The Year of the Blue Snow: The 1964 Philadelphia Phillies (SABR Digital Library) (ePub)

Catcher Gus Triandos dubbed the Philadelphia Phillies' 1964 season "the year of the blue snow"-a rare thing that happens once in a great while.

The Phillies were having a spectacular season in which everything was going right. They held a 6 1/2 game lead on September 20, with just 12 games to play. But the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals never gave up, and when the Phillies lost 10 consecutive games, it became a horrific collapse for Phillies fanatics.

But wait a minute. When it was seemingly too late, the Phillies finally won a game-and the first-place Cardinals lost two to the lowly Mets, so on the last day of the season there might be a three-way tie for first place. On the final day, the Phillies beat the Reds, 10-0. Could the Mets knock off the first-place Cardinals for a third straight game? The Mets carried a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the fifth, but succumbed, 11-5.

But what a season for Phillies fans. Jim Bunning threw the first NL perfect game in 84 years. The hero of the 1964 All-Star Game was Johnny Callison, who hit the third walk-off home run in the history of the All-Star Game. The team also boasted the electrifying NL Rookie of the Year, slugging third baseman Richie Allen (later called Dick Allen).

In Philadelphia, the '64 campaign left an ache that lasted for years. This book sheds light on the facts for the reader to determine answers to lingering questions they may still have about the Phillies team in the 1964 season-but any book about a team is really about the players. A collaborative effort by 37 members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), this work offers life stories of all the players and others (managers, coaches, owners, and broadcasters) associated with this star-crossed team, as well as essays of analysis and historical recaps.