Del Ennis

Delmer Ennis (June 8, 1925 – February 8, 1996) was an American professional baseball outfielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1946 to 1959 for the Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and Chicago White Sox. From 1949 to 1957, he accumulated more runs batted in (RBI) than anyone besides Stan Musial and was eighth in the National League (NL) in home runs. In 1950, Ennis led the NL with 126 RBI as the Phillies won their first pennant in 35 years. He held the Phillies career record of 259 home runs from 1956 to 1980, and ranked 10th in National League history with 1,824 games in the outfield, when his career ended.

Early life and military service Ennis was born to George and Agnes Ennis in the Crescentville section of Philadelphia. He played baseball and football at Olney High School and was mentioned as an all-state fullback. The 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 signed with Collins to play with the Phillies' Canadian–American League team, but the league suspended operations 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.

Ennis joined the United States Navy 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 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 Harbor, to offer him $25,000 to sign with the Yanks. The Phillies had paid Ennis only $50 to sign.

Ennis' 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. He 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 returned stateside through San Diego on the USS Wakefield. Ennis was discharged from the Navy on April 5, 1946, and joined the major league Phillies about a week later.

Philadelphia Phillies

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 first inning – and then his second, both in the second game of a doubleheader. His favorite moment was on Del's birthday, June 8, 1946, hitting a single to break up a perfect game with only four outs remaining against Red Barrett. Barrett of the Boston Braves had retired 22 batters in a row before Ennis' single. Olney residents held a Del Ennis Night at Shibe Park with 36,356 in attendance and an estimated 20,000 were turned away. Ennis singled with the bases loaded to drive in two runs in the first inning against the Cardinals and the Phillies won. His average raised over .300 until a slump in July. 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. As Phillies' pitcher Steve Ridzik later remarked, "We had a packed house and the fans start to boo him unmercifully. It was terrible. The next inning when he went out to left field they booed and booed and booed. They booed him when he ran off the field at the end of the inning. . . .Here he is ... a hometown guy and everything. . . . He came to bat in the last of the eighth inning with the score still tied and two outs. The fans just booed and booed and all our guys on the bench are just hotter than a pistol. We were ready to fight the thirty-some thousand." 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 at Connie Mack Stadium, and the Phillies won the game by a score of 6–5.

Ennis' career ended with a mid-season release by the White Sox in 1959, after having been acquired from Cincinnati during the first week of the 1959 season. On May 1, he was traded to the White Sox, managed by Al López, where Ennis became the starting left fielder throughout May into early June 1959. In the first 11 games with the White Sox, Ennis drove in seven runs including a game-winner in mid-May at Yankee Stadium. Ennis had four game-winning hits in six games in early 1959 and the White Sox went on to win the AL pennant. However, Ennis was not with the team that played the Dodgers in the 1959 World Series, although he was voted a one-fourth WS share. To make room on the roster for Norm Cash, who had completed a military commitment, Ennis was waived by the Sox in mid-June 1959, ending a career spanning 14 seasons.

His defensive replacement for the White Sox in that period was Johnny Callison, who later was traded to and starred with the Phillies.

With Chicago, Ennis batted .219, with 2 home runs, 7 runs batted in with 96 at bats. The White Sox released Ennis on June 20. They called up Jim McAnany to play right field and moved Al Smith from right field to left field for the balance of the season. With personal problems in his family, Ennis needed to return to Philadelphia.

Later life

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 Penn State University's 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 franchise's 100th anniversary year, he was named to the Philadelphia Phillies Centennial Team. There is now a plaque on the Phillies Wall of Fame at the team's ballpark honoring the career of Ennis as a Whiz Kid.

Ennis was inducted into the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame. Ennis died in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, at age 70 from complications from diabetes. He was buried in Hillside Cemetery, Roslyn, Pennsylvania.