by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

photo credit: ca.sports.yahoo.com Former Oakland A’s utility man Tony Phillips who passed away Friday at 56

OAKLAND–I’m very surprised and I wasn’t aware of it and I don’t know if it was some kind of  disease but when I heard about the passing of former A’s utilityman Tony Phillips who was only 56 years old it came as a shock. Phillips later was reported to have died from a heart attack.

Phillips is the third player from the 1989 Oakland A’s World Championship team to die former A’s pitcher Bob Welch (57)  and former A’s outfielder Dave Henderson (56) have passed away. Phillips played for the A’s for nine years, for the Detroit Tigers for five years, he also played for the Chicago White Sox, the Toronto Blue Jays, the New York Mets and also played for the Los Angeles Angels. Phillips finished his 18 year big league career with 160 homers and 819 RBIs. In 1999 Phillips played his last year in the big leagues as an Oakland Athletic. In the 18 years in the show Phillips played only one year of National League ball with the 1998 New York Mets.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez has Spring Training coverage of Major League Baseball listen to the podcast at http://www.sportsradioservice.com