Tony Phillips Passes

Tony Phillips died at the too young age of 56:

Tony Phillips, the former Oakland A and Detroit Tiger, has died, according to Arizona g.m. Dave Stewart, who has passed along the very sad news. Phillips was 56.

Phillips was an 18 year major leaguer who started his career with the Oakland A’s in the 1980s, before joining the Detroit Tigers as a free agent prior to the 1990 season. Phillips also spent time with the Angels, the ChiSox, the Blue Jays and the Mets, before finishing out his career with the A’s in 1999, at the age of 40.

My thoughts go out to his family and friends. He’s less than a year older than I am.

Phillips was the kind of player I like a lot, someone who gets on base at the top of the order and has some pop. His career really took off with the Tigers. On Detroit, he posted a .395 OBP compared to his .374 career mark. While Cecil Fielder gets a lot of credit for the 1990 turnaround of the Tigers, Phillips played a big role as well. I always thought of him as a lite version of Rickey Henderson.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/213LPfb