Before Philadelphia had Kyle Schwarber in an All-Star swing-off, before Citizens Bank Park became the center of the baseball universe in 2026, before the All-Star Game became a weeklong corporate festival wrapped around the sport’s biggest names, there was Johnny Callison at Shea Stadium.
One swing. One fastball. One Phillies right fielder disappearing beneath a swarm of National League stars.
That was July 7, 1964, and it remains one of the cleanest All-Star moments any Phillies player has ever authored.
Callison was not even a starter that afternoon in Queens. The National League outfield opened with Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays and Billy Williams. Hank Aaron, Willie Stargell and Curt Flood were also on the roster. The game featured a ridiculous collection of names — Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax, Juan Marichal, Don Drysdale, Harmon Killebrew, Brooks Robinson and more. Hal Bodley, writing years later for MLB.com, noted that 18 future Hall of Famers were involved in the spectacle.
And yet, by the end, the day belonged to the Phillies.
Callison entered as a pinch-hitter for Jim Bunning in the bottom of the fifth and popped up. He stayed in the game in right field, part circumstance and part All-Star necessity, with Aaron reportedly not feeling well. By the ninth, the American League led, 4-3, and Boston’s Dick Radatz — “The Monster,” the 6-foot-6 reliever with one of the most overpowering fastballs of his era — was still on the mound.
The inning began with Willie Mays grinding through an 11-pitch walk. Mays stole second and scored when Orlando Cepeda dropped a single into right and Joe Pepitone’s throw home went awry. The game was tied, 4-4. Curt Flood ran for Cepeda. Ken Boyer popped out. Johnny Edwards was intentionally walked. Then Radatz struck out Aaron.
One out from extra innings, Callison stepped in.
There was a small adjustment before the swing that became history. Callison later told MLB.com he remembered how hard Radatz threw, so he went to a lighter bat in the ninth, one he borrowed from Billy Williams. “Radatz really hummed fastballs,” Callison said.
Radatz threw one. Callison was ready.
He drove the pitch into the right-field seats, a two-out, three-run homer that gave the National League a 7-4 victory and turned Shea Stadium into a home-plate mob scene. MLB’s official account describes it as one of the most dramatic finishes in All-Star history, and Baseball Almanac notes the win tied the all-time All-Star series at 17 victories apiece.
Callison was named the game’s Most Valuable Player. At the time, the award itself was still new, having been introduced in 1962. MLB.com notes Callison became just the fourth All-Star Game MVP.
The quote that followed carried the joy of the moment and the ache of everything still to come.
“That homer was the greatest thrill of my life,” Callison later said, according to Baseball Almanac. He also remembered thinking the blast was “only the beginning” for a Phillies team that seemed destined for October.
That is the part that makes the Callison homer more than an old highlight. In early July, the Phillies were rolling toward what looked like their first pennant since 1950. Bunning had thrown his Father’s Day perfect game against the Mets only weeks earlier. Callison, Bunning and Chris Short were All-Stars. Philadelphia had reason to believe.
Then came the collapse. A 6½-game lead with 12 to play vanished in a 10-game losing streak, one of the cruelest finishes in franchise history.
So Callison’s swing lives in two places at once. It is a perfect Phillies moment and a painful 1964 reminder. It is triumph before heartbreak. It is the city’s summer dream, frozen just before it cracked.
And six decades later, it still matters because All-Star Games rarely give one franchise a moment that clean.
Johnny Callison got one pitch from The Monster.
He gave Philadelphia a memory that never left.
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