1962 Philadelphia Phillies season
The 1962 Philadelphia Phillies season was the 80th season for the National League franchise. The Phillies finished the season in seventh place in the newly expanded National League with a record of 81–80, a dramatic improvement of games over the 47–107 mark of the previous season. Gene Mauch managed the Phillies, who played their home games at Connie Mack Stadium.
Offseason
- October 10, 1961: 1961 Major League Baseball expansion draft
- *Choo-Choo Coleman was drafted from the Phillies by the New York Mets.
- *Bob Smith was drafted from the Phillies by the New York Mets.
- November 28, 1961: Charley Smith and John Buzhardt were traded by the Phillies to the Chicago White Sox for Roy Sievers.
- Prior to 1962 season: Rubén Gómez was acquired from the Phillies by the Cleveland Indians.
Preseason
The Phillies held spring training in Clearwater, Florida where the team had trained since 1947, and played exhibition games at Jack Russell Stadium.While the Phillies' White players and club officials had been welcome to stay at Clearwater's Jack Tar Harrison Hotel, the Hotel refused service to the team's Black players who boarded in private homes. On March 10, 1962, the Phillies moved their entire team including White and Black players into the Rocky Point Motel located between Clearwater and Tampa.
The Phillies had sold pitcher Robin Roberts to the New York Yankees shortly after the 1961 season. On February 6, 1962, the Phillies announced that Roberts' uniform number 36 would be retired by the team on March 21, 1962, when the Yankees would visit Clearwater to play the Phillies in a spring training game. It was the first uniform number to be retired by the organization and only the second time that a uniform number was retired while the player was still active. Roberts started for the Yankees in the spring game, gave up four runs in three innings, and was the winning pitcher as the Yankees won 13–10.
Regular season
'Phillies Special' Rail Accident
The Pennsylvania Railroad ran a line from Harrisburg to Philadelphia that often carried fans from central Pennsylvania to games at Connie Mack Stadium. It was advertised on Phillies radio broadcasts as the "Phillies Special". At 5:07 PM on July 28, 1962, en route to the Phillies 8:05 PM game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, four cars of Pennsylvania Railroad's Extra 4878 East derailed 3.7 miles east of Harrisburg in Steelton, Pennsylvania. Three of the cars toppled down a 30-foot embankment to the Susquehanna River. There were 19 fatalities and 119 were injured. The following day, on Sunday, July 29, 1962, at Connie Mack, the Phillies honored the victims with a moment of silence prior to the game's start. The Pennsylvania Railroad would later report the track was out of alignment.Opening Day lineup
Tony Taylor, 2BJohnny Callison, RF
Tony González, CF
Roy Sievers, 1B
Wes Covington, LF
Don Demeter, 3B
Clay Dalrymple, C
Rubén Amaro, SS
Art Mahaffey, P
Notable transactions
- September 12, 1962: Johnny Briggs was signed as an amateur free agent by the Phillies.
Player stats
Batting
Starters by position
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in| Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| C | Clay Dalrymple | 123 | 370 | 102 | .276 | 11 | 54 |
| 1B | 144 | 477 | 125 | .262 | 21 | 80 | |
| 2B | Tony Taylor | 152 | 625 | 162 | .259 | 7 | 43 |
| SS | Bobby Wine | 112 | 311 | 76 | .244 | 4 | 25 |
| 3B | Don Demeter | 153 | 550 | 169 | .307 | 29 | 107 |
| LF | Ted Savage | 127 | 335 | 89 | .266 | 7 | 39 |
| CF | Tony González | 118 | 437 | 132 | .302 | 20 | 63 |
| RF | Johnny Callison | 157 | 603 | 181 | .300 | 23 | 83 |
Other batters
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in| Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| Wes Covington | 116 | 304 | 86 | .283 | 9 | 44 |
| Billy Klaus | 102 | 248 | 51 | .206 | 4 | 20 |
| Rubén Amaro Sr. | 79 | 226 | 55 | .243 | 0 | 19 |
| Frank Torre | 108 | 168 | 52 | .310 | 0 | 20 |
| Mel Roach | 65 | 105 | 20 | .190 | 0 | 8 |
| Sammy White | 41 | 97 | 21 | .216 | 2 | 12 |
| Bob Oldis | 38 | 80 | 21 | .263 | 1 | 10 |
| Jacke Davis | 48 | 75 | 16 | .213 | 1 | 6 |
| 6 | 5 | 1 | .200 | 0 | 1 | |
| Bobby Malkmus | 8 | 5 | 1 | .200 | 0 | 0 |
| Billy Consolo | 13 | 5 | 2 | .400 | 0 | 0 |
| Jimmie Coker | 5 | 3 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 1 |
Pitching
Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Art Mahaffey | 41 | 274.0 | 19 | 14 | 3.94 | 177 |
| Dennis Bennett | 31 | 174.2 | 9 | 9 | 3.81 | 149 |
| Cal McLish | 32 | 154.2 | 11 | 5 | 4.25 | 71 |
Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Jack Hamilton | 41 | 182.0 | 9 | 12 | 5.09 | 101 |
| Chris Short | 47 | 142.0 | 11 | 9 | 3.42 | 91 |
| Dallas Green | 37 | 129.1 | 6 | 6 | 3.83 | 58 |
| Jim Owens | 23 | 69.2 | 2 | 4 | 6.33 | 21 |
| Paul Brown | 23 | 63.2 | 0 | 6 | 5.94 | 29 |
| Bill Smith | 24 | 50.1 | 1 | 5 | 4.29 | 26 |
Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts| Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
| 67 | 12 | 7 | 13 | 2.96 | 95 | |
| Frank Sullivan | 19 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6.26 | 12 |
| John Boozer | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.75 | 13 |
| Bobby Locke | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5.74 | 9 |
| Don Ferrarese | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8.10 | 6 |
| Ed Keegan | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.25 | 5 |
Awards and honors
- Gene Mauch, Associated Press NL Manager of the Year
- Robin Roberts, Lou Gehrig Award
All-Stars
1962 Major League Baseball All-Star Game -first game1962 Major League Baseball All-Star Game -second game