July 2: A Brooklyn Ace Becomes a Phillies Pitching Guru

The Main Event

• July 2, 1962 – Johnny Podres of the Dodgers fans eight straight Phils, tying a modern record and winning the first game of a doubleheader 5-1. The Phillies also lost the second game, fanning a total of 19 times between the two.

Johnny Podres built one of baseball’s most memorable careers in two distinct chapters. As a left-handed pitcher, he authored one of the sport’s iconic underdog moments. As a pitching coach decades later, he became a mentor credited with rescuing and reshaping the careers of several major-league arms, most notably during the Philadelphia Phillies’ surprising 1993 pennant run. Together, his playing and coaching careers span more than four decades in professional baseball.

Born in Witherbee, New York, Johnny Podres grew up as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, encouraged by his miner father to play baseball as much as possible. The Dodgers signed him for a modest bonus of $6,000 and a new glove. Podres began his professional career in 1951 with the Hazard Bombers of the Mountain States League, where he went 21-9 with a 1.67 ERA and led the league in wins and ERA. After one more minor-league season, he debuted with Brooklyn in 1953.

The 1955 World Series and Rising Stardom

Podres debuted in 1953 alongside future stars like Al Kaline, Ernie Banks, and Don Larsen, going 9-4 as a rookie despite control problems. He remained a solid mid-rotation starter through the mid-1950s, but nothing prepared baseball for October 1955. After Brooklyn dropped the first two games of the World Series to the Yankees, Podres threw a complete-game victory in Game 3 on his 23rd birthday. With the series tied at three games apiece, Podres started Game 7 and threw a 2-0 shutout, delivering the Dodgers their first championship in franchise history. He received the first-ever World Series MVP Award, the Babe Ruth Award, and Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year honor, along with a red two-seat Corvette. Forever afterward, his personalized license plates read “MVP-55,” a rare bit of vanity from an otherwise self-effacing man who bore a striking resemblance to silent-film comedian Buster Keaton.

Podres missed the 1956 season due to military service, then returned to post his best statistical year in 1957, leading the National League with a 2.66 ERA, a 1.082 WHIP, and six shutouts. He remained a dependable Dodgers starter into the 1960s, going 18-5 in 1961 to lead the league in winning percentage, and later helping Los Angeles win pennants in 1963 and 1965. He finished his 15-year career with a 148-116 record, a 3.68 ERA, and 1,435 strikeouts, spending his final seasons with the Detroit Tigers and expansion San Diego Padres. He was especially dominant on baseball’s biggest stage, compiling a 4-1 record and 2.11 ERA across four World Series. Because he pitched alongside Dodgers legends like Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, Podres’ own consistency often went underappreciated.

After retiring as a player, Podres spent 23 seasons as a pitching coach with the San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox, Minnesota Twins, and Philadelphia Phillies between 1973 and 1996. He served as the Twins’ pitching coach from 1982 to 1984 before eventually landing in Philadelphia, where he would have his greatest impact and lasting reputation.

The Phillies Years: Turning Around a Patchwork Staff

Podres joined the Phillies in 1991 and remained the team’s pitching coach through 1996, staying on afterward as a part-time roving instructor for health reasons. He was manager Jim Fregosi‘s pitching coach in 1993 when Philadelphia won an unlikely National League pennant. That staff was largely a collection of reclamation projects and unproven arms, yet under Podres it became one of baseball’s best. The 1995 rotation, for instance, featured a rookie who had led the International League in losses the year before, another who had never pitched above Double-A, and a former hockey player with just 11 career big-league wins — and all three combined for a remarkable 20-7 record early that season. Bench coach John Vukovich marveled that “there are countless pitchers who had zero success before getting here” and thrived under Podres’s guidance.

Curt Schilling and Podres’ Signature Coaching Style

Podres’ most famous pupil was Curt Schilling, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1992 after struggling in Houston. Their first meeting became baseball legend: Podres asked to see Schilling’s fastball, and when Schilling threw what he considered a two-seamer, Podres corrected him bluntly, grabbed the ball, gripped it across the four seams, and showed him the difference. Schilling later called Podres “the best pitching coach I ever had” and credited him with transforming him from a fringe reliever into a 200-inning workhorse who won 30 games over a two-year stretch. Podres also worked closely with pitcher Tommy Greene, who started the 1993 season 8-0 with five straight complete games — the best start by a Phillies pitcher since Steve Carlton in 1983 — and finished sixth in Cy Young voting that year. Frank Viola, whom Podres coached during his Twins tenure, is also frequently cited among the pitchers he most influenced.

Simplicity Over Mechanics

Unlike coaches obsessed with mechanical detail — hand breaks, leg lifts, and turn angles — Podres kept his messages short and encouraging. One favorite anecdote involves pitcher Tyler Green, who spent an entire winter perfecting his changeup and anxiously awaited feedback the following spring. When Green finally threw the pitch for Podres, it was just a quarter-inch off target — and Podres simply told him, “Just throw it down the middle,” before cheering him on with “Atta baby, just sit right there.” Podres himself once summarized his psychology-first approach bluntly: sometimes a struggling pitcher just needs to be told how great he is.

Personality and Legacy

Off the field, Podres loved watching young pitchers develop and betting on harness racing, particularly trotters and pacers, though by his own admission he rarely won at the track. He was known for loving to tell Sandy Koufax stories to his pitchers, adding to his reputation as an old-school character on increasingly technical coaching staffs. Phillies chairman Bill Giles later said he didn’t believe the team would have won the 1993 pennant without Podres.

Podres died in Glens Falls, New York, in January 2008 at age 75, after being hospitalized for heart and kidney ailments along with a leg infection. Upon hearing the news, Curt Schilling wrote that outside of his faith, his wife, and his father, no one had impacted his life more than Johnny Podres, praising him for teaching him that manhood was rooted in compassion, integrity, and commitment rather than toughness alone. That tribute, from one of the era’s most dominant pitchers, captures why Podres is remembered as much for what he gave to other players as for what he accomplished on the mound himself.

Philadelphia Baseball Events for July 2

• July 2, 1961 – Traded Bobby Del Greco to Kansas City for Wes Covington, who played five seasons with the Phillies and hit .284/.343/.471/.814.
• July 2, 1992 – Traded Steve Searcy and a player to be named later to Los Angeles for Stan Javier.
• July 2, 1993 – Released pitcher Mark Davis, who the Phillies selected with the top overall pick in the 1979 Draft. Davis pitched two seasons in Philly and went on to add 13 more years to his career in the majors. Davis won a Cy Young and a Rolaids Relief Man Award.
• July 2, 1993 – The Phils beat the Padres in the second game of a doubleheader, but not before sitting out three rain delays totaling nearly six hours. The game finally ends at 4:40 am, the latest ending game in Phillies history.
• July 2, 1999 – Scott Rolen hit two home runs — one inside the park — to lead the Phils past the Cubs 14-1 at the Vet.
• July 2, 2004 – The Phillies set NL and team records by working 18 walks off of the Orioles in a 16-inning loss. Jimmy Rollins and Bobby Abreu collected four apiece.
• July 2, 2006 – Signed amateur free agent Freddy Galvis who played for the Phillies from 2012-2017 and then returned in 2021. The versatile infielder hit .244 with the Phillies.

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Philadelphia Baseball Birthdays for July 2

• Hal Wagner (born 1915) – Started his career as a catcher with the Athletics from 1937-1944 and later played for the Phillies in 1948 and 1949 at the end of his career.
• So Taguchi (born 1969) – An outfielder who played 88 games for the 2008 Phillies.
• Greg Dobbs (born 1978) – A first and third baseman with the Phillies from 2007-2010, Dobbs had an 11-year major league career and hit .261/.306/.386/.692 in the majors.
• Jerad Eickhoff (born 1990) – Acquired from Texas in 2015 in the deal that sent Cole Hamels to the Rangers. Pitched five seasons with the Phillies, going 21-30, 4.15.

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