The Press of Atlantic City - October 14, 1980
Fun Begins Today For Phils, Royals
By Pete Wickham, Press Sports Writer
PHILADELPHIA — Now the fun really begins for the Philadelphia Phillies and Kansas City Royals. And they do mean fun.
Sure, the world will be watching tonight at 8:15, when the Phils and Royals open up the 1980 World Series at Veterans Stadium. But that's no big deal. What happened over the weekend to both clubs was a big deal.
"I've said it often enough, this is where you go out and enjoy yourself," said Phils' first baseman Pete Rose, after Monday's final workout for both clubs prior to the best-of-seven series.
"The real test comes in the league playoffs, where you play people you've played all year, and you only get five games in which to do it."
And have the Phils just finished five games!? Just ask any member of this club what it meant to win its first flag since 1950… and what it took to get that pennant away from the Houston Astros, clinching it Sunday night 8-7 in 10 innings.
It ended four years of frustrating finishes for the Phils, who died in the playoffs from 1976-78 and finished fourth in 1979.
"I don't believe we'll ever get over that series," said Phils manager Dallas Green. "The highs and the lows, and the team pulling together are things you don't forget. But we've had a lot of highs and lows this season. Some of the lows I caused when I was trying to get a point across. But when it counted, the character came through."
And Phils' third baseman Mike Schmidt thought the previous weekend, in which the Phils captured the National League East title with two straight wins in Montreal, was even tougher.
"You talk about pressure, there's where it was," he said. "'We don't do well in Montreal right away, and it's over."
Schmidt did not have a good playoff, hitting only .208 with one RBI and striking out six times.
"Maybe I was feeling a little too good, a little too pumped up," he admitted. "but especially after the second strikeout (during a five-run Philly rally Sunday that turned a 5-2 deficit around) I went back to the bench and tried like hell not to have my head any place but up. If I look like I'm beaten, what does that do to the next guy up?"
Fortunately for the Phils, there were plenty of next guys.
The .300 hitters were Rose, Larry Bowa, Garry, Maddox (who had the winning double after hitting into two double plays) and playoff MVP Manny Trillo, who had six hits and four RBI in the final two games of the series. Greg Luzinski hit .294 and delivered two game-winning blows, including the series' lone home run.
Even the part-timers were important. Greg Gross was 3-for-4 as a pinch hitter, helping to ignite Saturday and Sunday rallies, and veteran Del Unser took extra batting practice Sunday, then went out and scored the tying and winning runs off a single and a double. In the finale, 20 of the 25 Phils on the roster were used to get the win.
In contrast, the Royals made quick work of the American League West. They saved their big moment in the playoffs, however, avenging three straight playoff losses to the New York Yankees (also from '76-78) with a three-game sweep for the A.L. pennant, their first ever.
"As far as I was concerned, the season could have stopped right there and I would've been happy," said Royals' Frank White second baseman who was MVP in the playoffs with a 6-for-11 batting average and some super fielding plays.
"It was like trying to beat the same horse over and over, only to have the horse kick you over and over. People don't realize what we have on this club, and maybe that's where this Series is important.”
The only way anyone didn't know about KC third baseman George Brett was if they looked the other way. An odds-on bet for league MVP honors with his .391 batting average, two of his three base hits in the playoffs were two-run homers.
The Royals can beat you in many ways. Their speed is unmatched in the AL, led by Willie Wilson batting .326 and stealing 79 bases, and U.L. Washigton, .273 and 20 steals. There is power with Brett (24 homers, 118 RBI) and first baseman Willie Mays Aikens, (20 HRs, 98 RBI), the defense is sound and the pitching corps has six pitchers with 10 hits or more.
There are some very interesting head-to-head battles in this game. Mike Schmidt, who had 48 homers and 121 RBI and is a favorite to become NL MVP, is head-to-head with Brett. The two second basemen, Trillo and White, were playoff MVPs.
Both teams have 20 game winners in Dennis Leonard and Steve Carlton, and bullpen aces like Tug McGraw and d Dan Quisenberry.
The differences are where each team will try to strike.
Rose said that some of the bizarre happenings of this past weekend weren't a sign of weakness.
"If we were getting beat 8-1 and 7-2 without getting any hits or pitching, I would have been concerned," Rose said. "But every game except the last, we out hit the Astros. When you do that, and get the pitching we got, you feel like you're beat.
“And right now I'd rather be where we are, riding the high we're on, than where Kansas City is," he said. "When you're going good, you just keep going.”
Phillies Walk Into Series With Rookie Pitcher
By Pete Wickham, Press Sports Writer
PHILADELPHIA — While thinking great thoughts between sips, or slops, of champagne Sunday night i in Houston, Bob Walk tried to figure how he might fit into the Philadelphia Phillies' pitching plans for the World Series. He couldn't.
Meanwhile, not far away Walk's bosses were huddling to put together a pitching rotation for the upcoming best-of-seven set-to with the Kansas City Royals. They couldn't. Without Walk.
So the 23-year-old flamethrower who started the year with the Phils' AA farm club in Reading, will become the first rookie to open the World Series since Joe Black of the Brooklyn Dodgers back in 1952.
"I didn't think about it until last night (when the Phils clinched the National League pennant with an 8-7 win over the Astros) and some reporters asked me if I was going to start,' Walk said Monday. "I was a little surprised, and very excited, but I didn't see it coming, to be honest."
Walk, 11-7 with a 4.56 ERA in 27 starts with the parent club, was the only Phillies' pitcher not to throw in the five games with Houston.
"] understood the position they were in," he said. "They had the people they thought were pitching best as starters and I've never pitched in relief."
But the horde of mosquitoes in rainbow uniforms continued to nibble at Dallas Green's best-laid away plans.
After falling behind 2-1, he was forced to use Carlton in Saturday's fourth (limiting Lefty two only two possible starts in the Series). On Sunday, he went with his other hot rookie, Marty Bystrom. But in the end he had to use the other Phils' starters, Larry Christenson and Dick Ruthven - who got the win with two near-perfect innings - to put away the Astros.
That also canned the planned rotation of Carlton, Ruthven and Christenson at least for one day. So once again it's Bob Walk to the rescue.
The experience is nothing new. When injuries sidelined all the Phils' starters save for Carlton, Walk was hurriedly called up from Reading and thrown to the wolves.
“It took me about 3-4 times to adjust to the new surroundings and get myself mentally ready," said Walk. But when he did, he won his first eight decisions to help get the team through June and July.
The second time around 1 the league was a little more rocky. "I started to throw too hard, and my to control slipped," he said, referring the problem that has plagued him throughout his pro career.
He lost seven his next nine, including a 7-3 loss at home to Montreal which gave the Expos a half- game lead in the N.L. East with just week left.
"That was the low. All I could do was hope Dallas would give me one more shot," said Walk, who got that shot in the home finale. He pitched seven strong innings, and helped the Phils rally for a 4-2 must-win over Chicago.
"I got my rhythm back, and my confidence is up to, 100 percent of what it was before," he said. "I haven't pitched in 12 days, but when you know you're going to start a World Series game, you do the extra things to make sure your control is right and
What does Green expect? "Nine innings and a win," he said nonchalantly. "We've put him in this spot before, and he's got the stuff to pull us through."
* * *
Walk will face hard-throwing righthander Dennis Leonard, 20-12 and the ace of the Royals' staff who got the win in the second game KC's three game-sweep of New York in the American League playoffs last Thursday.
Royals' manager Jim Frey will then go with 18-game winner Larry Gura (the opening game winner in the playoffs) and Rich Gale, 13-9, both righties. Paul Splittorf, a 14-11 lefty, waits in the wings.
* * *
Phils' catcher Bob Boone, who had two hits and two super defensive plays at the plate, suffered an injured left foot as he blocked the plate on Art Howe during the fifth inning of Sundays' Phils-Astros finale.
He was taken to the hospital for precautionary x-rays but was expected to play tonight, or at the very least Wednesday, when it is expected that Carlton will pitch.
Green expressed some concern over the fact that "I've used the hell out McGraw," who had five wins and five saves in September and two saves in the playoffs.
McGraw was brought in Sunday with a 7-5 lead in the eighth, and the Astros tied the game on four singles. But McGraw does not claim exhaustion.
"I didn't feel that bad, honest," McGraw said Sunday night. "It's not like they're sending my arm to the Mayo Clinic and shipping it back to me Tuesday. I made some good pitches but they (the Astros) didn't quit."
* * *
The Phils will get their first chance to try out the designated hitter rule, which has been in force during even year Series since 1976.
While Green did not indicate what he would do, Pete Rose speculated that Greg Luzinski would DH against lefthanders and Del Unser against righties with rookie Lonnie Smith, and his 32 stolen bases, takes over the leadoff spot.
