Three-plus years of travel and books couldn't sever a lifetime's bonds, so last June, lured by the Humpty Dumpty challenge of reassembling the Phillies, Andy MacPhail came back to the family business.
Yet as eager as the reeling franchise's new president is to tackle this daunting task, there is first, he knows, a nightmare to confront.
Early on Feb. 18, 1969, MacPhail's oldest brother, Lee III, the Reading Phillies new general manager, was returning home after speaking at a Wyomissing banquet.
Just ahead, near where the twisting West Shore Bypass crosses over the Schuylkill east of Reading, a car spun out of control.