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5.0 out of 5 stars
Mauch me once (in '64), shame on me...Mauch me twice and three times ('82 and '86), shame on you, Dec 21 2008
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.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
a good read for any season, Jul 9 2004
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 and those so many others in 1964 would never come to be. 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.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Read for Any Season, Jul 8 2004
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.
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