100 Greatest Phillies: 67 – Al Orth

Al Orth
Starting Pitcher
1895-1901

Career w/Phillies: 1504.2 IP / 100-72 / 3.49 ERA / 359 K

Al Orth was “The Curveless Wonder,” as he was believed never to have thrown a curveball in his career. He changed speeds on his fastball to get hitters out; moreover, he barely walked people: In his seven seasons, Orth walked just 314. He also didn’t strike out many; still, Orth was pretty successful, regularly among league leaders in shutouts and walks per nine.

Comment: The numbers don’t lie — Orth was a good pitcher. And he threw alot, averaging over 210 innings per season. Amazing how he threw almost nothing but fastballs and sustained a solid career. But those were the days, evidently.

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.