Larry Christenson, the durable right-hander who pitched all 11 seasons of his major league career for the Philadelphia Phillies and won a World Series ring with the 1980 club, died unexpectedly on the morning of Friday, August 28, 2026, while fishing in Washington state with family and friends. He was 72. No cause of death has been released.
The team announced the death that day in a statement and in a post on X. “The Phillies are saddened to learn of the unexpected passing of former pitcher Larry Christenson this morning while on a fishing trip with family and friends in Washington state,” the club said.
Everyone in the game called him “LC.” A native of Everett, Wash., he was drafted out of Marysville High School in Marysville, Washington, by the Phillies in 1972 and never wore another uniform. From 1973 to 1983 he put together an 83-71 record and a 3.79 ERA, with 781 strikeouts over 1,402 2/3 innings in 243 appearances, 220 of them starts. That start total ranks ninth all-time among Phillies pitchers, and the club reached the postseason six times during his career. One account published August 31 says Christenson “also helped Philadelphia win the National League East five times during his career.”
Philadelphia drafted him one day after his high school graduation, though accounts of where he came off the board differ. A piece published August 30 described him as “selected in the first round, No. 3 overall.” Another report, quoting the Phillies’ official statement on X a day later, said he “was selected by the Phillies in the third round of the 1972 MLB Draft.”
A Complete Game at 19
His arrival in the majors is the sort of debut the sport no longer produces. Christenson was 19 years old on April 13, 1973, when he took the ball at Veterans Stadium against the New York Mets and finished what he started in a 7-1 win. He remains the last pitcher to earn a complete-game victory as a teenager in his major league debut.
Shortstop Larry Bowa hit leadoff that afternoon and went 2-for-5. The two were teammates from 1973 to 1981 and became close friends. “My heart is heavy today,” Bowa said after the death. “‘LC’ was a tremendous teammate, an outstanding pitcher and a true friend. Win or lose, he was always the life of the clubhouse.”
A Grand Slam in the Clincher
By the late 1970s he had turned into a workhorse, anchoring the rotation on three consecutive National League East championship clubs from 1976 to 1978. He went 45-28 with a 3.65 ERA across 616 innings in those three years.
The best of it came in 1977, a career-high 19 wins. The exclamation point arrived September 27, 1977, at Wrigley Field, where a 15-9 win over the Chicago Cubs clinched a second straight division title. Christenson started and got the win, and in the seventh inning he hit a grand slam of his own. The bat was no accident: his 11 career home runs leave him even with former Phillies pitcher Rick Wise atop the franchise’s list for pitchers.
He also owns one of the odder footnotes in team history. He was the starter on May 19, 1979, in the only game the Phillies ever played wearing burgundy uniforms, and the team had lined up several more nights for the look that season. Then Christenson brushed Montreal catcher Gary Carter off the plate in the second inning and hit him with a pitch in the fourth. The benches cleared, the Expos scored 10 straight runs and Philadelphia lost 10-5. As Christenson later told it, Greg “Bull” Luzinski went upstairs afterward and told owner Ruly Carpenter: “Ruly, I’m never wearing this uniform again. You can release me. You can trade me. I don’t care. I’m never wearing this thing again.” Carpenter retired the uniforms, and photographs from that night still show Christenson in burgundy.
A Ring in 1980 and a Life in Philadelphia
Injuries held him to 14 starts during the championship season of 1980, and he made them count, finishing 5-1 with a 4.03 ERA. The World Series was another story. He was charged with four runs on five hits and recorded only one out in his Game 4 start, a 5-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals on October 18, before Philadelphia regrouped and took the franchise’s first title in six games. He was still there three years later, on the 1983 club that won the National League pennant.
Christenson remained in the Philadelphia area once he stopped pitching, building a successful business career and pouring his time into local charity work. He was a steady, hands-on supporter of Phillies Charities, Inc., the Tug McGraw Foundation and other area nonprofits — the sort of alumnus who showed up whenever the organization needed a familiar face.
“He was always helping people,” Bowa recalled. “If you needed him, he was there.”
Teammates Remember “LC”
The men who shared a clubhouse with him spoke up quickly. Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt said he had just learned of the death of a friend of 50 years. “Larry was very special, the guy that kept in touch with all of us, he always had a smile on his face, he never forgot a moment he spent with you,” Schmidt said. “His passing will leave a hole in all of our hearts,” he added.
Bowa, who also managed the Phillies, described him as a good hitter for a pitcher, someone who kept a clubhouse loose but turned tough and prepared on the days he took the ball. He remembered needling Christenson during mound visits after long home runs and getting an unprintable reply.
The club’s announcement extended condolences to his daughters, Claire and Libby, and to his extended family, friends and former teammates, saying what he gave the franchise and the city would not be forgotten.
As of September 3, no funeral or memorial arrangements had been announced, and the Phillies had not announced an on-field tribute at Citizens Bank Park.