On the nook of my dresser is a term-a-day calendar that permits me protect maintain monitor of of 2022. Only a few inches absent are some irreplaceable souvenirs that select me again once more practically 60 a few years to the earlier summer season I invested with my father.
They’re 4 ticket stubs from the six on-line video games, along with two doubleheaders, we attended at Connie Mack Stadium regarding June and August 1964. My father and I shared the same first establish and a adore of baseball that he instilled in me from our casual on-line video games of seize to the to start out with recreation we attended alongside each other — a 3-2 Phillies purchase greater than the Giants on July 13, 1962.
Beginning off with the 4 video video games we attended in 1963, my dad started a customized of sustaining the stubs and jotting down the last word ranking on the again with the occasional emphasize. On the stub of the July 16, 1963, doubleheader towards the Dodgers, he famous that Sandy Koufax took a no-hitter into the sixth inning of the to start out with recreation.
In 1964, the Phillies arrange by themselves as pennant contenders. Although Beatlemania swept the nation, Philliesmania reigned in our Westville, N.J., home. Prints of the Phillies drawn by Philadelphia Bulletin artist Jim Ponter had been being pinned to my bed room bulletin board. I pored above “Clay Dalrymple’s Baseball Suggestions,” a 16-webpage booklet by the Phillies catcher that my dad and mom ordered from Bond Bread, as I attempted out to make enhancements to my sandlot competencies.
Instantly after trying on the Phillies get rid of, 4-2, to the Giants on June 6, I used to be sad, however the time rapidly turned magical. My father and I considered Jim Bunning toss a finest exercise in opposition to the Mets on a black-and-white Zenith Tv in our dwelling space on what could be our final Father’s Working day alongside each other.
For our upcoming match, on July 13, my dad acquired tickets just a few rows powering family plate and we noticed the Phils outlast Warren Spahn and the Milwaukee Braves, 3-2. The largest thrill for me, nonetheless, got here forward of the very first pitch. Fairly just a few Braves ended up taking part in a sport of pepper and my father alertly snagged a ball inadvertently strike into the stands by Gary Kolb, a utility participant for the Braves, and gave it to me. To an 8-year-aged, the grass-stained and scuffed ball felt like a Christmas in July current.
As a child of the Melancholy who tracked his revenue and bills in a pocket book, my father retained a watch out for a discount. He labored as a lab technician on the DuPont plant in Pennsville, N.J. He scrutinized the schedule and chosen doubleheaders on Aug. 5 (Colt .45s) and Aug. 20 (Pirates) for us to point out up at, paying for $2.25 greater reserved tickets for each equally dates.
For twin expenditures, we altered our ballpark plan, bringing sandwiches my mother skilled constructed, Tastykakes, and a Thermos jug of both Hawaiian Punch or lemonade. The meals gadgets and the Phillies have been successful as they swept each equally doubleheaders with some ninth-inning drama. Richie Allen hit a wander-off homer to whole the sweep in opposition to Houston, when Frank Thomas strike a two-operate, walk-off homer within the opener in opposition to Pittsburgh.
Proper after the Aug. 20 sweep, the Phillies skilled a 7½-game direct in extra of the Reds and Giants. What might go unsuitable?
Loads, because it seems. {The summertime} magic arrived crashing down in a merciless autumn. The notorious 10-sport eliminating streak of late September quashed our hopes of observing a World Sequence sport in Philadelphia. Undeterred, my dad saved his religion within the Phillies in 1965 and acquired tickets for the Might probably 7 recreation from the Cardinals. Bob Gibson was overpowering, holding the Phillies to a Johnny Callison one in a 2- shutout.
That may be our remaining recreation collectively as my dad died of a coronary heart assault on Might 26, two weeks earlier than his forty second birthday.
Fifty-seven many years after his loss of life, the ticket stubs help keep alive the reminiscence of a unique yr I received to share with my dad.
In addition they present as a reminder that lifetime can by no means ever be exactly like we would like it to be, to cite songwriter Lowman Pauling.
Tom Wilk, a former Inquirer athletics copy editor, is the co-author with Jim Waltzer of “Tales of South Jersey: Profiles and Personalities.”
