Before National Baseball Hall of Fame legend Mike Schmidt established the Philadelphia Phillies club record for lifetime home runs in 1980, Del Ennis held the mark.
Ennis, who passed way 20 years ago, set the Phillies standard 259 homers in 1956 in his 11th season in the majors.
A three-time all-star, Ennis started for the National League in 1951 and 1955 after appearing in the 1946 contest as a 21-year old rookie.
Ennis had his best season as part of the 1950 Whiz Kids. That year, Ennis batted .313 and hit 31 homers as he led the NL with 126 RBIs. The Phillies won the pennant for the first time since 1915 before falling to the New York Yankees in the World Series.
In his 14-year career, Ennis drilled 288 long balls and had 2,063 hits.
He was with the Phillies from 1946-1956 before getting traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. He spent the next two years in St. Louis before he was shipped to the Reds at the beginning of the 1959 season. Later that same year, he was moved to the Chicago White Sox and he was released before the season ended.
The Best Day
Perhaps the best day for Ennis was when he blasted three homers for the only time in his career on July 23, 1955.
He knocked in all seven runs that day in a 7-2 Philadelphia win over the Cardinals.
The native of Pennsylvania hit a pair of two-run homers off starter Willard Schmidt in the first and sixth innings. In the seventh, Ennis hit a 3-run shot off Brooks Lawrence.
The Big Inning
The slugging outfielder is also a part of a major league record the Phillies tied against the Cincinnati Reds on June 2, 1949.
Philadelphia hit five homers in one inning to duplicate the feat first accomplished by the 1939 New York Giants.
The three other teams that have since equaled the power surge in an inning are the San Francisco Giants (1961), Minnesota Twins (1966) and the Milwaukee Brewers (2006). Ironically, all four of the NL teams did it against the Reds, while the Twins blasted the Kansas City A’s.
The difference for the Phillies was that they did it with four players instead of five.
With the Phillies trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, Ennis started the frame with a shot off Ken Raffensberger.
Andy Seminick followed with another blast to chase Raffensberger from the mound.
One out later, Willie Jones tagged Jess Dobernic for the third homer of the inning.
Pitcher Schoolboy Rowe, who had entered the game in the top of the inning, sent Dobernic to the showers with the fourth homer.
Four more batters made it to the plate against new hurler Kent Peterson before Seminick hit his second homer of the inning.
When the inning was over, the Phillies led 12-3 and Rowe worked a scoreless ninth to get the win.
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