The Phillies' current playoff run reminds me of two local guys I knew about 60 years ago. Both went on to become Major League Baseball pitchers and have their names in the record books, yet I'd bet even many die-hard Phillies fans have never heard of them.

The first was Grover Powell, who went to the University of Pennsylvania on an academic scholarship starting in 1959 and later earned a degree in economics. (You may be surprised to know that five Penn graduates have played in the major leagues since 1950, but only one, outfielder Doug Glanville, played for the Phillies from 1998 to 2002. Glanville was also the first African American Ivy League graduate to play in the major leagues.)

I met Powell when we were both college seniors. He earned three varsity letters in baseball at Penn and two letters on the 150-pound football team. He pitched a no-hitter against Lafayette College, the first recorded no-hitter in Penn baseball history. He still holds the single-season strikeout record at Penn (116) in 1960. After 40 years, he ranked seventh among all NCAA Division I college pitchers for strikeouts per nine-inning game.

When he told me he was determined to pitch in the major leagues, I thought to myself, "Sure, and I am going to be a quarterback for the Eagles." He made me feel foolish when he was drafted by the New York Mets in 1963, called up to the Mets in July, and in his very first start on Aug. 20 pitched a 4-0 shutout against the Phillies that earned him a spot in the MLB record books.

"Can you believe it?" he said. "I must have had a guardian angel on my shoulder because every pitch went exactly where I wanted it to go. My command of the strike zone and the movement on my breaking balls were the best of my life. It was a miracle, literally a dream come true. And the fact that it was against the Phillies made it even better. I still think I am going to pinch myself and wake up."

But Mets legendary manager Casey Stengel desperately needed relief pitchers because of injuries, so he only had Powell pitching in relief after that. He appeared in 20 games for the year and had a 2.72 earned run average. (For those non-baseball fans, ERA is the most important statistic for any pitcher. This year there are only three pitchers in all MLB teams who have a lower ERA than 2.72. One is the Phillies' Zack Wheeler at 2.56.)

It looked as if Powell was on the verge of a spectacular career with his name becoming a household word. However, he was sent by the Mets to Venezuela to play winter ball in 1963, where he tore the rotator cuff in his left shoulder, which ultimately ended his baseball career. He did pitch in the minor leagues after that injury but no longer had the same electric "stuff" that highlighted his earlier career.

Powell, a very nice guy, later did some umpiring of baseball and refereeing of basketball in Raleigh, North Carolina, and received outstanding awards. He died of leukemia at age 44 on May 21, 1985.

The second player I knew was Al Downing. When I was a sophomore at Muhlenberg College in Allentown in 1959, there was a lot of buzz around campus about this freshman from Trenton, New Jersey. We were told that Downing was a spectacular basketball player, even though he was just under 6 feet tall. At the time freshmen were not allowed to play varsity sports in college, so we were just going to have to wait until Al's second year to witness his incandescent skills. "He will be the best player this school ever had," one friend told me.

Downing told me he was very much looking forward to playing against Philly teams like La Salle and Temple in the Palestra on the Penn campus. However, after just one year at Muhlenberg, Downing dropped out of school and transferred to Rider College in South Jersey.

I was sorry to see Downing go, not just because of his basketball skills but because he was a nice guy who was liked by everyone. I was so shocked that I thought it must be a misprint when I read in a Philly paper in 1961 that Downing was on the major league roster of the New York Yankees. He was so humble that he had never even mentioned that he was also a great baseball player!

In 1963, his first full major league season, Downing had a 13-5 won-loss record with a 2.56 ERA for a Yankees team that went 104-57. In 1964, he went 13-8 with a 3.47 ERA, and he led the league with 217 strikeouts.

Downing proceeded to have an outstanding career from 1961 to 1977. He was an All-Star in 1967 and the National League's "Comeback Player of the Year" in 1971, but the reason he is in the MLB record books is that on April 8, 1974, he threw the pitch that Hank Aaron hit for his 715th career home run. This broke the record of 714 set by Babe Ruth that had lasted for 39 years and which many baseball experts insisted would never be broken.

I guess you just never know who has the potential for greatness.

Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com