Best of the Worst

Talking with author/outfielder Danny Litwhiler, star of the dreadful 1942 Phillies.

by Andrew Milner

In an era before today's stat-hungry media, Litwhiler's streak "didn't get attention until the end," he said in a telephone interview from his Tampa home. "With about three weeks to go (in the season), it became a topic to talk about." The errorless streak almost came to a halt that September in New York, when Litwhiler misplayed a ball hit into a puddle by Giants star Johnny Mize. Years later, Litwhiler learned that Mize, batting .299 at the time, went to the official scorer after the game and demanded he get credit for a base hit. Litwhiler's 1942 outfielder's glove is on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

FLAWLESS: Danny Litwhiler during his glory days.

Litwhiler, who turned 90 on Aug. 31, tells the story of his baseball days both as a major leaguer and as a college coach in his just-published memoir Danny Litwhiler: Living the Baseball Dream (Temple University Press). The native of Pennsylvania Dutch country (he's from Ringtown) never played for the rival Philadelphia Athletics (back when Philadelphia had two teams), but will take part in the 15th annual A's Society Breakfast Reunion, signing autographs and selling his book. In it he describes growing up a fan of Phillies Hall of Fame right fielder Chuck Klein: "He would bang out home runs in old Baker Bowl. I would read about him in the sport pages and listen to him in games on the radio." Litwhiler roomed with the veteran Klein during his rookie season in 1940.

While many players on a last-place team might welcome a trade to a contender, Litwhiler said that at first he "hated" being traded to the pennant-winning St. Louis Cardinals in June 1943. "The way they had good players, I might be sent to the minor leagues." But Cardinals manager Billy Southworth recalled a Phils-Cardinals game where Litwhiler had crashed into St. Louis catcher Walker Cooper, knocking himself unconscious while scoring the go-ahead run. "If you could do that on a last-place team," Southworth reassured Litwhiler, "you can do that on a first-place club." He won two pennants in St. Louis, and in 1944 played against the St. Louis Browns in the World Series, where he homered in Game 5.

Litwhiler's post-playing career was equally illustrious; he was the baseball coach at Florida State University from 1954 to 1963, and then coached at Michigan State University until 1983. Among the college players he mentored were Steve Garvey, Kirk Gibson and the late Kansas City Royals manager Dick Howser. Litwhiler made his most lasting contribution to the game at MSU in 1974 when he recalibrated a sheriff's radar gun to measure the speed of pitches. He brought the idea to Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. "I told him I didn't want any one team to have the gun," he wrote, "but rather I wanted every professional and amateur team to have the same opportunity to use it."

"I never intended to write the book," Litwhiler admitted over the phone, but said he was persuaded by co-writer Jim Sargent (a Michigan State graduate). Litwhiler said he hoped his grandchildren and great-grandchildren would enjoy it. "I thought it would be great for them."

As for the notoriously fickle Phillies rooters — "I thought they were excellent, those we had. We didn't have many." (The '42 Phils attracted just 230,183 fans to Shibe Park; one September game against the Reds drew 393 customers.) But Litwhiler quickly adds, "I understand some players on the opposing teams had trouble with them ...and the umpires had trouble with them."

(a_milner@citypaper.net)