Philip Joseph"Philliabuck" Cavarretta
^{born: 07-19-1916}

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Philip Joseph Cavarretta (born July 19, 1916 in Chicago, Illinois) is a former first baseman and outfielder who spent almost his entire career with the Chicago Cubs. Woody English and Phil Cavarretta played a little over 2 seasons together with Chicago before Woody was traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1937. Charlie Grimm needed a replacement at first base due to his expanded manager's duties and the Cubs brought young 18 year old Cavarretta to take over for Charlie. Phil started out with a bang by hitting a home run in his first start in September of 1934.

Cavarretta attended Lane Tech High School in Chicago, and signed a professional contract with the Cubs before finishing high school. In his first professional game with Peoria at age 17 in 1934, Cavarretta hit for the cycle as a right fielder. In his 1935 rookie season, he batted .275 with 82 runs batted in, playing in 146 games. He also led the league in double plays, as the Cubs captured their third pennant in seven years by winning 21 straight games in September. Unfortunately, he batted only .125 in the World Series and the Cubs lost to the Detroit Tigers 4-2.

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In 1936, he batted .273 with 9 home runs and 56 RBI. The Cubs has a solid year finishing 93-61, three games behind the NY Giants. The following year, the Cubs won the NL Pennant as Phil was injured playing in only 92 games. In the World Series against the Yankees, he had 6 hits in 13 at bats for A .462 batting average but the powerful Yankees swept the series 4-0.

In 1939 and 1940, Cavaretta was plagued with injuries and only played in 87 games total in those two seasons. In 1941, Phil was back to full strength and played in 107 games finishing with a .286 batting average. The Cubs, however, continued to decline. In '39 they ended up in 4th place, in '40, 5th place and in 1941 they ended 30 games out of first place in 6th place. Cavaretta was exempted from World War II service because of a hearing problem while many players were fighting overseas. In 1942, 1943 and 1944 they were 6th, 5th and 4th place respectively. Cavaretta split his time between first base and outfield until 1943 when he moved back to first base.

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In 1944 Cavarretta batted .321 with a league-high 197 hits, had career highs with 106 runs, 35 doubles and 15 triples, and earned his first of four straight All-Star selections (reaching base a record five times in the game) though the Cubs suffered their fifth consecutive losing season. Finally, the Cubs improved by 23 games in 1945, edging the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals by three games for the pennant as Cavarretta was named MVP. That season he also had a career-high 97 RBI, leading the NL in on base percentage and finishing third in slugging average. He batted .423 in the World Series against the Tigers, though the Cubs again lost, in seven games. In Game 1, he singled and scored as the Cubs took a 4-0 lead in the first inning, singled and scored again in the third, and homered in the seventh as Chicago took the opener 9-0. He scored the Cubs' only run in Game 2, and in an 12-inning 8-7 win in Game 6 had a 2-RBI single and scored a run; he had three hits in Game 7, but the Cubs lost 9-3. That was the last time the Cubs would play in the World Series.

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He made the All-Star team again in 1946 and 1947, batting .294 and .314 the latter year, as the Cubs again fell back in the standings. Over the next six years, he played a gradually diminishing role with the team. He was named manager in June 1951, succeeding Frankie Frisch, though the team finished in last place; continuing as manager for two more years, he compiled a record of 169-213. In 1953, his final season with the Cubs, he surpassed Stan Hack's modern team record of 1938 games; Ernie Banks would eventually break his mark of 1953 games in 1966. Cavarretta was fired during 1954 spring training after admitting the team was unlikely to finish above fifth place (they finished seventh), and in May he signed with the crosstown Chicago White Sox. At the age of 37, he played in 44 games at first base and had a .316 batting average. He ended his career there in 1955 playing in only 6 games.

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In his 22-year major league career, Cavarretta compiled a .293 lifetime batting average with 95 home runs and 920 RBI. After retiring, Cavy managed in the minors between 1956 and 1960 (which included a "Governor’s Cup" International League championship with Buffalo in 1957.) He coached for the Detroit Tigers from 1961-63. He managed again for several minor league teams from 1964-72…and was a Mets’ batting instructor from 1973-78. Phil moved to Atlanta after that, finally retired for good, to be closer to his grandchildren and to chase golf balls occasionally where the putting season is a little longer than it is in Chicago.