Del Ennis - Career

Career

Ennis was born to George and Agnes Ennis in the Crescentville section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He played baseball and football at Olney High School and was mentioned as an All-State fullback. Philadelphia Phillies scout Jocko Collins came to watch one of Ennis's high school classmates pitch. When Ennis hit two long home runs, Collins tried to recruit him but Ennis was hesitant, worried that he was not ready, and unsure that he wanted to pursue a baseball career. In August 1942, Ennis finally signed with Collins to play with the Phillies' Canadian-American League team, but the league suspended operation for World War II. Ennis signed with Collins again in March 1943 and hit .348 with 19 home runs and 16 triples for the Phillies' Trenton, New Jersey Interstate League team. In September 1943, Philadelphia wanted to call Ennis to the major leagues, but he went into the United States Navy instead. Ennis saw military action in the Pacific Theater and also toured with a baseball team that included Billy Herman, Johnny Vander Meer and Schoolboy Rowe. He joined the USN on September 29, 1943 and was assigned to Sampson Naval Training Station, New York where he graduated as a signalman from "A" school at Sampson and then posted to the Hawaiian Sea Frontier. When the Navy learned that Ennis was associated with the Philadelphia Phillies,they assumed he was a major leaguer and invited him to fill one of the vacancies while in Honolulu. He was included on the Navy's Western PAC Tour of many Pacific Islands in 1944–1945. Ennis looked very good at the plate in the few exhibition games which immediately preceded the tours. His slugging prompted Dan Topping, new owner of the New York Yankees and a fellow serviceman at Pearl to offer him $25,000 to sign with the Yanks. The Phillies had only paid Del $50 to sign. His naval rank was Petty Officer Third Class. Most of his service was on the island of Guam after the winter tour. Playing with and against major leaguers on the tours was equivalent of a minor league apprenticeship for Ennis. After the tours he was assigned to a fleet recreation billet at Gab Gab Beach on Guam and stayed on the island for one year and did not make it back to the states as soon as some of the others because he did not have enough points built up. He finally returned stateside through San Diego on the USS Wakefield. http://picasaweb.google.com/109127256998453427371/1975_tcma_guam?feat=embedwebsite&gsessionid=ZZCU6fF_Hr5Jn2p7Xakmkw#5455158380991053506 Ennis was discharged from the Navy on April 5, 1946 and joined the major league Phillies about a week later. Player-manager Ben Chapman delayed Ennis's debut since he had missed spring training, and then had him pinch-hit on April 28 against the Boston Braves - a groundout to shortstop. Chapman gave Ennis the starting job in left field, a weak spot in the Phillies' lineup. On May 5, Ennis hit his first home run - a three-run shot in the 1st inning - and then his second, both in the second game of a doubleheader. His favorite moment was on his birthday, June 8, when his single broke up a perfect game with only four outs remaining. That month, Olney residents held a Del Ennis Night at Shibe Park with 36,356 in attendance and an estimated 20,000 turned away. Del singled with the bases loaded to drive in two runs in the first inning against the Cardinals and the Phils won. His average raised over .300 until a slump in July.

In his early career, Ennis was noted not only for his home runs and hard line drives, but also good outfield play and fast, hard baserunning. Eleven weeks after his debut, Ennis became the first Phillies rookie ever to make an All-Star team on the strength of a powerful throwing arm and his booming bat. He also became the first ever Sporting News Rookie Award winner, and finished eighth in the MVP voting after batting .313 with 17 home runs and 73 RBI and placing second in the NL in slugging average (.485) behind Musial. Here are some facts that illustrate how good Ennis was as a ballplayer in his time. He was among the TOP TEN in these categories: BATTING AVERAGE (three times), HOME RUNS (eight times), RBI’s (ten times), MVP VOTING (eight times), TOTAL BASES (six times). In the decade from 1947 to 1957, only Stan Musial and Duke Snider had better overall production. Snider compiled a total of 1,031 RBI from 1950 to 1959 and Ennis knocked in 1,025 in the decade of the 50's.

Ennis showed his power in 1948, driving in 95 runs with 30 home runs – a Phillies record for right-handed hitters, breaking Gavvy Cravath's 1915 total of 24. A year later, he hit .302 with 25 homers and 110 RBI, and he finished second in the NL in doubles both seasons. But his most productive season came in 1950, when he hit .311 with career highs of 31 home runs and an NL-best 126 RBI; the 31 HRs were the team record for right-handed hitters until teammate Stan Lopata hit 32 in 1956. As a member of the 1950 team dubbed the "Whiz Kids," Del was the scourge of the National League and he helped the Phillies to win their first pennant since 1915 in an exciting finish that saw Philadelphia beat out the powerful Brooklyn Dodgers on the last day of the season, only to be swept in the World Series by the New York Yankees, with Ennis hitting only .143 with no RBI. Ennis placed fourth in the MVP voting, won by teammate Jim Konstanty.

From 1952 to 1955, Ennis collected four 20+ HR, 100+ RBI seasons, with highs of 29 and 125 in 1953. He was also named to three All-Star Games, in 1946, 1951 and 1955. In 1956 he passed Chuck Klein to become the Phillies' all-time home run leader, and he held the record until Mike Schmidt passed him in 1980. In 1956, he also broke Ed Delahanty's record of 1,544 games with the Phillies; Richie Ashburn broke his record in 1958. By the end of the 1956 season he was also among the NL's top ten career home run leaders, though he dropped out of the top ten before his career ended. Traded to the St. Louis Cardinals before the 1957 season for Rip Repulski, Ennis responded with a .286 average, 26 home runs and 105 RBI, finishing second in the NL behind his teammate Musial. But his production dropped off sharply in 1958, and after two years in St. Louis he finished his career in 1959 playing for the Cincinnati Redlegs and the pennant winning Chicago White Sox. In a 14-season career, Ennis compiled a .284 batting average with 288 home runs, 2,063 hits, 1,284 RBI and 985 runs in 1,903 games.

The story of Del and the abuse he endured from Philadelphia fans in eleven seasons has obscured his impressive statistics and also his memory. The taciturn Ennis, not given to introspection, shrugged off the abuse. Eventually, he won his "war with the wolves" in old Shibe Park and Connie Mack Stadium. As an example, in the second game of a doubleheader against the Cardinals on July 31, 1954, in the top of the third inning, Ennis dropped an outfield fly with the bases loaded and all three runners scored. In the bottom half of the same inning with two on and two out, he hit the first pitch on the roof in left field, and the Phillies won the game by a score of 6–5. Ennis' career ended with a mid-season release by the Chicago White Sox in 1959, after having been acquired from Cincinnati during the first week of the 1959 season. In the first eleven games that he played with the Sox, Del drove in seven runs including a game winner in mid-May in Yankee Stadium. In fact, Ennis had four game-winning hits in six games in early '59 and the Sox went on to win the AL pennant that year. However, Del was not with the team that played the Dodgers in the 1959 World Series although he was voted a one-fourth WS share after the World Series. To make room on the roster for Norm Cash, who had completed his service commitment, Ennis was waived by the White Sox in mid-June 1959, thus ending a highly productive career spanning fourteen seasons. Larry Doby who also played on the White Sox team in 1959, Ralph Kiner, and Enos Slaughter are all in the Baseball Hall of Fame and belong there. Ennis' career stats are the equal of these players yet his votes for entry are paltry. This player's career needs to be reviewed by the Veterans Committee for the future as he is all but dismissed by writers who never saw him in uniform in his time. When Del came to bat in old Connie Mack or Shibe Park, the fans knew that a game could be altered quickly because of his ability to drive in runners on base. The expectation was always there and pitchers in the 1950s knew he was a dangerous hitter as did the Philadelphia fans despite the booing that Del received. He began the final season of his career with the Reds, batting .333 in 12 AB, but with no HR. On May 1, he was traded to the White Sox, where he was the starting left fielder throughout May into early June. His defensive replacement in that period was one Johnny Callison.

With Chicago, Ennis batted .219, 2 HR, 7 RBI in 96 AB. The White Sox released Ennis on June 20. They called-up Jim McAnany to play RF and moved Al Smith from RF to LF for the balance of the season. Ennis was No. 15 in batting for the pennant winning White Sox in the 1959 season despite his early release and retirement.

Following his retirement as a player, Ennis operated a bowling alley named Del Ennis Lanes in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, with the former traveling secretary of the Phillies, John Wise. He also bred greyhound race dogs. Ennis also spent a year coaching baseball at the Penn State University Abington Campus (formerly Ogontz campus). He remembered his 1950 Phillies days in his sports enterprise, calling three dogs scheduled to run in Florida racetracks Whiz Kids Ennis, Whiz Kids Ashburn and Whiz Kids Roberts. In 1983, during the Phillies' 100th anniversary year, he was named to the Philadelphia Phillies Centennial Team. There is a plaque on the Phillies Wall of Fame at the team's new ballpark honoring the career of Del Ennis as a Whiz Kid.