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

~ (Author), Gerald Early (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Kashatus's informative, factual book is impressive in its telling of the various experiences of Richie Allen, including his Arkansas days, his beginning in the Negro Leagues, and his history-making Phillies era, insightfully placed in the context of W. E. B. Du Bois's groundbreaking analysis of the so-called Negro problem in The Philadelphio Negro. Kashatus also acknowledges both Allen's superstardom and his difficult demeanor - that Allen, during his playing years, simply danced to a different drummer." - Art Rust Jr., Black Issues Book Review "What sets September Swoon apart from previous '64 books is an earnest attempt by Kashatus to craft a parallel narrative about the seismic shifts that were occurring simultaneously in Philadelphia's sociological landscape. Political figures and civil rights activists carry equal weight with the heroes of Connie Mack Stadium. At the center of everything is Richie Allen, the Phillies' first true African American superstar." - David Plaut, USA Today Sports Weekly

Product Description

Everything seemed to be going the Phillies’ way. Up by 6 1/2 games with just 12 left to play in the 1964 season, they appeared to have clinched their first pennant in more than a decade. Outfielder Johnny Callison narrowly missed being the National League MVP. Third baseman Richie Allen was Rookie of the Year.

But the "Fightin’ Phils" didn’t make it to the postseason—they lost 10 straight and finished a game behind the St. Louis Cardinals. Besides engineering the greatest collapse of any team in major league baseball history, the ’64 Phillies had another, more important distinction: they were Philadelphia’s first truly integrated baseball team. In September Swoon William Kashatus tells the dramatic story—both on the field and off the field—of the Phillies’ bittersweet season of 1964.

More than any other team in Philadelphia’s sports history, the ’64 Phillies saddled the city with a reputation for being a "loser." Even when victory seemed assured, Philadelphia found a way to lose. Unfortunately, the collapse, dubbed the "September swoon," was the beginning of a self-destructive skid in both team play and racial integration, for the very things that made the players unique threatened to tear the team apart. An antagonistic press and contentious fans blamed Richie Allen, the Phillies’ first black superstar, for the team’s losing ways, accusing him of dividing the team along racial lines. Allen manipulated the resulting controversy in the hopes that he would be traded, but in the process he managed to further fray already tenuous race relations.

Based on personal interviews, player biographies, and newspaper accounts, September Swoon brings to life a season and a team that got so many Philadelphians, both black and white, to care deeply and passionately about the game at a turbulent period in the city’s—and our nation’s—history. The hometown fans reveled in their triumphs and cried in their defeat, because they saw in them a reflection of themselves. The ’64 Phillies not only won over the loyalties of a racially divided city, but gave Philadelphians a reason to dream—of a pennant, of a contender, and of a City of Brotherly Love.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 258 pages
• Publisher: Keystone Books (February 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0271023333
• ISBN-13: 978-0271023335
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,277,572 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read for Any Season, July 8, 2004

By	John G. Dzwonczyk (Avon Lake, OH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting look at the 1964 season and more, November 7, 2004

By	R. Timmermann (South Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A professional baseball history, August 9, 2004

By	P. J Kulkosky (Pueblo, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.