"The Curse of Chico Ruiz"
On September 21, facing Art Mahaffey and the Philadelphia Phillies, Ruiz singled with one out in the sixth and the score tied at zero. He advanced to third base on a single by Vada Pinson, however, Pinson ended up making the second out of the inning trying to stretch it into a double. With two outs, Frank Robinson stepped to the plate.
Mahaffey proceeded to get two strikes on Robinson. With two outs and two strikes on a right-handed batter, and a right-handed pitcher on the mound, Ruiz inexplicably broke for home. Seeing the runner, Mahaffey rushed his delivery and uncorked a pitch that Phillies catcher Clay Dalrymple could not handle. Ruiz stole home, accounting for the only run of the game.
At the start of that game, the Phillies had a 6 1⁄2-game hold on first place with just twelve games to play. The Phillies then proceeded to lose ten straight games and finish tied for second place. Phillies third baseman Dick Allen is quoted in Crash, The Life and Times of Dick Allen by Tim Whitaker, as saying that the play "broke our humps." Chico Ruiz's steal of home has evolved into a popular culture legend. Some Philadelphia sports fans still refer to the "Curse of Chico Ruiz" as the reason for many of their teams' misfortunes. A novel by Gregory T. Glading entitled 64 Intruder centers on what might have happened had Ruiz been called out on the play.
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