Customer Reviews

The 1964 Phillies: The Story of Baseball's Most Memorable Collapse

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

John P. Rossi's factual account of a sweet summer that turned to ashes in the final two weeks of the season is a must read for all long suffering Phillies fans and baseball historians. It brought back a flood of memories from that summer of my second year of medical school. Many a night the Phillies were my companion as I labored over my medical textbooks and studied for my tests. My anticipated reward was to be the 1964 World Series. Like the rest of Philadelphia, I witnessed the Fightin Phils collapse in stunned disbelief at the end of the season. John P. Rossi explains the story behind the Phillies unexpected success and the reasons for their ultimate defeat. Many of my "memories" of the losing streak were shown to be innacurate when the record was closely examined. Rossi examines the role of manager Gene Mauch in the late season collapse. He analyzes the strength and weakness of the pitching staff, the season long vulnerability to left handed pitching, the role of race in Philadelphia baseball, the emergence of Rich Allen and Johnny Callison as stars, the impact of GM John Quinn and the long term impact of the collapse upon the Phillies. I highly recommend this book.

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".

Author Rossi really did his research in encapsulating the entire season & the notorious fold in the stretch by the NL team in the "City of Brotherly Love". A look back on how the '64 Phillies came to be is in the early part of it. Most enjoyable read!

Professor Rossi chronicles the Phillies' 1964 in a readable, thorough manner. Going into the seasons leading up to the '64 events aids in the understanding of the team. The season is revisted more or less on a game by game basis where the commentary goes beyond just summary of box scores. Personalities are fleshed out; there is some strategic analysis, but Rossi doesn't offer himself as a baseball expert. Nor, in relating the events does he fall into the trap of taking his subject matter too seriously---these were indeed events of supreme gravity to Phillies fans, but this wasn't the Battle of Gettysburg. (However like Pickett's Charge at the end of that battle, the 10 game losing streak and depleted pitching staff with Bunning/Short etc. is waiting there at the end of the season after all the ingenious machinations exercised by Manager Mauch to get that 6 1/2 game lead with 12 to play.)

It is an enjoyable must read for Phillies fans.

It is a fine read for all other baseball fans. And it is an appropriate read for those who enjoy tragic epics.

Fine job, Professor.

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

As an avid Cardinal fan at age 15 in 1964, I attended one of the biggest games in Cardinal history: game two of the Philadelphia series during the Phillie 10 game meltdown. There is no doubt in my mind that Manager Gene Mauch blew it. John Rossi tries to shift blame, and in fact praises Mauch for taking a bunch of overachievers to the almost promised land. My take is the opposite: Mauch got scared, panicked, and eliminated any chances the Phillies had to win the pennant.

Rossi does a nice job of rehashing the season, but there's not much new here, not much a fan didn't already know. I would have liked to have learned more about the clubhouse chatter during the collapse, but there is very little here. Most of what we learn we already new from newspaper accounts.

The book reads quickly and if you want to bring back some great memories (Cardinal fans) or nightmares (Phillie fans), this might be a good read. I think the book is extremely pricey. You might want to pick up a used copy!

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.

Without question,John Rossi's book on the 1964 Phillies is the most inept attempt at sports literature that I've read in 59 years on planet earth.Not only does the author fail to convey the true feeling of the 1964 season,he fails time and again with the English language.Grammatical errors abound,factual data is constantly presented in repetitious banalities,much of the data is convoluted or simply erroneous,and the slipshod boxscores at book's end are simply unacceptable to all but those who still use crayons.Rossi was given an excellent topic and just simply wasn't up to it.Since I lost $30 and gained little or nothing in the process,just label me "Losing Pitcher Mulcahey-2006"