outhash

A Mythical Willie Mays Triple,
a Matinee Hero, and Some Bored Cub Scouts

Saturday afternoon, July 16, 1966, at Connie Mack Stadium

by Mike Walsh, July 2023

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One of my earliest memories of the Phillies is a game in the mid-60s at Connie Mack Stadium against the great Willie Mays and the San Francisco Giants. I went to the game with my cub scout den from Delphi, PA, which is near Schwenksville. All I remembered about the game was that it went extra innings, that it was on a weekend afternoon, probably a Saturday, and that Mays hit a triple, sliding into 3rd just ahead of the throw.

I also remembered that our group had seats in the bleachers on the 3rd base side, so we had a good view of that exciting play. The slide would've happened in the part of the field closest to us. I treasured the memory, thinking of the Mays' triple as one of the most exciting baseball plays I had ever seen, especially in person. But I couldn't remember the date, score, or anything else about the game, like who won. And over the years, I even wondered if I'd imagined that wondrous triple.

Someone suggested that I look for the game on baseball-reference.com, so I pulled up the site and found team pages that listed all games played each year.

Scrolling through the Phillies team pages for the mid-60s, I saw that all NL teams visited Connie Mack Stadium for three series per year. There weren't many weekend afternoon games against the Giants that went extra innings. In fact, there was just one: Saturday, July 16, 1966. 1:37 pm start. 15 innings. That was it! The game link opened up a box score and play-by-play details.

I also tracked down the Inquirer sports section for July 17, 1966, which featured a couple of articles about the game. Turns out that this game that I hardly remembered was very exciting and very long--3 hours and 49 minutes.

The Phillies lineup that day featured stalwarts from a strong roster--Johnny Callison, Dick Allen, Bill White, Cookie Rojas, and Tony Taylor. It even included future celebrity announcer Bob Uecker, the backup catcher who started that day.

Back then, the Giants were perennially one of the best teams in the 10-team National League. Besides Mays, their roster featured stars like Willie McCovey, Matty and Jesus Alou, Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry, and a 44-year-old Warren Spahn.

Mays batted 3rd for the Giants and went 2 for 7, both hits coming off Phillies starter Bob Buhl in regulation. In both cases, he scored on RBI hits by Willie McCovey, the Giants' cleanup hitter. Mays was 35 that year, and he batted .288, with 37 home runs, and 103 RBI. 1966 was actually a down year for Mays, as he had raked .317, 52 HR, and 112 RBIs in 1965, one of his two MVP years. By the way, Mays also won Gold Glove awards every year from 1957 through 1968. Say hey, indeed!

But the box score showed no triple. Just a single and a double. What!? Had I dreamt that perfect feet-first slide into 3rd, one of my most cherished baseball memories? Say it ain't so!

The Play-By-Play section of the box score told the tale: Mays got a single off Buhl in the 6th, and he advanced to 3rd on an error by Cookie Rojas, the Phillies' centerfielder. Mays didn't hit a triple, but I did see him slide into 3rd on a close play. What a relief! I was at least half right.

The Giants led most of the game, although the score was close. The Giants' Jim Davenport hit a homer off the upper deck facing in the 4th. Uecker answered in the 5th with a solo shot to left. Bill White hit a 2-run homer in the 6th.

But this game wasn’t exciting enough for the cub scouts. As I dimly recall, by the 6th or 7th inning the scouts weren’t paying attention. Most of us were either sleeping, bickering, napping, wandering the bowels of the stadium, or just staring at nothing in particular.

Going into the bottom of the 9th, the Phils were down to the Giants, 5-4. Tony Gonzalez, a high average hitter, replaced Rojas and opened the inning with a single.

A bunt and a ground out later, and Gonzalez was on 3rd with 2 outs. Phil Linz, a former Yankee and backup infielder for the Phils who had taken over for Phil Groat at shortstop, hit a chopper to 3rd.

As Frank Dolson of the Inquirer reported, "The ball took a high hop and glanced off the glove of 3rd baseman Jim Davenport," allowing Gonzalez to score, which tied the game and sent it into extra innings.

"I thought he'd catch it," Linz said about his game tying hit. "It was, well ... a miracle."

The Phillies brought right-handed reliever Terry Fox into the game in the 10th. Fox had been purchased from the Tigers in May, and he proceeded to shut out the mighty Giants for six innings. In three of those innings, the leadoff batter got on, but each time, Fox pitched out of a jam. In the 11th, for example, the first two batters singled -- 1st and 3rd, no outs. A bad situation. But the next batter hit into a double play, and luckily the runner on 3rd didn't go. A fly ball out, and the inning was over, still tied.

In the bottom of the 15th, with the score still tied, the Giants brought in reliever Joe Gibbon. Bill White singled. Clay Dalrymple, who had replaced Uecker behind the plate, bunted White to 2nd. Gonzalez then singled to left on the first pitch. The Giants leftfielder, Jim Hart, fumbled the ball, allowing White to score, finally ending the game.

The Inquirer called the game a "thrilling, come-from-behind triumph." I'm sure the cub scouts and our den master all cheered just so we and the other 31,531 fans could finally go home.

Reliever Terry Fox's six shutout innings for the Win are amazing to consider. Relief pitchers rarely pitch that long, then or now, and he held the mighty Giants offense to only four hits. Mays went 0-3 against Fox. The Inquirer wrote an article about him the next day, calling him a "Matinee Hero."

At 89, Fox now lives in New Iberia, Louisiana. After some internet sleuthing, I found his phone number and called him.

"I remember the game because it went extra innings, and we were able to control it and win," he told me. "That made a big difference. I did what the Phillies got me for. The Giants were trying to get to the championship. I also remember the umpire telling me after the game that it was the best game he had ever seen."

It was Fox's longest game for the Phils, but, as he pointed out, it wasn't the longest of his career. That was in 1962 when he pitched for the Detroit Tigers.

"We were playing the Yankees in Detroit. Saturday afternoon. The game went 22 innings. 7 hours. I came in in the 12th and pitched eight innings of shutout ball. Phil Regan came in to relieve me, and a backup outfielder hit a home run. And then we didn't score, so the Yankees won."

About his pitching style, Fox says, "I wasn't an over-powering pitcher, but I could throw a curveball, a good changeup, and a sinker-type pitch. I kept the ball low, and I threw a lot of strikes. The infielders knew how I pitched, and they expected the ball to be hit on the ground."

Terry Fox's career stats show that he was a great control pitcher. He faced a total of 1,664 batters and walked only 124, hit only 12, threw six wild pitches, and was called for just one balk.

I mentioned the Phillies infamous late season collapse of 1964 to Fox, and he told me about the Tigers' similar collapse in 1961, his rookie year. Detroit finished in 2nd with a record of 101-61 that year, a record that was normally good enough to win the pennant. But the Yankees went 109-53.

The Tigers spent 83 days in 1st place that year. With hitters like Norm Cash, Rocky Colavito, and Al Kaline, the Tigers scored more runs than the vaulted Yankees offense, 841 to 827.

But the Tigers lost 11 of 13 games between Aug 28 and Sept 10th and dropped from 1.5 games back to 11.5 games back. They were out of it, a collapse almost as bad as the Phils' epic 1964 choke. The Yanks went on to beat the Reds in the 1961 World Series 4 games to 1.

Another painful memory for Fox came on September 17, 1961, of that same season, another game against the Yankees at Tiger Stadium that went extra innings.

"I was pitching in the 12th inning and Tony Kubek got a hit. Next up was Roger Maris. I think it was a 2-1 count, and he hit the ball out of the park." That was Maris' 58th home run of the year, and the Yankees won the game. A couple weeks later, on the last day of the season, Maris hit his 61st homer of the season, breaking Babe Ruth's single season home run record, set in 1927.

Fox appeared in 39 games for the Tigers that season as a reliever, had a 5-2 record, 12 saves, and an astonishing 1.41 ERA. He allowed only nine earned runs all season. He was 25 years old. Fox didn't get any votes for Rookie of the Year in 1961, but he should have.

Johnny Callison had an off day that afternoon, taking a rare 0 for 6. In both 1964 and 1965, Callison hit over 30 homers and had over 100 RBIs. He was an All Star both years, and who can forget his walk-off 3-run homer to win the 1964 All Star game at Shea? https://youtu.be/VFFNLLWhPV0

But 1966 was the beginning of the painful decline in Callison's batting power. He hit a respectable.276 and led the NL with 40 doubles, but he hit only 11 homers and only 55 RBIs. He would not hit 20 homers in a season again, and he never again approached his All Star power numbers. I remember the Philly newspapers speculating about psychological issues as the cause of his diminishing power. It's still puzzling. At age 27 in 1966, when he should have been reaching his peak of athleticism and strength, his power abandoned him. Callison spent the early 70s with other clubs, and he retired in '73 after hitting just one round tripper in 45 games with the Yankees.

Most people don't remember this, but in addition to his early career offensive prowess, Callison was one of the best defensive outfielders of his era. He lead all NL right fielders in putouts and assists for most of the 1960s. He was also in the top 5 for initiating double-plays from right field for most of the 60s, and he was 1st in the RangeFactor defensive measure for right fielders in the 60s. But sadly, he never won a Gold Glove. In those days, Roberto Clemente, Mays, and Curt Flood dominated the Gold Glove awards for NL outfielders.

Richie Allen also had a quiet day, going 2 for 7 with no RBIs and 2 Ks. But Allen had a monster year in 1966, leading the team in HRs, RBIs, and BA. In fact, he lead the National League in OPS and Slugging % that year. He would have three more good years with the Phillies before being traded to St. Louis before the 1970 season in the infamous Curt Flood trade.

By the way, in 1965, Allen hit what may be the longest home run in Phillies history: a monster 529 foot smash over the left field roof of Connie Mack Stadium. Allen appeared in four All Star Games for other teams after the Phils traded him (and three before they traded him) and was the AL MVP with the Chicago White Sox in 1972.

After the marathon game on July 16, 1966, against the Giants, the Phillies were 48-40 and still in contention. The Phillies finished 1966 with a very respectable 87-75 record, but that record was no better than 4th in the 10 team National League.

The Giants had more success that year. They finished in 2nd for the pennant, only 1.5 games behind the Dodgers. The Giants were one of the winning-est teams in baseball in the 60s, but they finished a frustrating 2nd in the NL for five straight seasons (1965-1969).

That would be the last good year for that solid core of Phillies. After jettisoning many older veterans after the season, including Buhl, Fox, Groat, and Kuenn, the Phils won only 82 games in 1967, just two games over .500. Then began a string of seven straight sub .500 seasons until their mid-70s revival with Schmidt, Bowa, Luzinski, Carlton, Cash, Ozark, and others.

1966 was the last season of good baseball for some time in the City of Brotherly Love. Within a couple years all of the players who figured prominently in the exciting July 16, 15-inning victory over the Giants at Connie Mack, the game in which a cub scout thought he saw Willie Mays hit a triple, were long gone.

1966 Phillies Rebuild: The Wheeze Kids, Opposite of the Process

In 1966, the Phillies were two years removed from their 1964 season that ended with such disappointment, but they still had a solid core from that team: Richie Allen, Johnny Callison, Bobby Wine, Tony Taylor, Cookie Rojas, Tony Gonzalez, and strong starting pitching led by Jim Bunning and Chris Short.

Apparently, the Phillies general manager John Quinn and manager Ray Mauch thought that the team was just a few pieces short of another run for the pennant. They didn't want to trade any of their starters, so for the 1966 season, the Phillies did something unusual: through waiver pickups, player purchases, and trades of younger players, they added several accomplished but past-their-prime veterans. These were mostly players like Terry Fox who were near the end of their careers. It was a rebuild of sorts--in reverse -- the opposite of the infamous "Process" rebuild that the Sixers and Sam Hinkie tried a few years back. As it turns out, neither approach was successful, although it's easy to see why Quinn and Mauch thought it was worth the risk.

Daily News columnist Stan Hochman referred to the 1966 Phillies and their over-the-hill additions as the Wheeze Kids, a clever take-off on the nickname of the 1950 team, the Whiz Kids, who reached the World Series.*

The first sign of the veteran makeover came on October 27, 1965, when the Phils traded three players in their 20s to St. Louis Cardinals for Dick Groat, Bob Uecker, and Bill White, all in their 30s.

They then made minor moves during the winter, picking up small ball backups and utility players like Phil Linz, Jackie Brandt, and Doug Clemens, the kind of players that Mauch cherished.

On April 21, 1966, after the start of the season, the Phillies made one of the worst trades in team history: they sent Ferguson Jenkins and two other backups, all in their 20s, to the Chicago Cubs for 35-year-old Larry Jackson and 37-year-old Bob Buhl. Jackson and Buhl were very good players, especially earlier in their careers. A the time of the trade, Jenkins had spent most of his career in the minors, but he go on to pitch in the majors for the next 18 years, win 280 games, and earn a place in Cooperstown.

Acquisitions for the 1966 Wheeze kids:

• Bob Buhl, the Phils' starting pitcher that day in 1966 against the Giants, had a great 15 year career: 166-132 Win-Loss record, 3.55 career ERA, 20 shutouts, 11 complete games. Not Hall of Fame numbers but darn good nonetheless. He spent the first half of his career with the Milwaukee Braves, then four seasons with the Cubs. The next year, 1967, he pitched only three innings for the Phils and was released in May. But in 1966, he helped form a formidable starting rotation for the Phils.
  
  
• Larry Jackson had a 14-year career as illustrious as Buhl's. Jackson appeared in 5 All Star games, won 24 games in 1964, and was 2nd in Cy Young voting that year. He pitched through 1968 for the Phillies.
  
  
• Bill White was 32 when he was traded to the Phillies and had spent most his career with St Louis. He had 22 HRs and 103 RBIs for the Phillies that year, and he was the only veteran they acquired that season with any power. He played in 1967 and 1968 with Philly before being traded back to St. Louis before the 1969 season, where he got just 68 at bats before retiring. White's career was substantial as well: 8 All Star Games, 7 Gold Gloves, 1,702 hits, 202 hrs, 870 RBIs, and a .286 career batting average. He later served as President of the National League, becoming the first African-American to hold such a high position in sports.
  
  
• Bob Uecker was a backup catcher for the Phils in 1966, but he played just 18 games with the team the following year, and then 62 games with Atlanta before he was released at the end of 1967 and retired. He went on to a long career as an announcer for the Milwaukee Braves and TV pitchman.
  
  
• Dick Groat was one of the best players the Phils acquired that year, but he was 35. He had spent most of his career with the Pirates. Groat had been an All American at Duke in both baseball and basketball, and in 1953 he played in the NBA. During his 15 year career, he had a .286 lifetime batting average, 2,138 hits, was the NL Rookie of the Year in 1952, NL MVP in 1960 when he hit .325, and MVP runner up in 1963 with the Cardinals when he hit .319. He appeared in eight All Star games. In 1967, Groat played 10 games with Phillies and 34 more with the Giants before retiring. He was eventually elected into both the College Baseball and College Basketball Halls of Fame. He died on April 27 of this year.
  
  
• Veteran outfielder Jackie Brandt appeared in the game against the Giants but only as a pinch runner. He also had a long career in the majors, starting in 1956 with the Cardinals. His most productive years were in the early 60s with Baltimore. He appeared in two All Star games, won one Gold Glove, and had over 1,000 hits and 112 homers. Brandt hit .250 for the Phillies that year. The next year he was picked up by Houston but hit only .213 as a part-time player and was released at the end of the season and retired.
  
  
• Harvey Kuenn may have been the most accomplished player added by the Phils for the past-their-prime rebuild. He was purchased by the Phils from the Chicago Cubs on April 23. Despite hitting a very good .296 that year in 86 games, 1966 would be his last year in the bigs. He was 35, and he ended his 15 year career with stats similar to Groat's: 2,092 hits, a .303 lifetime batting average, 1953 AL Rookie of the Year, and 8 time All Star. In 1959, he hit .353 for the Tigers, the top batting average in the AL. He also lead the AL in hits for four seasons in the 1950s. He played most of his career as a shortstop, but by 1966, he had lost speed and range, so Mauch played him part-time in left. The Phils released Kuenn after the 1966 season. He went into coaching and by 1982 he was the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, who went to the World Series but lost in seven games to St Louis.
  
  

• ** In 1964, Craig was a member of the St Louis Cardinals, as were trade acquisitions White, Groat, Uecker, and Clemens. Most probably remember that the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals beat the Phillies by one measly game for the pennant. The Phillies led the NL most of the year before losing 10 of their last 12 and finished one game behind the Cardinals. So why did Quinn and Mauch add five of them to the Phillies? Didn't those five players remind everyone, including the fans, of the pain of '64 on a daily basis?

  Roger Craig was another player on the 1966 Phils who would later make a name for himself in coaching. In 1966, the 11 year vet was 36 years old. In April, he was released by the Reds and was immediately signed by the Phils. During the next couple of months, he made 14 relief appearances for the Phils, but his ERA was a high 5.56 and he was released on July 23, just one week after the 15-inning game that I attended. Craig finished the season in the minors before retiring. He went on to coach in the majors for 25 years. He died on June 4 of this year.**
  
  
• Ray Herbert had been picked up by the Phils in 1965, during which he started 19 games. But in 1966, when he was 36, he pitched almost exclusively in relief. The 15 year vet, who had spent most of his career in the AL, was released after the '66 season and retired.
  
  
• 1966 was Terry Fox's last season in the majors too and his only one with the Phillies. He had spent seven years in the minors and seven years in the bigs, mostly with Detroit. He finished with a 29-19 Win-Loss record all in relief with 59 saves and a 2.99 career ERA. He retired in 1967 after a year in the minors and accumulating shoulder injuries.

Sadly, the Phillies' 1966 strategy of adding experienced but aging vets to take another crack at the pennant didn't pan out. The Phillies won only two more games in 1966 than they had in 1965. They moved up in the standings but only from 6th to 4th. Getting picked up by the Phillies for the 1966 season meant the end was near for almost all of these players. Most of them were gone by the next year or soon thereafter.

Mauch himself was fired on June 16, 1968, although he went on to coach other teams for the next 20 years. Quinn remained as general manager of the Phillies until 1972. In his final trade, he acquired future Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton.

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