John Wesley Callison, a former resident of Glenside and a three-time All-Star for the 1960s Philadelphia Phillies, has a new video highlighting his life and career.

Callison, an outfielder. finished as the runner-up in the National League MVP voting in 1964. He played in Major League Baseball for 16 seasons and led the National League in triples twice and doubles once. He gained his greatest prominence during the 1964 season in which he was named the MVP of the All-Star Game.

After his MLB days, he went on to become a player-coach with the Philadelphia Athletics, a professional softball team that played at Veterans Stadium in the 1978 season of the American Professional Slo-Pitch League.

According to a 2013 article by The Inquirer, Callison earned $42,500 in his final MLB season and “lived in a modest Glenside home since coming to Philadelphia in 1960, and retirement was difficult.”

An excerpt:

Throughout his career, as the many photographs of him in Philadelphia newspapers attest, Callison rarely looked comfortable in his own skin. Jim Bunning, who would become a U.S. senator, said his Phillies teammate never came to grips with his great ability, and “that probably caused him a lot of angst.”

“I don’t know if I’d say my father was never comfortable,” said Moore, 53, “but it definitely wasn’t his nature to look at what he’d done or who he was.”

He worked with a printing company, and took jobs selling cars and tending bar.

“He wasn’t much of a car salesman at all,” said McGowan, 55. “But I think he really enjoyed the bartending. People would remember him and want to talk about his days with the Phillies, and he loved doing that.”

Callison died in 2006 in Abington.

From the new video’s caption:

Join baseball historian John Rossi and Moviehouse Productions host “Radio” Rick Spector for “Remembering Johnny Callison”. When one had “choose up” baseball games in Philly during the early 1960’s, nearly every kid wanted to be “Johnny”. Callison could run, field, hit, had a rifle arm, and for a medium size man he had great power. He looked like a movie star. Callison almost led us to a World Series in 1964. For too few shining years, Johnny Callison was clearly the major sports idol of our city.

Watch “Remembering Johnny Callison”, created by Moviehouse Productions, below:

For more on his life and career, you can click here. For a fan tribute, you can click here.

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Photos: Wikipedia, Society for American Baseball, Baseball Wiki