1964 Phillies - Unlike the Phillies, the Book Doesn't Fold!

books:

	• The 1964 Phillies: The Story of Baseball's Most Memorable Collapse John P. Rossi McFarland & Company, 2005 - 196 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Sad Story of a Summer Long Ago

In this book, John Rossi tells the story of the 1964 Phillies, most famous for being in first place with a 6 1/2 game lead with 12 games to play, only to suffer a 10 game losing streak and end up in second place. This Phillies season did more than anything else to define the psyche of the Philadelphia sports fan, who is now conditioned to always expect the worst. I was a 9 year old Phillies fan that summer and have vivid memories of my father, grandfather and uncle enjoying the success of the team, led by manager Gene Mauch, in the days before playoffs when winning the National League pennant meant a trip to the World Series.

Rossi, a history professor at LaSalle University in Philadelphia, does an excellent job of providing the historical context for the season, describing the City of Philadelphia, the Phillies' losing tradition, the management of the team in the lean years after the Whiz Kids of 1950 won the pennant, and the emergence in the early 1960s of the Phillies under Gene Mauch. (However, throughout the book Rossi annoyingly refers to the Phillies' stadium as Shibe Park, when it had been renamed Connie Mack Stadium in 1953 and virtually no one called it by its former name in 1964.)

Rossi then goes through a game by game description of the season, including the fast start, grabbing first place in mid-July and holding on for 73 fateful days. The Phillies were having a magical summer, highlighted by Jim Bunning's perfect game on Father's Day, Johnny Callison's All-Star game winning homer, and Richie Allen's Rookie of the Year season. The author explains how all season long the Phillies really were playing above their heads, with a lineup that on paper was not the equal of the Reds, Giants and Cardinals, all of which were stocked with future Hall of Famers.

The ten game losing streak is then described in excruciating detail, including an analysis of what went wrong. For decades, the common wisdom was that Mauch cost the Phils the pennant by panicking and repeatedly starting Bunning and Chris Short on 2 days rest. This book shows that Mauch's genius was largely responsible for the Phillies 1964 success, and that the 10 game losing streak was an untimely combination of weak offense, uncharacteristically bad defense and an exhausted pitching staff. Once the losing began, the psychological burden on the Phils of failing to fulfill everyone's high expectations just seemed to steamroll the team.

Philadelphia has never fully recovered from 1964. At key times of the Phillies "dynasty" in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, whenever things would start to go wrong the spectre of 1964 would be raised. Some say that the roots of the current attitude of Philadelphia sports fans generally, and in particular Phillies fans, are traceable back to 1964, although rooting for the Phils with their history of losing more games than any team in any professional sport ever may also have something to do with it. Rossi's book brings the 1964 season back to life and with it the opportunity to relive both the summer of magic as well as the crushing collapse.

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1964 Phillies - Unlike the Phillies, the Book Doesn't Fold!

This book covers a legendary year and event in baseball history. Although not a world class writing job, it does a workman-like job describing the events of the season. As a Phillies fan, I enjoyed reading the book and would recommend it to other people, although don't expect any great work of art. It includes a lot of recounting of events pretty much out of the boxscores and not an awful lot outside of that.

I'd give it a "B".

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1964 Phillies

Great Book, great service. What more can you say. I am completely satisfied with my purchase

A very good book

If you're a Phillies or MLB fan, then you should read this book. The book really starts about 1960 and what lead up to the 1964 season. It also talks about 1965 through the Curt Flood trade to the Phillies in 1969. As billed, the book talks a lot about segregation in Philly and Richie (later Dick) Allen. The book paints an entirely different pictures of Richie that what fans remember him as. I won't say the book made Richie a saint, but it minimizes his character flaws. Richie definitely walked to a different drum beat. The book paints an interesting picture of Gene Mauch and several times points out that he was a poor people person. I wonder if Gene would have as much success managing today as he did in the 60-80s.

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reviews: page 1, 2

In 1964, thousands of Philadelphia baseball fans were caught up in the Phillies? unexpected run at the National League pennant. Nearly a decade of continuous defeat had earned them little more than the reputation for an unprecedented record of consecutive losses. But in that ?64 season the Phillies shocked the baseball world, taking over the National League in mid?July and holding on to first place for 73 consecutive days. And then, as the team?s first pennant in a generation seemed within reach, the Phillies collapsed in the greatest meltdown in baseball history.

This account traces the rise and fall of that year?s Phillies team and attempts to disentangle the complex issues that ultimately cost them the pennant. The book sheds light on the influential events of the fifties and sixties that rendered the team first futile and then undefeated, beginning with an exploration of Philadelphia itself and its team in the 1950s. Early chapters discuss the acquisition of a new manager (Gene Mauch) and the dramatic additions of a dynamic new pitcher (Jim Bunning) and the first great African American player produced by the farm system (Richie Allen). Following chapters focus specifically on the 1964 season and its critical moments, from Jim Bunning?s perfect game and Johnny Callison?s winning home run in the All-Star game, to Chico Ruiz?s steal of home that began the devastating 10-game losing streak at the end of the season. Final chapters analyze what went wrong during the season and discuss the Phillies? position in baseball today. Three useful appendices provide the statistics for the games of the ?64 season and for the individual players on the team, and detailed statistics for the 10-game losing streak.

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