The Main Event
- June 22, 2010 – Jamie Moyer gives up a home run to Cleveland’s Russell Branyan. It was the 505th home run he had yielded in his career, tying him with Robin Roberts for most ever. It was also the only run he gave up in eight innings and he earned the victory.
Jamie Moyer‘s career is one of the most improbable in baseball history, not because of what he did, but because of how long he managed to do it. Born in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, and raised in nearby Souderton, Moyer grew up a die-hard Phillies fan who went so far as to skip school in 1980 to attend the team’s World Series victory parade. He starred at Souderton High School and went on to St. Joseph’s University, where he still holds program records, before the Cubs took him in the sixth round of the 1984 draft. He debuted on June 16, 1986, against the Phillies, and in a moment of poetic foreshadowing, beat his boyhood idol, Steve Carlton, for his first career win.
Moyer’s early career was a struggle. He bounced from the Cubs to the Rangers to the Cardinals, and was out of affiliated ball entirely for parts of the early 1990s before catching on with Baltimore. By 1993, a Sporting News blurb described him as simply “fighting to keep his career alive.” The turning point came with Seattle in 1996, when Moyer was already 33 years old. Over the next decade with the Mariners, he won 145 games, made his only All-Star team in 2003, and twice won 20 games in a season, establishing himself as the franchise’s all-time wins leader.
Coming Home to Philadelphia
In August 2006, the Mariners traded Moyer to the Phillies, fulfilling a childhood dream. He won his Phillies debut and went 5-2 down the stretch as the team narrowly missed the playoffs. The Phillies signed him to a two-year extension that October, and Moyer rewarded them by helping anchor the rotation during the franchise’s golden era. In 2007, he helped clinch the NL East on the final day of the season, outdueling Tom Glavine while the Mets collapsed. The signature moment came in 2008, when at age 45, Moyer went 16-7 with a 3.71 ERA and started Game 3 of the World Series against Tampa Bay, exiting with a lead the Phillies never relinquished in their championship-clinching run. He later said he pitched through a severe stomach virus that night. After the parade, his teammates dug up the Citizens Bank Park pitching rubber and gave it to him as a keepsake.
Moyer kept pitching well past the point when most expected him to retire. He won 21 games combined in 2009 and 2010, including throwing a complete-game shutout against Atlanta at 47 years old, making him the oldest pitcher ever to do so and the first to throw a shutout across four different decades. His final Phillies win in the 2006 season made him the oldest pitcher to ever win a game for the franchise.
Survival Without a Radar Gun
What separates Moyer from nearly every other pitcher of his era is that he built a 25-year, 269-win career almost entirely without velocity. His fastball routinely sat in the low-to-mid 80s, and by 2007 he was averaging just 81.1 mph, the slowest of any NL starter. Instead, Moyer weaponized changeups, cutters, and location, constantly disrupting hitters’ timing by varying speeds rather than overpowering them. As he explained it, the difference between an 85 mph fastball and a 75 mph changeup disrupts a hitter’s eye level just as effectively as the gap between 95 and 85. The tradeoff was command-dependent survival: when he missed locations, hitters punished him, which is part of why he retired holding the all-time MLB record for home runs allowed, with 522. But his preparation, pitch sequencing, and devotion to the mental side of pitching, credited heavily to the influence of sports psychologist Harvey Dorfman, let him outlast hitters decades younger. By his final season in 2012, more than 260 active major leaguers had been born after his 1986 debut.
Moyer’s career totals are staggering for a pitcher never regarded as dominant: 269 wins, 2,441 strikeouts, over 4,000 innings pitched, and a win against all 30 major league franchises. In 2012, pitching for Colorado after Tommy John surgery, he became the oldest pitcher in MLB history to win a game at 49 years old, then later broke his own record. He’s one of only three pitchers ever to win more than 100 games after turning 40, joining Phil Niekro and Jack Quinn.
Life After the Mound
Moyer retired in 2013, announcing it on NPR’s Fresh Air, where he also revealed plans to launch the Moyer Pitching Academy as a tribute to Dorfman. He briefly joined the Phillies’ broadcast booth alongside Matt Stairs in 2014 before stepping away after one season to spend more time with his family. He and his wife Karen also founded the Moyer Foundation, which runs Camp Erin, a network of grief camps for children who’ve lost loved ones, named for a young fan named Erin Metcalf who Moyer had befriended. He appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2018 but didn’t receive enough votes to remain eligible, a result that, fittingly for a player who built his career by exceeding expectations, did little to diminish how fondly Phillies fans remember him.
Philadelphia Baseball Events for June 22
- June 22, 1944 – In the first game of the day, Ron Northey‘s home run in the 15th inning gave the Phils a 1-0 victory over Boston, and made Northey the first Phillie to deliver an extra-inning game’s only run with a round-tripper. In the nightcap, Boston’s Jim Toubin holds the Phils hitless for five innings in a came called on account of darkness.
- June 22, 1962 – The Phillies give up a home run and three singles to Stan Musial while splitting a double-header with St. Louis. The hits move Musial past Ty Cobb for the all-time lead in total bases.
- June 22, 1963 – Philadelphia CF Tony Gonzalez plays his 200th straight errorless game to help rookie Ray Culp beat Roger Craig and the Mets, 2-0.
- June 22, 1966 – Purchased Billy Cowan from the Chicago Cubs. Cowan played in the minors in 1966, but spent time with the Phillies as a utility player in 1967. In 34 games, he hit .153, but did deliver three home runs.
- June 22, 1967 – Traded Dick Groat to San Francisco for cash. The Phillies had acquired Groat in the December 1965 trade along with Bob Eucker and Bill White. In 1966, Groat played in 155 games at short and third and hit .260/.311/.320/.631 with the Phillies.
- June 22, 1982 – Pete Rose‘s double moved him to second place on the career hit list with 3,772. Rose’s hit drove in Ivan DeJesus to tie the game, but the Phils lost anyway 3-2.
- June 22, 2007 – Signed pitcher J.C. Romero to a minor-league contract. Juan Carlos Romero pitched five seasons with the Phillies as part of a 14-year major league career. With the Phillies, Romero was 6-6 with a 2.73 ERA in 237 relief appearances.
- June 22, 2023 – Traded Dalton Guthrie to San Francisco for cash considerations. The Phillies had drafted Guthrie in the sixth round of the 2017 Draft. Over parts of two seasons (2022-2023), Guthrie played in 34 games with the Phillies and hit .244/.393/.333/.726. He never did play in the majors for San Francisco.
Sign up for a free subscription and get our weekly newsletter delivered to your inbox. Or, sign up for a paid subscription ($5 per month/$45 per year) and get deeper coverage of the Phillies and their minor league affiliates.
Philadelphia Baseball Birthdays for June 22
- Mike Anderson (born 1951) – Drafted by the Philies in the first round of the 1969 Draft, Anderson had two stints with the Phillies (1971-1975, 1979). He hit .246/.317/.343/.659 as a Phillie and also played for St. Louis and Baltimore between his times in Philadelphia.
- David Victorino (born 2007) – Signed as an international free agent this past January, Victorino is with the DSL Phillies and in five relief outings has a 15.88 ERA. His first three outings resulted in 10 earned runs in 2.1 innings, but he has not allowed an earned run in his last 3.1 innings.
Scroll down and leave your thoughts on the following question in the comments: Should Jamie Moyer Be In The Hall of Fame?
Please scroll down to comment on this story or to give it a rating. We appreciate your feedback!
Disclaimer: Some of the products featured or linked on this website may generate income for Philly Baseball News through affiliate commissions, sponsorships, or direct sales. We only promote items we believe in, but please assume that PBN may earn a cut from qualifying purchases that you make using a link on this site.
© 2026 LV Sports Media. All rights reserved.
