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, was on a fishing trip in Washington state with family and friends when he died unexpectedly on the morning of Friday, August 28, 2026. He was 72.
The club announced his 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.
Around the sport, he was simply “LC.” A native of Everett, Wash., Christenson 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 went 83-71 with a 3.79 ERA, striking out 781 batters 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.
He turned pro one day after his high school graduation, though where he came off the board in the 1972 draft is now in dispute. The club’s statement on X said he “was selected by the Phillies in the third round of the 1972 MLB Draft.” Other accounts published August 30 and August 31 place him in the first round, taken with the third overall pick.
A Complete Game at 19
Debuts like his no longer happen. On April 13, 1973, at 19 years old, Christenson took the ball at Veterans Stadium against the New York Mets and finished what he started, a 7-1 win. No teenager since has matched it: a complete-game victory in a major league debut still belongs to him as the most recent.
Batting leadoff that day was Larry Bowa, the Shortstop, who went 2-for-5. The two remained teammates from 1973 to 1981 and grew close. “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 to Clinch It
By the late 1970s Christenson had become 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 over 616 innings in that stretch.
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, then hit a grand slam of his own in the seventh inning. He could genuinely swing it: his 11 career home runs tie him with former Phillies pitcher Rick Wise atop the franchise list for pitchers.
A curious piece of team lore belongs to him, too. He started on May 19, 1979, the only game the Phillies ever played in burgundy uniforms. The schedule had set aside 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, 10 straight runs came home for the Expos, and a 10-5 defeat went to Philadelphia. 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. Photographs of that night still show Christenson in burgundy.
A 1980 Ring and a Life in Philadelphia
Injuries limited him to 14 starts during the Phillies’ championship season of 1980. Those outings counted, though: a 4.03 ERA and a 5-1 record came out of them. October was less kind. He was charged with four runs on five hits and recorded a single out in his Game 4 start. That 5-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals came on October 18, and Philadelphia recovered to win the franchise’s first title in six games. He was still there three years later, on the 1983 club that captured the National League pennant.
Christenson stayed in the Philadelphia area once his playing days ended, built a successful business career and poured himself into local charity work. He gave steady, hands-on support to Phillies Charities, Inc., the Tug McGraw Foundation and other area nonprofits, showing up as a recognizable presence any time the club had need of one.
“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. The news reaching Mike Schmidt, the Hall of Fame third baseman, was word that a friendship of 50 years had ended in death. “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,” Schmidt added.
Bowa, who also managed the Phillies, described him as a good hitter for a pitcher, a man who knew how to keep a clubhouse loose — and a competitor whose toughness and preparation showed up on his pitching days. Mound visits after long home runs, Bowa recalled, meant needling Christenson and drawing an unprintable reply.
The Phillies, in their announcement, extended condolences to his daughters, Claire and Libby, and to his extended family, friends and former teammates, and said his contributions to the franchise and the city would endure in memory.
No cause of death had been released as of September 3, and no funeral or memorial arrangements had been announced. An on-field tribute at Citizens Bank Park had likewise not been announced by the Phillies.