Before there was Black Friday — Oct. 7, 1977 — the Phillies endured Soggy Saturday and Sunless Sunday.

Sunday was the day general manager Paul Owens and manager Danny Ozark learned the real difference between a team that would win 101 games for the second straight season and a Los Angeles Dodgers team of similar talents.
It was the day the words “bleeping Dodgers” were hurled in scatalogical volleys with shortstop Larry Bowa leading a profane chorus.
They were in LA for a three-game weekend series. The Dodgers won Friday night. On Saturday, Mike Schmidt pounded a two-run homer off Al Downing in a three-run 13th and the Phils won, 7-4.
There have been just 17 rainouts in Dodger Stadium history. And on May 8 and 9, the Phillies had the honor of being just the second visiting team to be rained out two games in a row. First, the scheduled Sunday game was washed away by a rare spring Pacific storm. It was rescheduled for a Monday open date. The Pope was not thrilled about that.
“Hey, we’ll be happy to play two when we come back in July,” Owens pleaded. But the Dodgers were not about to lose a sellout gate in July to play a doubleheader.
Flamboyant former third-base coach Tommy Lasorda, a Norristown (Pa.) native, was at the controls of a dynamic young team comprised mainly of players he had managed in Triple A before replacing Ozark on the coaching staff in 1973.
When Monday’s makeup game also was rained out, the Phils were stuck. Traveling secretary Eddie Ferenz was told the club’s charter flight to Philadelphia would not be available before the scheduled 7 p.m. departure. Worse, the club’s charter buses from Dodger Stadium to the LA airport were in use. Meanwhile, while the Phillies sat around the shabby visitors’ clubhouse, hissing and moaning, the Dodgers had boarded their buses and were transported to their private jet, a Boeing B-720B worthy of Donald Trump.
By the time the Phillies were finally airborne, the Dodgers’ traveling party was in the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. The Phillies landed with dawn streaking the eastern sky, a game with the well-rested San Francisco Giants just 14 hours away.
In my view, the ties that bind these teams in a six-degrees-of-separation kinship date back to those twin rainouts. Over time, they have branched into an almost eerie series of coincidence and connection that began with two outs in that shattering ninth inning of Black Friday, an unraveling I called “The Ten Minute Collapse.”
Here are some:
—The TMC Alumni: Who knew Larry Bowa, whose heroic reaction to a Davey Lopes cannon shot off Mike Schmidt was thwarted by Bruce Froemming’s blown call at first base, and Lopes would face off as coaches for the second straight NLCS — wearing the uniforms of the enemy? And in a nice generational touch, Joe Torre’s first-base coach is valuable Phils 1993 role player Mariano Duncan. Bowa had been the second baseman’s third-base coach for manager Jim Fregosi.
—The newspaper connection: Ned Colletti’s extensive bio on the Dodgers’ Web site fails to mention that the Chicago native covered the Flyers for the short-lived Philadelphia Journal. He was hired by Dallas Green as a member of the Cubs’ media-relations department after the manager of the 1980 Phillies’ world champions went West. Ned graduated from media relations to salary-arbitration work, then served an apprenticeship in front-office work under Giants GM Brian Sabean. Now Ned is Torre’s boss and one of his trusted advisers is Hall of Fame manager and baseball goodwill ambassador Lasorda. Fred Claire was a beat writer for the Long Beach Press-Telegram before becoming a Dodgers public-relations assistant and later the GM.
—Baseball the Dodgers way: Ozark was the implementer of the instructional book written by GM Al Campanis and Hall of Fame manager Walter Alston on how to play baseball properly. Ozark was in play after Campanis told him he was too valuable an instructor to be Alston’s successor. After 20 years of the taciturn Sir Walter, Campanis wanted a media natural like Lasorda, who was a baseball equivalent of his frequent clubhouse guest, Don Rickles. Under Ozark, the Phillies’ organization finally got on the same page.
—Bowa’s pitchers: Four pitchers managed by No. 10 in Philly will perform in the NLCS. But who knew that Randy Wolf and Vicente Padilla — dumped by the Rangers for his penchant to do stupid things such as getting tossed for drilling hitters after being warned — would be in Torre’s rotation? Bowa managed just five current Phils: pitchers Brett Myers and Ryan Madson and infield stars Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins. And don’t forget some guy named Jim Thome, who went to the Dodgers via the Phils and White Sox.
—The outfield blunders: Jayson Werth hit 16 homers in just 89 games for the 2004 Dodgers. But he suffered a serious wrist injury in 2005 and didn’t play in 2006. The Dodgers let him walk into free agency, where GM Pat Gillick snapped up the first-round draft pick he had signed for the Orioles. Nice move. Werth hit five more homers this season than Dodgers rightfield star Andre Ethier.
Shane Victorino’s number should be Rule 5. Flyin’ was drafted by the Dodgers, then claimed by the Padres in the 2002 Rule 5 draft. The Padres returned him the following May. The Dodgers failed to protect him in 2004 and the Phillies claimed him in the Rule 5, but offered him back to LA after deciding not to expend a 25-man roster spot. The Dodgers refused to take Shane back, so he won International League Most Valuable Player for the Red Barons. You kind of know the rest.
—The Torres: Joe’s first baseman older brother, Frank, batted .310 for the 1962 Phillies. His successful heart transplant before Game 6 of the 1996 World Series became the feel-good story of Joe’s amazing run as Yankees manager. During the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, Frank reached out to me with encouragement after I had bypass surgery.
During his early career with the Milwaukee Braves, Joe Torre became friendly with Phillies beat writer Allen Lewis of the Inquirer. One day in Milwaukee, Joe invited Lewis to a postgame party. “I want you to meet a classy gal who’s really a knockout,” Torre said.
Lewis went to the party and met Betty, but had to write his Sunday story the next day and didn’t see Torre again until spring training.
“How’d you do with that good-looking gal I fixed you up with last season?” Joe asked. Lewis was brief in his reply: “I married her.”