Phillies

Random Philadelphia Phillie of the Day: Valmy Thomas

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Apr 9th, 2026 · 1:59 PM EDT

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Hello and welcome to a new series called “Random Philadelphia Phillie of the Day,” in which we highlight… a random Philadelphia Phillie.

“Why?“, you may ask. Well why not? We’ve got infinite space on this blog, it’s baseball season, and the Phils aren’t hitting anything at this particular moment, so we thought it would be quirky to ask the Sportradar AI to pull a random Phil from the database of more than 2,000 players who have ever donned the uniform. Then we’ll drop in a paragraph or two and have a laugh. Maybe we’ll learn something.

To kick us off, the AI pulled Valmy Thomas, who played one season for the Phils in the 1950s. Here’s a blurb from the Society for American Baseball Research:

Although Thomas still played in 66 games for the ’59 Phillies, he spent most of 1960 and ’61 in the minors, though he did get time with the Orioles and Indians. (Around then he became one of the first black men to play ball in Las Vegas, which was still partly segregated.) He was the only major-leaguer to play five years, each in a different city. His career totals: 12 homers, 60 RBI, and a .230 average in 626 at-bats over 252 games. An innovator, the backstop wore a light, flexible chest protector inside his uniform, even when he was at bat.

Some of the these stories call Thomas a backup catcher, but it looks like he was more of a platoon guy in 1959 with Carl Sawatski, Joe Lonnett, and Jim Hegan. If the stats are correct, the Phils had four catchers who played 74, 66, 43, and 25 games that year en route to a 64-90-1 record under manager Eddie Sawyer.

Looking through a 2010 obituary, it says Thomas was born in Puerto Rico but moved with his family at a young age to the Virgin Islands and is considered the first Virgin Islander to play in Major League Baseball. After retirement, it notes that he returned to St. Croix “to become a successful businessman as owner of United Sporting Goods in Watergut, St. Croix. He also served as an assistant commissioner of the former Department of Conservation and Cultural Affairs, where he oversaw recreation programs for hundreds of young sportsmen and women in the territory.”

There’s also a crazy story at the SABR site explaining that he survived a shooting before wrapping up his playing career.

Valmy Thomas is your random Philadelphia Phillie of the day.

Season	Team	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	AVG	OBP	SLG
1959	Philadelphia Phillies	66	151	140	28	2	0	1	7	9	19	.200