Philadelphia Phillies: Who the heck was Dave Bancroft?

On what would have been his 129th birthday, let’s look at the most forgotten Baseball Hall of Famer to ever play for the Philadelphia Phillies, Dave Bancroft.

I know. I had no clue who Dave Bancroft was either. But the former (way former) Philadelphia Phillies shortstop who played in town from 1915 to 1920 is indeed in the Baseball Hall of Fame. And I actually find him to be somewhat relevant today, because the Phillies have apparently never honored him or “retired his number” (he played before uniform numbers were a thing) even though he checks the Hall of Fame box that they seem to be so concerned about.

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Is part of the reason because Bancroft might not have even been that good, at least for the Phillies? I don’t fancy myself an expert on Deadball Era baseball, but Bancroft’s numbers in parts of six seasons with the Phillies don’t jump out to me: .251, 14 home runs, 162 RBI, 331 runs scored in 681 games played. Record keeping was no doubt sketchy at the time as well. But even then, you have to be scratching your head. Hall of Fame?

The “Hall of Fame” part of his equation likely comes because of what he did after he left the Phillies via trade after a contract dispute during the 1920 season. He went to the New York Giants, where he was a .310 hitter over parts of five seasons. He also won the World Series in his first two full seasons there. He’d have another nice stint with the Boston Braves before playing out the string with a stop in Brooklyn and then an incredibly brief return to the Giants.

Of course he played way better once the Phillies let him go, posting superior stats and winning titles. This guy basically sounds like a previous incarnation of Scott Rolen.

In all, Bancroft was a career .279 hitter, finishing with 2,004 knocks in the majors. He was also, by all accounts, an excellent defensive player. Bancroft didn’t have any recognition to show for his career, which came long before the likes of Gold Gloves and All-Star Games that we so often lean on to evaluate players. But what he did was enough to get him voted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1971, just one year before he died at the age of 81.

There is no logo on Bancroft’s cap on his Hall of Fame plaque, and I’m not really sure why. The best part of his career was clearly with the Giants. But he did play more games with the Phillies than any other team, so that must account for it. And because of this, since another team isn’t displayed on his plaque, he technically meets the criteria to be honored by the Phillies. This is relevant today, as it’s the same rationale that the Phillies are using with their plan to retire Roy Halladay‘s number this season. That’s on hold for now, but it’ll happen eventually, and it continues to present the slippery slope that I argued about a few months ago.

Retiring Roy Halladay’s number is a very nice gesture, but it’s one that I continue to question because the “Hall of Fame” qualification of the argument might leave truly great PHILLIES PLAYERS Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Ryan Howard out in the cold when it comes to retiring their numbers. They did more for Philadelphia than Roy Halladay did. Love you, Roy, but it’s the truth.

Where am I going with this?

Happy birthday, Dave Bancroft. Sorry I didn’t know who you were until right now.

It’s silly for the Phillies to set these rules about honoring players. It’s not an objective thing. Clearly, recency and sentiment are the reasons why Halladay’s number is being retired, even though Bancroft meets the same requirements by the letter of the law. In the end, however, retiring Halladay’s number is fine, as long as you consider players that did even more for this franchise but ultimately might not get into Cooperstown.

I don’t think Dave Bancroft was a “greater” Phil than Roy Halladay, I was just using him to prove a point. The Phillies are clearly being subjective about their Hall of Fame/retired number policy, so there is no reason that Utley, Rollins, and Howard shouldn’t be so honored in the future.

No matter what you take out of it, Bancroft is still an interesting part of long forgotten Phillies lore. Check out his plaque in the Hall, whenever it reopens. It might have been a century ago (his last game as a Phil was on June 4, 1920), but he still made his mark on the long, long history of this franchise.