The Beautiful Losers: An Oral History Of The Philadelphia Phillies

"No matter what we tried, it didn't work. The only thing that I didn't try was suicide."

-- Gene Mauch, on the Phillies' 23-game losing streak, tied for the third-longest in baseball history

Loss number 6,333, Aug. 20, 1961

"Go in twos and threes. That way, they won't be able to get us all at once. They're selling rocks at a dollar a pail."

-- Frank Sullivan, pitcher, peering out a plane window at the hundreds of fans awaiting the team at Philadelphia Airport after a road trip

Losses number 6,569 through 6,578, Sept. 21-30, 1964

" Mauch was a volatile, damned-near-scary skipper who could straighten you out in a hurry. What puzzled us during the crash was how quiet he was. I guess he thought he was taking the pressure off us players by not jumping our asses. We all waited for him to scream at us or throw a chair or upset a meal table, but he never did. If he had, we might have responded."

-- Dallas Green, pitcher and future Phils manager, on the '64 collapse

"It was like swimming in a long, long lake, and then you drown."

-- Cookie Rojas, utilityman, on the Philly Phlop