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Phillies Fans Greet Losing Ballclub at Airport

Oct. 5, 1964 - Those star-crossed Phillies — who discovered in Cincinnati that close only counts when you’re dancing — found out on their arrival home last night that thousands of Philadelphia fans loved them just the same.

Horns honked, bells clanged, and poetic pennants fluttered in the evening breeze as a mob of 7,500 jammed International Airport to welcome back their lovable Phils.

As homecomings go, last night’s touching demonstration had everything — everything but the right ending. For the Phillies, alas, had come home in second place.

One sign, crudely scrawled on an old crackerjack carton, seemed to say it all: “Win, Lose, or Draw, We Love You Phillies Anyway.” It was a frustrating footnote to the great expectations of last week and last month. And, ironically, it was held aloft by a pregnant woman.

“The baby?” said Mrs. Fran Polin, 754 Jericho Rd. “Oh, yes, the baby. It was due last Friday — about the same time as the pennant. But I still love the Phillies. Her companion, Miss Jill Kagel, 6530 N. Bouvier St., hoisted a more positive prediction. Her sign read: “Back Alive in ’65.”

Downstairs, near Gate 41, where the Phillies landed, several of the players’ wives huddled together on a bench. Two of them — Fran Wine (shortstop Bobby’s lady) and Judy Amaro (Reuben’s missus) — are also expecting.

“How do I feel?” smiled Mrs. Wine. “Why, I feel pregnant.”

Judy Amaro giggled. “I have one on the way, too — one at home and one on the way.”

When the Phillies’ chartered plane touched down at 8:37 p.m., the crowd let go with a deafening roar. A stranger in the airport might have thought the Phillies had won the dang thing anyway.

A grim Gene Mauch was the first down the ramp. The Phillies’ manager, wearing a brown suit, white button-down shirt, and bright gold tie, looked drawn and frustrated.

“This,” he said, referring to the pennant race, “was the only thing I ever went after in my life that I felt I had a chance at and didn’t win.” Looking across the teeming mass of hands and faces behind the fence, Mauch added, “This makes me feel like we should have won it — won it for the fans.”

Asked for a World Series prediction, Mauch shook his head, as if realizing for the first time that the Phillies won’t be in it after all.

“The Cards,” he finally said, “beat the National League, so the Cards can beat anybody. All right?”

Mauch walked over to the fence and, with the poise and grace of a politician, shook a few dozen hands. He looked up at a sign which read, “We Still Love You Phillies.” Mauch smiled and said, “Let’s get that ‘still’ out of there.”

When he ducked into the crowd, somebody asked Mauch if he felt like Lyndon Johnson.

“If Johnson loses, he’ll know how I feel right now,” he replied.



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© 2024 by Joe Rubenstein

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