Rich Westcott

The Philadelphia Phillies enjoy one of baseball's longest and richest team histories, now in their 138th year of existence. And while championships have been few, there has been no shortage of great players and great achievements for the Phils―from their late 19th century sluggers, to the Cinderella 1950 Whiz Kids, to the superstars of the 1960s and 1970s, to the heroes of their two World Series titles. Legendary Philadelphia sportswriter, Rich Westcott, is uniquely qualified to write Amazing Phillies Feats. Westcott draws from his encyclopedic knowledge of the team to select 33 of the most thrilling, unforgettable, and amazing accomplishments in team history. Each chapter is filled with background on the featured player, funny and insightful quotations―many taken from the author's own interviews―and stats that go beyond what can be found in mainstream references. Read about - Billy Hamilton, the Rickey Henderson of the 1890s, who set the now 126-year-old single-season record for runs scored - Eddie Waitkus, who was shot in a hotel room by a crazed fan―the inspiration for Bernard Malamud's "The Natural"- Richie Ashburn's throw home in 1950 to cut off a Brooklyn run that would have given them the pennant - Jimmy Rollins' team-record 38-game hitting streak- Chase Utley becoming the second player ever to blast 5 home runs in a World Series - Roy Halladay's 2 no-hit games in one season Westcott uses his storytelling gift to weave together informative, entertaining, and affection-filled jaunts through the greatest highlights from Phillies history that Phanatics will love and other fans will appreciate and learn from.

“The best all-around catcher in black baseball history”-Cumberland Posey, Owner of the Homestead GraysNational Baseball Hall of Fame catcher James Raleigh “Biz” Mackey’s professional career spanned nearly three decades in the Negro Leagues and elsewhere. He distinguished himself as a defensive catcher who also had an impressive batting average and later worked as a manager of the Newark Eagles and the Baltimore Elite Giants. Using archival materials and interviews with former Negro League players, baseball historian Rich Westcott chronicles the catcher’s life and remarkable career in Biz Mackey, a Giant behind the Plate as well as providing an in-depth look at Philadelphia Negro League history. Westcott traces Mackey’s childhood in Texas as the son of sharecroppers to his success on the baseball diamond where he displayed extraordinary defensive skills and an exceptional ability to hit and to handle pitchers. Mackey spent one third of his career playing in Philadelphia, winning championships with the Hilldale Daisies and the Philadelphia Stars. Mackey also mentored famed catcher Roy Campanella and had an unlikely role in the story of baseball’s development in Japan. A celebrated ballplayer before African Americans were permitted to join Major League Baseball, Biz Mackey ranks as one of the top catchers ever to play the game. With Biz Mackey, he finally gets the biography he deserves.

“The best all-around catcher in black baseball history”-Cumberland Posey, Owner of the Homestead GraysNational Baseball Hall of Fame catcher James Raleigh “Biz” Mackey’s professional career spanned nearly three decades in the Negro Leagues and elsewhere. He distinguished himself as a defensive catcher who also had an impressive batting average and later worked as a manager of the Newark Eagles and the Baltimore Elite Giants. Using archival materials and interviews with former Negro League players, baseball historian Rich Westcott chronicles the catcher’s life and remarkable career in Biz Mackey, a Giant behind the Plate as well as providing an in-depth look at Philadelphia Negro League history. Westcott traces Mackey’s childhood in Texas as the son of sharecroppers to his success on the baseball diamond where he displayed extraordinary defensive skills and an exceptional ability to hit and to handle pitchers. Mackey spent one third of his career playing in Philadelphia, winning championships with the Hilldale Daisies and the Philadelphia Stars. Mackey also mentored famed catcher Roy Campanella and had an unlikely role in the story of baseball’s development in Japan. A celebrated ballplayer before African Americans were permitted to join Major League Baseball, Biz Mackey ranks as one of the top catchers ever to play the game. With Biz Mackey, he finally gets the biography he deserves.

Since the start of the twentieth century, Philadelphia’s professional teams in four major sports have won a combined total of seventeen championships. All of Philadelphia’s current teams?the Phillies in baseball, the Eagles in football, the Flyers in ice hockey, and the 76ers in basketball?have won championships. The list of champs also includes long-gone teams such as the Athletics in baseball, the Warriors in basketball, and the Frankford Yellow Jackets in football. In Rich Westcott’s The Champions of Philadelphia, each of these teams earns a chapter devoted to its championship season. There are detailed descriptions of the games and players, plus noteworthy interviews. Starting with teams from the 1940s, Westcott has interviewed more than fifty players, managers, coaches, and others, including luminaries such as Mike Schmidt, Chuck Bednarik, and Bobby Clarke. The City of Brotherly Love is also a city that loves its champions. Westcott’s in-depth account of Philadelphia’s athletic triumphs will attract fans of each of the four active professional teams. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports?books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Philadelphia’s Top Fifty Baseball Players takes a look at the greatest players in Philadelphia baseball history from the earliest days in 1830 through the Negro Leagues and into the modern era. Their ranks include batting champions, home run kings, Most Valuable Players, Cy Young Award winners, and Hall of Famers-from Ed Delahanty, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Roy Campanella, Mike Schmidt, and Ryan Howard to Negro League stars Judy Johnson and Biz Mackey and other Philadelphia standouts such as Richie Ashburn, Dick Allen, Chuck Klein, Eddie Collins, and Reggie Jackson. For each player the book highlights memorable incidents and accomplishments and, above all, his place in Philadelphia’s rich baseball tradition.

Since 1883, the Philadelphia Phillies have been up, down, and all around. Most recently, thanks to Charlie Manuel, the Phillies have become a National League powerhouse, with four NL East titles, two pennants and the 2008 World Series championship to show for it. In Tales from the Philadelphia Phillies Dugout Rich Westcott takes readers behind the scenes into the glorious, quirky, and victorious stories that make this team the legend it is.

The first full-length study of Eddie Gottlieb, a pioneering player, coach, owner, and entrepreneur in basketball and baseball

Veterans Stadium was the outdoor sports and concert capital of Philadelphia from 1971 until its televised demolition in 2004. At its best, \u0022The Vet\u0022 spawned two of the greatest moments in the city's sports history-Tug McGraw's 1980 strikeout of Willie Wilson to win the World Series and the Eagles thrashing of the Dallas Cowboys to clinch their first Super Bowl bid. At its worst, it saw fans pelt Santa Claus with snowballs and the opening of an in-stadium branch of Philadelphia municipal court to deal with rowdy Eagles fans. Part of a look-alike generation of all-purpose stadiums erected around the country, the Vet took on its own personality over the years. For all its deficiencies, it left fans loving it in the way they loved their own families-warts and all. Almost 100 photographs and Rich Westcott's yarns make Veterans Stadium the one book that will help Philadelphians-and Philadelphia visitors-remember thirty years of their history.

Reggie Jackson (Wyncote). Roy Campanella (Philadelphia). Pat Kelly (also Philadelphia). From the most famous to the little known, 350 major league baseball players came from the Philadelphia area. Now, for the first time, celebrated baseball historian Rich Westcott brings these \u0022native sons\u0022 home. In this short book, Westcott offers profiles of some of the most celebrated, talented, and often just hardest-working athletes to ever lift a bat and glove in major league baseball. He tells of the athletes like Mr. October, who were born here and went away, and others, like Kensington-born Jimmie Wilson, who became a star in his own hometown. Throughout Native Sons, Westcott recounts the startling careers of some incredible players, and recreates for readers the magical place they all called home. Rich Westcott's Philadelphia All-Star Team: &&LI&&Reggie Jackson (Wyncote) &&/LI&& &&LI&&Goose Goslin (Salem, NJ) &&/LI&& &&LI&&Del Ennis (Philadelphia) &&/LI&& &&LI&&Mickey Vernon (Marcus Hook) &&/LI&& &&LI&&Eddie Stanky (Philadelphia) &&/LI&& &&LI&&Jimmy Dykes (Philadelphia) &&/LI&& &&LI&&Buck Weaver (Pottstown) &&/LI&& &&LI&&Roy Campanella (Philadelphia) &&/LI&& &&LI&&Bucky Walters (Philadelphia) &&/LI&& &&LI&&Herb Pennock (Kennett Square) &&/LI&& &&LI&&Ray Narleski (Camden, NJ) &&/LI&& &&LI&&Eddie Miksis (Burlington, NJ)&&/LI&& &&/UL&&

Since the beginning of major league baseball, more than 12,000 pitchers have thrown from the mound. Of them, only twenty have reached the ultimate goal of their profession: to be a 300-game winner. Rich Westcott, celebrated sports historian and journalist, offers in "Winningest Pitchers" profiles of each of those twenty pitchers, including Cy Young, Gaylord Perry, and Nolan Ryan. In small biographies, photographs, and stats, we gain a full picture of each of these rare players whose combined greatness contributes to baseball's continued importance to American athletic life. Author note: Rich Westcott has some idea of what it's like to stand on the mound and face an opposing hitter, having been a pitcher himself before it became apparent that his fingers were more useful pounding keyboards than gripping baseballs. He is the author of 12 previous, including, most recently, "Great Home Runs of the 20th Century" and "A Century of Philadelphia Sports", both published by Temple. His career as a writer and editor has covered forty years, and he is the founder and for fourteen years served as editor and publisher of Phillies Report. Westcott lives in Springfield, Pennsylvania.

What was Philadelphia's first National Hockey League team? A hint: No, it wasn't the Flyers. What Philadelphia-area tennis star survived the sinking of the Titanic? A hint: He was ranked number one in 1916. Which baseball sluggers, one from the Phillies and one from the Athletics, won triple crowns in their respective leagues in the same year? A hint: The year was 1933. If you got even one right answer, you're a winner, or you've already read A Century of Philadelphia Sports. Philadelphia-area athletes have taken home thirty big league home run crowns and twelve NBA scoring titles. The area is home to five Indianapolis 500 winners, five Sullivan Award winners, four Heisman Trophy recipients, and a two-time U. S. Open champion. Not to mention Rube Waddell, the A's Hall of Fame pitcher who would sometimes leave the ballpark in the middle of a game to chase fire trucks. And they're all here in this groundbreaking book. Unprecedented in its breadth and sweep, A Century of Philadelphia Sports covers the big-time teams and events but also amateur and college sports. Here you will relive the glory days of Penn football and Bobby Jones's completion of the Grand Slam at Merion, the Eagle's defeat of the Packers in the NFL championship game and the Phillie's World Series championship in 1980, the popularity of soccer in the early part of the century and of fast-pitch softball in the latter half. You will visit Baker Bowl, Pine Valley, and Garden State Park and cheer on your favorites in the Penn Relays, the Big 5, and the Army-Navy game. You will also recall such low points as Connie Mack's penchant for selling off winning teams, the college basketball point-shaving scandal of 1961, the Palestra bomb scare. Did you answer two or even all three of the questions correctly? You will still have fun rediscovering your favorite teams and events and arguing over Rich Westcott's choice of each decade's top athlete. The nineties produced such outstanding athletes as the Flyers' Eric Lindros, the 76ers' Allen Iverson, the Phillies' Curt Schilling, jocky Tony Black, and basketball star Dawn Staley. You will meet all of them in these pages, as well as Westcott's top pick for the decade -- golfer Jay Sigel. Maybe you will even learn something new. Oh, yes, the answers are: the Philadelphia Quakers, in 1930; Dick Williams; Chuck Klein (the Phillies) and Jimmie Foxx (the A's).

Baseball author and historian Rich Westcott brings together 35 intimate interviews and personal profiles of the game's legends from the post-war era. The lineup includes Warren Spahn and Monte Irvin on his experiences during the desegregation period.

"An old ballpark has an allure that cannot be dismissed. It evokes warm memories while suggesting another era when baseball was a kinder, gentler game. One cannot simply forget it. It's grip is far to strong."

Relive the Phillies 1993 experience