Cincinnati Enquirer - May 20, 1980
Rose Spectre Haunts Reds As Phils Triumph
By Ray Buck, Sports Reporter
PHILADELPHIA – There was an eerie silence inside the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse Monday night. Shower slippers sounded like combat boots. Faces were long and grim. The ghost of Pete Rose had just taken them under.
The roof caved in on the Reds in the Philadelphia seventh inning when three Phillies scored and Rose drove in the tying run and added what became the winning run in a 6-4 game.
Frank Pastore (4-2) tried to pitch Rose inside and failed. The count was no balls, two strikes. A veritable nightmare. Everything happened with two outs in the inning. Rose, whose nickname may be changed from Charlie Hustle to Grim Reaper, scored from first base on Bake McBride's single to right field in the Phillies' three-run seventh.
It kayoed Pastore and pinned the struggling Reds with their fourth straight loss and fifth in their last six games. It also was the third straight game that the Reds have led In the seventh inning and lost.
The Phillies have won five of their last seven. It was Fat City over there. Somebody asked Rose if he received any help from Phillies' third base coach Lee Ella.
"I DON'T even know if he was down there," Rose replied half-jokingly. "He's bringing me to third. It's all up to me after that."
McBride didn't hit the ball hard. Ken Griffey's throw short-hopped the cutoff man, Junior Kennedy, and was gloved six feet beyond by shortstop Rick Auerbach.
"I got the ball, grabbed it and he (Rose) was gone," Auerbach said. "I couldn't get a good grip on the ball. It was all wet from the outfield. Once he (Rose) saw the ball go by the first cutoff man, he took off. I had to palm the ball almost."
Pastore was gone. So was the game as Steve Carlton (7-2) became the first seven-game winner in the National League with perfect relief help from Ron Reed.
Carlton and Reed combined to retire the final 10 Reds in a row.
Afterwards, Rose was eloquent, as usual.
"THERE WERE a lot of keys to the play," he said. "First was that (Dan) Drlessen was playing behind me and – with a full count – I got a good start. I knew the ball wasn't hit very hard, so they wouldn't throw me out at third.
"But the real key was when I was going into third, I just happened to turn around at the right time and saw the ball short hop the cutoff man. There wasn't much juice on the ball.
"So I rounded third. I usually do that because a lot of times the ball will bounce up on those kind of plays and you got your momentum going in the right direction. You'd be surprised how fast you can score."
"(Pastore) was sitting on the outside part of the plate all night," Phillies' manager Dallas Green added. "I haven't seen enough of Pastore. But I think pitchers have to use both ends of the plate unless they have outstanding stuff... like Nolan Ryan."
On the grim and somber side, Pastore sat face-to-locker in frozen dismay after the game. This one cut deeply. Dallas Green had hit it right on the button.
"THAT WAS my mistake," said the 22-year-old right-hander who has been the Reds' best pitcher all season. "I didn't pitch inside enough. The perfect example was the pitch that lost the game, the oh-and-two pitch to Rose. I wanted it in and I just couldn't throw it there.
"I had good stuff, yes. But when I needed to (pitch inside), it wasn't there. That's where I lost the game."
Rose paid Pastore a tribute, saying, "I think he was the best young pitcher we've faced all year. He has great velocity on the ball. He reminds me of Tom Seaver. He knows how to pitch."
What began with a 31-minute rain delay at the start turned into a muggy evening in Philly.
With the Reds leading, 4-2, Manny Trillo ripped a two-out double into the leftfield corner to trigger the Pastore ouster in the seventh.
Del Unser, pinch-hitting for Carlton, followed with a double into the rightcenter alley, scoring Trillo, and Rose followed with his game-tying single to left.
Rose, who Is on a 7-for-11 tear and has hiked his batting average 60 points in two weeks, took Pastore's first offering in the seventh. It was a strike.
"I was a little confused the last time up," Rose explained. "I didn't want to rush into anything."
The Reds reached Carlton for 10 hits, including Johnny Bench's first home run since April 13. It was a two-run shot in the fourth inning and marked his 15th at Veterans Stadium (most by an opponent).
Auerbach, playing for the injured Davey Concepcion (nerve problem in right leg), singled home Ray Knight in the sixth and Pastore followed with an RBI single to give the Reds a 4-2 lead.
The series continues tonight with Charlie Leibrandt opposing the very hot Dick Ruthven. But Concepcion will fly back to Cincinnati for examination of his leg which began to bother him Saturday.
Strike Talk Thorny Subject To Pete Rose
By Ray Buck, Sports Reporter
PHILADELPHIA – The Countdown has begun. Pete Rose sat In the dugout Monday night and ran a hand through his reddish-brown mane and agonized over the impending baseball strike. It ate at his hustle.
He calculated that the 1980 baseball season was suddenly down to 14 at-bats, maybe 15, and the Philadelphia Phillies began the evening two games out in the loss column with three to play.
"If you want a strike, you don't belong in baseball," Rose said of the midnight Thursday ultimatum given by the players for a contract settlement. "I don't want a strike. But I do believe we should maintain what we have."
That, negotiation fans, is free-agent freedom, totally and rewardingly once a player has given six years of major league service to his employer. No strings attached. Go in and pick up your last paycheck.
The owners accepted that In 1976 but have proposed free-agent compensation in 1980. This, negotiation fans, is the crux of the matter.
NOW PETE Rose has this feeling that both sides are going to come to their senses in the final ticks on the clock and avert a strike.
"Time and pressure (will keep baseball in business)," Rose reasoned.
"But If the owners don't think the players are serious," he added, "they're making a mistake. We know the owners are serious.
"I've been in Cincinnati when the firemen, the policemen, the plumbers went on strike. They sat down and talked every bleeping day until It was settled."
Marvin Miller and Ray Grebey, the chief negotiators on both sides, didn't meet Monday. And they won't meet until Wednesday.
"The New York Mets sold for $20 million. Twenty-six teams. That's a $520 million business. That's pretty big business you're talking about, Isn't It? I know I'd hate to have a $25 million business shutdown."
It has been reported Rose has a clause in his $8O0,0OO-a-year contract that pays him during a work stoppage. He would neither confirm nor deny that Monday night.
"You'll have to ask my lawyer," he said with a straight face. "I don't know all that fine black print."
One source close to the Phillies believes that It will become a legal matter, if there is a strike.
Rose, who apologized once during the interview for being as uneducated as the sportswrlters across the country on details of these negotiations, explained the Inequities of free-agent compensation through his own Reds-to-Phillies defection.
"I gave the Reds everything I had for 16 years," Rose said. "If I had signed for what they offered me, It would've been for less – taking cost of living in account – than I made the year before when I had the (44-game) hitting streak. So why should the Reds receive the 15th player on the Phillies? Or the 16th? Or the 17th? They'd be using it as a trade."
ACCORDING TO the owners' free-agent compensation proposal, if a free agent is selected by eight to 13 clubs, the losing club would receive a major or minor league player from the other club's unprotected list.
"Rennie Stennett was drafted by 12 clubs, wasn't he?" Rose asked. "And he was a utility player.
"Gene Autry complained (about current state of the game) and he's the worst one as far as free agent spending," Rose pointed out. "I think it's been proven you can't buy a pennant. Gene Autry proved that."
Okay, Pete, what if baseball takes a sabbatical? What will you do?
"I'll find a way to stay In shape. I ain't going on any bleeping vactlon," he assured. "They've got a lot of batting machines around here and I got a lot of 50-cent pieces."
Phils Option Cincinnatian
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – The Philadelphia Phillies optioned rookie pitcher Scott Munninghoff of Cincinnatia to Oklahoma City of the American Association on 24-hour recall Monday, the National League team announced.
Munninghoff, a right-hander who prepped at Purcell High School, appeared in four games in relief without a decision and posted a 4.50 ERA.
He was the Phillies' No. 1 draft choice in June 1977, and made the Phillies squad during spring training.