September Swoon: Richie Allen, the '64 Phillies, and Racial Integration (Keystone Book)

275 Pages·2004·5.7 MB·English

by  William C. Kashatus

S E P T E M B E R S W O O N

William C. Kashatus
foreword by Gerald Early
S E P T E M B E R
S W O O N
Richie Allen, the ’64 Phillies, and Racial Integration
A KEYSTONE BOOK
THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
UNIVERSITY PARK, PENNSYLVANIA
Disclaimer:
Some images in the original version of this book are not
available for inclusion in the eBook.
a keystone book
A Keystone Book is so designated to
distinguish it from the typical scholarly monograph
that a university press publishes. It is a book intended
to serve the citizens of Pennsylvania by educating them
and others, in an entertaining way, about aspects of the
history, culture, society, and environment of the state
as part of the Middle Atlantic region.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kashatus, William C., 1959–
September swoon : Richie Allen, the ’64Phillies, and racial integration /
William C. Kashatus ; Foreword by Gerald Early.
p. cm.
“A Keystone Book.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-271-02333-3(cloth : alk. paper)
1. Philadelphia Phillies (Baseball team).
2. Baseball—Pennsylvania—Philadelphia—History—20th century.
3. Allen, Dick.
4. Discrimination in sports—Pennsylvania—Philadelphia.
I. Title.
GV875.P45 K275 2003
796.357´64´0974811—dc22
2003016988
Copyright © 2004The Pennsylvania State University
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park, PA 16802-1003
The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the
Association of American University Presses.
It is the policy of
The Pennsylvania State University Press
to use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated
stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Material,
ANSI Z39.48–1992.
for my son ben,
who brought happiness after a devastating loss

CONTENTS
Foreword by Gerald Early ix
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
1 A Shameful Past 9
2 Integrating the Phillies 39
3 The Spring of ’64 67
4 On Top of the National League 91
5 September Swoon 121
6 Seasons of Frustration 147
7 Breakup 179
Conclusion 201
Appendixes 207
A. What Happened to the 1964 Phillies 207
B. Individual Statistics for the 1964 Phillies 217
C. The 1964 National League Race 221
Notes 223
Selected Bibliography 249
Index 251
vii

FOREWORD BY GERALD EARLY
To have grown up in Philadelphia in the 1950s and 1960s, as I did, was to
experience the American city, American life itself, on the cusp of dramatic
change. The rise of reformist liberals in Philadelphia’s politics in the 1950s
coupled with a growing black activism in the city in the 1960s, particularly
under the leadership of local NAACP president Cecil B. Moore, were the
manifestation of one sort of change. The arc of the career of legendary cop
Frank Rizzo, who went from being the “Cisco Kid” of the streets to police
commissioner and eventually, in 1971, to mayor, was change as well, or the
change that change produced. Few people who lived in most big American
cities at the time could say that they were not cursed with having to live in
an interesting time. Ironically, one could hardly sense this change, in many
respects, even as one was living through such strange seasons that would
disconnect us all from the past while leaving us unable to discern the future.
I can remember distinctly reading passages from the Bible in my elemen-
tary school classes and hearing them read before our weekly “Assemblies”
and can vividly recall that teachers could and did use corporal punishment
to chastise children. When I tell my children this, they think I grew up in
a more primitive and even quaint time. Actually, nothing could be further
from the truth. Reading the Bible in school probably did me at least this
level of good: that I got to read that book at all in a setting that was not
related to church, so I could think about it differently while learning to
absorb its mighty language. I do not recall corporal punishment with any
fondness at all. I thought it brutal and, perhaps oddly, a rather sensational
way to discipline a child. I did not think it was terribly effective. Nor did
I think that my teachers cared more about me because they were willing to
slap me around. But I do not think, on the other hand, that they cared about
me any less. (At least, those of us who went to public school thought, we
ix