Andy Seminick, 83; All-Star Catcher Helped Phillies ‘Whiz Kids’ Win NL Pennant in 1950

Andy Seminick, an All-Star catcher on the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies “Whiz Kids” team, which won the National League pennant, has died. He was 83.

Seminick died Sunday at a hospital near his home in Melbourne, Fla.

The cause of death was not reported.

Seminick played 12 seasons with the Phillies and three with the Cincinnati Reds.

Selected to the All-Star team in 1949, he became the first Phillies player to hit two home runs in one inning against Cincinnati at Shibe Park, then the Phillies home field.

He hit his two home runs in the eighth inning after hitting another home run earlier in the game.

He was the starting catcher on the Philadelphia team that beat out the Brooklyn Dodgers for the National League title in 1950.

It was the first title for the Phillies in 35 years, but they were swept by the Yankees in the World Series.

During the championship season, Seminick batted .288 with 24 home runs and 68 runs batted in.

He later coached with the Phillies on two separate occasions in the late 1950s and in the late 1960s.

“He was tough, I mean tough and a great competitor,” Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts said in a statement released by the Phillies.

A native of Pierce, W.Va., Seminick was the youngest of seven children of Russian immigrant parents.

He grew up idolizing the Detroit Tigers and their star catcher, Mickey Cochrane.

After high school, he worked as a coal miner for three years before signing with the Phillies organization in 1940.

Bad knees kept him out of the military during World War II.

He is survived by a son, two sisters and a granddaughter.