Dan Holm and the 1964 Pale Hose are our 2014-15 Holiday Festival Champions. In 6 rounds of action the Sox NEVER once faced an elimination game. The team finished a remarkable 20-5 during the tournament. The axiom of "Good Pitching beats Good Hitting" held to form with this team. Juan Pizzaro (6-0, 2.10) had a perfect tournament. Fittingly he pitched the clincher. Gary Peters (5-1, 2.04) was also stingy when it came to giving up runs. Joel Horlen (2-2, 1.29) was the stingiest. Unfortunately he never really got any run support during his magnificent outings. Pete Ward (.340-3-18) and Don Buford (.337-1-10-5sb) were constantly on base and getting he big hit. Moose Skowron's 5 homers all seemed to come at just the right time. Dave "Swish" Nicholson (.353-3-6) and Mike Hershberger (.417-0-2) were key platoon / bench contributors as this was a total team effort led by some of the most underrated arms in baseball history.
The Philly bats came alive starting in the 2nd when Richie Allen had a leadoff triple and scored on a Frank Thomas sac fly. Johnny Callison added a tally after walking and scoring on a Ruben Amaro single. Philly added to the lead in the 5th, after 2 quick outs Philly loaded the bases and Frank Thomas delivered with a big double scoring 3 runs. New York got on the board in the 6th on a Charlie Hays solo home run but the Philly 6th was the nail in the coffin as the Phils put up 4 more highlighted by a Cookie Rojas double. Philly wins big 10-3. Off to Philadelphia! 
Paul O'Neill blasted a 3 run homer and Philly fans at Shibe were thinking the Phils may be on their last leg. Philly answered with 1 in the 1st when Tony Gonzalez scored off a Wes Covington double. The Philly 2nd opened with Johnny Callison hitting a leadoff HR to right to cut the lead to 3-2. Later in the 2nd, Wes Covington blasted a 2 run homer and Philly was alive with a 5-3 lead. That lead held into the 5th when New York got their bats going and tied the game at 5 on a Bernie Williams 2 run homer to right center. The Yanks took the lead in the 7th 6-5 but Philly answered in their half of the 7th to tie the game at 6.The game remained tied and went into extra innings at 6-6. In the bottom of the 10th Tony Taylor lead off with a triple to right center. After an intentional pass, a ground out, another intentional walk, and an infield popout, Danny Cater ended it with a seeing eye single between 1st & 2nd. Philly evened the series with a 7-6 thriller. 
Back to the House That Ruth Built to settle this competitive series. Philly chased starter David Cone in the 4th after posting 4 in the 3rd and threatening to blow it open in the 4th with a Tony Gonzalez double. Stanton came in and held the Phils in check holding the score at 4-0. New York put 1 on the board in the 5th when Bernie Williams scored off a Curtis double closing the gap to 4-1. The Yanks really made a game of it in the 7th when they rallied and closed the gap to 4-3. Chris Short hung on and was able to get Raines to ground out to end the threat. Short got his mojo back and set the Yankees down in order in the 9th to cling to a 4-3 series ending victory. 
On paper this didn't look to be much of a matchup with HOF'er Don Sutton, at the height of his talent, facing enigmatic Joe Cowley. LA jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the home half of the first when "3 dog" Willie Davis led off with a homer. LA fans didn't even get settled into their seats to turn on the transistor radio to listen to Vinny by the time the team was up 1-0. Fans expected more, but Cowley was not obliging. Sutton and Cowley were locked up in a tight one until the bottom of the 5th, when Cowley lost his control and for all intents and purposes the Yankees lost the game. With the bases loaded Cowley walked in 2 runs to put LA up 3-0. An error by shortstop Bobby Meachem in the 6th off a blistering shot from Ken McMullen allowed Willie Crawford to trot home with the Dodgers' 4th run of the day. Both teams traded solo runs in the 7th, but Sutton took control again and walked off with a complete game victory.
Yankee manager Brian Collins got as much as he could get out of Eddie Lee Whitson. At one point he was about to bring Billy Martin in to punch out the reticent righty. By removing Whitson in the 4th manager Collins committed himself and his team's tournament future to the success of his bullpen. New York would use an incredible 8 relievers as manager Collins matched them vs the Dodger batters to perfection. LA on the other hand had the luxury of being up 2 games to 1 with 4th starter Claude Osteen on the mound. On most teams lefty Osteen would be an ace or at worst the number 2 guy, but not on the pitching rich Dodgers. In 7 innings of work Osteen would give up just 1 unearned run on 5 hits without walking a batter. Still with that type of effort he would leave the game up by just one run (2-1). With three outs left to go Charlie Hough, who pitched a scoreless 8th, needed to keep his poise to lock down the series. After Andre Robertson led off the inning with a single Billy Sample grounded out to short advancing Andre to second. Catcher Butch Wynegar hit a room service one hopper to Bill Russell at short for what should have been the 2nd out of the inning. Russell, who in 1973 would not make you forget about Mark Belanger, booted the ball to put runners on the corners. Bobby Meacham followed with a perfectly executed squeeze bunt that caught everyone napping, including the Dodger manger. New York would not score again this inning, but the game would now head to extra innings. Neither team scored in the 9th. The Bombes got a lead off single from Rickey Henderson to lead of the 10th. Everyone in the house knew he had the green light. Dodger lefty Jim Brewer knew it too. Rickey got a big lead and a great jump, so he took off for second. Only problem...Brewer still had the ball. Brewer threw to Buckner at first, who threw to Russell (covering 2nd) to complete the pick off of MLB's all time stolen base king. 