The Phold

BY KEVIN KERNAN

The only thing missing in this sad baseball tale is The Phanatic.

He was not yet hatched.

Here at BallNine, history is not forgotten, and this month marks the 60th anniversary of the Greatest Collapse in MLB history.

Gene Mauch’s 1964 Phillies were up 6 1/2 games with only 12 to play when the bottom fell out with 10 straight losses, the first seven losses at home. The first loss in the collapse that still haunts every Phillies fan came on September 21st, 1-0, at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds. The only run was a steal of home by Chico Ruiz in the sixth inning, the second time in three games the Phillies had lost a game because they allowed a steal of home.

Yes, it was a much bolder brand of baseball 60 years ago and, believe it or not, the bases were spaced 90 feet apart. This was long before Rob Manfred bastardized the game with his many rule changes.

It only got worse from there for the Phillies.

The reason I am bringing this to your attention now is because of a wonderful new book by historian John P. Rossi, Ph.D. – and not just baseball history. Rossi, 88, is a professor emeritus at La Salle University, an expert in British history, Irish history, the career of George Orwell, World War II history and the role played by baseball in the development of American Culture.

No, this is not just some sportswriter with a book of memories to write.

This is one learned man and that is just one reason his new book “The 1964 Phillies: The Story of Baseball’s Most Memorable Collapse’’ is such a fascinating read. Plus, Rossi grew up in Philadelphia a huge Phillies fan; this one comes straight from the heart and is published by McFarland.

History with a heartbeat.

The book came about because Rossi’s wife Frances, who passed away in 2022, said to him one day: “For God’s sake, you are always talking about it, why don’t you write about it?’’

After 56 years of marriage, Frances knew her husband so well. They first met in 1964.

In the lovely dedication of the book Rossi writes:

For Frances Quinn Rossi:

Fifty-six years wasn’t enough

“She was the one who got me started writing seriously about baseball,’’ Rossi told BallNine on Saturday. “She said you are always analyzing it, discussing it, talking about the past, so all this really came from her.’’

Rossi breaks the book down into eight chapters and chapter six is the one that really caught my attention – that one is all about the 10-game losing streak and goes into much detail about what went wrong each game.

The chapter is entitled:  The Blue Snow Melts.

In the preface, Rossi notes that in the spring and summer of 1964 “I was trying to complete my Ph.D. thesis in history at the University of Pennsylvania … I almost didn’t make it. Along with thousands of others in Philadelphia, I was caught up in the Phillies’ unexpected run at the National League pennant. I became so involved in the fate of the club that I neglected my own work … For years I have thought about the ’64 season, about what went wrong and why … I hope to bury the ghost of what catcher Gus Triandos called ‘the year of the blue snow.’

“Sometimes it is necessary to relive events in order to see them more clearly.’’

Triandos came up with the blue snow line because everything was going right with the Phillies – until the collapse, including the pitching of Jim Bunning and Chris Short, Richie Allen being the favorite to win rookie of the year, Johnny Callison becoming a hitting star, so in the words of Triandos, “the year of Blue Snow,’’ represented a year when nothing could go wrong.

Until it all went wrong.

“Baseball became a distraction as the city’s love affair with the Phillies grew deeper.’’

The Phillies and the weather that summer were hot. They were in first place from July 16th until the collapse.

“The summer of 1964, especially in the month of July, was an unusually hot one in Philadelphia, a city famous for its sweltering heat and humidity,’’ Rossi wrote in chapter five. “Air conditioning was still rare outside of theaters, restaurants, and bars. As the city sweltered in long periods of 90-degree weather – in 14 days during July temperatures were above that mark, hitting 99 on July 1 – baseball became a distraction as the city’s love affair with the Phillies grew deeper.’’

Let me add, this was long before the hysteria of climate change.

Hot summers were merely a fact of life and baseball was a great distraction from the heat, just seeing the green grass in the ballpark and feeling a cool breeze was a relief.

And remember this was when only the National League and American League pennant winners advanced to the World Series. There was no 12-team slop show in the postseason.

I was 11 years old at the time and a Yankee fan, so I was keeping a close watch on what team would come out of the National League to play my aging Yankees. The Yankees (99-63) won the AL pennant by one game over the White Sox (98-64) and two games over the Orioles (97-65). It was the summer of the pennant race in both leagues.

The Phillies had gotten 90,000 World Series tickets requests when the bottom fell out. A 3-2 Jim Bunning win in LA on September 20th put the Phillies (90-60) up 6 1/2 games with 12 to play. Then came a 1-0 loss to Cincinnati in the opener of the seven-game homestand, followed by a 9-2 blowout and a 6-4 defeat to give Cincinnati the sweep with the powerful Milwaukee Braves coming to Shibe Park for a four-game series.

Mauch had spread a thin staff thinner by over-relying on Bunning and Short, six times in the collapse his starting pitchers had started on only two days’ rest. Mauch also seemed to get away from his small ball approach to winning. Before the 10-game losing streak, the Phillies had not lost more than three games in a row all season. In a column in the Philadelphia Inquirer Red Smith wrote of Mauch: “He’s got to keep the young Phillies on an even gait because they haven’t experienced pressure like this.’’

Mauch was juggling his lineup almost daily during the collapse. That did not help. While the Phillies were losing the Reds, the Cardinals were closing the gap. The Cardinals had the pitching ace in Bob Gibson and that would make a dramatic difference.

Another wonderful thing about this book is the extensive chapter notes at the end, season statistics and the box scores of all 10 games in the losing streak. In one loss to the Braves, slow-footed Joe Torre hit two triples. In the four games, which included a 7-5 Braves victory in 12 innings, Milwaukee scored 32 runs. In a 6-4 win in the third game of the series, Milwaukee manager Bobby Bragan called on 43-year-old Warren Spahn to be the closer on a day the Phillies blew a 4-0 lead. Torre had 11 hits in the four-game series, including those two triples and two home runs.

The Philly fans had a lost feeling as well, and one fan hung a sign from the upper deck in right field that simply read: “Help!”

There was to be no help.

For the first time since July 16th, 73 consecutive days, the Phillies were not in first place after the 14-8 loss to the Braves in the last home game of the season. Bragan’s pitching coach Whit Wyatt, an old friend of Mauch’s, told the press that the Phillies pitching “looks sorta tired.’’

Exhausted was more like it. The Phillies had lost all seven games in the final homestand, and it was on to St. Louis. They played the five final games on the road.

Bob Gibson, who won nine of his last 11 starts, beat them 5-1 in the first game in St. Louis. In the second game Ray Sadecki won his 20^th game of the season, back when winning 20 games was a happy reality. Mauch used six pitchers and seven pinch-hitters in that game, trying everything to win the game. No go.

Cardinals manager Johnny Keane found himself a unique reliever that year, 38-year-old knuckleballer Barney Schultz, who became the first man out of the bullpen. He retired seven of the eight Phillies he faced, back when relievers worked more than one inning. The Phillies had dropped to third place, behind the Cardinals and Reds. A tired Jim Bunning started the final game of the series against Phillies killer Curt Simmons. Rossi points out that Simmons was 15-2 against them since being released by Philadelphia in April 1960.

Bunning was done and gave up six runs the first three innings.

The collapse was complete. The Phillies would win their final two games in Cincinnati, but it was too little too late. The Phillies and Reds tied for second place, one game behind the Cardinals at 92-70.

The Phillies had blown the pennant. All the wonderful things that had happened in 1964 were washed away, Rossi wrote, including Jim Bunning’s perfect game, Johnny Callison’s game-winning home run in the All-Star Game and Richie Allen’s incredible rookie season.

“The Phillies fans of 1964 had their hearts broken,’’ Rossi wrote, “and they would be reluctant to invest their emotions in another Phillies team for years.’’

Here we are 60 years later, and Bryce Harper’s Phillies are in first place in the NL East and came away with a big 6-4 win over the Mets on Saturday at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies trailed, 4-0 but came back on the strength of two Harper home runs and a two-run double from Cal Stevenson, who also robbed a home run from J.D. Martinez. It takes big plays to win a division.

These Phillies have room to fail, though and will still make it to the postseason because of all the teams that make the playoffs, three division winners and three wild-card teams from each league.

Rossi, though, is not about to take anything for granted. How could he? He’s a Phillies fan who was there to see the Collapse of ’64, known as The Phold. “Five or six of those games were on television,’’ he recalled, “and you just knew something was going to go wrong.’’

Everything went wrong – and in this book Rossi makes history come alive again.