Terrence Clay
2023-08-28 05:49:43 UTC
https://unclemikesmusings.blogspot.com/2019/10/top-5-reasons-you-cant-blame-gene-mauch.html
October 4, 1964: One of the most tumultuous seasons in Major League Baseball history comes to a close. The Yankees finish 1 game ahead of the Chicago White Sox, and 2 ahead of the Baltimore Orioles, winning their 29th Pennant, all in the last 44 seasons. As it turns out, it is the last in their Dynasty.
It is also the last game as a Yankee broadcaster for Mel Allen, who was fired after 26 years. No reason was given. Rumors abounded: He was an alcoholic, he was a prescription drug addict, he was gay. Apparently, though, in this era when sponsors still had an iron grip on broadcasting, the real reason was that Ballantine beer, the Yankees' sponsor and beneficiary of Mel's calling home runs "Ballantine blasts," saw their sales dropping, and they blamed Mel, the greatest salesman they ever had.
Once the 3rd-largest brewing company in America, Newark-based Ballantine sold out to Falstaff in 1972. This may have been a mistake for Falstaff, and they sold out to Pabst in 1985. Pabst still owns the rights to Ballantine's name and trademarks, including their 3-ring logo and the slogan, with a ring representing each: "Purity, Body and Flavor."
*
The National League race remains undecided going into this last day, thanks to the Philadelphia Phillies' nosedive, and the surges of the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Phillies bomb the Reds 10-0. In those pre-Internet, pre-satellite TV days, the 2 teams then join forces, and sit in the visitors' clubhouse at Crosley Field, listening to a radio (which was appropriate, since longtime Reds owner Powel Crosley made his fortune selling radios), hoping that the Cardinals lose to the Mets at Sportsman's Park (since renamed Busch Stadium, the 1st of 3 ballparks to have now had that name), which would keep both teams alive, and force a 3-way tie for the Pennant.
Since the possibility had already arisen in 1956, when the Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers and Milwaukee Braves had a close race -- the Dodgers ended up beating the Braves by 1 game and the Reds by 2 -- a plan for such an eventuality was already in place.
It wasn't a head-to-head tiebreaker. If it had been, the Cards would have had the edge over the Phils (13-5), the Reds would have had the edge over the Phils (10-8), and the Reds and Phils would have split (9-9). Overall, the Cards would've been 21-15, the Reds 19-17, and the Phils 14-22.
NL President Warren Giles -- who would have to remain neutral, despite having once been the Reds' general manager -- would have drawn lots. The team whose name was written down on the 1st slip of paper he pulled out of a hat or box would be designated "No. 1," followed by "No. 2" and "No. 3." The schedule would have been as follows: No. 1 would have hosted No. 2, then No. 2 would have hosted No. 3, and No. 3 would have hosted No. 1. In other words, all 3 teams would have played each of the other 2 teams, and all 3 teams would have had 1 home game.
If 1 team ended up 2-0, with another 1-1 and another 0-2, the 2-0 team should have been declared the Pennant winner. Instead, the 0-2 team would have been eliminated, and Giles would have drawn another lot to determine home field for a 1-game Playoff. But if all 3 finished 1-1, they would do it all over again.
That's what would have happened over the coming days if the Mets had beaten the Cardinals on October 4, 1964.
Here's what actually does happen: The Mets take a 3-2 lead into the 5th inning‚ but the Cards score 3 runs to regain the lead. The Mets score once more, but the Cardinals complete their scoring with 3 in the 8th, to win 11-5. Bob Gibson wins in relief.
For St. Louis‚ it is their 1st Pennant since 1946, 18 years. For Cincinnati, it is a crushing defeat, as, even though they had won the Pennant just 3 years earlier, they wanted to win for their manager, Fred Hutchinson, who was dying of cancer.
For Philadelphia, which hasn't won a Pennant in 14 years, it is even more devastating: The Phils had led by 6 1/2 games with 12 to play, but went on a 10-game losing streak to blow it. The Phillie Phlop would define the franchise for a generation, and even fans who lived long enough to see the titles of 1980 and 2008 remain scarred by it.
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For 55 years, Phillies manager Gene Mauch has been blamed for the defeat, mainly due to overusing his 2 best starting pitchers, Jim Bunning and Chris Short.
Mauch was born on November 18, 1925 in Salina, Kansas. He was a barely-serviceable middle infielder in the major leagues from 1944 to 1957, managed the Phillies from 1960 to 1968, the Montreal Expos from 1969 (their 1st manager) to 1975, the Minnesota Twins from 1976 to 1980, the California Angels in 1981 and 1982, and again from 1985 to 1987. He died on August 8, 2005, at age 79.
He kept the Expos in the NL Eastern Division race most of the way in 1973, and took the Angels to the AL Western Division title in 1982 and 1986. But in 1982, he blew a 2-games-to-none lead and lost the Pennant to the Milwaukee Brewers, still the only Pennant that team has ever won.
And in 1986, he blew a 3-games-to-1 lead, including a 3-run lead in the 9th inning of Game 5 at home, and lost the Pennant to the Boston Red Sox, a team better known for being a team that blew great chances than for benefiting from teams blowing them. He is the only man to manage at least 25 seasons in the major leagues and never win a Pennant.
But is he really the person, or phenomenon, most responsible for the '64 Phillie Phlop?
Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Gene Mauch for the Philadelphia Phillies Losing the 1964 National League Pennant
Before I do the top 5, let me exonerate someone else:
Richie Allen. He would later insist upon being called Dick Allen, and he has been called that from the 1970s onward. He was the NL Rookie of the Year in 1964, despite being a terrible fielder at 3rd base. So was Harmon Killebrew, and, like Killebrew, in a pre-DH era, he was moved to 1st base, where he could do the least damage. Former outfielder Dick Stuart was also moved to 1st base for this reason, but he was still so bad, he was nicknamed Dr. Strangeglove and Stonefingers. Unlike Allen and Killebrew, he didn't hit enough to overcome his fielding liabilities.
In the 1964 season, Dick Allen batted .318, had 201 hits, hit 29 home runs and 91 RBIs, had a whopping OPS+ of 162, and led the NL with 352 total bases, 13 triples, 125 runs scored... and 138 strikeouts. Some of his home runs were, and would continue to be, the longest seen at Connie Mack Stadium since Jimmie Foxx was hitting them for the Philadelphia Athletics, when the ballpark was still known as Shibe Park.
Over time, the Philly media suggested, and the Philly fans came to believe, that Richie/Dick had a bad attitude. And there's no question that he had his issues, with both Phillies management and life in general. He had to overcome a lot, and he eventually did.
But was he responsible for the 10-game losing streak, at all?
The streak began on September 21, and ended on September 30. Allen played every inning of every one of those games, a total of 93 innings. (One game in the streak went 12 innings.) He had 44 plate appearances, 41 official at-bats, 17 hits for a batting average of .414, plus 2 walks for an on-base percentage of .432; 4 doubles, a triple and a home run, for a slugging percentage of .634; and 5 RBIs. He got at least 1 hit in 9 of the 10 games. He did make 2 errors, 1 in the 1st game of the streak and 1 in the last.
But holding Dick Allen responsible for the Phlop, in any way, is just plain stupid: Nobody on the team played better during those 10 games than he did. If the Phillies had won the Pennant by 1 game, we'd have spent the last 55 years talking about how he carried the team on his back, the way Carl Yastrzemski did for the Red Sox 3 years later -- and Yaz was 28 at that point, whereas Dick was just 22 at this one. He might have been regarded as a hero from Day One.
The ugly incident the next season with Frank Thomas (not the later Chicago White Sox Hall-of-Famer) might not have happened. If it had, a lot more people would have taken Allen's side. The Phillies might have been able to put together another Pennant run or two. Allen probably wouldn't have been run out of town (or tried to get himself run out of town), and maybe the Phillies' return to glory in the late 1970s could have happened sooner.
Feeling more appreciated, and playing his entire career in Philadelphia, including in the hitter-friendly Veterans Stadium instead of the pitcher-friendly Comiskey Park with the Chicago White Sox from 1972 to 1974, Dick would have hit more than 351 career home runs. Could he have gotten to 400? Probably. Would that, along with whatever he would have won, have been enough to get him into the Hall of Fame? Maybe.
But you certainly can't blame Richie/Dick Allen for the Phillies phailing to win that Pennant.
So, on to the Top 5 reasons why you can't blame Gene Mauch, either:
5. Chico Ruiz. A utility infielder from Cuba, he stole home plate for a walkoff win for the Reds against the Phillies on September 21, starting the streak. Frank Robinson, one of the top sluggers of all time, was at the plate.
If Ruiz had let Robinson hit, maybe he wouldn't have driven in the winning run, and the Phillies might have won in extra innings. Or maybe Robinson would have driven it in, but it wouldn't have been nearly as shocking as a steal of home, and it might not have gotten into the Phillies' heads, and the streak wouldn't have reached 10 games.
If Ruiz had been tagged out, and the Phillies had gone on to win the game, and no other result were changed the rest of the way, the season would have ended with the Phillies and Cardinals tied for 1st, with the Reds 1 game back.
So even if the Cardinals had won the necessary best-2-out-of-3 Playoff, Ruiz would have been considered an idiot who cost the Reds a pretty good shot at the Pennant, and he'd be the biggest goat in the history of Cincinnati sports. And this entry might instead be "Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Chico Ruiz for the Cincinnati Reds Losing the 1964 National League Pennant."
Ruiz made a gamble which looked big at the time, and loomed larger as the streak grew. He was killed in a car crash in San Diego in 1972, while still an active player. He was just 33 years old.
4. No Home Field Advantage. From August 28 to 30, a race riot raged in North Philadelphia, starting at 23rd Street and Columbia (now Cecil B. Moore) Avenue, about a mile south of Connie Mack Stadium (and 6 blocks east of the site of Columbia Park, the Athletics' 1st home 1901-08). The Phillies were in Pittsburgh at the time, so it didn't result in any games being postponed.
But it scared white fans, who may already have been wary of getting mugged coming down Lehigh Avenue out of the subway, or of their cars getting vandalized if they drove in. The Phils had 15 home games left, not counting 2 rainout makeups, and the average attendance was 21,265. They really didn't have a home field advantage.
Plus, football season had begun, and, even when the Eagles are bad, they take more of the Delaware Valley's attention than even a good Phillies team does.
3. The Pitching Situation. Jim Bunning went 19-8 with a 2.63 ERA. Chris Short, 17-9, 2.20. The myth is that Mauch repeatedly used righthander Bunning and lefthander Short on, pardon the choice of words, short rest. The truth?
Dennis Bennett actually made 1 more start that season than Short did (32-31), but went just 12-14, although his ERA of 3.68, while a little high for a 1960s starting pitcher, wasn't that bad. Art Mahaffey made 29 starts, only 2 fewer than Short, and went 12-9, but his ERA was 4.52. Ray Culp made 19 starts, going 8-7, 4.13.
Bunning started on September 13, 16, 20, 24, 27 and 30, and October 4. So there were 4 games down the stretch that he started on just 2 days' rest, and 2 on 3 days' rest. Short started on September 14, 18, 22, 25 and 28, and October 2. So he started twice on 2 days' rest, and 3 times on 3. Mahaffey started on September 21 and 26. Bennett started on September 15, 19, 23 and 29. Rick Wise, only 18 and not yet the proven reliable starter he would become, started on September 17.
In other words, from September 13 to October 4, it was: Bunning, Short, Bennett, Bunning with 2 days' rest, Wise, Short with 3 days' rest, Bennett with 3, Bunning with 3, Mahaffey, Short with 3, Bennett with 3, Bunning with 3, Short with 2, Mahaffey with 4, Bunning with 2, Short with 2, Bennett with 5, Bunning with 2, a day off, Short with 3, a day off, and Bunning with 3.
What would have happened if, instead, Mauch had trusted Mahaffey and Wise more? Maybe not much. And I don't just mean because Wise was only 18. Of the 13 games the Phillies lost between September 18 and 30, 4 were blown by the bullpen. Two of those games were blown by Jack Baldschun, who led the team in saves with 21. Next-best was former Brooklyn Dodger hero Ed Roebuck with 12. Baldschun had an ERA of 3.12 and a WHIP of 1.276, both way too high for a closer then, never mind now.
Yes, the Phils had Bunning and Short, but that was about it. The Cards had Bob Gibson, Roger Craig and Ray Sadecki. And their closer was the much more reliable Barney Schultz.
Interestingly, both teams had a refugee from Philadelphia in 1950: The Phils had Athletics ace Bobby Shantz, wrapping up his career; and the Cards had Curt Simmons, who helped the Phils' "Whiz Kids" win the Pennant that year, but got drafted into the Korean War, possibly costing them the World Series against the Yankees. And, as I said, the Cards also had Barney Schultz, while the Phils' bullpen was not up to the task.
The general manager of the Phillies was John Quinn, the son of a former GM of the Dodgers and the St. Louis Browns. He would later become the father, father-in-law and grandfather of baseball executives. He had been GM of the Braves when they won Pennants in 1957 and '58, so he knew his stuff. But, despite the deep pockets of Phils' owner Bob Carpenter, Quinn did not spend nearly enough on salaries and scouting, and was rarely aggressive in the trade market.
Over the next 7 seasons, 1965 to 1971, a period that included the falling-out between the organization and "Richie" Allen, and the move from Connie Mack Stadium to Veterans Stadium, the Phils finished an average of 20 games out of 1st place in the single-division National League, and from 1969 onward in the NL's newly-created Eastern Division. Take out the 1966 season, when they got to within 8 games of the Pennant (but still in 4th place), and the average deficit rises to 22 games.
Quinn just didn't get the job done in Philadelphia, and in 1972, Carpenter handed control of the team to his son Ruly. He fired Quinn and hired Paul Owens, who turned the franchise around. He wouldn't have had to if Quinn had gotten Mauch the pitchers, both starters and relievers, that he needed. Mauch didn't play his hand well, but it was Quinn who didn't deal him the cards that would have won.
And it wasn't just the pitching. Which brings us to...
2. The Phillies Weren't That Good. They were overachieving. They shouldn't have been that close to the Pennant, pardon the choice of words, in the first place. As catcher-turned-broadcaster Joe Garagiola put it, "Baseball is a funny game."
In 1961, the last season of the 154-game NL schedule, the Phillies went 47-107. This included a 23-game losing streak, the longest in the history of Major League Baseball, with the sole exception of the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, a team that was purposely sabotaged by its owners, and dropped 24 straight at one point. To put this in perspective: The expansion 1962 Mets lost a 20th Century record 120 games, but their longest losing streak was 17, 6 fewer than the '61 Phils'. When the 2003 Detroit Tigers set an American League record with 119 losses, their longest losing streak was "only" 11.
The Phillies got better in 1962, splitting the new 162-game season, 81-81. A jump of 34 wins in 1 season is astounding in baseball. In 1963, they won 87 games. A good total, but only good for 4th place, 12 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. Certainly, they were a team on the way up. But they were not among the NL favorites going into the 1964 season: The Dodgers, the Reds, the San Francisco Giants, and the Milwaukee Braves were.
The Reds and the Braves did get close. But the Dodgers were knocked out by an injury to Sandy Koufax, and the Giants had dissension between manager Alvin Dark and their Hispanic players. That opened the door for expected challengers like the Reds and the Braves, and for an unexpected challenger like the Phillies.
In the end, it was the closest race in NL history: 3 teams within 1 game, 4 within 3, 5 within 5. The Cards won over the Reds and Phils by 1 game each, the Jints by 3, the Braves by 5, the Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates by 13, the Chicago Cubs by 17, the Houston Colt .45's (they became the Astros the next year) by 27, and the Mets by 40.
In 1964, the Phillies won 92 games, and lost the Pennant, and are regarded as a failure. In 1980, the Phillies won 91 games, 1 fewer in than in 1964, but it was enough to win the NL East, and they went on to win the Pennant and the franchise's 1st World Series, and they're regarded as the greatest Phillies team ever.
Or, to put it another way: The 1967 Red Sox also won 92 games, but it was enough to win the Pennant by 1 game, and they're an iconic baseball team for good reasons. The '64 Phils remain iconic for bad reasons.
1. The Cardinals Were Better. They were only 6 games behind the Pennant-winning Dodgers in 1963, so it shouldn't have surprised anyone that they made a good run at the Pennant in 1964. Injuries meant that they didn't get close in 1965 or 1966. But, adding Orlando Cepeda (in May '66) and Roger Maris (in December '66) to their title-winning core of 1964, they won another Pennant in 1967, beating the Red Sox in the World Series; and another in 1968, losing the Series to the Detroit Tigers.
In the NL in the 1960s, the Cardinals and Dodgers each won 3 Pennants; the Pirates, Reds, Giants and Mets 1 each. The Phillies only came close the 1 time. They simply weren't as good as the Cardinals.
Or, to put it another way: At how many positions would a Cardinals fan have traded his guy that year for the Phillies' guy that year? 3rd base? Yes, the Phils had Richie Allen, but the Cards had Ken Boyer, their team Captain following the retirement of Stan Musial, and that season's NL Most Valuable Player. Right field? Yes, the Phils had Johnny Callison, but the Cards had a pretty good one in Mike Shannon.
And most of the other Phils starters weren't good hitters. Tony Taylor over Julian Javier at 2nd base? Bobby Wine over Dick Groat at shortstop? Danny Cater over Lou Brock in left field? Please. Except for Allen (in both phases of the game) and Callison, the '64 Phils were mainly a "good-field, no-hit" team. And I've already discussed the pitchers.
VERDICT: Not Guilty. If the Phillies had won the 1964 National League Pennant, it wouldn't have been as big a "miracle" as the 1969 Mets, or as "impossible" a "dream" as the 1967 Red Sox. But it would have been an upset on the scale of, to borrow other contemporary teams, the 1959 White Sox, the 1960 Pirates or the 1965 Minnesota Twins.
And Gene Mauch would have been a hero. With that experience behind him, he might have been able to steer the '82 or '86 Angels to the 1 more win they needed for a Pennant. And he might have gone to his grave on August 8, 2005, from lung cancer at the age of 79, as a member of Baseball's Hall of Fame.
Instead, he's either "the best manager never to win a Pennant," or something harsher than that. And he didn't deserve such harshness.
October 4, 1964: One of the most tumultuous seasons in Major League Baseball history comes to a close. The Yankees finish 1 game ahead of the Chicago White Sox, and 2 ahead of the Baltimore Orioles, winning their 29th Pennant, all in the last 44 seasons. As it turns out, it is the last in their Dynasty.
It is also the last game as a Yankee broadcaster for Mel Allen, who was fired after 26 years. No reason was given. Rumors abounded: He was an alcoholic, he was a prescription drug addict, he was gay. Apparently, though, in this era when sponsors still had an iron grip on broadcasting, the real reason was that Ballantine beer, the Yankees' sponsor and beneficiary of Mel's calling home runs "Ballantine blasts," saw their sales dropping, and they blamed Mel, the greatest salesman they ever had.
Once the 3rd-largest brewing company in America, Newark-based Ballantine sold out to Falstaff in 1972. This may have been a mistake for Falstaff, and they sold out to Pabst in 1985. Pabst still owns the rights to Ballantine's name and trademarks, including their 3-ring logo and the slogan, with a ring representing each: "Purity, Body and Flavor."
*
The National League race remains undecided going into this last day, thanks to the Philadelphia Phillies' nosedive, and the surges of the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Phillies bomb the Reds 10-0. In those pre-Internet, pre-satellite TV days, the 2 teams then join forces, and sit in the visitors' clubhouse at Crosley Field, listening to a radio (which was appropriate, since longtime Reds owner Powel Crosley made his fortune selling radios), hoping that the Cardinals lose to the Mets at Sportsman's Park (since renamed Busch Stadium, the 1st of 3 ballparks to have now had that name), which would keep both teams alive, and force a 3-way tie for the Pennant.
Since the possibility had already arisen in 1956, when the Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers and Milwaukee Braves had a close race -- the Dodgers ended up beating the Braves by 1 game and the Reds by 2 -- a plan for such an eventuality was already in place.
It wasn't a head-to-head tiebreaker. If it had been, the Cards would have had the edge over the Phils (13-5), the Reds would have had the edge over the Phils (10-8), and the Reds and Phils would have split (9-9). Overall, the Cards would've been 21-15, the Reds 19-17, and the Phils 14-22.
NL President Warren Giles -- who would have to remain neutral, despite having once been the Reds' general manager -- would have drawn lots. The team whose name was written down on the 1st slip of paper he pulled out of a hat or box would be designated "No. 1," followed by "No. 2" and "No. 3." The schedule would have been as follows: No. 1 would have hosted No. 2, then No. 2 would have hosted No. 3, and No. 3 would have hosted No. 1. In other words, all 3 teams would have played each of the other 2 teams, and all 3 teams would have had 1 home game.
If 1 team ended up 2-0, with another 1-1 and another 0-2, the 2-0 team should have been declared the Pennant winner. Instead, the 0-2 team would have been eliminated, and Giles would have drawn another lot to determine home field for a 1-game Playoff. But if all 3 finished 1-1, they would do it all over again.
That's what would have happened over the coming days if the Mets had beaten the Cardinals on October 4, 1964.
Here's what actually does happen: The Mets take a 3-2 lead into the 5th inning‚ but the Cards score 3 runs to regain the lead. The Mets score once more, but the Cardinals complete their scoring with 3 in the 8th, to win 11-5. Bob Gibson wins in relief.
For St. Louis‚ it is their 1st Pennant since 1946, 18 years. For Cincinnati, it is a crushing defeat, as, even though they had won the Pennant just 3 years earlier, they wanted to win for their manager, Fred Hutchinson, who was dying of cancer.
For Philadelphia, which hasn't won a Pennant in 14 years, it is even more devastating: The Phils had led by 6 1/2 games with 12 to play, but went on a 10-game losing streak to blow it. The Phillie Phlop would define the franchise for a generation, and even fans who lived long enough to see the titles of 1980 and 2008 remain scarred by it.
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For 55 years, Phillies manager Gene Mauch has been blamed for the defeat, mainly due to overusing his 2 best starting pitchers, Jim Bunning and Chris Short.
Mauch was born on November 18, 1925 in Salina, Kansas. He was a barely-serviceable middle infielder in the major leagues from 1944 to 1957, managed the Phillies from 1960 to 1968, the Montreal Expos from 1969 (their 1st manager) to 1975, the Minnesota Twins from 1976 to 1980, the California Angels in 1981 and 1982, and again from 1985 to 1987. He died on August 8, 2005, at age 79.
He kept the Expos in the NL Eastern Division race most of the way in 1973, and took the Angels to the AL Western Division title in 1982 and 1986. But in 1982, he blew a 2-games-to-none lead and lost the Pennant to the Milwaukee Brewers, still the only Pennant that team has ever won.
And in 1986, he blew a 3-games-to-1 lead, including a 3-run lead in the 9th inning of Game 5 at home, and lost the Pennant to the Boston Red Sox, a team better known for being a team that blew great chances than for benefiting from teams blowing them. He is the only man to manage at least 25 seasons in the major leagues and never win a Pennant.
But is he really the person, or phenomenon, most responsible for the '64 Phillie Phlop?
Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Gene Mauch for the Philadelphia Phillies Losing the 1964 National League Pennant
Before I do the top 5, let me exonerate someone else:
Richie Allen. He would later insist upon being called Dick Allen, and he has been called that from the 1970s onward. He was the NL Rookie of the Year in 1964, despite being a terrible fielder at 3rd base. So was Harmon Killebrew, and, like Killebrew, in a pre-DH era, he was moved to 1st base, where he could do the least damage. Former outfielder Dick Stuart was also moved to 1st base for this reason, but he was still so bad, he was nicknamed Dr. Strangeglove and Stonefingers. Unlike Allen and Killebrew, he didn't hit enough to overcome his fielding liabilities.
In the 1964 season, Dick Allen batted .318, had 201 hits, hit 29 home runs and 91 RBIs, had a whopping OPS+ of 162, and led the NL with 352 total bases, 13 triples, 125 runs scored... and 138 strikeouts. Some of his home runs were, and would continue to be, the longest seen at Connie Mack Stadium since Jimmie Foxx was hitting them for the Philadelphia Athletics, when the ballpark was still known as Shibe Park.
Over time, the Philly media suggested, and the Philly fans came to believe, that Richie/Dick had a bad attitude. And there's no question that he had his issues, with both Phillies management and life in general. He had to overcome a lot, and he eventually did.
But was he responsible for the 10-game losing streak, at all?
The streak began on September 21, and ended on September 30. Allen played every inning of every one of those games, a total of 93 innings. (One game in the streak went 12 innings.) He had 44 plate appearances, 41 official at-bats, 17 hits for a batting average of .414, plus 2 walks for an on-base percentage of .432; 4 doubles, a triple and a home run, for a slugging percentage of .634; and 5 RBIs. He got at least 1 hit in 9 of the 10 games. He did make 2 errors, 1 in the 1st game of the streak and 1 in the last.
But holding Dick Allen responsible for the Phlop, in any way, is just plain stupid: Nobody on the team played better during those 10 games than he did. If the Phillies had won the Pennant by 1 game, we'd have spent the last 55 years talking about how he carried the team on his back, the way Carl Yastrzemski did for the Red Sox 3 years later -- and Yaz was 28 at that point, whereas Dick was just 22 at this one. He might have been regarded as a hero from Day One.
The ugly incident the next season with Frank Thomas (not the later Chicago White Sox Hall-of-Famer) might not have happened. If it had, a lot more people would have taken Allen's side. The Phillies might have been able to put together another Pennant run or two. Allen probably wouldn't have been run out of town (or tried to get himself run out of town), and maybe the Phillies' return to glory in the late 1970s could have happened sooner.
Feeling more appreciated, and playing his entire career in Philadelphia, including in the hitter-friendly Veterans Stadium instead of the pitcher-friendly Comiskey Park with the Chicago White Sox from 1972 to 1974, Dick would have hit more than 351 career home runs. Could he have gotten to 400? Probably. Would that, along with whatever he would have won, have been enough to get him into the Hall of Fame? Maybe.
But you certainly can't blame Richie/Dick Allen for the Phillies phailing to win that Pennant.
So, on to the Top 5 reasons why you can't blame Gene Mauch, either:
5. Chico Ruiz. A utility infielder from Cuba, he stole home plate for a walkoff win for the Reds against the Phillies on September 21, starting the streak. Frank Robinson, one of the top sluggers of all time, was at the plate.
If Ruiz had let Robinson hit, maybe he wouldn't have driven in the winning run, and the Phillies might have won in extra innings. Or maybe Robinson would have driven it in, but it wouldn't have been nearly as shocking as a steal of home, and it might not have gotten into the Phillies' heads, and the streak wouldn't have reached 10 games.
If Ruiz had been tagged out, and the Phillies had gone on to win the game, and no other result were changed the rest of the way, the season would have ended with the Phillies and Cardinals tied for 1st, with the Reds 1 game back.
So even if the Cardinals had won the necessary best-2-out-of-3 Playoff, Ruiz would have been considered an idiot who cost the Reds a pretty good shot at the Pennant, and he'd be the biggest goat in the history of Cincinnati sports. And this entry might instead be "Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Chico Ruiz for the Cincinnati Reds Losing the 1964 National League Pennant."
Ruiz made a gamble which looked big at the time, and loomed larger as the streak grew. He was killed in a car crash in San Diego in 1972, while still an active player. He was just 33 years old.
4. No Home Field Advantage. From August 28 to 30, a race riot raged in North Philadelphia, starting at 23rd Street and Columbia (now Cecil B. Moore) Avenue, about a mile south of Connie Mack Stadium (and 6 blocks east of the site of Columbia Park, the Athletics' 1st home 1901-08). The Phillies were in Pittsburgh at the time, so it didn't result in any games being postponed.
But it scared white fans, who may already have been wary of getting mugged coming down Lehigh Avenue out of the subway, or of their cars getting vandalized if they drove in. The Phils had 15 home games left, not counting 2 rainout makeups, and the average attendance was 21,265. They really didn't have a home field advantage.
Plus, football season had begun, and, even when the Eagles are bad, they take more of the Delaware Valley's attention than even a good Phillies team does.
3. The Pitching Situation. Jim Bunning went 19-8 with a 2.63 ERA. Chris Short, 17-9, 2.20. The myth is that Mauch repeatedly used righthander Bunning and lefthander Short on, pardon the choice of words, short rest. The truth?
Dennis Bennett actually made 1 more start that season than Short did (32-31), but went just 12-14, although his ERA of 3.68, while a little high for a 1960s starting pitcher, wasn't that bad. Art Mahaffey made 29 starts, only 2 fewer than Short, and went 12-9, but his ERA was 4.52. Ray Culp made 19 starts, going 8-7, 4.13.
Bunning started on September 13, 16, 20, 24, 27 and 30, and October 4. So there were 4 games down the stretch that he started on just 2 days' rest, and 2 on 3 days' rest. Short started on September 14, 18, 22, 25 and 28, and October 2. So he started twice on 2 days' rest, and 3 times on 3. Mahaffey started on September 21 and 26. Bennett started on September 15, 19, 23 and 29. Rick Wise, only 18 and not yet the proven reliable starter he would become, started on September 17.
In other words, from September 13 to October 4, it was: Bunning, Short, Bennett, Bunning with 2 days' rest, Wise, Short with 3 days' rest, Bennett with 3, Bunning with 3, Mahaffey, Short with 3, Bennett with 3, Bunning with 3, Short with 2, Mahaffey with 4, Bunning with 2, Short with 2, Bennett with 5, Bunning with 2, a day off, Short with 3, a day off, and Bunning with 3.
What would have happened if, instead, Mauch had trusted Mahaffey and Wise more? Maybe not much. And I don't just mean because Wise was only 18. Of the 13 games the Phillies lost between September 18 and 30, 4 were blown by the bullpen. Two of those games were blown by Jack Baldschun, who led the team in saves with 21. Next-best was former Brooklyn Dodger hero Ed Roebuck with 12. Baldschun had an ERA of 3.12 and a WHIP of 1.276, both way too high for a closer then, never mind now.
Yes, the Phils had Bunning and Short, but that was about it. The Cards had Bob Gibson, Roger Craig and Ray Sadecki. And their closer was the much more reliable Barney Schultz.
Interestingly, both teams had a refugee from Philadelphia in 1950: The Phils had Athletics ace Bobby Shantz, wrapping up his career; and the Cards had Curt Simmons, who helped the Phils' "Whiz Kids" win the Pennant that year, but got drafted into the Korean War, possibly costing them the World Series against the Yankees. And, as I said, the Cards also had Barney Schultz, while the Phils' bullpen was not up to the task.
The general manager of the Phillies was John Quinn, the son of a former GM of the Dodgers and the St. Louis Browns. He would later become the father, father-in-law and grandfather of baseball executives. He had been GM of the Braves when they won Pennants in 1957 and '58, so he knew his stuff. But, despite the deep pockets of Phils' owner Bob Carpenter, Quinn did not spend nearly enough on salaries and scouting, and was rarely aggressive in the trade market.
Over the next 7 seasons, 1965 to 1971, a period that included the falling-out between the organization and "Richie" Allen, and the move from Connie Mack Stadium to Veterans Stadium, the Phils finished an average of 20 games out of 1st place in the single-division National League, and from 1969 onward in the NL's newly-created Eastern Division. Take out the 1966 season, when they got to within 8 games of the Pennant (but still in 4th place), and the average deficit rises to 22 games.
Quinn just didn't get the job done in Philadelphia, and in 1972, Carpenter handed control of the team to his son Ruly. He fired Quinn and hired Paul Owens, who turned the franchise around. He wouldn't have had to if Quinn had gotten Mauch the pitchers, both starters and relievers, that he needed. Mauch didn't play his hand well, but it was Quinn who didn't deal him the cards that would have won.
And it wasn't just the pitching. Which brings us to...
2. The Phillies Weren't That Good. They were overachieving. They shouldn't have been that close to the Pennant, pardon the choice of words, in the first place. As catcher-turned-broadcaster Joe Garagiola put it, "Baseball is a funny game."
In 1961, the last season of the 154-game NL schedule, the Phillies went 47-107. This included a 23-game losing streak, the longest in the history of Major League Baseball, with the sole exception of the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, a team that was purposely sabotaged by its owners, and dropped 24 straight at one point. To put this in perspective: The expansion 1962 Mets lost a 20th Century record 120 games, but their longest losing streak was 17, 6 fewer than the '61 Phils'. When the 2003 Detroit Tigers set an American League record with 119 losses, their longest losing streak was "only" 11.
The Phillies got better in 1962, splitting the new 162-game season, 81-81. A jump of 34 wins in 1 season is astounding in baseball. In 1963, they won 87 games. A good total, but only good for 4th place, 12 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. Certainly, they were a team on the way up. But they were not among the NL favorites going into the 1964 season: The Dodgers, the Reds, the San Francisco Giants, and the Milwaukee Braves were.
The Reds and the Braves did get close. But the Dodgers were knocked out by an injury to Sandy Koufax, and the Giants had dissension between manager Alvin Dark and their Hispanic players. That opened the door for expected challengers like the Reds and the Braves, and for an unexpected challenger like the Phillies.
In the end, it was the closest race in NL history: 3 teams within 1 game, 4 within 3, 5 within 5. The Cards won over the Reds and Phils by 1 game each, the Jints by 3, the Braves by 5, the Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates by 13, the Chicago Cubs by 17, the Houston Colt .45's (they became the Astros the next year) by 27, and the Mets by 40.
In 1964, the Phillies won 92 games, and lost the Pennant, and are regarded as a failure. In 1980, the Phillies won 91 games, 1 fewer in than in 1964, but it was enough to win the NL East, and they went on to win the Pennant and the franchise's 1st World Series, and they're regarded as the greatest Phillies team ever.
Or, to put it another way: The 1967 Red Sox also won 92 games, but it was enough to win the Pennant by 1 game, and they're an iconic baseball team for good reasons. The '64 Phils remain iconic for bad reasons.
1. The Cardinals Were Better. They were only 6 games behind the Pennant-winning Dodgers in 1963, so it shouldn't have surprised anyone that they made a good run at the Pennant in 1964. Injuries meant that they didn't get close in 1965 or 1966. But, adding Orlando Cepeda (in May '66) and Roger Maris (in December '66) to their title-winning core of 1964, they won another Pennant in 1967, beating the Red Sox in the World Series; and another in 1968, losing the Series to the Detroit Tigers.
In the NL in the 1960s, the Cardinals and Dodgers each won 3 Pennants; the Pirates, Reds, Giants and Mets 1 each. The Phillies only came close the 1 time. They simply weren't as good as the Cardinals.
Or, to put it another way: At how many positions would a Cardinals fan have traded his guy that year for the Phillies' guy that year? 3rd base? Yes, the Phils had Richie Allen, but the Cards had Ken Boyer, their team Captain following the retirement of Stan Musial, and that season's NL Most Valuable Player. Right field? Yes, the Phils had Johnny Callison, but the Cards had a pretty good one in Mike Shannon.
And most of the other Phils starters weren't good hitters. Tony Taylor over Julian Javier at 2nd base? Bobby Wine over Dick Groat at shortstop? Danny Cater over Lou Brock in left field? Please. Except for Allen (in both phases of the game) and Callison, the '64 Phils were mainly a "good-field, no-hit" team. And I've already discussed the pitchers.
VERDICT: Not Guilty. If the Phillies had won the 1964 National League Pennant, it wouldn't have been as big a "miracle" as the 1969 Mets, or as "impossible" a "dream" as the 1967 Red Sox. But it would have been an upset on the scale of, to borrow other contemporary teams, the 1959 White Sox, the 1960 Pirates or the 1965 Minnesota Twins.
And Gene Mauch would have been a hero. With that experience behind him, he might have been able to steer the '82 or '86 Angels to the 1 more win they needed for a Pennant. And he might have gone to his grave on August 8, 2005, from lung cancer at the age of 79, as a member of Baseball's Hall of Fame.
Instead, he's either "the best manager never to win a Pennant," or something harsher than that. And he didn't deserve such harshness.