Art Mahaffey, the best player on the only team in modern history to lose more games in a row, had a unique understanding of the anguish of the Chicago White Sox. Mahaffey’s emotions reached new heights when the White Sox ended their 21-game losing streak in Oakland on Tuesday night.
“The White Sox are on a roll!” he said by phone Wednesday morning, from his home in Allentown, Pa. “That’s good for them. What they went through, what we went through, it’s really hard. It’s great that they won.”
In 1961, when the Phillies lost 23 games in a row, Mahaffey, then 86, was the team’s biggest winner. That season, he finished equal for the most losses in the National League with 19, but he also won 11 games, including two shutouts right after the run broke.
“It’s hard to imagine losing that many games, having the manager screaming at you,” Mahaffey said. “It was dead in the clubhouse. There was no laughter or good times. It was difficult to believe, and it was not enjoyable at all. Then all of a sudden, I pitch two straight shutouts as we win the game. How does that come about?
“The White Sox were terrible at the beginning of this season, and they must just have stayed terrible. It’s changed now for some teams in the last half of the season — except for the White Sox, it hasn’t changed.”
Don Ferrarese, a 95-year-old pitcher for the Phillies, described the 1961 club as “awful” using the same term. Even with its ultimate record of 47-107, it was the Phillies’ worst since World War II.
“We weren’t worth a (damn),” Ferrarese said. “It was a horrible team. We couldn’t hit and we couldn’t pitch. I led the team in earned run average at 3-something, and everybody else was 4 or more. And batting-wise, I don’t know what the team average was, but I know they couldn’t hit. Pancho Herrera was our cleanup guy, and I think I could hit better than he could. It was a terrible deal.”
The Phillies had the lowest batting average (.243) and worst earned run average (5.14) in the National League. At the start of play on Thursday, the White Sox, who are 28-89, also had the worst ERA (4.83) and average (.216) in the American League.
With a new manager in his second season, both teams were in transition. Pedro Grifol was the one sacked on Thursday by Chicago. It was just thirty-five-year-old Gene Mauch with Philadelphia at the time. Up until the age of 61, he managed four teams, and the losing run predicted a miserable career.
Mauch, who has almost 4,000 games managed throughout his career, is ranked tenth. All other top-15 finishers, however, took home at least three pennants. Mauch never succeeded, thwarted by agonizing collapses with the Phillies at the beginning and the Angels at the end.
When it came to losing streaks, the 1961 record-setter paled in comparison to the debacle of 1964. With 12 games remaining in the season, the Phillies lead the NL by six and a half games, but they lost ten consecutive and let St. Louis win the pennant. Mahaffey on the mound was the beginning of that streak.
“I lost the first game, 1-0, when that guy stole home with Frank Robinson hitting,” Mahaffey said, referring to the Reds’ Chico Ruiz, a Voldemort figure (he who shall not be named) for a generation of Phillies fans.
“And everybody says, ‘Oh, didn’t you think he was gonna steal home?’ With the league’s leading hitter (at the plate)? And right-handed, so he’s gonna swing the bat and hit him in the head? (Fred) Hutchinson, the manager, said that if Ruiz hadn’t scored, he would have never played him again. He would have shipped him right out of the big leagues. Robinson, he wants to drive the run in, he’s up there to hit, and this guy comes in — it was just a shock. He did something shocking that you didn’t know was gonna happen. But we didn’t score any runs, either.”
Ferrarese began the streak in 1961 with assistance from a misplaced move by Mauch. With one out in the first inning of the Giants game on July 29 at Connie Mack Stadium, Mauch gave Ferrarese the order to intentionally walk Willie Mays in order to load the bases and set up a double play. Orlando Cepeda delivered a grand slam in its place.
After the big slam, Ferrarese blanked the Giants for six innings and struck out Mays the second time he faced him that evening. He found comfort in his performance after the game, a 4-3 loss, but he was still upset about the walk.
“Bob Lemon’s my pitching coach, so he comes over to my cubicle and goes, ‘Hey, Meat’ — he called everybody ‘Meat’ — ‘Mauch wants to talk to you,’” Ferrarese said. “I go, ‘Aw (damn), he’s probably gonna send me to the minor leagues.’ So he closes the door and they pour a shot of booze and laugh like a son of a bitch. I was mad at Mauch for second-guessing me, but he says, ‘If you could pitch like that all the time, you’d win the Cy Young Award!’
“Anyhow, that started the losing streak.”
For a while, that was the last time they laughed. The Phillies had lost to Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale just before the run. They would lose against players like Lew Burdette, Harvey Haddix, and Joey Jay during it, as well as two more future Hall of Famers, Bob Gibson and Warren Spahn.
“Our guys weren’t superstars, just put it that way,” said Mahaffey, the Phillies’ lone All-Star that season. “I mean, they could pitch, but look, we faced Koufax, Drysdale, Gibson, Marichal, everybody, and then our pitchers would go out and give up runs. It wasn’t easy — it was hard, it was really hard. And it was sad, it was really sad.”
Mahaffey still rues a home run pitch to Milwaukee’s Joe Adcock in loss No. 20 on Aug. 17. Ordered by Mauch to drill Adcock (“It’ll cost you if you don’t,” he said Mauch told him) Mahaffey threw one under the slugger’s chin, only for Adcock to bail out, swing wildly — and somehow drive the ball over the fence.
The Phillies lost that game in extra innings, but finally snapped the streak when John Buzhardt vanquished the Braves, 7-4, to cap an 11-game road trip. Pitcher Frank Sullivan made an announcement about his airport homecoming plan during the flight to Philadelphia.
“They are selling rocks for $1.50 a pail,” Sullivan declared, as reported in the next day’s Philadelphia Daily News. “Leave the plane at five-minute intervals. That way, they can’t get us all with one burst.”
Approximately 500 devoted supporters of Philadelphia showed mercy to their team at 1 a.m., greeting them in the rain with signs, confetti, and a band. The Phillies would finish 18–20 the remainder of the way before beginning a new team record of six consecutive winning seasons.
Mahaffey’s luck swung around equally fast. He has 19 wins in 1962 to go along with his 19 losses in 1961. He still finds it hard to believe, though, that the summer of 1961 remained so barren for an extended period of time – longer than the darkest weeks of the miserable White Sox.
“Each day you thought it wouldn’t happen again,” Mahaffey said, “and each day, it happened again.”
When no-hit lightning strikes twice
Five days separated the first two perfect games in baseball history in 1880. It took twenty-four years for the next one to appear. The problem about no-hitters and perfect games is that they are rare events that are extremely valuable to see.
Take Arizona Diamondbacks pro scout Todd Greene as an example. He participated in Eric Milton of the Twins’ no-hitter in 1999 while he was a player for the Angels. Ten years later, he was present for Mark Buehrle of the White Sox’s perfect game while serving as the Rays’ coach. After 15 years, he increased his number of hits without a hit in a matter of nine days.
On July 25, Greene was in Washington scouting the Nationals and the Padres before the trading deadline. San Diego’s Dylan Cease threw a no-hitter. On Aug. 2, Greene was in Cincinnati to cover the Reds and Giants for offseason possibilities. San Francisco’s Blake Snell threw a no-hitter.
One scouting trip, two memories to treasure.
“First of all, I’m a baseball fan and I love the game,” Greene said. “Otherwise, I would want the Giants to lose, just because they’re in our division. But when you’ve got a chance to see somebody throw a no-hitter, it’s always pretty cool.”
Dylan Cease’s no-hitter was one of two that Todd Greene witnessed. (Jess Rapfogel / Getty Images)
Many companies have drastically reduced their use of in-person scouting in favor of concentrating more on video-mined data. In addition to their analytical acumen, the Diamondbacks have a large number of former players in scouting positions. They took the pennant after winning four of the final five games in the NLCS last October thanks to their expert use of scouting advice on pitching to the Phillies.
“I love the competition of being a scout and being right about players, putting them in the right lanes,” Greene said. “I’m in the opinion business and the support business. I give my opinion and when somebody makes a decision, I support whatever they decide. That’s the cool part of it.”
Here’s what he saw in the no-hitters:
Snell: “Snell dominated the glove side of the plate, whether it was in to the righties or away to the lefties. And then his curveball was coming off the same plane. I’ve seen him really good in the past, but I texted one of our other scouts in the fifth inning and said, ‘I’ve never seen Snell this good.’”
Cease: “Same thing, just dominant command of his fastball and threw his breaking ball off of it. Cease can elevate whenever he wants to and then throws his curveball off the same plane. No really hard contact off either one of them. Balls weren’t hit very hard in either game. That just tells you how dominant they can be.”
Because of their excellent movement and extended counts that result from their extreme hardness to hit, Cease led the majors in walks in 2022 and Snell did likewise in 2023. However, they were productive in their masterpieces, generating 114 pitches and three walks for each.
“The strike zone’s smaller than it’s ever been, too,” said Greene, speaking like a former catcher. “So if these guys both pitched these games 10 years ago, it probably would have been a perfect game.”
GIMME FIVE
Five bits of ballpark wisdom
The name game with Bowden Francis
Bowden Francis is the only member of the Toronto Blue Jays who keeps a “Zen frog” statue on the top shelf of his locker, alongside a pink crystal and a Palo Santo incense stick. He’s also the only major leaguer in history who shares a name with a two-time national champion college football coach for the Florida State Seminoles.
It’s “Bowden” as in “BAO-din,” like Bobby Bowden, the College Football Hall of Famer who guided the Seminoles from 1976 through 2009. Francis was born after the first two decades of that run, in Tallahassee in April 1996. His full given name is Robert Bowden Francis.
“I never met him, but I’ve got (clips) of him talking to me through video before he passed,” Francis said of his namesake, who died at age 91 in 2021. “And I’ve got a couple of footballs autographed.”
As a seventh-round draft pick in 2017, Francis joined the Milwaukee Brewers. Four years later, he was traded to Toronto in exchange for Rowdy Tellez. Francis began the season in the Blue Jays’ rotation after recording a 1.70 ERA in 21 bullpen appearances throughout the previous two seasons. On July 29, after suffering a forearm injury in late April, he made his comeback to the lineup, defeating Baltimore on the day Toronto traded Yusei Kikuchi to Houston.
Last Sunday at Yankee Stadium, Francis talked about his unusual name before losing in a pinch-hit, 10-inning appearance. He is 5-3 with a 3.84 ERA in his career and made his start against the Orioles on Wednesday. In five innings, he gave up two runs while striking out eight.
Almost a Seminole: “My dad grew up in Tallahassee, and he was a big fan. I think my parents were joking around about it, and it actually stuck. I went to a lot of their games, and it was always a dream to play there, but my grades weren’t where they needed to be, so I went to (Chipola) junior college about an hour away. I committed to Florida State post-juco, but the draft happened and I ended up going that route.”
His namesake’s legacy: “He was a hard-nosed coach who had players who would fight for him. I feel like he did an amazing job of holding the locker room and setting a standard, and guys loved him. He was good across the board to everybody. The whole balance of being a head coach is hard, having that love and then having that (edge) to get the boys going a little bit. It seemed like he did a good job of that.”
Dad went undercover for a closer look: “My dad snuck into the locker room for a meeting once. That was probably like 25 years ago. He acted like he was the media (relations) guy, so he got to be there for one of the speeches. He got kicked out pretty quick, but he got to see like half of the meeting.”
An idol, now a peer: “It’s funny watching Luke Weaver pitch, because he was my favorite guy to watch growing up. (Weaver, now a Yankees reliever, was a first-round pick by St. Louis in 2014, when Francis was 18.) I liked his style on the mound, his whole thing. He’s actually my dad’s neighbor now, and we throw together in the offseason sometimes.”
A lapsed fan wants back in: “I know their pitching coach really well; I actually grew up playing travel ball for him. As far as football, that coach (Mike Norvell) has been good for the past few years. I need to get back into it and follow them more. I’ve just been so focused on this. But when I get back to Florida in the offseason, maybe I can catch a few games.”
OFF THE GRID
A historical detour from the Immaculate Grid
Miguel Olivo, Royals/Rockies
An Immaculate Grid cheat code is backup catchers. Each squad requires one, and these dependable seasoned players typically have contracts that are only temporary. For instance, Miguel Olivo was a member of seven teams between 2002 and 2014. Olivo qualified when the Grid called for a player with Royals and Rockies experience last Sunday.
In 2009, Olivo played a major role in the Kansas City rotation, starting 33 games for Zack Greinke and hitting a career-high 23 home runs. With a major league-best 2.16 ERA during that Cy Young season, Greinke made it a point to commend Olivo during his victory speech at the baseball writers’ dinner in New York, despite the fact that he hardly spoke in public.
Miguel Olivo was an integral part of Zack Greinke’s Royals tenure. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
Without Olivo, Greinke’s 2010 ERA increased by a full run. Naturally, he bounced back to have a stellar career, and in 2021, Jayson Jenks and Rustin Dodd of The Athletic gathered a wealth of anecdotes from his catchers. While we are honoring Olivo, the following John Buck anecdote is worth repeating:
“I had been catching him for a while. This was right at the end. And it happened to be the year he was having his Cy Young year (2009). In the middle of that, he said, ‘John, I know I’m throwing good, but I’m starting to second-guess myself. I don’t want you to catch me anymore.’ I was just kind of like, ‘What?’ I was young, too. My ego was hurt. And then he goes, ‘I just think you’re too smart. You just make me out-think what I’m calling. You have too many good reasons, and sometimes I just want to throw it. And with Miguel Olivo, I just don’t get that.’ We’re both sitting there, and Olivo is like, ‘OK, so I’m dumb?’ And Zack goes, ‘Yeah, but I like throwing to you.’ Olivo and I were like, ‘How do we both want to punch him, but we both get it and appreciate his honesty?’”
CLASSIC CLIP
August 11, 1994
The final big swing of the 1994 season: Ken Griffey Jr.’s grand slam off Ron Darling
The 1994 baseball season came to a close on Sunday, thirty years ago. Following the last West Coast game—a Randy Johnson masterwork for the Seattle Mariners in Oakland—the players went on strike on August 11. A month later, the owners canceled the World Series with the intention of severing ties with the union by enacting a pay cap.
The Athletics’ losing pitcher that evening, Ron Darling, had once started the final game of a season—a 1986 World Series game against the Mets. An entirely other conclusion—a protracted industry shutdown—loomed in this beginning.
“Going into the game, I knew there was a possibility,” Darling said. “But there was also a positivity where you just think, ‘They can’t be this stupid to do this.’”
Unfortunately, they were making 1994 the first season without a champion since 1904. Even in 1995, when 29 owners—all but Baltimore’s Peter Angelos—staged a ridiculous spring training with substitute players, the strike continued. To reinstate the prior economic structure and put the genuine actors back to work, it required an injunction from future Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York at the time.
Many well-known names disappeared. Within two weeks of the strike date, Jack Morris, Goose Gossage, Kent Hrbek, Bo Jackson, Dave Henderson, Teddy Higuera, Harold Reynolds, and Lonnie Smith—among many other previous All-Stars—played their final game.
Though he fulfilled his contract until 1995, Darling’s heart was not in it. When the strike struck, he was tied for the AL lead in games started, but a year and four days after that devastating 1994 ending, he was done at age 34.
“I didn’t know it at the time, but my love and hunger and thirst and appreciation for baseball ended on that night,” Darling said. “When I came back in ’95, I did not have the same feeling that I did in ’94 or prior, that baseball was the most important thing in my life and I loved it with a hunger that I thought no one else did. I was probably in the best shape of my life physically, and the worst shape of my life mentally, as far as the game was concerned.
“If you told me that the game ended and never was played again, I wouldn’t have given a rat’s ass about it — and I never thought I would be in that place. The combination of the steroid period and that period, it just knocked people like me out of the game. Not that I probably didn’t deserve to be knocked out, but it would have been nice to go out on my own terms.”
Over time, Darling reignited his passion for the game, which he now shares nationally for TBS and practically every night as a broadcaster for the Mets on SNY. And now, years later, he can still joke about his last outing before the strike, and the grand slam that defeated his hanging splitter in an 8-1 Mariners triumph by Ken Griffey Jr.
According to Darling, networks consistently utilized that highlight to show what fans were missing while the strike continued.
“Because we were out for so long, I remember going to Hawaii for an extended period of time, and by then I thought it was pretty funny,” Darling said. “People either wanted to see baseball or they hated baseball players, but whatever their thoughts were, they were always reminded that Ken Griffey was great — and that whoever threw that pitch, he wasn’t so great.”
(Top photo of Andrew Benintendi and Luis Robert Jr.: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)
