2023 Delaware Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Bil Brakeley (photo by Gregg Kirk)

Editor’s note: On Wednesday, June 14th, 2023 at Frawley Stadium in Wilmington, DE, the Delaware High School Baseball Hall of Fame inducted 7 new inductees — Matt Brainard, Bill Brakeley, Rob Bryson, Brian Lesher, Johnny Morris, Mark Romanczuk, and Mark Rubini. Bill Brakeley, now a Connecticut resident, was featured in Big Shout’s May 1995 sports issue regarding his short stint as a major league replacement player.

By GREGG KIRK
Big Shout Magazine, May 1995

You may not recognize Bill Brakeley’s face, but for 26 games earlier this spring, he was a starting pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies. That was of course, during the strike and Brakeley was one of those now-forgotten replacement players that everyone was talking about a few weeks ago.

A St. Andrews high school grad of 1986, Brakeley was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers while he attended the University of Delaware in 1989. He was sent to Helena, MT that summer where he promptly injured his shoulder’s rotator cuff, had surgery and played off and on until he re-injured the same shoulder in 1992. After undergoing intensive rehab training, Brakeley returned for the ’93 season but was soon released.

It wasn’t until last year that Brakeley took up pitching again, more on a whim than anything else. But he soon found himself throwing better than ever. His newfound success drew some attention at a time when all the big league players were in the throes of the strike, and it seemed that Brakeley’s fate and timing were in perfect sync. Or so it seemed until the strike was called off and the majority of the replacement players were sent packing.

Brakeley gives his brief account of what it was like being a Phillie — for six weeks.

Big Shout: So how did you get hooked up with the Phillies?

Bill Brakeley: Well, last summer I played in the semi-pro leagues for Guy Johnson in Wilmington, and I hadn’t pitched in a game since ’91. I wasn’t really sure if I’d be effective or not. So I came in after the first couple of games, and I felt pretty good, and the next thing I knew I was 10-1. I was voted on the all-star team and pitched really well. So this winter with the replacement thing going on, Guy Johnson called up the Phillies and said, “Look, I got a pitcher from the left side who throws a little harder than 84 (m.p.h.). You might want to sign him up.” The Phillies called me up, and we talked. I went down and signed.

BS: What was spring training like in Clearwater, FL from a personal standpoint?

BB: It was great. I was treated like a big leaguer for a month and a half. Everything was a little nicer. You tended to get a little more as far as bats, shirts, free cleats… things come a little easier. Whereas in the minors, you had to pay for everything — if you got a big leaguer’s bat or glove.

The club houses were nice. It’s not every day you get to hang around guys like Jim Fregosi and Larry Bowa in the same locker room.

BS: How were the replacement players treated by the coaches?

BB: You could tell some of the coaches were a little disappointed that they didn’t have major league level working for them. So they said what they had to say, and that was about it. They weren’t willing to intermingle, or that kind of thing. Now, Fregosi and a couple of the other coaches were more receptive. They’d shoot the bull with you a little bit or joke around with you, but there was no real coaching being done — just the necessities, really. But there was no disrespect, as far as I could tell.

BS: Do you have any war stories from your experience?

BB: Well, we had to pay for our own hotel rooms. The Holiday Inn where we stayed for the first week cost each of us $30 a day. So, we opted to go for cheaper places. We stayed at this seedy place that was half boarded up for $15 a night. This girl that was staying in the room next door to me got up one night, went in the back of her car, and blew her head off! I didn’t actually see her, but it was kind of weird. We came back from practice and there was yellow tape everywhere. The cops were pulling the body out of the car, and that kind of thing.

BS: So how did things end?

BB: When it truly ended was when the injunction was passed by the judge that the owners were practicing unfair labor practices. When that ruling was passed, it really put a burden on the owners. If they locked the players out, they stood to be sued for millions of dollars, and if they let the players play, then nothing was accomplished and the players won again. But when the injunction was passed, we could see the writing on the wall and knew it was over.

Part of the payment plan was to get $5,000 to sign (if you passed the physical), and $5,000 if your name was on the opening day roster. And they made the team cuts the day before the injunction. But the roster was never sent to wherever it had to go to make it official, but we were officially there and part of the team on opening day. A lot of the guys felt we should have gotten that extra $5,000, plus we should have gotten the $20,000 severance payment that we were supposed to get had the season started and we were on the team. All we got was our $5,000 — which came to $3,500 after taxes — our plane ticket, a ball, a jersey, and a thanks, you know.

Then we hear that the Marlins and the Cardinals got their full $30,000 as a nice payment gift. That’s class. I was a little upset, and I’m still bitter about it. I don’t plan to go to or watch any games. I don’t even read the sports page anymore. I’m just going to go out and play (with the Wilmington semi-pro league) again just like I did when I was a kid. To me, that’s the fun of it.