Phillies pitcher Art Mahaffey: Ruiz's move came at perfect moment

One-hundredth of a second.

That fraction of time, Art Mahaffey said, might have been the difference in enabling Cincinnati's Chico Ruiz to steal home for the game's lone run on Sept. 21, 1964, starting the Phillies on their infamous, 10-game losing streak and costing them the National League pennant.

Mahaffey, 76, is retired from an insurance business he operated. He and his wife, Janet, spend much of their time doting over their 7-year-old granddaughter, Ashley.

But in 1964, the slender righthander was on the mound when the Phillies, who were atop the National League standings with a comfortable 61/2-game cushion, and the second-place Reds were locked in a scoreless tie in the sixth inning at chilly Connie Mack Stadium.

With two outs, Ruiz on third base, and future Hall of Famer Frank Robinson at the plate, Mahaffey went into a windup to deliver his 0-1 pitch.

Mahaffey's motion was interrupted, however, because as he was about to deliver the pitch, he saw Ruiz breaking for home out of the corner of his right eye.

"I'm winding up, and as my arm is at the top, I see him running home, and everything stopped in my arm; he was in my exact [vision] spot as I was throwing," Mahaffey said the other day. "I stopped my arm, and the pitch went low and outside."

The pitch sailed to the backstop, past lunging catcher Clay Dalrymple.

"Ruiz couldn't have timed it any better," Mahaffey said, the pain in his voice evident, even 50 years after it happened. "If he did it a hundredth of a second sooner or later, it would have been a different pitch."

And maybe a different outcome - to that game, and that star-crossed season.

After the game, the righthanded-hitting Robinson said he was surprised to see Ruiz coming - and that the ball beat the baserunner to the plate. "I thought he would have been out" if it wasn't a wild pitch, Robinson said.

Even though the Reds' most-feared hitter was at the plate, Ruiz, a rookie utility infielder, took off from third because he thought he could take advantage of Mahaffey's long windup. From the dugout, Reds players were shocked. So was third-base coach Reggie Otero.

"My mind went blank with anger," he said after the game.

Said Mahaffey: "If I throw a strike, Robinson swings and bashes his head off. It was the stupidest play."

But it became the symbol of the '64 Phillies, who became known as the Fizz Kids for their monumental fold-up.

"All we needed was to get one win, and it would have broken the spell," Mahaffey said of the 10-game slide.

Teams can go decades before losing a game on a steal of home. Amazingly, it happened to the Phils twice in three games. Two nights before Ruiz's daring dash, Willie Davis stole home in the 16th inning, lifting the host Dodgers to a 4-3 victory.

In The Inquirer the day after Ruiz gave the Reds the win, Allen Lewis' words proved prophetic.

"If the Phillies lose the pennant, it might be correct to say the flag was stolen from them," he wrote.

Mahaffey said the players felt as if they let the city down.

"That winter was awful," he said. "Whenever you left the house, everybody was bringing it up."

It doesn't happen as often now, of course, but "it's never forgotten in Philadelphia by the people who lived through it," said Mahaffey, who lives in Allentown. "For all these years, people don't forget. It's a terrible memory. It's a sin. Six-and-a-half-game lead with 12 to play. We had a great team and great times, and just about everybody contributed. It was the blending of lots of different guys."

Mahaffey, who still holds the Phillies record for strikeouts in a game (17), has endured the death of his 16-year-old son in a car accident and some of his own health problems. Six years ago, shortly after he retired from the insurance business with the idea of playing golf five times a week, he suffered a severe back injury that has kept him off the links.

Instead of being on the golf course, he spends lots of time with his young granddaughter. "Ashley," he said, "is the miracle of my life."

They go to the playground, play at a local Chuck E. Cheese's, do arts and crafts together, and Mahaffey and his wife have taken Ashley to Niagara Falls and on five Disney cruises.

While at Dorney Park this summer, Mahaffey said, Ashley called him by her side.

"She said, 'Pop-Pop, put your hand on my heart,' " said Mahaffey, smiling at the memory.

The former pitcher, who has been searching unsuccessfully for video of his playing days to show his granddaughter and wife, complied.

Ashley grasped Mahaffey's hand on her heart.

"Pop-Pop, that's where you are today and where you'll be for the rest of my life," she said.

Mahaffey, teary-eyed, then placed Ashley's hand on his heart and told her the same thing. "And now, whenever we see each other, she puts her hand on her heart, and I do the same. It's like our own special thing," he said.

It seems Ashley has fixed the heart Chico Ruiz once broke.