September Swoon: Richie Allen, the '64 Phillies, and Racial Integration [Hardcover]

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.

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.