Eddie Sawyer Dies

Eddie Sawyer, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies’ “Whiz Kids” team that won the National League pennant in 1950, died Monday following a brief illness. He was 87.

Sawyer was hired as Phillies manager in 1948. Two seasons later, his young team won the pennant before being swept by the New York Yankees in the World Series. Sawyer was fired midway through the 1952 season with the team mired in fifth place.

Sawyer, of Valley Forge, Pa., then went to work as a salesman for a Philadelphia-area golf ball manufacturer until July 1958, when the Phillies brought him back to replace Mayo Smith.

His second stint as manager was even shorter than his first. After losing the first game of the 1960 season, he called it quits, saying: “I’m 49 years old and I want to live to be 50.”