[1] Canadian journalist Peter McGuire claims the Phillips family moved from Saint John in 1877, due to a major fire, which burned much of the city.

[2] However, according to Alfred Henry Spink, founder of the Sporting News, Phillips was playing baseball in the Chicago area at earlier date.

[4] Phillips joined independent Forest City club of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1878, and in 65 games had a batting average of .296 to lead the team.

[8] In that game, Phillips hit what appeared to be a single to right field, only to be thrown out at first base by the shallow-playing right fielder Lon Knight.

[6][9] The seventh-place finish by the Blues, along with the decline of fan support, resulted in the financial instability of the franchise, and it folded after the season.

[6][10] He continued his success for Grays 1886, establishing his highest seasonal career totals in games played with 141, which led the AA, and hits with 160, which was fifth among the league leaders.

[1] Years later, Charles Comiskey recalled that when he was the manager for the St. Louis Browns, instructing his pitchers to throw easy-to-hit pitches for Phillips so that his public image would remain intact.

[1] Phillips never married, and he died on October 7, 1900, in Chicago at the age of 43, of syphilitic locomotor ataxia, and he is interred at Graceland Cemetery.