O Danny Boy, Your Pipes, Your Pipes are Failing

Danny Ozark, the manager who dragged the Phillies out of the dregs to the brink of their first World Series title, but has haunted by playoff failures, has died at the age of 85. His 1976 and 1977 teams were the best in team history – both winning a team record 101 games. The 1976 season ended in an NLCS sweep by the Reds, who then did the same to the Yankees in the World Series. The 1977 season will be remembered for Black Friday, when Ozark failed to lift the slow-footed Greg Luzinski in left field for a better fielder in the 8th inning of Game 3 while the Phils held a 5-3 lead, as he had done all season. A Red Sox-esque collapse followed as the Dodgers mounted a 2-out 3-run rally, helped by a blunder in left by Luzinski and a blown call by Bruce Froemming at first (Davey Lopes was out, you fat bastard). The Phils lost game 4 in a monsoon. Another division title followed in 1978, as did another early exit in the playoffs. When the still talented team failed to answer the bell in 1979, Ozark was out, and hard-ass Dallas Green was brought in to berate the team into a championship. Along the way, Ozark amused off the field far more than on it. When explaining a slump, he offered that "even Napoleon had his Watergate." Asked how team morale was holding up, he said, "Morality isn't a factor at this point." On getting a rare ovation from a Veterans Stadium crowd, he was moved to observe: "It really sent a twinkle up my spine," he said. In 1975, when the Phillies fell 4 games back of the Pittsburgh Pirates with 3 to play, he insisted, "We're not out of it yet."