Customer Reviews

September Swoon: Richie Allen, the '64 Phillies, and Racial Integration (Keystone Book)

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September Swoon, by William Kashatus has a vivid feel that hits home for me and probably would for anyone else who endured the historic end-of-season collapse that happened in what was later known in Philadelphia as "the year of the blue snow." Blue it was indeed for my then fifth grade psyche. I LOVED the Phillies. Johnny Callison was my hero and it seemed that 1964 was all going our way from the June 21st perfect game by Jim Bunning, to Callison's walk-off 3-run homer to end the All Star game to the six-game lead that the Phillies held in the NL before losing ten of their last twelve games. Just as true, though is the tragic career of Richie (later "Dick") Allen, the Phillies' Rookie of the Year third baseman. Race relations for me had little to do with baseball, the Phillies and every other team had always had colored players (at least to my awareness) and frankly, I hadn't given the matter any thought at all by that time. Like the author`s, my memories are of faithful listening to late night west coast games with a transistor radio under my pillow and the crackle of lightning-generated static cutting through the play by play of By Saam, Rich Ashburn and Bill Campbell.

But it is undeniable that Richie Allen came to be a figure inescapably linked to the racial boil-over that was occurring nationwide throughout the sixties. Intelligent and articulate, Allen later admitted to having been thrust reluctantly at first, into the role of baseball's poster child for black belligerence. The Philadelphia baseball franchise was notorious for its lily-whiteness until 1957, when it hired its first black player. These facts were unknown to a ten year old, but Kashatus artfully weaves the race scene that erupted into riots together with the baseball collapse that the Phillies suffered. A fight between superstar Allen and journeyman Phillies' player Frank Thomas in 1965 sparked a torrent of media, and consequently, fan scapegoating of Allen, who did little to pour oil on the troubled waters, opting instead for a Stagga-Lee in red pinstripes persona. If we were becoming modern, multicultural and tolerant at the time, it wasn't instantaneous, and a considerable amount of racially charged derision did certainly befall this tragic player, who had he been born ten years later, would surely have been a Hall of Famer.

In the end, neither the Phillies of 1964 nor Dick Allen got the prize they might have. The world has held together, I witnessed in person the Phillies' world championship in 1980, and life has continued on. But the hope and dreams that were mine along with so many others in 1964 would never come to pass. If the wheels came off for the Phillies in 1964, the event certainly coincided with the beginnings of a world so different and cynical by comparison, that it would have been unimaginable to most, regardless of color, at that time. There is no doubt that the racial strife of the sixties led to an accelerated timetable for the legal elimination of racism, but it is probable that the matter has remained uglier for much longer because of this hasty era of impatience and insistence. Dick Allen the man is just a man, he is not the cause of anything, not even his own fate. But he symbolizes a thought that is bestride the before and the after: What if things had gone differently?

September Swoon is a good read for any season. It's poetry and baseball, history and biography. It's a true story from the Birthplace of the Nation. Every so often, someone writes a book from the heart and so Kashatus has touched this heart many miles and years removed.

I thought this book was going to be just a day-by-day recap of the 1964 Phillies famous skid at the end of the season to give the NL pennant to the Cardinals, but it was much more.

Kasthaus does a good job of capturing the racial tensions of the time and he does give the Phillies management of the time a chance to respond to allegations of racism within the organization.

Ultimately, it is a book more about the relationship of Dick Allen with the city of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia press. Stan Hochman, who receives some severe criticism in the book, is not well-portrayed in this book, nor is Larry Merchant. However, neither man is interviewed for the book as Kasthaus states that no Philadelphia writer of the era returned his phone calls except for Allen Lewis.

This archivally-bound, well-written book is a professional
historian's account of the season of the 1964 Phillies. It is
well illustrated with portraits of the major players in this
story. In 1964, I made a bet with my brother: that Richie Allen
would some day be considered as great as Mickey Mantle. We still
argue the comparison, but thanks to this book, I better appreciate
the reasons I may not have won the bet- yet. The book
ends with a well reasoned plea for Allen's admission to the Hall
of Fame, an appropriate move once "character" is taken fully into account.
This book will be enjoyed by baseball fans, students of the history of integration,
and the general reader, as insightful, well researched, and a
meaningful contribution to American social history.

As a 13-year-old Cookie Rojas fan, I thought '64 was finally the Phils' year. Everything was looking hopeful in Connie Mack Stadium. Kashatus does an admirable job of capturing that moment in time. His interviews with players from that '64 team are particularly interesting, as is his look at the managing dilemmas facing Gene Mauch--a man who probably overanalyzed things in the final weeks of the season: odd because Mauch was one of the all-time staunchest believers in basic baseball. But anything could happen in Connie Mack, as Phillies fans were all too aware. Kashatus tries to be impartial about the situation surrounding Richie Allen, and Kashatus successfully deals with the various facets of Allen's considerable talent and amazing '64 season, along with his unpredictable and sometimes problematic personality. To baseball fans in general, however, the most fascinating aspect of "September Swoon" is how mercurial the game can be, even when things are supposedly in the bag.

As an Expos fan growing up I had no idea how bad a manager Gene Mauch was. Of course, later I heard of the '64 Phils' collapse (and experienced the subsequent '82 and '89 Angels' implosions) and now William Kashatus fills us all in on what went on back then.

Like his book on the Philly A's, Kashatus is obviously a terrific researcher who is both opinionated (love the lines about the local Philly "chipmunk journalists") and a man who gets to the crux of the matter. As the subtitle suggests he delves into the racism in Philly at the time and how Dick "don't call me Richie" Allen became a lightning rod for that for sports fans in the city.

I found the actual game-by-game description of the Sept. collapse like reading a slow-motion train wreck and adding in a postscript on what happened to the Phils in the following season was a valuable addition to this story.

Throw in the mini-bios on all the main characters at the end of the book and this is pretty much the perfect book on the subject.

All I have to add is I hope Kashatus will write another book on the Philly sports scene maybe on the train wreck of the Lindros-era Flyers or the Andy "clock mismanagement is my middle name" Reid-era Eagles.

I was only 4 years old in 1964, yet many of the players were my heroes as I grew up and my father took me to Connie Mack Stadium. In particular we went to Bat Day every season, and I recall always getting a Richie Allen bat. I truly admired his play and was saddened to see him go and thrilled to see him return in 1975, although he was a shadow of his former self. While I enjoyed the book, the author's conclusion that Allen deserves to be in the Hall of Fame is ludicrous. He compares Allen to Berra, Campanella, Cepeda, Clemente and Killebrew in various categories. Allen comes up short in almost every category and to every player except Campanella (who only played 10 seasons).
There is no denying Allen had HoF talent. However, due to circumstances largely under his own control, he failed to live up to it.

This is a readable look at the 1964 Phillies team that just missed winning the pennant. Author William Kashatus shows how the Phillies had been perrenial doormats with just two pennants (1915, 1950) in the 20th Century, and were the last NL squad to integrate. Then in the early 1960's management shook off its racist past and sought an integrated player roster. Shrewd moves brought in talent like Jim Bunning, John Callison, Richie (Dick) Allen, Chris Short, Tony Taylor, Cookie Rojas, etc., helping the team jump to respectability after 1961. The author takes us through the long 1964 season where the Phillies held first place and exicted the City of Brotherly Love throughout the summer. Then we see the heart-breaking finish, the Phils losing ten of their last twelve to finish a game behind St. Louis. Kashatus examines manager Gene Mauch's harmful use of starters Jim Bunning and Chris Short on two-day's rest during the late-September collapse, but barely mentions team shortages in offense and pitching depth, nor potential harm from Mauch's high-strung style and love for sacrifice bunting. The last chapters cover the team's slow decline from 1965-1969 against a backdrop of the irresponsible antics of superstar Dick Allen.

Overall, this is an interesting but imperfect effort. I liked the look at the players, management, the city's troubled sociology, and the footnotes, though the author should have devoted more prose to the 1964 season. Also, blaming Dick Allen's crybaby antics largely on racism seems debatable, as is the author's assertion that an irresponsible, non-hustling star (Allen) doesn't affect lesser players nor team performance.

Note: Dick Allen's 1972 MVP year practically saved the White Sox franchise, and his tossing foul balls to Sox fans (the penalty was $50) helped end that idiotic rule. But despite being treated well in Chicago, Allen soon returned to his immature antics and wore out his welcome.

As if living through the debacle that was 1964 in Philadelphia once wasn't enough, I had to red this blow by blow recount of the year that established the benchmark for me and my expectations of my team, the Philadelphia Phillies. That benchmark was failure, and 1964 was the year that defined failure!

Written through the eyes of a historian, the book chronicles the summer of racial unrest and how the '60s affected the team's star rookie Richie, ooops, Dick Allen. As a 9 year-old at the time I recalled many of the events but didn't have the experience to grasp the significance at the time. It was interesting to revisit those events and weight them with my additional 44 years coloring my current perspective.

While there are a few inconsistencies in the book, it is a MUST READ for any Phillies fan, not just those scarred by the actual events, but those who would like to understand what has made us (Phillies fans) the way we are. It is also must reading for anyone interested in the discussion of the races, the '60s in particular, and how baseball was affected by and dealt with the at-that-time-recently integrated ranks of the players.

Now that we're all older we can look back on this sad chapter in Philly sports with a bit more perspective. It's hard to stay mad at Richie Allen after you read this, especially if you aren't familiar with the story of his shameful treatment in Little Rock in 1963. If anything, you'll remember why you liked him in the first place. A decent read for a die-hard Phillies fan.

I found so many glaring errors that I put it down. Richie Allen was the Phillies' first superstar? What was Robin Roberts-chopped liver? Klein, Roberts and Ashburn are in the HOF, and Allen is not. The author presents his aassertion as fact with no discussion. He said Bunning had post-season experience. I knew that was false without looking it up, though I did check to see if I had missed something (I had not). Those are just two examples of the many ridiculous statements that caused me to give up on the book. It was a major disappointment as I actually saw the 64 Phillies play.