Phillies History: A Month in Hell

In 1997, the Philadelphia Phillies were in the midst of one of the worst stretches of poor seasons in franchise history.

That’s saying a lot for a team that has lost more games than any other in the history of Major League Baseball. The Phillies have now lost a total of 10,650 regular season games, giving them 311 more defeats than their closest rivals for the dubious distinction, the division rival Atlanta Braves.

Beginning with the 1988 campaign, the club went on a dive during which they won no more than 78 games in 12 of 13 years through the 2000 season. That run was broken up only by the magical worst-to-first 1993 bunch that went all the way to the World Series.

Outside that one oasis, however, all was a barren desert in Phillies Nation for more than a decade. In 1997, the team would finish 68-94, their fourth straight season of fewer than 70 wins.

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Fans stayed away from Veteran’s Stadium in droves. Only 1.49 million showed up that year to watch first-year manager Terry Francona‘s club, the 2nd lowest total in the history of the facility, and the worst total since its 2nd year of existence all the way back in 1972.

One of the factors in that 1997 debacle was a June to forget, a real month in hell for the team and it’s fans. During the month of June that season, the Phillies went just 4-22. It was arguably the third-worst month of play in the long history of the franchise.

The 1928 team had gone 3-22 during the month of May, and in August of 1936 the Phillies went just 4-24. Obviously with such a poor overall franchise historical record, there were plenty of bad stretches of play previously. But Phillies fans had not seen anything quite like this June 1997 in over a half century. And thing was, it could have been worse, as three of the four wins were by a single run.

The Phils ended May on a 3-game losing streak, and would begin June by stretching that out to six games. The losing skid was mercifully ended thanks to a 9-8 walkoff victory on June 5th at The Vet, when rookie 3rd baseman Scott Rolen‘s one-out single off Cubs’ reliever Terry Adams scored Mickey Morandini with the game-winning run.

Two more losses followed before Curt Schilling came up with a gem to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 in a Sunday afternoon game at Three Rivers Stadium. Schilling allowed just five hits in working eight innings, striking out 11 batters to raise his record to 8-5, an amazing feat with a team that was 18 games under the .500 mark at that point.

It was another pair of losses until the next victory, a narrow 4-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in an Interleague affair on a Friday night at The Vet. Former Phillies reliever Dan Plesac blew that one for the Jays, coughing up a late lead and then uncorking a wild pitch that allowed the eventual winning run to score in the home 8th.

The team then went on an 8-game losing streak, including a three game sweep at the hands of the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, and another three game sweep back home against the Atlanta Braves that pushed the visiting division rivals to 21 games over .500 and to a 3.5 game lead in the NL East.

On Monday, June 23rd, that losing skid ended when the offense broke out in a 9-3 romp over the surprising Florida Marlins at The Vet in support of Schilling. Despite the loss, the Fish were still 13 games over the .500 mark, and battling the Braves tough.

Starting in right field and batting 3rd that afternoon for the Phillies was 35-year old veteran Darren Daulton. The team captain, ‘Dutch’ went 1-1 with three walks and three runs scored. His one hit was his ninth home run of the season.

Daulton was in his 14th season with the team, and it would be his final. He would be traded to this Florida club less than a month later, and would prove to be a major factor in the Marlins taking the NL Wildcard, and ultimately winning the first World Series championship in their history that October.

And that was it, the final win for the month of June. The team ended the month on a seven game losing streak that would stretch to 11 in a row by the 4th of July. It was a horrendous month indeed. But then, something would suddenly click in for that team.

Beginning with an 8-1 win on July 15th, the Phillies would finish the season going 43-30 over the final two and a half months. Rolen would win the NL Rookie of the Year award, catcher Mike Lieberthal in his first full season as the starter would hit 20 homers with 77 RBI, and Schilling would go 17-11, striking out 319 batters in 254.1 innings with a 2.97 ERA.

This was not a turning point for the franchise, however. There would still be three more losing seasons, ultimately costing Francona his first managerial job, before the club began to win. And in June of 1997, the losing was as bad as anyone in Philly had seen in generations.

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