For Mauch, the reunion in 1989 was bittersweet

This column was published on Aug. 20, 1989

Ruben Amaro can still remember the agonized look on Gene Mauch's face 25 years ago, as the National League pennant slipped away.

"I will never forget his face," the former Phillies shortstop said. "He felt so powerless. I didn't really think he was going to come here this weekend, because I know that hurt him so much. "

Allen Lewis, the former Inquirer baseball writer who still has four '64 Phillies World Series tickets mounted and framed in his den - souvenirs of games that never were played - also was surprised.

"Gene must have gotten a little mellower," Lewis said.

"Mauch came? I cannot believe it," said Jim Bunning, who won 19 games for the '64 Phillies team that fell one game short after leading by 61/2 games with a dozen to play.

Yes, Gene Mauch is here, which is as it should be. The reunion of the '64 Phillies wouldn't have been the same without him.

"I think Gene Mauch is one of the smartest baseball managers around," Cubs manager Don Zimmer said on his team's last visit to Philadelphia. "Some people say he's a lousy manager, he never won. I don't argue. I don't defend him. He doesn't have to be defended. His work speaks for itself.

"How many managers manage 22 years in the big leagues? That must say something. Some people just take him wrong. I think most of them are jealous, because he knows more than most people. That's what I think."

Mauch, 63, is retired now, but he remains a student of the game, still studying the box scores in the morning paper, watching games on cable TV and taping the ones he can't see live. A year and a half ago, he stepped down as manager of the California Angels for health reasons. He feels fine now, very much like a guy who's ready to step back into the spotlight.

"I've never applied for a job in my life," he said after arriving in Philadelphia on a red-eye flight from Southern California. "I'm not sitting around, waiting for somebody to get canned. But if somebody said, 'Hey, there's the guy for my situation,' and came to me, I might. "

The fire still burns. Maybe not with the nerve-grinding intensity of 25 years ago, but it's there, just the same. To those who don't appreciate Gene Mauch, he's the manager who never won. To those who do appreciate him, he's one of the sharpest baseball minds in managerial history, win, lose or draw.

There are no absolutes in baseball. The "right" move sometimes backfires. The "wrong" move sometimes comes out right. In that unforgettable stretch drive of '64, two of the opposition's worst moves resulted in two Phillies defeats. Twice within 48 hours, the Phils were beaten on two-out, two-strike steals of home. Ridiculous plays. Absurd plays. But they cost the Phillies a pennant.

Those are the memories the people who knew Mauch best back in '64 felt certain he never would want to rekindle. Surely, neither Amaro nor Bunning nor anyone else connected with the '64 Phillies dreamed that Mauch would agree to attend a 25th-anniversary reunion of that team.

But, then, Gene Mauch always has been full of surprises.

"You said some of the guys were surprised," he said. "Well, I took my granddaughters to Disneyland the other day for seven hours, too. I never dreamed I'd do that, either. And I had a good time. "

OK, but we're talking '64 Phillies here. They say time heals, but that wound was so raw, so painful.

"I never even thought of it that way," he said. "I came back here

because I wanted to see a lot of these guys I haven't seen for a long time. I haven't seen Johnny Callison in, hell, I don't know how long. Early '70s maybe. I haven't seen Clay Dalrymple since he was with Baltimore. Also, I like Larry Shenk (the Phillies' public relations director) a lot, and this was his baby. Plus, I've got friends here to visit. "

So here he is, the man who took over a dreadful Phillies team at age 34 and, two years later, began a string of six consecutive winning seasons, yet is best remembered for the pennant that got away.

"One of the nice things about being retired, I can answer what questions I want to answer and ignore the ones I don't want to answer," Mauch said. "I'm not going to let anybody stir it up. If somebody thinks I came back here to relive what happened in 10 or 12 days, that isn't why I came back. I have great memories of that year.

"I sit around and reminisce sometimes on my own, without being prompted. Shoot, a lot of beautiful things happened. But if some whippersnapper who wasn't even around starts asking me about it, I'll say, 'See you later. ' "

Mauch's recall is amazing - unless you know the man and the way he lives and breathes the game of baseball. Ask him to elaborate on some of those ''beautiful" memories and that computer-sharp mind starts clicking.

"I remember a double play in San Francisco, when Jim Ray Hart hit a rocket - a rocket - up the middle, and Bobby Wine dove for the ball, caught it on a short hop, flipped it to Tony (Taylor), and Tony grabbed it with one hand and threw to first.

"I remember (Jack) Baldschun going 3 and 2 on Hank Aaron and striking him out in Milwaukee when nothing else would do but a strikeout.

"I remember countless times Dalrymple nursed a pitcher who didn't have his best stuff for two or three innings, and pretty soon, his stuff showed up. "

On and on he went.

There was the game-saving, base-loaded double play a rookie third baseman named Richie Allen started in Chicago. And the two-strike double Frank Thomas smoked down the left-field line against the Mets' Alvin Jackson on his first Phillies at-bat, after which, Mauch recalled, "he stayed hotter than a firecracker. "

"Of course," Mauch said, "some of the things I remember aren't so great. Like that ( Chico ) Ruiz stealing home (for the Reds with Frank Robinson at bat in the game that began the killer 10-game losing streak). I remember what (acting Reds manager) Dick Sisler said. He said, 'If the son of a gun had been out, he'd be on his way to San Diego. ' "

And then there was that other steal of home - by the Dodgers' Willie Davis in the 16th inning.

"Two out, two strikes on (Ron) Fairly," Mauch said. "All he had to do was throw a strike. "

But a lefthander named Morrie Steevens, who had just joined the club, panicked and threw the ball to the backstop.

"See," Mauch said, "that's one of the things I always try to do - eliminate the surprises for my players. But I can't prepare for two-strike steals of home. I can't handle that. "

He can see those ridiculous plays as vividly now as he saw them then.

"And I can remember that Friday night game against Milwaukee and how hard Callison and Allen tried to save that game," he said. "Callison hit a two- run homer to tie it (in the eighth), and Richie hit an inside-the-park homer to tie it again in the 10th. "

But the Braves eventually won it, anyway, and the Phillies' losing streak

went on.

Then there was the Saturday game against the Braves, the one in which Eddie Mathews came up in a key spot and ran the count to 3 and 1.

"I knew Tony (Taylor) ought to be playing a little over (in the hole)," Mauch said. "I knew he should be. But Tony knew what was going on, and I didn't tell him. "

And Mathews hit the ball through the hole.

It is good to know that Gene Mauch can talk about it now, 25 years later, that he has survived all that.

"Not winning it is probably the reason I'm still alive," he said, ''because I know I would have given 15 years off the end of my life to win it."