NL MVP Konstanty was ace reliever for Whiz Kids
Casimir James (Jim) Konstanty played a key role on the 1950 Whiz Kids, who won the Phillies’ first pennant in 35 years in 1950.
After the season, the Baseball Writers Association of America named Konstanty the Most Valuable Player in the National League, the first relief pitcher so honored in either league. He finished with 286 points. Stan Musial (158) was second. To top off the year, Konstanty was named the Associated Press Athlete of the Year.
The bespectacled right-hander was the second Phillies player to win the MVP award, joining slugging outfielder Chuck Klein in 1932.
Pro Ball
Konstanty broke into pro ball in 1941 with the Springfield (Ill.) Nationals in the Eastern League. In 39 games he won 4 and lost 19. He spent nine years in the Minors, including his final four pro games with the 1957 San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League.
His 11-years in the Majors included the Cincinnati Reds (1944), Boston Braves (1946), Phillies (1947-54), New York Yankees (1954-56) and St. Louis Cardinals (1956). He was in the military (1945-46). His Major League debut came on June 18, 1944, at age 27.
Konstanty was originally signed by the Reds and sent to Springfield. Cincinnati traded him to the Boston Braves early in the 1946 season. Two months later he was sold to the Triple-A Toronto Maple Leafs. The Phillies purchased his contract from Toronto before the 1948 season. His manager there was Eddie Sawyer, who moved him into the bullpen and managed him in the Majors.
1950 Season
Relieving an MLB record 74 times, the 33-year-old finished with a 16-7 record, logged a club-record 22 saves (not an official statistic at the time) and compiled a 2.66 ERA. His 152 innings are the second most in Phillies history for a reliever. He held enemy hitters to a .202 average. He walked 50 (12 intentional) and struck out 53. Numbers like that wouldn’t cut it today.
He featured a nasty slider, a changeup (palm ball) and pinpoint control. He was known to keep a black book in which he recorded who hit what pitch and where it went.
Of his 74 appearances, he finished the game 62 times. Both figures led the league. His 22 saves were also a league leader.
Multiple innings were more normal than not for him. Included was 9 relief innings (Aug. 25 in Pittsburgh) and 10 innings (Sept. 15, 2nd game). Phils won that game in 19 innings at Shibe Park, 8-7. He was back on the mound two days later.
Konstanty, with a 7-3 record in 36 appearances at the break, was named to his only All-Star team.
"The Phillies would not have won that lone pennant but for the brilliant relief pitching of Jim Konstanty," C. Paul Rogers wrote in his book, "The Whiz Kids Take the Pennant: The 1950 Philadelphia Phillies."
World Series
The Phillies faced the New York Yankees in the World Series. Sawyer decided to start Konstanty in Game 1. Ace Robin Roberts had started three of the final five regular season games, including 10 innings in the clincher on the last day of the season. Curt Simmons, a 17-game winner, was on active duty with the Army National Guard and unavailable and two other starters, Bubba Churck and Bob Miller, were injured.
Konstanty held the mighty Yankees to four hits in eight innings. The Yankees won, 1-0, on a fourth-inning double and two fly balls. The Yankees swept the Series in four games.
Konstanty relieved in two other games. He wound up with 15 total innings, allowing four runs on nine hits.
An Unusual Mentor
As Rogers wrote in his book, “The Konstantys spent the 1946 offseason in Worcester, N.Y., where they had a neighbor named Andy Skinner who happened to be the local undertaker. Jim was playing some pro basketball for a team in Utica and one day invited Skinner to ride with him to a game in Oneonta. They began talking about pitching and Konstanty found that Skinner, who had never played baseball, was a good bowler and knew a lot about various twists and spins.
“Afterward the two started playing catch with immediate results. Over the years, Skinner helped Konstanty improve both his slider and changeup. For the rest of his career, Skinner would appear whenever Konstanty began to struggle during the season and often managed to quickly straighten him out. Konstanty always credited Skinner with turning his career around, calling him his ‘bread and butter.’”
Personal Life
He was a baseball and basketball star at Arcade High School in Eagle, N.Y., who spent one summer working at Borden’s milk factory -- earning 25 cents an hour at the beginning.
He earned a partial scholarship to Syracuse University (1936) where he became the school’s second athlete to letter in four sports (baseball, basketball, soccer and boxing). He arrived on campus with $160 in savings, but not enough money to live in a dormitory, so he instead lived in a rooming house with no heat. He worked his way through school by waiting on tables in a girls’ dorm and other jobs.
He earned a phys ed degree, taught that and coached in high schools to make ends meet during his Minor League career. He was also a college basketball referee.
After retirement as a player, he returned to Oneonta (N.Y.) to run his Jim Konstanty Sporting Goods store, which he had opened in 1947. He returned to baseball as a Minor League pitching coach in the Yankees’ organization (1962, 1964) and the Cardinals (1963). One of his pitchers there was a young left-hander, Steve Carlton.
In 1967, Konstanty was appointed the director of athletics at Hartwick College in Oneonta. He and his wife, Mary, had two children, James Jr. and Helen.
In 1975, Konstanty attended the 25th Whiz Kids reunion at Veterans Stadium, his last visit to Philadelphia. He died from cancer on June 11, 1976, at the age of 59 at Fox Hospital in Oneonta.
(Source: Konstanty’s biography in “The Whiz Kids Take the Pennant: The 1950 Philadelphia Phillies” (SABR, 2018), edited by C. Paul Rogers III and Bill Nowlin)