Bill James On The Elderly Phillies

Clipping from 1979

Bill James On The Elderly Phillies

Here’s another small blurb from This Time Let’s Not Eat The Bones. The original source is another Esquire article from 1979:

As you’ve noticed, I like to take pot shots at the King of Sabermetrics. It attracts reader attention, it’s usually not all that time consuming, and I suppose it makes me feel a little bit better about myself. I also know that James likely won’t respond or even read this blog.

However, in this instance, Bill James hit the nail right on the head.

You probably know this already, by the way. If you’ve ever played with any of the Philadelphia Phillies teams from 1978 through 1983 in OOTP, you know that James is right. You know that those Phillies teams consisted of nothing but veterans, nothing but players who should have been past their prime.

Now, Baseball Reference unfortunately doesn’t make this very easy — but we can manage. The 1977 Phillies were an old team, with an average age of just under 30:

Unfortunately, you can only find this average stat under Team Fielding Totals. Baseball Reference also does not show where the average team age ranks in comparison to the rest of the league, which is unfortunate.

The team didn’t get any younger in 1978:

This, of course, is before the Phillies picked up Pete Rose as a free agent. Love him or hate him, you’ve got to agree with me that spending big bucks on a 38 year old probably wasn’t the smartest decision in the world:

The 1979 Phillies finished 4th with an 84-78 record.

Notice, by the way, that the average age of the players who actually had game time was increasing. Rose wound up playing every single game, replacing the 30-year-old Richie Hebner at first base — and this in a game where 30 is usually considered a bit old!

And then comes the famous World Series year:

Jim Kaat, the oldest player, was no longer on the roster — but the average team age didn’t budge. And Rose somehow managed to play 162 games yet again.

And then, despite having a slightly larger number of players and a good looking second baseman named Sandberg, the Phillies somehow got older in 1981:

This was a playoff team, of course, though they were eliminated in the first round of the crazy 1981 playoffs.

Rose hung on in 1982:

Now, don’t scoff too much. The Phillies finished only 3 games behind the Cardinals, and were actually a good team in 1982. Before you laugh at the old men, try a 1982 season replay and see how they do.

And then, finally, came the 1983 edition of the team — a team famous for reaching the World Series despite having numerous players over 35 years old:

Now, I don’t know if the 1983 Phillies set a record for grey hair or what. I do know, however, that this has to be one of the oldest teams in the modern history of the sport. In fact, they were known at the time for their age.

Isn’t it crazy that the Philadelphia Phillies only proceeded to get older after that James blurb was written? And, of course, the truly bizarre thing is the fact that the team was so good. They went to the World Series twice in this span, and reached the playoffs in 4 out of the 6 years. And, like I said, they’re a good bet to beat out the Cardinals in your 1982 replay, though it depends a little bit on the game engine you use.

By the way, things went back to “normal” in 1984:

That team finished a disappointing 81-81, stuck in 4th place.

Finally, if you’re a Phillies fan, you might be interested in seeing how the 1993 team compares:

Part of me wonders if we don’t put too much emphasis on youth. It seems that teams with slightly older players that still have talent do tend to fare well. Though veterans tend to be expensive, I think you could make a good argument that it was money well spent for the Phillies of 1978 to 1983.

What do you think?