Philip Andrew Saylor (January 2, 1871 – July 23, 1937), nicknamed "Lefty", was an American football

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for

Ohio Wesleyan University Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio. It was founded in 1842 by methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five – a consortium ...

and college

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

best remembered for a "

cup of coffee A "cup of coffee" is a North American sports idiom for a short time spent by a minor league player at the major league level. The idea behind the term is that the player was only in the big leagues long enough to have a cup of coffee before bei ...

" appearance with the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

Early life

Saylor was born in 1871 in

Van Wert, Ohio Van Wert is a city in and the county seat of Van Wert County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northwestern Ohio approximately 77 mi (123 km) SW of Toledo and 34 mi (54 km) SE of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The po ...

. He became a left-handed pitcher for the Ohio Wesleyan

team, where he acquired the nickname "Lefty." At the end of Saylor's senior year the OWU students put together an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team, and Saylor was named the quarterback. His first and only appearance with the team was in the first game for the OWU football program, a 20–14 loss to the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

team on May 3, 1890. The game was also the first for the Ohio State squad.

Career

After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan, Saylor focused on his baseball career. On July 11, 1891, he made his only appearance with the Phillies, three innings of relief pitching against the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

. Saylor gave up two hits and two runs in an 11–0 loss, including one

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

. Saylor died in 1937 in

West Alexandria, Ohio West Alexandria is a village in Preble County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,340 at the 2010 census. History West Alexandria was laid out in 1818. The community derives its name from one of its founders, William Alexander. A post of ...

References

Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops baseball players Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops football players Philadelphia Phillies players Baseball players from Ohio People from Van Wert, Ohio 1937 deaths 1871 births 19th-century baseball players Major League Baseball pitchers Akron Summits players People from Preble County, Ohio {{US-baseball-pitcher-1870s-stub