John S. Phillips, a pioneer baseball statistician and life-long Chicagoan, died Thursday after a long illness at the Lee Manor Health Care Residence in Des Plaines. Death came one day before what would have been his 89th birthday.
Mr. Phillips was among the oldest living members of the Baseball Writers Association of America and for many years carried the No. 1 card. He also served several terms as chairman of the BBWAA`s Chicago chapter and helped found the Chicago Pitch and Hit Club.
He was a long-time member of the Chicago Press Club and a member of the Baseball Old Timers associations here and in Milwaukee, and for several years was the commissioner of a women`s professional softball league.
Mr. Phillips was widely known and a popular figure in the national baseball community. He attended 50 consecutive winter baseball conventions, first as an employee and later as the owner of the Howe News Bureau, which for more than a half-century was the official statistician for the American League and more than two dozen minor leagues.
Howe provided the Chicago newspapers with daily in-season statistics on the Cubs and White Sox and also supplied weekly stats to the wire services and hundreds of newspapers throughout the country.
”Everyone knew John,” said Seymour Siwoff of New York, president of the rival Elias Sports Bureau. ”He was a giant in the business. I am saddened by his death.”
Mr. Phillips was born in Chicago on April 3, 1903. He had ambitions of becoming a professional player and for several seasons managed the Chicago Fauntleroys, one of the many semipro teams which flourished here.
He attended Lewis Institute from 1921-23 and began working full time at Howe in 1920. He purchased the firm in 1950 and in 1972 sold it to a computer company in Boston, staying on as a consultant for the next five years.
”He loved baseball and all the people connected with it,” said Jeanne Phillips, his wife of 65 years.
In addition to his wife, survivors include a son, Richard of Chicago; a daughter, Mrs. Bernard Fine of Rochester, N.Y.; five grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Olson Funeral Home, 6467 N. Northwest Highway. A service will be held at Olson`s at 10:30 a.m. Monday, and a mass at 11 a.m. at St. Thecla Church. Internment will be at All Saints Cemetery.
