100 Greatest Phillies: 60 – Ron Northey

Ron Northey
Outfielder
1942-1947, 1957

Career w/Phillies: .268 AVG / 60 HR / 276 RBI / 7 SB

An above-average hitter for his Phillies career, Northey twice finished in the top 30 in MVP voting, leading some poor Philadelphia Blue Jays teams, which were grooming better hitters for the show. He slugged 22 home runs and drove in 104 for the 1944 Phillies, while driving in more than 60 three more times – which at the time was a highly respectable total. He also holds the major league record for grand slams as a pinch hitter (three). Traded to the Reds for Harry Walker, Northey would return to the Phils to finish his career in 1957.

Comment: The best hitter on some poor Phils teams before the Whiz Kids came in, Northey doesn’t get appropriate dues. He was powerful, and did all he could to drive in runs, but runs were hard to come by during those years.

Tim Malcolm

Tim first found the Phillies as a little infant at Veteran’s Stadium, cheering on a Juan Samuel game-winning home run in his very first game. With the pinstripes in his blood, he witnessed Terry Mulholland’s 1990 no-hitter, “Steve Carlton Night” at the Vet, game three of the 1993 World Series, countless games during the charmed 2008 championship season and various road excursions. Since November 2007 Tim’s been writing about them daily at Phillies Nation, becoming one of the world’s most popular Phillies scribes. You can catch him on Twitter and Facebook, as well. When he’s not talking about the Phils he’s relaxing with a St. Bernardus ABT 12 or one of his many favored brews.