traveling to get a rise out of flight attendants. He pitched in the 1983 and 1993 World Series for the Phils.
There was no more mercurial star in Phillies history than Dick Allen, who was known for hitting 500-foot home runs and for scrawling words into the infield dirt while playing defense. Allen, native Philadelphian and current Mayor Jim Kenney once said, was "our Jackie Robinson ... (except) Allen came along a lot later and spoke his mind."
As enigmas go, Steve Carlton was right there. Lefty won more games (241) than any pitcher in Phillies history. Willie Stargell said trying to hit Carlton's slider was like trying to drink coffee with a fork.
Ryan Howard smashed Mike Schmidt's team record of 48 home runs when he hit 58 in 2006. Five years later, Howard hobbled into the Phillies locker room after a dreadful postseason series against the Cardinals that ended up signaling the end of the most successful era in team history. He had torn his Achilles' tendon making the final out in the last postseason game the Phillies have played. Howard, sensing fans would want to hear his thoughts after going hitless in his final 12 at-bats in the series, insisted on standing while answering reporters' questions.
The story goes that notorious sleepwalker Sherry Magee, a Phillies left fielder from 1904-14, once launched himself out a hotel window while he was dreaming of chasing a flyball.
In 1929, left fielder Lefty O'Doul hit .398 with 32 homers, 122 RBIs and 152 runs scored. After his playing days, he was instrumental in developing baseball's popularity in Japan.
Third baseman Eddie Grant spent four of his 10 major league seasons with the Phillies, including 1909 when he hit .269. He was killed during World War I in the Battle of the Argonne Forest in 1918 and is buried in Romagne, France.
Mike Schmidt's accomplishments: 548 home runs; three-time MVP; led the National League in home runs eight times; selected to 12 All-Star Games; won 10 Gold Gloves; named 1980 World Series MVP. Schmidt was signed for $32,500 in 1971 and bought himself a yellow Corvette.
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