Robert Ruliph Morgan Carpenter Jr. (August 31, 1915 – July 8, 1990) was an American owner and club president of the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

. When he took command of the Phillies in November

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 � ...

after his father and he purchased the franchise, the 28-year-old Carpenter became the youngest club president in baseball history. He became sole owner upon his father's death in 1949 and would serve as president of the Phillies until

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

, when his

son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current ...

succeeded him. The Carpenter family owned the Phillies from 1943 to 1981; they also were known as the '' Blue Jays'' from 1944 to 1949.

Early life

R. R. M. Carpenter Jr. was typically referred to as Bob Carpenter throughout baseball; both his father and his son were informally known as "Ruly." He was born on August 31, 1915, in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

, to the elder Carpenter and Margaretta Lammot Du Pont. Aside from baseball and boxing Carpenter was wealthy from investments and family relations with the DuPont family of the DuPont Conglomerate. Bob Carpenter attended

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

, where he starred in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

. He married Mary Kaye Phelps on November 18, 1938. She was born on September 11, 1917, in

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

to Zack Phelps and Ethel Moreton Phelps.

Career

Baseball

When his father, an industrialist and sportsman, bought the perennially cash-strapped Phillies in

—and when Bob Carpenter invested some of his fortune in talented young players such as Robin Roberts and

Richie Ashburn Don Richard Ashburn (March 19, 1927September 9, 1997), also known by the nicknames "Putt-Putt", "the Tilden Flash", and "Whitey" (due to his light-blond hair), was an American professional baseball player and television sports commentator. He pl ...

(future members of the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...

) after World War II—they helped create the fabled "Whiz Kids" pennant-winning club of 1950. More important, they ensured that

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

would remain a

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

city. The Phils' rise of the late 1940s and early 1950s coincided with the final decline of the city's once-dominant

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...

club, the

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

Connie Mack Cornelius McGillicuddy (December 22, 1862 – February 8, 1956), better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and team owner. Mack holds records for the most wins (3,731), losses (3,948), ties (76), and ga ...

. In

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

, the Athletics abandoned Philadelphia for

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

(through ), then

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

(–), before beginning yet another relocation in that's destined to end in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. Meanwhile, Carpenter and the Phillies bought

Shibe Park Shibe Park ( , rhymes with "vibe"), known later as Connie Mack Stadium, was a ballpark located in Philadelphia. It was the home of the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League (AL) from 1909 to 1954 and the Philadelphia Phillies of the Natio ...

(renamed "Connie Mack Stadium") from the A's, solidified their hold on

Delaware Valley The Philadelphia metropolitan area, also known as Greater Philadelphia and informally called the Delaware Valley, the Philadelphia tri-state area, and locally and colloquially Philly–Jersey–Delaware, is a major metropolitan area in the Nor ...

baseball fans, and moved into

Veterans Stadium Veterans Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, at the northeast corner of Broad Street (Philadelphia), Broad Street and Pattison Avenue, part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. The seating ca ...

in . Although Carpenter admitted that he had only seen the Phillies play "two or three games" before his family purchased the team (and had not attended a National League game until 1940), the Carpenters were not new to running a baseball franchise: prior to their purchase of the Phillies, they had owned and operated a

minor league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

club, the original

Wilmington Blue Rocks The Wilmington Blue Rocks are a Minor League Baseball team of the South Atlantic League and the High-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They are located in Wilmington, Delaware, and play their home games at Daniel S. Frawley Stadium. Fra ...

of the

Interstate League The Interstate League was the name of five different American minor baseball leagues that played intermittently from 1896 through 1952. Early leagues Earlier versions of the Interstate League, with years active: *1896–1901: an unclassified ...

(not to be confused with the current Carolina League franchise). Bob Carpenter took an active role in the management of the Phillies. He and his father tried to polish the team's image and way of doing business. They wanted to shed the image of failure by changing the team's nickname. Before the 1944 season, the team held a fan contest soliciting a new team nickname. Management chose "Blue Jays," the fan submission of Elizabeth Crooks, who received a $100 war bond as compensation. Phillies management said that the Blue Jays name was as an official "additional nickname," meaning that the team had two official nicknames simultaneously, the Phillies and the Blue Jays. The new Blue Jays moniker was ultimately unpopular; it was officially dropped by the team in January 1950. Carpenter went on to serve as the club's

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

without portfolio after the January 1948 death of

Herb Pennock Herbert Jefferis Pennock (February 10, 1894 – January 30, 1948) was an American professional baseball pitcher and front-office executive. He played in Major League Baseball from 1912 through 1933, and is best known for his time spent with the ...

, through the 1950 NL pennant, and until April of

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

. For his efforts in rebuilding the franchise, Carpenter was hailed by the ''

Sporting News ''The Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a ...

'' as Major League Executive of the Year for

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

—one year before the Phils' pennant-winning campaign.

The 'Whiz Kids' and their aftermath

Led by Most Valuable Player

Jim Konstanty Casimir James Konstanty (March 2, 1917 – June 11, 1976) was an American professional baseball relief pitcher in Major League Baseball and National League Most Valuable Player of . He played for the Cincinnati Reds (1944), Boston Braves (19 ...

, a

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who pitches in the game after the starting pitcher or another relief pitcher has been removed from the game due to fatigue (medical), fatigue, injury, ineffectiveness, ejection ...

who won 16 games and set an MLB standard with 74

games pitched In baseball statistics, games pitched (denoted by Games G in tables of only pitching statistics) is the number of games in which a player appears as a pitcher. The statistic is also referred to as appearances, especially to refer to the number of ...

, the Phillies improved their 1949 standing by capturing 91 games, and their second-all-time pennant on the final day of the season. They drew 1.217 million fans, first in the National League (and four times greater than the Athletics' home attendance). However, they were foiled in the 1950 World Series by the Yankees' dominant pitching. But the 1950 Whiz Kids were not able to sustain their high level of play and were the last National League club to break the

baseball color line The color line, also known as the color barrier, in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Major League Baseball and its affiliated Minor League Baseball, Minor Leagues until 1947 (with a few notable exceptions in the 1 ...

, in . The team hovered at and under .500 through the middle of the 1950s, then collapsed completely, finishing last from

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

through

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

. However, in

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

the Phillies once again exceeded the .500 mark, and placed in the National League's first division in

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove ...

. The following season,

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

, the Phils burst into the league lead and appeared headed for their third NL pennant in late September—only to lose ten games in succession and fritter away a 6½-game lead to finish tied for second. They would not contend again for a dozen years. Carpenter retired in 1972, handing the team presidency to his son, Ruly, while remaining chairman of the board. In the same year, the Carpenters appointed Paul Owens, the team's shrewd

farm system In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful pl ...

director, as general manager, and Owens would bring the Phils back to contending status from 1976–80, the last five years of the Carpenter family's ownership. With four division titles in five years, and the 1980 world title, the Phillies averaged 93 victories a season. His Phillies won

championships in

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...

and

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

National League East Division The National League East is one of Major League Baseball's six divisions. Along with the American League Central, it is one of two divisions to have every member win at least one World Series title. After having internal, informal divisions for ...

titles in

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

, and 1980, and the 97-year-old team's first

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

title in 1980. Distressed by the free-spending, free-agent era, and anticipating the 1981 baseball strike, the Carpenters sold the Phils months after their World Series triumph. The team made the

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

playoffs, and won the

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

NL pennant under its new owners.

Boxing

In the 1940s Carpenter along with a friend, boxing promoter Ralph Tribuan

established the Wilmington Sportsmens Club, converted Wilmington Baseball Park into a fight venue. Many shows and exhibitions were promoted, featuring future, current and former world champions and contenders, which included Lou Brook

Al Davis (boxer), Al "Bummy" Davis,

Lew Jenkins Lew Jenkins (December 4, 1916 – October 30, 1981) was an American boxer and NYSAC and ''The Ring'' lightweight champion from 1940 to 1941. He was born in Milburn, Texas and was raised during the Great Depression. He began fighting in carnival ...

Joey Maxim Giuseppe Antonio Berardinelli (March 28, 1922 – June 2, 2001) was an American professional boxer. He was the World Light Heavyweight Champion from 1950 to 1952. He took the ring-name Joey Maxim from the Maxim gun, the world's first self-acti ...

Sugar Ray Robinson Walker Smith Jr. (May 3, 1921 – April 12, 1989), better known as Sugar Ray Robinson, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1940 to 1965. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. He is often regarde ...

Lee Savold Lee may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Lee (2007 film), ''Lee'' (2007 film), Tamil-language sports action film * Lee (2017 film), ''Lee'' (2017 film), Kannada-language action film * Lee (2023 film), ''Lee'' (2023 film), biographical drama ab ...

and Al Tribuan

Personal life

In 1978, he was inducted into the

Delaware Sports Hall of Fame The Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame was founded in 1976. Al Cartwright, who helped found it, was its first president and was inducted to its hall of fame in 1980. The current museum building was constructed in 1993. The Delaware Sports M ...

. Bob Carpenter died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

at age 74 on July 8, 1990.

References

External links

Kashutas, William C., ''Dick Allen, the Phillies and Racism''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, R. R. M. Jr. 1915 births 1990 deaths Burials at Du Pont de Nemours Cemetery Businesspeople from Wilmington, Delaware Deaths from cancer in Delaware Du Pont family Major League Baseball general managers Major League Baseball owners Major League Baseball team presidents Philadelphia Phillies executives Philadelphia Phillies owners