Don Richard (Ritchie) Ashburn, son of Neil and Genevieve (Toots) Ashburn, and twin sister, Donna Ruth, were born on March 19, 1927 at Tilden, Nebraska in Antelope County.
Ritchie attended school in Tilden and played Legion baseball. After graduation, he served with the U S Army in Alaska during World War II. He attended Norfolk Junior College. In the spring of 1948, at the age of 21, he signed a major league baseball contract with the Philadelphia Phillies. He was National League rookie of the year and a member of the Phillies “Whiz Kids” League champion team. He played baseball for 12 years with the Phillies, two with the Chicago Cubs and a year with the New York Mets.
He was offered a chance to do radio and TV broadcasting for the Phillies and he has been at this job for 22 years. He accompanies the Phillies to spring training in Florida every year and travels with they the rest of the season.
The Philadelphia Bulletin hired him as a columnist 13 years ago. He has also written a column for the Daily News for the past two years. He finished his baseball career with 2,576 hits for a lifetime average of .308. He led the Phillies in games played (1,794), at bats, (7,122) and hits (2,217). He is second with runs scored (1,114) and walks (946). He is fourth in doubles (287) and triples (97). He led the National League in hitting twice; .318 in 1955 and .350 in 1958. He holds major league put out records that will probably never be broken.
Source Unknown: Originally submitted for this website in June 2007