Phillies Fever (1976)

In celebration of the start of the Phillies season today, I thought I would flood the intertubes with some Phillies goodness from my personal collection.

I was in Philly this past weekend and went to the "Baseball & America" exhibit at the National Constitution Center. I highly recommend it. They brought many, many artifacts from the Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, New York; so if you don't plan on heading to Cooperstown in the near future, but live near Philly, you should surely go. While there, I saw that they had LP singles of such baseball hits as Philly's own The Intruders' "(Love is Like a) Baseball Game" and Terry Cashman's "Talkin' Baseball (Willie, Mickey & 'The Duke')." So it got me to thinking about an LP I had stowed away at home involving the Phillies. I would like to share it with you all, especially considering there is nothing about this item on the internet.

Back in 1976, as a promotion I suppose, the stars of the Phillies cut a record at Grand Prix studios in Philly. It was a two-sided single with the A side being "Phillies Fever," and the B side the instrumental of the same song. It was sung by Larry Bowa, Mike "Hot Corner King" Schmidt, David Cash, Greg "The Bull" Luzinski and Garry "The Secretary of Defense" Maddox. With the current year in mind, you will notice the funky disco beats that drive the song. There is also some interesting dialogue between the players. You even have the current stadium announcer, Dan Baker, introducing the quintet. Enjoy!

I recently submitted the history of this LP and how it came into my possession to MLB.com for an article they were writing about cherished memorabilia. To give this LP some context, I would like to also share with you this history:

"One of my very first baseball collectibles was a 33 vinyl record that was put out by the Philadelphia Phillies in the late 1970s entitled "Phillies Fever." I forget what was on the B-side, but the song itself was not too good. It was performed by then-Phillies Larry Bowa, Dave Cash, Mike Schmidt, Greg Luzinski and Garry Maddox. I enjoy this collectible because of the person who gave it to me and the relationship we had. Back in my old neighborhood in Philadelphia there was an elderly man, Mr. Seawagon, who lived around the corner from us. He always used to talk Phillies with my dad. One day, still a young lad at the age of 11, after thinking I had enough information and ability to keep up with him in a conversation about last night's game, I headed over to his house to talk ball. That was the first of many visits. Mr. Seawagon always left his front door open for me to come in, sit down, and talk about the Phillies. He also told me old stories about baseball in Philadelphia at places like Connie Mack Stadium. I gained a great deal of knowledge about the team from that man. One day, he was awaiting my arrival with a gift: the "Phillies Fever" record. He told me he had no use for it and, after spouting out statistics of the various artists on the LP, gave it to me for safekeeping."

So do you have Phillies Fever too? If so, I heard the only prescription is more (David) Bell. Ok, sorry for that one.

GO PHILLIES!!!

And that's the triple-truth, Ruth!