My Phillies' Question of the Day

My question of the day relates to the famous (infamous?) "countdown to 10,000 losses" here in the City of Brotherly Loss, I mean, Love...

Who is the losing-est Phillie of all time?

I figure there must be some poor shlub who got stuck playing for the Phils in the 30's for like 10 years and was subsequently a part of the most losses ever in Phillies' history for one player. Trivia buffs and statisticians, help me out!

Stand Out from the Crowd: A Marketing Lesson from Zorro

In my other (new and equally remarkable!) blog, Philly Sports Quest, I referenced a story about a Phillies game I went to about 10 years ago at the late, great Veterans Stadium. To summarize, the gist of the story pertained to a rather unusual guy who dressed in an outfit that looked like Zorro and walked by himself around the circular walkway the entire game. I, along with many others, was thoroughly impressed by the fact that he would have the idea and the wherewithall to pull off this mini-stunt, so my friends and I and other fans around us cheered for him every time he walked by.

Well, in my humble opinion, having worked in marketing for a couple of years, I must say that that's some excellent marketing right there.

Generally the way marketing works is a person/company/organization tries to find a way to interrupt a person's day with a brief message about said person/company/organization in order to encourage you to do business with same person/company/organization. You, as an innocent bystander (aka- target audience), didn't necessarily ask for that message to be brought into your life, but for a brief moment... there it is. You can choose to either tune it out or act upon it in some way. And so marketing is measured in how many people act upon your message. But I digress.

Getting back to Zorro... this guy interrupted the game I was watching by walking in front of me and catching my attention, multiple times during the game. Thousands of other people undoubtedly walked in front of me that game, but I have no recollection of any of them. Only Zorro. And that was roughly 10 years ago. He found a way to stand out from the "clutter" of other "interruptions", and leave an indellible mark in my memory. He even found a way to grow his own fan base-- the ultimate mark of a successful brand. And he did all this without a massive budget, or even having to say a word, or brandish a word or logo on his body.

That's how you market right there.

Steve Jeltz: All-Time Unsung Hero

Any true Philadelphia Phillies fan who is worth his/her weight in gold knows the legend of former shortstop Steve Jeltz.

For those who don't know who he is, you probably missed, well, not a whole lot during his career. Or maybe you did. In fact, I hereby proclaim Steve Jeltz to be the most unsung hero for all things baseball. Take a look at the following points and try and tell me why Steve Jeltz wasn't one of the most unique baseball players of all time and why he doesn't deserve more recognition than he ever got (from whom? I don't know, but just play along!)...

• Name another baseball player other than former teammate Juan Samuel who sported jerri curls and managed to not have his hat or helmet slip off of his head constantly. Didn't think so. (Okay, that was just a fun warm up question. Let's get a little bit more challenging...)
  
• Name another baseball player who was born in France. 0 for 2. (If you said Bruce Bochy, I will personally cook you a French toast breakfast.)
  
• Name another baseball player who hit two home runs from each side of the plate... after his team had given up TEN RUNS in the first inning. You're now 0 for 3.
• Name another baseball player who played 148 games in one year (1988), and hit the "homicide number" batting average (.187) . Keep trying.
• Name another baseball player who hit a lifetime batting average under Mario Mendoza (who is notoriously synonomous for consistently hitting right around .200 year after year; also known as "the Mendoza line"), yet still made over ONE MILLION DOLLARS during his career. Can't think of anybody? I figured as much.
• Since I know you're getting frustrated by this difficult challenge, I'll end it with this one. Name another baseball player whose debut appearance came when he replaced Pete Rose in a game. I kid you not.
  

I don't know about you, but these are some pretteeeee, prettteeeee, pretttteeeeee impressive facts. And I don't know about you, but I still can't believe Steve Jeltz earned over one million bucks for being perhaps the most statistically invisible and insignificant player in team history. Wow.

P.S.-- Much thanks to Baseball-Reference.com for the amazing stats and recordkeeping. I just wish all sites were as detailed this one is, not to mention free to the public. Well done guys!