100 Greatest Phillies: 73 – Dutch Leonard

Dutch Leonard
Starting Pitcher
1947-1948

Career w/Phillies: 460.2 IP / 29-29 / 2.59 ERA / 195 K

Leonard gave the Phillies two of the franchise’s best pitching seasons ever. And then he was gone, like a myst. Leonard – the younger of the two Dutch Leonards – has said to be the inventer of the knuckleball. And he used that pitch while throwing for the Phillies, recording a 29-29 record over those two seasons. But while his record was mediocre (he pitched for a team that went a combined 128-180), his ERA was beyond fantastic, posting 2.68 and 2.51 marks in his two campaigns. He also walked only 737 batters in his 20-year career. Not too shabby.

Comment: Leonard may have pitched just two years in Philadelphia, but his two seasons were very, very good, finishing 13th place in MVP voting in 1947. And if he really invented the knuckleball … wow. Good for him.

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.