Curt Simmons, a pitcher who helped propel the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies to the franchise’s first pennant in 35 years and became one of baseball’s leading left-handers during his 20 major league seasons, died Tuesday at his home in Ambler, Pennsylvania. He was 93 years old.
His daughter, Susan D’Acquisto, confirmed the death. She said Simmons had hip replacement surgery years ago which was compromised and left him bedridden and ultimately weak.
Simmons was the last survivor of the mostly young 1950 Phillies squad known as the Whiz Kids, which won the National League pennant on the last day of the season, only to be swept by the Yankees in the World Series.
While pitching for the Phillies, Simmons was a three-time All-Star. In his mid-30s, after returning from elbow surgery, he pitched for the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals NL pennant winners and started twice in their seven-game World Series victory over the Yankees.
Relying on his fastball early on and reinventing himself later with a variety of pitches that kept hitters from walking, Simmons had a career record of 193 wins and 183 losses.
In the summer of 1950, when he was 21, he teamed up with future Hall of Famer Robin Roberts, who was 23, and a roster that included fellow future Hall of Famer, Richie Ashburn, 23, in center field and hard-hitting Del Ennis, 25, in left field. This Whiz Kids team won a long-sought pennant after finishing 16 games behind league champion Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949.
Simmons had a 17-8 record for the 1950 Phillies in early September, when the Army National Guard unit he had joined after the outbreak of the Korean War in late June was called up for the active service.
The Phillies, led by Eddie Sawyer, were one game ahead of the Dodgers going into Sunday’s final game of the season when they clinched the NL pennant with a 4-1 victory at Ebbets Field on the three-way homer. points from Dick Sisler in the 10th inning.
As the players celebrated their stunning pennant win, they phoned Simmons at his military base in Pennsylvania.
“The party boys called me from the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia,” Simmons told the Palm Beach Post in 2009. “Some of them were consistent, some weren’t.”
Simmons and 20-game winner Roberts in 1950 were mainstays in the Phillies’ starting rotation. The pitching team also included Jim Konstanty, a rare ball club “oldie” at 33, who won 16 games, all in relief, and was named the NL Most Valuable Player; and Bob Miller, who won 11 games and was a runner-up for Rookie of the Year.
But the Phillies did little at home plate in the World Series, scoring just five runs while losing four in a row to the Yankees.
“Roberts and Simmons were always up to it,” catcher Andy Seminick told Danny Peary for the oral history “We Played the Game” (2004). “We were going to town for a three-game series, we were confident that we would win at least two games.”
Hank Aaron considered Simmons one of the best fastball pitchers he faced. He also remembered how deceptive he could be.
“I haven’t been fooled very often,” Aaron told The New York Times in 1976, but “Curt Simmons was the hardest to read because he hid the ball so long behind his hips.”
The Phillies released Simmons in May 1960. The Cardinals signed him days later. He posted an 18-9 record in 1964.
“Curt knows the hitters better than anyone in the league,” Cardinals manager Johnny Keane told Sports Illustrated in June. “He’s got curve, slider and change, and he can go back and get the ball fast.”
Simmons joined Bob Gibson and Ray Sadecki on the pitching team that helped lead the 1964 Cardinals to a World Series title. He started in Games 3 and 6 and pitched well, but the Cardinals lost both games before beating the Yankees in Game 7.
He then pitched for the Chicago Cubs and California Angels. He retired in 1967.
Curtis Thomas Simmons was born on May 19, 1929 in Egypt, Pennsylvania, northwest of Allentown. Her father, Lawrence, worked in a cement plant and her mother, Hattie (Peifly) Simmons, was a housewife.
A star pitcher at Whitehall High School in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, he was signed by the Phillies for a $65,000 bonus, a whopping figure for the time, when he graduated in 1947. He pitched in a game for the Phillies that year, then lost records over the next two years before thriving in 1950.
Simmons pitched for an Army baseball team until his discharge before the 1952 baseball season. He won 14 games that year and led the NL in shutouts, with six. He won 16 games in 1953, although he missed a month after losing part of a toe in a lawn mower accident.
After leaving baseball, Simmons partnered with Roberts and others at a golf course in Ambler, Pennsylvania. He became the last living Whiz Kid when his pitching corps teammate Miller died in November 2020 at age 94. During their final years, Simmons and Miller, who lived in Michigan, kept in touch by phone, reliving their glorious summer of 1950.
In addition to her daughter, Simmons is survived by her sons, Timothy and Thomas, and seven grandchildren. His wife, Dorothy (Ludwig) Simmons, died in 2012.
Simmons long remembered his disappointment at missing the 1950 World Series.
“Two days before the show started, they called me at the army office and said they would give me 10 days unpaid leave,” he told The Allentown Morning. Call in 2014. “I wasn’t eligible to pitch because the rosters had to be set up three days before the series, so I started batting practice.
“I think I dunked the guys because I was throwing pretty well.”
Alex Traub contributed report.
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