John Herrnstein's 1964 Season Embodied The Phillies' Collapse

John Herrnstein while playing for the 1958 Michigan Wolverines football teamPhoto byUnidentified

By Russ Walsh

It is May 15, the 2024 Philadelphia Phillies are off to a hot start and, as I write this, sitting in first place atop the National League East. This is all well and good for the Philadelphia faithful, but Phillies fans of long standing will take this news with some trepidation.

Sixty years ago to this day, on May 15, 1964, the Phillies rode the shutout pitching of left-hander Dennis Bennett to a 4-0 victory over the Houston Colt .45s, to catapult themselves into first place in the National League. In that game, highly regarded rookie third baseman Dick Allen had two hits and two RBIs to raise his batting average to .327. Another, much less highly touted rookie, first baseman/outfielder John Herrnstein, also had two hits to raise his average to .321.

The city of Philadelphia was euphoric. The Phillies had been a bad team for most of their history, and the early 1960s teams were among the worst. The 1961 Phillies set a record for futility by losing 23 consecutive games. But by 1964, it looked like the team that featured young players like Allen, Tony Gonzalez, and pitcher Chris Short, along with veterans like Jim Bunning, Tony Taylor, and Wes Covington, just might pull it off. The emergence of Herrnstein, who was taking the place of injured and struggling veteran first baseman Roy Sievers, added to the optimism.

It all fell apart, of course. After leading the league for most of the summer, the 1964 Phillies lost 10 games in a row toward the end of the season and lost the pennant on the final day to the St. Louis Cardinals. Phillies fans of a certain age have still not gotten over it. Apparently, Herrnstein didn’t either.

Herrnstein was a 6-foot-2, 215-pound former football player out of the University of Michigan. He played running back and linebacker for the Wolverines and starred for their baseball team. Signed by the Phillies’ legendary scout Tony Lucadello for a $35,000 bonus, Herrnstein rocketed through the Phillies’ Minor League system, showing the ability to hit for average and power. A solid Spring Training in 1964 earned Herrnstein a spot on the roster as a platoon first baseman, but his superior early play earned him more regular playing time.

In his first start of the season, on April 19, Herrnstein homered and singled as the Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-1. In the next game the Phillies played, Herrnstein’s pinch-hit double in the ninth inning off Pittsburgh Pirates closer Elroy Face gave the Phillies a walk-off 6-5 win. The next night, April 24, Herrnstein had two doubles and a triple as the Phillies romped over the Chicago Cubs, 10-0. On May 7, Herrnstein had another three-hit game and also stood at the plate as Braves rookie Phil Niekro threw two consecutive knuckleballs past flustered catcher Joe Torre, allowing two runs to score.

Herrnstein often started games at first base, but then would be shifted to left field as a defensive replacement for the lumbering Covington. It was all working well, until it wasn’t. After May 15, Herrnstein’s batting average slowly and very surely sank, until by mid-July he was hitting .254 and had lost his starting job. On August 7, trying to solidify their position as pennant contenders, the Phillies traded for the New York Mets’ first baseman Frank Thomas, and Herrnstein’s playing time was reduced to late-inning defensive replacement and occasional pinch-hitter.

Herrnstein’s 1964 season mirrored that of the Phillies. The team tumbled from 6 1/2 games up on Sept. 20 to losing the pennant to the Cardinals on Oct. 4. Herrnstein went from hitting well over .300 in the spring to ending his season in a 2-for-31 slump.

During the offseason, the Phillies acquired first baseman Dick Stuart from the Pirates. In 1965, Herrnstein was still with the team, but he got only 85 at-bats the entire season and hit just .200. In April of 1966 he was traded to the Cubs, who apparently didn’t want him either, because in May he was traded again, this time to the Atlanta Braves. After the Braves traded him to the Boston Red Sox that winter, Herrnstein, disappointed with his performance and tired of the constant travel that the game demands of a player, retired from baseball at the age of 28. Herrnstein told SABR biographer Brian Englehardt that being a member of the 1964 Phillies team was “both the high point and low point for me. The collapse at year end was, naturally, a major disappointment for the team and the fans.”

After a successful post-baseball career as a stockbroker, banker, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, Herrnstein died at age 79 on Oct. 3, 2017.

Russ Walsh is a retired teacher, baseball coach, and writer living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He is a lifelong and long-suffering Philadelphia Phillies fan. He writes for the Society for American Baseball Research and for MLBReport.com. You can contact him through X (formerly known as Twitter) at @faithofaphilli1.