100 Greatest Phillies: 52 – Roy Thomas

Roy Thomas
Outfielder
1899-1908, 1910-1911

Career w/Phillies: .294 AVG / 6 HR / 264 RBI / 228 SB

Born in Norristown, he played almost all of his career with his hometown team. Then he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. And for much of 11 seasons, Roy Thomas was among the top offensive players in baseball. He was top 10, National League, in on-base percentage nine times (28th all time), batting average three times and runs eight times. Thomas was the consummate leadoff hitter, stealing almost 20 bases per season and reaching 100 walks seven times. And amazingly, he is the only major league regular to score three times as much as he’s driven in. Pretty perfect as a leadoff hitter.

Comment: A very early star, Thomas is too overlooked to be considered one of the greatest leadoff hitters of all time by most experts, but he probably was. He walked a lot. He stole a lot of bases. He hit a lot of singles. Then he scored runs. A great player.

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.