Phillies lose psychological edge

By Ray W. Kelly of the Courier-Post

HOUSTON – The Phillies lost more than a ballgame Wednesday night. They lost the psychological edge in the National League playoffs.

The series resumes today here in the Astrodome with the two teams, tied at one win each. But the Astros, with a day off to regroup after their wild stretch run in the Western Division, are beginning to swagger like winners.

"You decide who is in trouble," said Joe Morgan, the Houston elder statesman who also contributes as the regular second baseman. "Philly now has to beat us two out of three in our park."

ALL THE Phillies had to do to wrap up this competition was to win the second game, the one they gave away in 10 innings by stranding a playoff record 14 baserunners.

"There would have been tremendous pressure if we had lost both games," said reliever Frank LaCorte, who got credit for Wednesday's victory. "But right now we're the most relaxed ball club in the history of baseball.”

Coming in, Manager Bill Virdon and his Western Division champions would have settled for the thrill of competing. The Astros had ended 19 years of frustration and it would have been a great season just making it into the playoffs.

The Phillies felt the same way in 1976 when they won the East and rolled over and played dead for the powerful Cincinnati Reds. It wasn't until the next year the Phillies even thought championship series.

HOUSTON CAME in to these playoffs with all kinds of potential excuses. Their ace pitcher, Joe Niekro, was used Monday to win the mini-playoff game that eliminated the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team was exhausted mentally and physically from that four-game showdown.

Then there was the overnight jet trip into Philadelphia and injuries to Morgan and pitcher Vera Ruhle. This was the team that nobody expected to win after J.R. Richard went out in August.

It was Ali in the ring with Holmes and all the big guy had to do was land the knockout pitch. Houston would haye packed up and gone home to enjoy the winter and Philadelphia finally would have moved into the World Series.

Instead, the Astros sense an upset. The little kids on the block see the opportunity to gain some recognition,

THESE GUYS aren't even household names down here. In a town where football is king, the Astros won a division title with a lineup of offensive linemen.

Until Morgan arrived this season, the Astros never really had a name player in the lineup. And, at 36, Morgan was considered washed up around the league. He came to Houston from Cincinnati as a free agent nobody wanted.

Houston didn't win in the West. The Dodgers and the Reds lost.

Terry Puhl led the club in home runs with 13. That's a pretty good month for Mike Schmidt.

DEFENSIVELY, the left side of the Houston infield struggles. But it looks solid compared to the guys who cover between first and second. When the Astros make a double play, it's considered an upset.

“Let's face it," said Craig Reynolds, the regular shortstop who hit a soft .226. "We don't scare too many teams.

"Around the country people don't know who we are except some papers have cut us up pretty good. We'd like to show them we're for real.”

Enos Cabell, the third baseman who has developed into a team leader, agrees. "People count us out all the time because we don't score many runs," he said.

"FOR SOMEBODY who don't hit the ball," volunteered Cesar Cedeno, the flashy center fielder, "we do a pretty good job."

Rodney Dangerfield may get more respect from outsiders, but the Astros are a self-confident bunch. "We're hoarse from cheering for ourselves," said Cabell.

Houston had the built-in excuse, said Cabell, but never bowed down to Schmidt or his Philly teammates, who won nine of the 12 games the two teams played this season. The Astros came out swinging from the start, even testing mighty Steve Carlton in the opener they lost Tuesday.

ON PAPER, Houston can't match the Phillies in any department until it comes to the depth of the bullpen. Once Manager Dallas Green uses Tug McGraw it's all over.

Virdon can call on Joaquin Andujar, Joe Sambito, Dave Smith and LaCorte out of the pen. Together they've saved 42 games for the Astros.

The manager needed all four to keep the Phillies in check in Game two. They did. Now Niekro, the 20-game winner who always gives the Phillies trouble with his knuckle ball, is rested and ready.

Niekro goes against Larry Christenson and it is advantage Houston. "We're in great shape," LaCorte said. "We know now we can win. We have to be confident at the Dome."

"Wait until you hear that crowd here," predicted Morgan. "This is a football town but they love winners. They're behind us now and when we win this thing, we're taking over the town."

Phillies must shine beneath Astrodome

By Ray W. Kelly of the Courier-Post

HOUSTON – When the National League playoffs began, it appeared as if the biggest problem facing the powerful Phillies was what to say to the Houston Astros when they came around in their little rainbow uniforms asking for autographs.

It wasn't that the Western Division representatives were that bad. But, let's face it, who would you rather have leading the charge up World Series Hill, John Wayne or Gomer Pyle?

Yet, gol-lee Sergeant Carter, here we are bivouacked at the Astrodome with the best-of-five maneuvers tied at one victory apiece and the Phils looking like they just heard the rumbling of enemy tanks.

If Manager Dallas Green's crack troops are beginning to wonder if they wandered into a mine field by losing Wednesday night's game, they might also consider the court-martial that awaits them if they run up the white flag in another playoff.

Losing to the blitzkrieg of the Big Red Machine in 1976 was one thing. And, just as the snow undid Napoleon in Russia, so did the rains of 1977 undo the Phillies against the Dodgers.

That defeat left the Phils slightly shell-shocked, which might explain why, when the Dodgers came back the following autumn hugging and kissing each other like a bunch of hippy kamikazes and claiming it was an honor to die for Frank Sinatra and the Big Dodger in the Sky, the Phils meekly bit into their cyanide pill.

The Astros, however, are another matter entirely. If they were an army, they'd be called Salvation. They don't bombard enemy pitchers. They surrender for seven innings and then send out a squad of fine relief pitchers to negotiate a settlement.

For the Phillies to take a team that has winners or candidates for the Cy Young Award, Home run Crown, Fireman of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year and Captain Clutch (Pete Rose) Trophy and somehow lose to a team that makes its home in a closet is unthinkable.

Shoot, Houston is the only playoff town where the vendors at the ball-park shout, "You can't tell the players with a scorecard!"

When the Phillies take the field, it sounds like a public reading from the baseball social register. Houston comes out and you wonder if this is what Abbott and Costello were thinking about when they did their famous, "Who's on First?" routine.

The Phils have so many Golden Gloves, the equipment manager drives an armored car. While, the Astros reportedly got their gloves at a Tupperware Party.

After the Astros all but fainted coming down the home stretch of the season, and literally tumbled over the finish line ahead of the limping Dodgers, the Vegas bookies made it 10-to-1 that Houston would call in sick.

Yet, here we are again, that time of year when the grass turns brown, the leaves turn red and the Phillies turn blew.

It can't happen. The Phils are going too good for people to end up remembering 1980 as the year the Saratoga docked in Philly.

The Astros, a team with a proud history of idiotic trades, not only win by simply playing basically sound baseball, they also behave in a very common manner.

Like yesterday afternoon. Houston had the day off. Yet, tonight’s starting pitcher, Joe Niekro, took a ride out to the Astrodome to spend a few hours chatting with reporters while the Phillies worked out.

Larry Christenson, the Phils', starting pitcher? He wasn't around. Which is how a member of the team with the bluest of blood should act.

It's absurd to think that such a star-studded team like the one from Philly could be heckled off the stage by a few Texas hardhats, who, compared to the Phils, are so totally nameless, they even take their American Express cards to the plate.

Unfortunately, this isn't a swap-meet for bubblegum cards. It's a battle for the pennant. And, the Phillies had better not go home without it.

Phils-Astros Facts, Figures

•  Phillies and Astros meet today in the third game of the National League Championship playoff series. The fourth game is tomorrow at 4:15 p.m., with a fifth game, if necessary to be played Sunday at 8 p m.

•  The Phillies and Astros are tied in the best-of-five series, the Phils winning the first game Tuesday night at Veterans Stadium, 3-1, and the Astros taking Wednesday night's game, 7-4, in 10 innings to knot the series.

•  Winner advances to the World Series against the American League champion.

•  The Houston Astrodome is site of today's game and for the remainder of the series.

•  Game time is 3 p.m. with the, game to be televised on Channels 6 and 17 with radio broadcasts on KYW, 1060.

•  Larry Christenson, 5-1, starts for the Phillies against the Astros' Joe Nickro, 20-12.

•  The Phillies are batting .314 for the first two games, while the Astros are at .221. The Astros, however, have the edge in pitching with a 3.00 earned run average to the Phils' 3.79.

Rose vs. Morgan:  Ammo Is Plentiful

Crossfire By Pete Wickham

PHILADELPHIA — Joe Morgan slid over to the batting cage at Veterans Stadium Tuesday night just as Pete Rose stepped in to take his cuts.

“Will you ever learn to stand up and hit like a man?” Morgan said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Man bends lower every time I see him!”

Rose’s first reaction was a tight smile. After all, he was in the batting cage and there were priorities in this world. Besides there was plenty of ammo for a comeback.

“Hey Morgan, how did you guys drink that champagne?” he asked the Houston Astros’ second baseman. “By the time you won the damn thing (after losing three games in Los Angeles only to win a division tiebreaker over the Dodgers 7-1 Monday) the stuff was froze. How do you drink froze champagne?”

For years, this has been one of the great cut-up acts in the National League. Don Rickles’ survival time against this pair would be measured in milliseconds.

On the field, however, they were pure terror. As a 1-2 combination, they led the Cincinnati Reds to three pennants and two world titles in the mid-70s.

Salt and Pepper is what Rose called it. Perhaps the best move Sparky Anderson ever made, putting Morgan, and his reported moodiness, next to Rose in the Cincinnati lockerroom.

Now they are apart, but the memory lingers - and it has helped spark the Phillies and Astros to division titles that few people thought they would win at the start of this season. And each is fully aware of the contribution the other has made to that success.

“Joe Morgan is the type of player who makes things happen; who makes you make things happen,” Rose said. “Much of what I accomplished in my career is because he was right behind me in the batting order. I love him dearly, but right now I’m very glad he’s sitting on the bench (with a sore knee that kept him out of the Phils’ 3-1 opening win).”

That wasn’t the case Wednesday, as the 37-year-old Morgan walked twice and then gave the Astros a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning by slapping a double to right (that broke an 0-for-14 skid caused by the knee troubles) and scoring on a Jose Cruz single for the first earned run in 28⅔ innings against Tug McGraw. Then, in a four-run 10th frame which helped the Astros put away a 7-4 victory, Morgan got an intentional walk, and scooted his bad leg over to third to set up a score before being lifted for a pinch runner.

After an awful start Morgan, who wound up with a .249 batting average, nine homers and 49 RBI, triggered the Astros in the final six weeks of the season taking over the leadoff spot — and the leadership role.

“He’s changed our whole offense around from one that scores 2-3 runs a game to one that puts up 4-5,” said Enos Cabell, the Astros’ third baseman.

Even more important was the team meeting that Morgan called in San Diego on the night of August 14. The Astros had lost J.R. Richard to a stroke, and the West lead with three losses in San Francisco.

“If Joe hadn't had that meeting, we would have been out of it long ago,” said Cabell. “Guys were going different ways, pulling apart. He’s someone to lean on.”

Morgan said somebody had to do it.

“I told them you have to sacrifice a little of yourself, I was including myself,” he said. “I told them I knew I was lousy. We all had to pay the price.”

Morgan did just that over the weekend, during three agonizing losses to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and in Monday’s stunning reversal.

There was another reason for his sentiment. Originally, Morgan wanted to return to the West Coast to finish his career. But a move to L.A. fell through, and he signed with the Astros, even though he had left there on a storm of controversy eight years earlier after a feud with then-manager Harry Walker.

“A lot of teams were interested in me when I was a star, and that’s nice,” Morgan said. “But the Astros were willing to take a chance on me when I was 5-7, 140 pounds and nobody else was interested. I felt like this was a chance to pay them back.”

On Sunday, after the Dodgers rallied to sweep the series and force the playoff, a lot of old friends went to the phones to cheer Morgan up. Among them was Rose, whose pep talk, as usual, had a razor hidden inside.

“I just told him good luck, and that we had (Steve) Carlton waiting for them,” Rose said.

At 38, Charlie Hustle has still not made any progress as a diplomat. As a player, however, he has yet to slow down in the two years since he left his hometown for the lure of a $3.2 million contract.

The quickest way to get Rose mad is to ask him why he only got 185 hits this year, instead of his customary 200.

“Only one guy in the league got that many, and save for hits and average (.282) I was up in every department, and was top 10 in hits, doubles (where he led the league with 42) and runs.”

While leaving the browbeating to the acerbic Dallas Green, Rose has chosen to lead by example with this moody, high-strung club. And that goes double for the playoffs, where his career 35 hits (including two hits in each of the first two games) holds the all-time lead.

“So much of what I know of this game has come from him,” Morgan said. “Even when I was a rookie coming up he seemed to take an interest in me, like there was something there. Hell, it’s fun just listening to him talk. With that scowl of his, people don’t know how funny he is.”

Neither of them regret breaking up the act, nor do they have any recriminations about the Reds’ penurious fiscal policy that led them to the free agent market.

But now, that Morgan and Rose are trying to get to the Series over one another, Rose couldn't resist the lovely bit of irony that presented itself.

“Me and you leading off. How mad do you think (Reds’ President) Dick Wagner is gonna be to see that?” Salt asked Pepper. “Maybe now we’ll find out who should’ve led off with the Reds all those years.”