re the phillies deja vu previously i wrote yeah the phillies played over their heads almost the whole year but it all caught up to them in one game streak i am as old as man and i was a big phillies fan at the time age september is still a painful thing to remember but i can tell you that the phillies never led the league by that year going by memory alone i believe their biggest lead was games and they were ahead when the famous game losing streak began a streak during which it seemed that they found just about every way to lose known to man anyway i think they rebounded just before the end and won their last couple games and were still in the thing until the final day but finished tied with the giants one game out and didn t the dodgers or somebody else finish two games back that has to be one of the closest last minute scrambles ever ok you guys stirred up my childhood memories so i went and did some research on the final month or so of the season it turns out that my recollections were pretty darn accurate at least as far as the phillies record goes on september this was the top of the n l standings w l gb philadelphia cincinnati st louis san francisco this is a game by game description of the remainder of the phillies season date score opponent lead pitcher starting and winner loser houston bunning houston short houston bennett san francisco mahaffey baldschun win san francisco bunning san francisco short baldschun los angeles bennett los angeles wise los angeles mahaffey st louis bunning baldschun cardinals take over nd place from cincinnati st louis short san francisco bennett san francisco mahaffey giants move into a tie for nd with st louis san francisco bunning cardinals back in sole possesion of nd place houston short houston bennett houston bunning los angeles wise schantz los angeles short baldschun los angeles bennett baldschun los angeles bunning reds move back into tie for nd with cardinals well so far so good for the phillies but now it all falls apart cincinnati mahaffey reds take sole possesion of nd place cincinnati short cincinnati bennett milwaukee bunning milwaukee short boozer cards now back in rd giants in th milwaukee mahaffey schantz milwaukee bunning phils lose games in days reds take over st cardinals back in rd st louis short cardinals take over nd place phils drop to rd st louis bennett reds and cardinals now tied for st st louis bunning cardinals take game lead over reds cincinnati short roebuck phillies halt game losing streak cards lead reds by game did not play cards lose to mets reds tied for st phils game back cincinnati bunning cards beat mets take first by from reds and phillies whew what a finish and the final standings were w l gb st louis philadelphia cincinnati san francisco now it doesn t appear to me that phillies pitchers bunning and short were really overused at least by the four man rotation standard of the day until well along into the game losing streak at which time mauch was probably desperate for a win at any cost because the phillies substantial lead had evaporated the way they were used at that time may have made the problem worse although bunning had one of his sharpest games of the year in the final day shutout of the reds that cost the reds a share of the pennant bunning pitched a complete game six hitter striking out five and walking one it would be inetersting to see though how the total innings for the year for bunning and short stacks up against the rest of the league also notice that the phillies played every day from at least september through october while they didn t play substantially more games than the other teams the other teams each had a couple days off during that stretch eric smith erics netcom com erics infoserv com ci
