Playmate of the Month

Melba Ogle was the Playmate of the Month for July’s issue of Playboy.

A Hard Day’s Night and Mary Poppins were big box-office draws across the country and Roy Orbison, the Supremes, and the Beatles topped the Billboard charts.

However, the top song that week was “I Get Around” by the Beach Boys.

Please note the crossover of the Beatles with A Hard Day’s Night. The year 1964 was significant for the British Invasion into American pop culture and the Beatles were the most significant part of that invasion.

Gotta tell ya – I never heard of Melba Ogle. As it works out, she was a famous super-model during that era.

Off to the Golden Gate Bridge

The Phillies moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco to begin a three-game series leading up to the All-Star break.

The Giants were 1½ games ahead of the Phillies and had dominated the season series thus far 5-to-1. They were currently riding a three-game winning streak.

Ray Culp (4-6) took the mound for the Phillies in the series opener in front of 27,068 fans at Candlestick Park. Ron Herbel (6-3) was pitching for the Giants.

It was the 10th start for Herbel. He’d already logged four complete games, two shutouts, and one save. The save came against the Phillies on June 2nd when he pitched the scoreless eleventh inning of a 5-3 victory.

After a slow start, Ray Culp won three of his last four starts, including a one-hit shutout over the Cubs on June 23rd. Against the Giants, he pitched one inning in relief and allowed no hits in a 9-4 loss.

Herbel and Culp threw two scoreless innings.

In the top of the third, Tony Gonzalez led off with a walk.

Two outs later, Richie Allen singled and Gonzalez moved to third.

Wes Covington singled and Gonzalez scored to make it 1-0 Phillies. Allen stopped at second to put runners on first and second with two outs.

Clay Dalrymple followed with a single. Allen scored easily ─ and Covington came all the way around from first to make it 3-0 when rightfielder Jesus Alou kicked the ball around in the outfield.

In the bottom of the third, Cap Peterson pinch-hit for Ron Herbel and hit a ground ball to short. Ruben Amaro muffed it for his first error of the season. Peterson moved to second on a tapper back to the mound for the first out and moved to third when Hal Lanier followed with a single.

Willie Mays hit a ground ball to third. Richie Allen gloved it and went for two, but Mays beat the relay to first that enabled Peterson to score to cut the lead to 3-1 Phillies.

Culp gave up just one unearned run and six hits through the first seven innings to keep the score 3-1.

In the top of the eighth, Clay Dalrymple and Tony Taylor led off with back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second with nobody out.

Ruben Amaro doubled and Dalrymple scored to make it 4-1 Phillies.

Culp kept the Giants off the scoreboard in the bottom of the eighth.

With one out in the top of the ninth, Richie Allen crushed his 16th home run to push the lead to 5-1 Phillies.

Culp (5-6) closed out the Giants in the ninth inning to wrap up the series opener.

Ron Herbel (6-4) was the loser.

The outcome trimmed a full game off the Giants lead and cut the Phillies deficit to ½ game.

(Excerpted from 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant by Barry Bowe.)