Most baseball fans have at least heard of the Philadelphia Phillies’ epic 1964 collapse, when they had a 6-½ game lead over Cincinnati and St. Louis with 12 to play and blew it all with a 10-game losing streak.
What many fans don’t know is how the slump started – what pushed the Phillies down their slippery slope. The answer is a 1-0 loss to the Reds on Monday, Sept. 21 at Philadelphia’s Connie Mack Stadium. Chico Ruiz scored the game’s only run on a steal of home with two outs in the sixth inning.
The Reds had overcome the loss of their inspirational manager, Fred Hutchinson, in mid-August to stay in the thick of a heated pennant race.