The Phillies 1964 and Richie Allen

Richie Allen died this week at the age of 78. He was one of my childhood baseball heroes and the star of that amazing and ultimately frustrating 1964 season. He was also the 1964 Rookie of the Year. Although he was known as Dick Allen through most of his baseball career he was always Richie Allen in Philly.

He was also a very controversial player throughout his career but especially in Philadelphia and a lot of it was racially motivated.

I saw him play many times at Connie Mack Stadium from 1964 through 1969. The 1964 season was when my brother Tom and I went to several games by ourselves. Our Uncle Tom used to take us to games in earlier seasons but that is another story told here in my Extra Innings post. We would take the 23 trolley down to Lehigh Ave and then walk over to the ballpark. 1964 was an exciting year and the Phillies were in first place leading the league by six and a half games with twelve games left in the season. The Phillies collapsed and lost ten games in a row to end the season in second place. Allen continued to play at his usual high level but the rest of the team stunk. It was our first real sports heartbreak but it certainly wouldn't be the last but nothing ever hurt as much to a 13 year old.

I remember that season, those games and the players on the team like it was yesterday.

Chris Short, Clay Dalrymple, Bobby Wine, Tony Taylor, Ruben Amaro, Johnny Callison, Wes Covington, Tony Gonzalez, Danny Cater, John Herrstein, Cookie Rojas, Alex Johnson, Frank Thomas, Roy Sievers, Jim Bunning, Dallas Green, Rick Wise, Ray Culp, Cal McLish, Art Mahaffrey, so many familiar names.

I would never again look at a sports team the same way after that disappointing season ending. The worse can always happen in sports.