I'm really thrilled to have added this circa 1909 snapshot of HOF Charles "Deacon" Phillipe and catcher George Gibson to my collection.
Many thanks to net54's Gary Scamehorn for offering this to me.
Deacon Phillipe hurled a no-hitter in 1899, his 1st season in the ML while he was with Louisville.
Deacon Phillipe has always been a no-hit pitcher that I've had a strong interest in.
His story is actually very interesting.
Although he did not pitch for very many seasons (1899-1911) he was highly thought of as a top quality pitcher with
incredible control.
Voted by the Pittsburgh fans as the greatest right-handed pitcher in Pirates history, Deacon Phillippe may have been the greatest control pitcher ever--his 1.25 walks per nine innings is the lower ratio of anyone who hurled after the modern pitching distance was established in 1893.
His teammate, HOF Honus Wagner, made a statement once that really cinched my interest in his career:
Deacon Phillipe always wanted to hurl against THE BEST pitcher on the opposing team’s roster. The Pirates would routinely shuffle their pitching rotation so that this could happen. Knowing this, look at Phillipe’s remarkable win/loss ratio (189 wins/ 109 losses) in the context of the competition that he always faced.
Deacon Phillipe also pitched in the very first World Series game in 1903 against Cy Young. Phillipe was the starting pitcher in 5 of the 8 games in the 1903 World Series and was the winning pitcher in all of the 3 games that the Pirates won in this WS. Phillipe was the ONLY starting pitcher to pitch in 5 games in any WS in the history of the MLB.