Speaking of Bobby Wine, he made the greatest shortstop play I ever witnessed against the Giants in 1964. Ozzie Smith was certainly the greatest defensive SS I ever saw and made incredible plays often BUT Wine made the greatest individual play.
It occurred in the 5th inning of a game against the then first place Giants, Phils were then a close second. It came in the 5th inning with the Phils holding a slim 3-2 lead and rookie slugger Jim Ray Hart at the plate with the bags loaded, one out. Hart hit a screaming ground ball up the middle, directly over the 2nd base bag. Wine darted to his left and in anticipation of the ground ball staying down dived horizontally with the glove at ground level. At the last moment the ball hit the 2nd base bag and jumped vertically into the air. While still diving Wine lifted his right hand into the air, caught the ball and in same motion tossed the ball to Tony Taylor the completed the double play with his throw to first baseman John Herrnstein.
The Phils went on to defeat Hall of Famer Juan Marichal who was 6-0 entering the contest as Johnny Callison went 5-5. The sports news that night could not stop replaying that Wine gem and simply thought the play was near impossible to make had they not witnessed it with their own two eyes. If there was You Tube then that play would have received thousands of hits. There is a photo of it in the weekly Sporting News that came out the following week, a photo I still have.
It had to be seen to be believed and in many respects was a nano second snapshot of how most of that '64 season went. He and Ruben Amaro Sr. were an incredible shortstop combo in the early 60's. One more thing about Wine. He was a great minor league hitter in the minors until absorbing a terrible beaning which almost ended his career. Though his hitting never came back he remained a reliable and oft times great defensive part of the quartet of Wine, Amaro, Taylor and Cookie Rojas for several years under Manager Gene Mauch.
One more humorous story. In spring training that year Wine's wife, who was good friends with the wife of fellow Phillie John Boozer, made dinner reservations for 4 under the names Wine and Boozer. When they arrived the man couldn't believe the reservations were real because of the aforementioned names and had not confirmed the reservations, believing them to be a prank.
