{"id":485,"date":"2008-05-31T13:56:53","date_gmt":"2008-05-31T20:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/31\/performance-not-timing-should-be-lieberthal%e2%80%99s-legacy-in-philadelphia\/"},"modified":"2008-05-31T14:02:26","modified_gmt":"2008-05-31T21:02:26","slug":"performance-not-timing-should-be-lieberthal%e2%80%99s-legacy-in-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/31\/performance-not-timing-should-be-lieberthal%e2%80%99s-legacy-in-philadelphia\/","title":{"rendered":"Performance Not Timing Should Be Lieberthal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Legacy in Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, former Phillies catcher Mike Lieberthal will spend one more day as a Philadelphia Phillie then retire.\u00c2\u00a0 After spending 13 of his 14 seasons in Philadelphia and starting more games at catcher than any other Phillie (1,139), the Phillies plan to sign him to a ceremonial one-day contract, have him throw out the first ball and officially retire from baseball.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite the warm reception Lieby will get from the fans in the place he refers to as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153second home\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, it would be surprising if he were recognized as the greatest catcher in the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history.\u00c2\u00a0 However, Lieberthal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s numbers make a strong case for him to lay claim to the title.<\/p>\n

Of all the catchers that crouched behind the plate for the Fightin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Phils, only seven catchers have started the majority of five seasons \u00e2\u20ac\u201c- Mike Lieberthal, Darren Daulton, Bob Boone, Clay Dalrymple, Andy Seminick, Bill Killefer and Red Dooin.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his 13 seasons with the Phillies, Lieberthal put up some solid numbers.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, those seasons came from 1994-2006.\u00c2\u00a0 A first-round pick by the Phillies in 1990, Lieby\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first year in the league came one season after their National League Pennant and his last year in a Phillies uniform came one season before their return to the playoffs in 2007.\u00c2\u00a0 Talk about bad timing.<\/p>\n

Compared to the other six players who have played at least five seasons as the starter behind the plate, Lieberthal is the leader in most categories.\u00c2\u00a0 Looking at just their statistics with the Phillies, Lieberthal had more hits (1,137), runs scored (528), RBI (609), doubles (255), home runs (150), batting average (.275), slugging percentage (.450) and OPS (.788).<\/p>\n

In addition, Lieberthal played in two All-Star games , became the sixth catcher in Major League history to hit .300 and 30 home runs in 1999 and won a Gold Glove.\u00c2\u00a0 Only Bob Boone and Darren Daulton played in more All-Star games (three each) and Boone won two Gold Gloves while playing for the Phillies.<\/p>\n

While Lieberthal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time as the Phillies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 backstop was marked by the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disappointing performance and a fan base that turned on its owners and players for their inability to deliver a playoff appearance for over a decade, most of the other catchers played for teams that were successful during their tenure at some point.<\/p>\n

Killefer played from 1911-1917 and started 105 games in 1915, the Phillies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 first World Series appearance.\u00c2\u00a0 Seminick was a member of the Whiz Kids, the team that lost in the 1950 World Series to the Yankees.\u00c2\u00a0 Boone played for the Phillies during their most successful stretch.\u00c2\u00a0 In his ten seasons with the Phillies, the team won the NL East five times and brought home the first World Series Championship in 1980.\u00c2\u00a0 Daulton was a September call-up during the 1983 season (another World Series loss) and a member of the beloved Macho Row team that lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in the \u00e2\u20ac\u212293 World Series.<\/p>\n

Offensively, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tough to make a case for anyone but Lieberthal as the best offensive catcher in Phillies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 history.\u00c2\u00a0 On the defensive side, the nod has to go to Boone but he was better defensively after he left Philadelphia and Lieberthal was strong behind the plate as well.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, Lieby and those who played with him during that stretch will be better remembered for their team’s futility rather than their actual personal performance.<\/p>\n

\"philliescatchers.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, former Phillies catcher Mike Lieberthal will spend one more day as a Philadelphia Phillie then retire.\u00c2\u00a0 After spending 13 of his 14 seasons in Philadelphia and starting more games at catcher than any other Phillie (1,139), the Phillies plan to sign him to a ceremonial one-day contract, have him throw out the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}