In Episode 9 of Fox’s Universal Basic Guys, South Jersey resident Mark Hoagies successfully calms down a crying baby by picking up a few cupcakes and making up a song. Realizing he might be on to something, he successfully creates the “Mr. Cupcake Man” persona and goes viral on YouTube, launching himself into stardom.

Unfortunately, he reads too many negative troll comments and decides to pivot, ala Garth Brooks doing the Chris Gaines alter ego. We’re then introduced to a much darker Mr. Cupcake Man, which more or less bombs and results in Mark becoming a one-hit wonder.

The story is ridiculous in a good way, and one of my top three episodes of season 1, which is streaming now on Hulu. It also got me thinking about one-hit wonders in Philadelphia sports, so we did some crowd sourcing with readers to see if we could put together a comprehensive list. The criteria was basically boiled down to two things. One, the athlete was here for a few seasons, but only had one amazing year that was never replicated. Or, two, the player was only here for one single season, played well, and was never heard from again. In that sense, this can either be a positive one-hit wonder, or a negative one-hit wonder, depending on the situation. We organized this by team since the list was so long, and came close to 50 total players. If there’s anything totally egregious that we forgot, email me and I’ll add it to the list.

Eagles

  • Patrick Robinson – The pick six will go down as one of the all-time great plays in Philadelphia Eagles history.
  • Jay Ajayi – The mid-season trade that put the Birds over the top during the Super Bowl year.
  • LeGarrette Blount – There are a number of guys from the 2017 team that could go on this list, but Blount, Ajayi, and Robinson are easily the top three.
  • Travis Fulgham – Who could forget Fulghamania? He played one game for Denver in 2021 and that was his last NFL action.
  • Terrell Owens – TO was here for two seasons, but only one was meaningful. We all know what happened afterward.
  • Chris Jones  – Not the defensive tackle who wrecks shop for the Kansas City Chiefs, but the guy who caught 70 passes for more than 850 yards and five touchdowns back in 1996.
  • Leonard Weaver – Went to the 2009 Pro Bowl and was becoming a fan favorite, then got hurt and only played one game the following year.
  • Donte Stallworth – 725 yards and 5 scores for the 2006 team. Only Reggie Brown was better that year.
  • Jeff Garcia – He’s it baby! That six-game run from 2006 was special.
  • James Bradberry – The fact that he’s on this list is sad. Hopefully we don’t have to add Zach Baun to it.
  • Kevin Curtis – Played here for three seasons, but that 2007 was a total outlier and he never came close to replicating it.
  • Shawn Barber – This guy was a menace on the 2002 team. 93 tackles, three fumble recoveries, two picks, two forced fumbles.
  • Walter Thurmond – A journeyman up until 2015, when he started all 16 games for the Birds. He then retired.
  • Jason Babin – Largely a clown, there was a time when he went to the Pro Bowl with an 18-sack Eagles season.
  • Bobby Hoying – We will always have that brief run of games from 1997 to fondly look back on.
  • D’Andre Swift – 1,000 yards and a Pro Bowl during his only Philly season.
  • Doug Pederson – Doug P? Yeah. His best NFL season, which admittedly was not great, was in 1999.
  • Michael Bennett – Had himself a monster 2018.

Phillies

  • Dom Brown – Let’s be honest, if this was a top-10 list instead of a larger thing, Dom Brown would be #1.
  • Aaron Rowand – Proof that you don’t have to be a superstar to be respected here. Just put your body on the line making a hustle play.
  • Hunter Pence – The guy hit .324 in that first half-season with the Phils.
  • Benito Santiago – Feels like he played for every team in Major League Baseball, but in 1996 he knocked in 85 runs and hit 30 home runs.
  • Pedro Martinez – Could have won another ring here if a few things went differently for the 2009 squad.
  • Tadahito Iguchi – .803 OPS over 45 games in 2007. He might be more of a “cup of coffee” guy, but close enough.
  • Scott Kingery – 2019 looked like a break out year for him, but unfortunately it was not.
  • Matt Stairs – Only with the Phils for what amounted to one full year over two seasons, but boy did he leave an impact.
  • Glenn Wilson – His only All Star season was here in 1985.
  • Corey Dickerson – Only played 34 games, but posted a really nice .293/.307/.579 slash line.
  • Kenny Lofton – People always forget about Kenny since he was 38 years old and near the end of his career, but he played well here in 2005.
  • Geoff Jenkins – We’ll count him. Walked in here during his final MLB year, won a ring, and retired.
  • Roger Connor – Gotta make sure we get someone from the 1800s on the list. According to Twitter user Matt Albertson, Connor posted a “6.3 WAR in 1892. Hall of Famer who spent most of his time with the Giants.”

Sixers

  • Dana Barros – Barros was a good player who enjoyed a long career, but he was never better than 1994-1995, when he shot 46.4% from three and averaged a career-high 20.6 points per game.
  • Michael Carter-Williams – A Rookie of the Year who became a Process casualty. A snapshot of the Sam Hinkie era.
  • Jimmy Butler – Just know that his name is Jimmy, it is not James.
  • Willie Burton – Another guy who had his best single season in Philadelphia. 15.3 PPG on the Dana Barros team that also included Clarence Weatherspoon, Shawn Bradley, and Sharone Wright.
  • Jahlil Okafor – I’d walk over to Ukee Washington’s desk in 2015 and we’d watch Jah’s post moves. Alas, that was the pinnacle, we just didn’t know it at the time.
  • (why are there not more Sixers on this list? surely we’re forgetting some obvious ones – EDIT: of course I missed Nic Batum)

Flyers

  • Peter Forsberg – Only played one full season before he was traded, but what a season it was. 75 points in 60 games. He finished 12 points behind Simon Gagne for the team lead despite playing 12 fewer games.
  • Ville Leino – Leino was a mid-season trade when the Flyers went to the Stanley Cup Finals about 15 years ago. He went on a playoff heater, then had a 53-point season the following year before becoming an unrestricted free agent. He played 93 regular season Flyers games and 30 in the postseason, but we collectively decided he fits the billing here.
  • Jaromir Jagr – 54 points in 73 games. It’s no coincidence that some Flyers had their best seasons ever when Jagr was on the squad. He made everyone around him better.
  • Greg Paslawski – “Mud” put up 33 points in his lone Flyers season and was never heard from again.
  • Sean Walker – The most recent example, he was a rebuilding casualty and flipped for a 1st round pick.
  • Matt Niskanen – Isn’t it kind of sad how quickly they fell after after he left?

Union

  • Borek Dockal – The Czech international only spent one season in Chester, on loan from a Chinese club, but before he departed back to Europe, he scored five goals and chipped in 18 assists, which was #1 in Major League Soccer that season.
  • Michael Orozco Fiscal – Back then, he was only Michael Orozco and hadn’t yet changed his name. He was a constant starter on the 2010 expansion team and a full U.S. international who had a nice career played mostly in Mexico.
  • Gabriel Gomez – The best signing for the ill-fated 2012 Union team, he was a quality box-to-box player and veteran Panama international.
  • Jeff Parke – One of the few veterans on the 2013 team, his presence in central defense put a young team right on the playoff doorstep.
  • Oguchi Onyewu – Gooch finished his career with the Union and was a bright spot on an otherwise underwhelming 2017 team.
  • Marco Fabian – Scored the first playoff winner in Union history despite playing a smaller role than we all expected.
  • Veljko Paunovic – Fans didn’t like this midseason acquisition at first, but the “Old Serby Bastard” scored three goals and stepped into the starting lineup for the first Union playoff team ever.

“Cupcake man, I’m a cupcake man, look at me baby I’m a cupcake man. I’m a hot dog man, I’m a hot dog man, look at me baby I’m a hot dog man.”