May 1, 1933, the Phillies staged an “Old Timers’ Day” at Baker Bowl to celebrate the club’s 50th anniversary as a member of the National League. May 1 was chosen for the ceremony because the Phillies played their inaugural game on that date in 1883. It was a home game at Recreation Park against the Providence Grays, and the visitors prevailed by a score of 4-3.
The anniversary celebration began with a formal reception at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel for the former players who attended the event. They were then transported three miles up Broad Street to Baker Bowl in an ornate, horse-drawn Tally-Ho carriage. A Tally-Ho carriage is a historic, four-in-hand (or six-horse) stagecoach or private road coach. A fashionable means of transportation in the late 19th century, they were popular among the wealthy for pleasure driving and leisurely scenic and sightseeing trips. The carriages are large, elevated and designed to carry passengers on top.
Additional coaches took part in the procession, including several that carried the Police and Fireman’s Band, which played musical selections as the caravan made its way up Broad Street. Thousands lined Broad Street cheering the players as they made their journey from the hotel to the ballpark.
Once arrived, the players were introduced one-by-one while the crowd, estimated at 12,000, roared its approval.
Sportswriter S. O. Grauley, who wrote about the ceremony in an article that appeared in the May 2 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, picks up the story from here:
“The celebration put on by the Phillies in commemoration of their half century in baseball was really an opportunity to bring back to their old stomping grounds Philly heroes of the past, men who played baseball when knot hole fences surrounded the outfield, when grand stands were puny ones of wood, when players fought as much with umpires as they did among themselves, when visiting teams made use of the horse driven bus to and from their hotels and home fans had good targets for various sorts of fruits and vegetables to hurl at the enemy.”
After the former players were introduced and lustily cheered by the crowd, they played a two-inning game against members of the 1933 Phillies that neither side took seriously.
The celebration was a joyous one, and left the spectators in a festive mood. Unfortunately, it was followed by the regularly scheduled game that featured the Phillies against the Pittsburgh Pirates. It wasn’t pretty. The Pirates jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third and added five more in the seventh. As a sweetener to the final score, Pittsburgh pushed one more across the plate in the ninth. The punchless Phillies were shut out 10-0.
Fans in the stands, not surprisingly, were displeased. After the Pirates went up 9-0, spectators were heard to yell, “Get the Oldtimers in shape and let them play.” One patron shouted derisively, “Bring Coveleski Back!”
Coveleski, who pitched for the Phillies 1907-09, was at Old Timers Day, undoubtedly was heartened by the calls for him to take the mound and stop the bleeding in the Pirates pummeling of the Phillies. But at 47 years old and 15 years removed from his last major league appearance, Coveleski just smiled and waved at the crowd.
In losing the May 1 game, the Phillies’ record in the still-early season dropped to 5-11. The team was in last place. However, the Phillies would rebound (sort of) during the season and climb up to seventh place by season’s end with a 60-92 record, and 31 games behind the pace-setting New York Giants.