Macho Row: the 1993 Phillies and Baseball’s Unwritten Code

by William C. Kashatus

  • An engaging account of the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies, who overcame a last-place finish the previous season and won the National League Pennant only to lose the World Series to the Toronto Blue Jays. Still, they remain one of the most beloved teams to Phillies fans.

    Colorful, shaggy, and unkempt, misfits and outlaws, the ‘93 Phillies played hard and partied hard. Led by Darren Daulton, John Kruk, Lenny Dykstra, Mitch Williams, Dave Hollins and Pete Incaviglia, it was the kind of blue-collar team Philadelphia fans love. Focusing on six key members of the team, Macho Row follows the remarkable season with an up-close look at the players’ lives, the team’s triumphs and failures, and not least what made this group so unique and successful.

    With a throwback mentality, the team adhered to Baseball’s Code. Designed to preserve the moral fabric of the game, The Code’s unwritten rules of the game formed the bedrock of this diehard team whose players paid homage and respect to the game at all times. Trusting one another and avoiding ideas of superstardom, they consistently rubbed the opposition the wrong way and didn’t care.

    William C. Kashatus pulls back the covers on this old-school band of brothers, depicting the highs and lows and their brash style while also digging into the suspected steroid use of players on the team. Macho Row is a story of winning and losing, success and failure, and the emotional highs and lows that accompany them.

  • University of Nebraska Press

    2017 | Hardcover, eBook; 2019 | Paperback

    ISBN: 978-0-8032-9086-0 (hardcover), 978-1-4962-1408-9 (paperback), 978-1-4962-0023-5 (eBook, EPUB), 978-1-4962-0025-9 (eBook, PDF)

    Pages: 376

    Illustrations: 43

    Price: $27.95 (hardcover), $21.95 (paperback, eBook)

  • “In Macho Row, William Kashatus gives the 1993 Phillies their place in history by crystalizing the team’s dedication to ‘The Code’ - the old-school rules followed by ballplayers of a bygone era.” — Baseball America

    “Macho Row tells the story of the 1993 National League Champion Phillies, who captured the imaginations fans with their hard-edged, take-no-prisoners attitude. But their success, as William Kashatus points out, was based on knowing how to play offensive baseball. Those Phillies took a lot of pitches, walked frequently and generated a ton of runs.” – Billy Beane, Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations, Oakland Athletics

    “Everybody loves an underdog, but that’s not the only reason an entire city embraced the 1993 Phillies. In an increasingly bland world of carefully-managed sound bites they were loud, irreverent and politically incorrect. Although the Phillies may have fielded better teams since, this colorful group of overachievers remains beloved more than 20 years later. Macho Row vividly recreates their rowdy, memorable season, warts and all.” – Paul Hagen, Baseball Writer, Philadelphia Daily News, 1987-2012; J.G. Taylor Spink award winner, 2013

    “Kashatus gives us the rags-to-riches tale of the 1993 Phillies and the six members who formed the heart of the team. A collection of misfits and castoffs from other organizations, those Phillies gelled into a true baseball powerhouse who placed winning above everything else. Inspiring as well as tragic, Macho Row is ultimately a cautionary tale about the price some athletes pay after their playing days are over.” – Al Tielemans, Photographer, Sports Illustrated

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