‘The Little General’ succumbs to cancer

PHILADELPHIA – Gene Mauch, the steely-eyed little manager who guided three teams, including the infamous 1964 Phillies, to the brink of a World Series only to see them stranded there by the cruelest of baseball fates, died on Monday at 79.

Mauch succumbed at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., after a lengthy battle with cancer, according to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Nicknamed “The Little General,” both for his gifts as a game strategist and his dictatorial style, Mauch was the winningest and losingest manager in Phillies history, compiling a record of 645-684 from 1960 to 1968.

But for Philadelphians who recall the feisty manager, it is 1964, when Mauch’s hard-edged genius nearly stole the undermanned Phils a pennant, that will forever define him.

With just two quality starting pitchers (Jim Bunning and Chris Short), two outstanding regulars (Richie Allen and Johnny Callison), and a roster filled with role players, those fundamentally adept ‘64 Phillies built a 6 1/2 -game lead with 12 games to play.

But with World Series tickets being printed and sold, and the victory-starved city in the throes of a baseball frenzy, Mauch’s team collapsed with a mind-boggling 10-game losing streak. It began when Chico Ruiz stole home in a 1-0 Cincinnati Reds victory on a sultry September night at Connie Mack Stadium.

Incredibly, two other teams managed by Mauch, the 1982 and 1986 California Angels, suffered similarly stunning disappointments on the doorsteps of what would have been their manager’s first World Series appearance.

The 1982 Angels led the best-of-5 American League Championship Series, two games to none, before losing three straight to the Milwaukee Brewers.

Then, just a pitch away from a pennant, the ‘86 Angels were beaten after Boston’s Dave Henderson tied Game 5 of the best-of-7 ALCS with a two-out homer in the ninth off Donnie Moore. The Red Sox won that game, the next two, and the pennant.

“Was there ever a manager more cursed than Gene Mauch?” Hugh Alexander, the longtime Phillies super-scout who died in 2000, asked in 1993. “If there was, I can’t name him.”

Perhaps not since John McGraw had there been a manager as intensely despised as Mauch. Many of his own players detested or feared him. After one Phillies defeat in Houston, a furious Mauch angrily overturned a table containing the players’ postgame spread, splattering food on several Phillies and their clothes.

“He was tough on you, but he taught you the game and was a great guy to play for,” said Callison, 66, from his home. “When you played for him, there was no gazing into the stands. It was business.”

Mauch, whose competitive spirit knew no bounds, was even more disliked in opposing dugouts. He could be foul-mouthed and caustic when riding a player from another team, traits that left many in the game delighted over his historic near-misses.

“You didn’t feel sorry for Gene Mauch in those days,” Yankees manager Joe Torre, who played against Mauch’s teams with the Braves, Cardinals and Mets, said in 2001. “He’d scream at you from the dugout. I remember one time we were in Milwaukee. I’m in a slump and he’s screaming, ‘Knock this (expletive) down!’

“I got a base hit. I’m at first base screaming at him, and Herrnstein, with his glove up over his mouth, is going, ‘Give it to him.’ ” (John Herrnstein was the Phillies’ first baseman.)

Bobby Wine played 12 seasons under Mauch. “He taught a lot of people how to play baseball, how to think ahead in the game,” Wine said. “He felt you could learn something every day. I don’t know of a better strategist. He knew the rules better than umpires.

“One time, Jim Bunning was having trouble with a baseball. The umpires wouldn’t give him a new one. Gene came out to the mound, dropped the ball on the ground, and spiked it with his shoes. Bunning got a new baseball.”

Still, there was no denying his talents as a manager and game-planner.

Overall, Mauch won 1,901 games in 26 seasons with the Phillies, Angels, Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos, placing him 11th on the all-time list. A three-time National League manager of the year, he managed 3,938 games, a total topped by only five other men in baseball history.

But what is more likely to be remembered about him is that no other man managed as long as Mauch without winning a pennant.

“I don’t think history will be as fair to him as it should be,” said Tim Mead, the Angels’ vice president of communications and a member of the organization since 1979. “He was brilliant. Gene Mauch could put together a game just by looking at the box score.”

Born in Salina, Kansas, in 1925, he was a utility infielder for the Dodgers, Pirates, Cubs, Braves, Cardinals and Red Sox in an undistinguished career that spanned portions of nine seasons. Mauch hit .239 for his career.

“Listening to Gene talk baseball was like listening to the Philadelphia orchestra. Pure entertainment,” said Larry Shenk, the Phillies’ vice president of public relations.