Roberts recalls last Phils, Yanks series
SPRINGFIELD – Robin Roberts doesn’t always remember the birthdays of his children, but if you ask the Hall of Fame pitcher and 1944 Lanphier High School graduate about the 1950 World Series …
“I remember all the games I pitched like that,” the 83-year-old Roberts said Tuesday afternoon by phone from New York, where he is doing some public relations for the Philadelphia Phillies in a reprise of the 1950 World Series against the Yankees. “I remember things about other games, pitch by pitch, inning by inning.
“It’s silly. I can’t remember my kids’ birthdays, but I remember that other stuff. They get on me for that.”
The Phillies and Yankees face off in this year’s World Series, the first time the two teams have met in the World Series since 1950.
But 1950 is just minutes away in Roberts’ memory.
“We worked hard to get there,” Roberts said. “We almost blew it. We had a 7½-game lead. We were happy we ended up there. We won (the National League pennant) on Sunday, and the World Series started Wednesday.
“And then the damn Yankees pitched like mad against us. They beat us 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 and then in the fourth game Whitey Ford got his first World Series win, 5-2.”
As they say, you can look it up.
Because Roberts had to pitch so often in the final week of the regular season, Phillies manager Eddie Sawyer used relief ace Jim Konstanty – the 1950 Cy Young Award winner – as his Game 1 starter. Vic Raschi pitched a two-hitter in a 1-0 New York win.
It was Roberts’ turn in Game 2 against Allie Reynolds.
“We went into the ninth inning 1-1, and we had runners on first and second and one out,” Roberts remembered. “Mike Goliat hit a double-play ball. (Joe) DiMaggio hit a homer off me in the 10th and they won 2-1.”
They were the “Whiz Kids” in 1950, an improbable National League champion with youth on their side. Roberts was 24. Future fellow Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn was 23. Roberts’ longtime friend Curt Simmons was 21. But that 1950 World Series appearance was Philadelphia’s last until 1980.
“We did,” Roberts said when asked if he and his teammates thought 1950 was going to be the first of many World Series experiences. “But I remember my wife Mary, who passed away five years ago – that was the first year of our marriage and she went to the World Series – years later saying she thought we were doing this every year, and we never did do it again.”
