Well first let me make the proverbial full disclosure - - I grew up outside Philadelphia and the Phillies were my first love. I got to know (or worship - I mean I wasn't even 10 and players were gods in those days) Solly when he came from Cards to spend two years with the Phillies in the late 50's and then went back to the Cards before heading to the Mets as a coach.So anyway it's 1961 and Solly is back in St. Louis but he is still a personal favorite and that's the year the Phillies lost 23 in a row. I lost faith in everything -- how could my team be that bad? Heartbreak and cynicism and I'm not even a teenager yet.
So then it's 1962 and Solly joins the Mets and praise the Lord, there is at last a team somewhere worse than the Phillies . . . .
And so Solly escaped the Failies before they lost the 23, but ended up with the Mets and goes into legend anyway. He was an above average player, perhaps a below average manager, I am sure a great coach and one of my all time favorites.
And I gotta hand it to the Mets. They got Solly and ended the decade with that super year. As for the Phils -- well in 1964 I learned the true meaning of heartbreak.
Go Mets! (most of the time, anyway)
