This was not your ordinary ticket offering.

The Philadelphia’s Phillies were the toast of the National League throughout much of the 1964 season. Johnny Callison, their All-Star right-fielder, was enjoying a big year; Tony Gonzalez seemed to hit when it counted, and a young rookie third-baseman named Richie Allen was on his way to a Rookie-of-the-Year award. The Phils’ pitching staff of Jim Bunning (19-8) and southpaw Chris Short (17-9) were as good a 1-2 punch as there was in the NL this side of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Dennis Bennett (12-14) showed guile as he pitched through various injuries. Their No. 4 guy, Art Mahaffey, two years removed from a 19-win season, still had enough left in the tank to go 12-9. Callison earlier that summer won the All-Star Game for the NL with a mammoth, three-run walk-off shot against Red Sox’ fireballer, Dick Radatz.

On September 16 of that year (coincidentally, the day I turned nine), the Phillies announced that various packages of Series tickets would soon become available. On that date, the team had what many believed to be an insurmountable 6 ½-game lead with just 17 games to play.

The Associated Press article stated, “…the Phillies announced Tuesday night, World Series ticket sales will be limited to two sets of two tickets. The sets will be either for games one and seven, or games two and six.” Fans could purchase a maximum of two tickets each for the first and seventh game or two tickets each for the second and sixth game. The sets will be allotted at the discretion of the Phillies.”

I would imagine that even the most avid Phillies fan probably spent hours strategizing which “set” to purchase. Would the Series go four? Six? Seven? Regardless, the National League winner would get a maximum of four games in their home ballpark. For the Phils, that meant the comfy confines of 33,608-seat Connie Mack Stadium.

Over in the American League, a three-team race raged: Baltimore’s Orioles led by a game and a half over the aging Yankees and two games over the Chicago White Sox with just two weeks left in the regular season.

Mark Ehret lived down the street in my neighborhood. I remember him as wiry. He sported a crew cut, and, as I recall, he was a Phillies’ fan. During the early Spring of ’64, Mark had a big influence on me playing the game. On a cold Opening Day in early April, I watched him slide into home to win a Mills Little League game at Cordova Gardens Elementary School. That was what a hero looked like. I had seen the Chicago Cubs the previous summer at Wrigley Field. Baseball was becoming my favorite sport.

By the time September 15 came around, the Phils were on a roll. They had owned first place since July 17. It appeared a World Series berth was merely a formality. The Phillies’ front office had that ticket-availability plan – however unusual. I have baseball cards of a few of those Phillies’ stars. Callison, Cookie Rojas, Bunning, Short, and Allen (Allen years later would be known as Dick Allen. In 1977, he finished his career in Oakland wearing jersey No. 60, with the name “Wampum” emblazoned on the back. It was a bow to his hometown in Pennsylvania. But that’s another story for another day).

On September 15, Bennett and Jack Baldschun combined on a 4-hit shutout of the Houston Colt .45s (as they were known then – the coolest name in MLB in my view). Callison’s RBI single in the 6th proved the difference.

That’s when the “collapse” or “the series of strange things” happened on the way to the October dance. The Phillies would lose 14 of their remaining 19 games – including an unprecedented 10 in a row between the 21st and the 30th of September.

A 16-inning loss on Sept. 19 to the Dodgers started the slide. Speaking of slides… (oh, that rarity of baseball – the steal of home – always glamorous harkening back to the days of Ty Cobb and Jackie Robinson. Robinson made it an art form unto itself) Willie Davis must have been paying attention. He stole home in the bottom of the 16th inning at Chavez Ravine to win the game, just like a certain lanky kid I knew who grew up down the street.

The Phils bounced back for a 3-2 win the next night behind a gutsy complete-game effort by Jim Bunning, the future Phillies Hall of Famer, and future Congressman. The Phils led by 5 ½ games with 12 to play … but then..

The 10 defeats weren’t just ordinary losses. Seven occurred at home, where up to this point the Phillies had one of the best records in the National League.

Sept. 21: The 10-game losing streak started here, in Philadelphia. The Reds win a 1-0 game that featured an unlikely hero. Unlikely and, for Philadelphia, perhaps a bit unlucky. The Phils’ Art Mahaffey and Cincinnati’s John Tsitouris were locked in a pitcher’s duel. Scoreless heading into the sixth inning. With one out in the Reds’ sixth, Chico Ruiz, a reserve rookie infielder banged a single. Vada Pinson then drove a base hit to right sending Ruiz to third. Pinson, however, was cut down trying to stretch it into a double. Callison made a great throw to get an assist on the second out.

Frank Robinson was the owner of 27 homers, a .306 average and was a mountain of a man who terrorized NL pitchers all year. He strode to the plate.

In great detail, sports writer Charles Oliver captured what happened next: “In the sixth inning of a tie game, Cincinnati rookie Hiraldo “Chico” Ruiz inexplicably broke for home from third base with his team’s best hitter (Robinson) at bat. Philadelphia pitcher Art Mahaffey was spooked by the preposterous move, and threw the ball wildly. Ruiz had stolen home, scoring what proved to be the game’s only run. The next day Ray Kelly of the Evening Bulletin explained it this way, “It’s one of those things that simply isn’t done. Nobody tries to steal home with a slugging great like Frank Robinson at the plate. Not in the sixth inning of a scoreless game.” He added, “Maybe that’s why Chico Ruiz got away with it.”

Oliver followed up with additional insight, writing “…the next night, Sept. 22, (Phillies Manager) Gene Mauch hounded Ruiz mercilessly from the opposing dugout, and Phillies pitcher Ed Roebuck planted a fastball in Ruiz’ ribs. Robinson then hit his 28th home run and Cincinnati was en route to a 9-2 win.

Even though Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Allen Lewis eerily foreshadowed a link between the stolen base and the Phillies’ demise in the next morning’s paper, the play was largely forgotten just two days later. That’s because the Phillies were uncovering many ways to lose games that week, and each catastrophe supplanted the previous one in fans’ short-term memories. Among the bizarre and long-forgotten details are that the Phillies actually lost two games on consecutive days by way of a steal of home.

The rest of the season unfolded like a bad monster movie on a Saturday afternoon:

Sept. 22: With 11 games left, the Phils still held a 5 ½ game lead. On this date, they lost 9-2 to the Reds and Robinson, as Chris Short (17-8) couldn’t get out of the 5th inning..

Sept. 23: They lost to the Reds, 6-4. Dennis Bennett started, this time it was Vada Pinson who saved this moment for his biggest game of the season: two homers, four RBI..to compete the Reds’ sweep. Chico Ruiz added a homer in the win. It was his time to shine, apparently. He stole only two bases over the next two seasons and never hit another home run.

Sept. 24: Milwaukee’s Braves came into Connie Mack Stadium next and beat the Phils 5-3. Jim Bunning, now 18-6, was bested by a seven-game winner named Wade Blasingame. In that game, Joe Torre of the Braves hit two of his five triples on the season.

Sept. 25: The Phils lose to the Braves 7-5 before 30,447 Phillies faithful. Short, on two-days rest, pitched 7 1/3 innings of good baseball, allowing only two earned runs. But the game went 12 innings.

Sept. 26: Philadelphia loses to the Braves 6-4. The Phils held a 4-2 lead going into the eighth inning. Art Mahaffey started, went seven, and scattered 10 hits. But the bullpen soiled the sheets. The Braves scored one in the eighth and three in the ninth off Bobby Shantz to win it.

Sept. 27: The Phils lose to the Braves 14-8 before 20,569 on a Sunday afternoon. Bunning –on two days’ rest at the insistence of manager Gene Mauc- pitched into the fourth inning but couldn’t get anyone out. He allowed seven runs on 10 hits in three innings. Bunning’s record fell to 18-7 while winning pitcher, Tony Cloninger improved to 18-14. Bunning by this time was a shell of his earlier self; it’s hard to believe that on Father’s Day that year, he hurled the first perfect game in the National League in 84 years.

The Braves swept all four. In seven days, the Phillies had lost seven times and fallen to second place behind Cincinnati. The article about World Series tickets began to seem silly.

Sept. 28: Philadelphia begins a three-game set with the Cardinals with a lot at stake. Coming into the game the Reds led the Cardinals by a game and the Phils right behind. A sweep or at least two-of-three would have gone a long way toward making amends for the previous week’s disaster. But the Cards threw Bob Gibson against Chris Short. Short was pitching again on two-days rest. The result for the Phillies was a 5-1 loss.

Sept. 29: Ray Sadecki bests Dennis Bennett in a 4-2 St. Louis win. Cincinnati and St. Louis are now tied for the NL lead at 91-67 with four to play..but the Phillies are 90-69. Their pennant hopes were dwindling.

Sept. 30: The Redbirds complete the sweep in an 8-5 win in a game that was not close. St. Louis ended the day 92-67, eliminating the 90-70 Phillies as they stood 2 ½ games out with 2 left to play. Jim Bunning pitched on two-days rest, and it showed.

The once-dominant lead had evaporated.

Oct. 1-2: Now out of contention, the Phillies spoiled Cincinnati’s chances with back-to-back victories that cleared a lane for the Cardinals to win the pennant. Philadelphia finished in third place.

Historians accurately laid blame on the doorstep of manager Gene Mauch for a failed strategy of pitching his two aces, Bunning and Short, every other game to try to stop the bleeding. Mauch clearly panicked in a move that is still regarded as the chief reason Philadelphia lost the pennant. Worthy of note: a fifth Philadelphia starter, Ray Culp, dealt with a sore arm most of the season. He made just one start after August 15.

Baseball is a humbling game at times. Our heroes stumble and sometimes just disappear. Mark Ehret and his family would move out of town. For the 1964 Phillies, a whipsaw season ended with Philadelphia looking at someone else winning what “should have been” their World Series. The effects lasted for more than a decade. The teams failed to challenge for a pennant. Media coverage evaporated. There were no sellout crowds at Connie Mack, no 35-cent hot dogs or nickel-a-pack baseball cards. Ehret, the ’64 Phillies, and the news story about the World Series tickets remain in my mind as phantoms. They seemed so real…and then they were gone.