“Hide the women and children.” This was the warning of an Atlanta newspaper in 1993 when the Phillies came to town to play the Braves. By all accounts, they had good reason to warn. The 1993 Phillies were, by their own words, “a bunch of hard-partying, hard-drinking children”.They were also as good as any team in baseball. They were a blue-collared group of misfits that came out of nowhere to be one of baseball’s elite. They conquered the team of the 90s in the NLCS, and then came one giant swing away from forcing a Game 7 against the reigning World Champs. This team had absolutely no reason to be this good. Nobody on their roster ever won an MVP or a Cy Young, and no ‘93 Phillies made the Hall of Fame. They hadn't made the Postseason since 1983, and wouldn’t make it again until 2007. It was the only season from 1987 to 2000 where the Phillies even finished over .500. This is the story of the greatest one-hit wonder in baseball history. This is the story of the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies.
Terms to know:
• AVG: Batting Average - percentage of at-bats in which a player gets a hit
• OBP: On-Base Percentage - percentage of plate appearances in which a player gets on base
• SLG: Slugging Percentage - in essence, total bases per at bat
• OPS: On-Base Plus Slugging - the sum of OBP and SLG
• OPS+: a park and era adjusted version of OPS, where 100 is league average
• WAR: Wins Above Replacement - player's value, in wins, relative to a "replacement-level" player at his position
Further reading:
• Many of the stories from this video came from the book, “Macho Row”, by William C. Kashatus. For anyone that is interested in learning more about the 1993 Phillies, I would recommend reading that book.
• https://www.phillymag.com/news/2012/03/27/fat-drunk-and-endearing-a-look-at-the-93-phillies-season/