Frederick Post - October 15, 1980
Final Playoff Game Got High Ratings
The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Sunday night's wild National League championship final on ABC was the highest rated baseball playoff game in history and the highest rated telecast for last week, figures announced by the network indicated Tuesday.
Philadelphia's 8-7, 10-inning fifth-game victory over Houston scored a 27.8 rating (percent watching of all sets) and a 44 share (percent watching of sets in use). ABC research estimated that 60 million people saw some or all of the game that sent Philadelphia into the World Series against Kansas City.
The five prime time playoff broadcasts, including three NL games and two for the American League series between Kansas City and New York, also set a ratings record. The average was a 22.7 rating and a 38 share, beating the average rating from four prime time games in 1978. when ABC logged a 21.8.
Phils Open Series With 7-6 Victory
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bake McBride hammered a three-run homer and Bob Boone rifled a pair of RBI doubles as the Philadelphia Phillies stormed from behind for a 7-6 victory over a hauling Kansas City team Tuesday night in the 1980 World Series opener.
A crowd of 65.791. largest to watch a World Series game since 1964, kept up a steady roar as the Phillies won their first Series game in 65 years. The last one was won in 1915 when the pitcher was Hall of Famer Grower Cleveland Alexander.
Tuesday night, the winning pitcher was a 23-year-old rookie. Bob Walk, who began the season in the minors and was pressed into the opening game assignment because of the scrambled condition of the Phillies pitching staff after the grueling National League playoff series against Houston.
Walk, recovering from a rocky start, did a gallant job against the Royals, champions of the American League, until he was shelled out in the eighth inning He became the first rookie to pitch and win a Series opener since Joe Black did it for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952.
It was a night for newcomers as the expansion team Royals made their first World Series appearance, the Phillies played their first Series game since 1950. and both clubs went into the Series with rookie managers — the first time that has happened in the history of the Fall Classic.
Early on. this looked like it would be a Kansas City night as the Royals rushed to a 4-0 lead against Walk on a pair of two-run homers. Amos Otis connected in the second inning following a walk to leadoff man Darrell Porter, and Willie Aikens, celebrating his 26th birthday, unloaded the first of his two home runs in the third after Hal McRae had singled.
Aikens became only the second player in baseball history to hit two home runs in his first Series game. His second homer in the eighth, also good for two runs, brought Tug McGraw in to relieve Walk.
The Phillies, following the pattern they had established in the dramatic five-game National League Championship Series against the Astros, quickly wiped out the 4-0 deficit.
Kansas City starter Dennis Leonard, who won 20 games this season for the third time in his career, retired the first seven batters be faced on was sitting on the 4-0 lead with one out in the third when Larry Bowa stroked the first Phillies hit. a single up the middle.
Bowa then stole second and raced home when Boone. playing on one healthy leg. doubled to left field. Boone suffered a badly bruised foot in the playoffs but pledged to play in this Series. That brought up leadoff man Lonnie Smith, inserted in left field when Philadelphia Manager Dallas Green decided to use his regular, Greg Luzinski. as the designated hitter.
Smith delivered a single to left and Boone stopped at third as George Brett cut off the throw. When Smith made a wide turn around first, Brett decided to run him down. As the Royals closed in on Smith. Boone dashed home, making it 4-2.
Pete Rose was the next batter and got into a cat-and-mouse contest with Leonard, stepping out of the box to try to break the pitcher's concentration. Leonard then hit Rose on the right knee. Mike Schmidt walked as the right-centerfield scoreboard led cheers, asking if the K.C. pitcher was experiencing "A Touch of Wildness?"
The cheers really rocked Veterans Stadium moments later when McBride, batting cleanup, slammed Leonard's 1-1 serve over the right field wall The shot banged into the line of National League logos that decorate the fence just below the Scoreboard over the 371-foot sign.
That made the score 5-4 Philadelphia, but the Phillies weren't finished. In the fourth. Manny Trillo, their playoff MVP, beat out a single behind second base.
When Leonard bounced a pickoff throw past first baseman Aikens for an error, Trillo took second. Bowa grounded out, but Boone delivered again, this time drilling a double to the right field corner which scored Trillo and made it 6-4.
In the fifth, the Phillies came back for more.
With one out, Schmidt walked again and McBride, who had three hits in the game, singled to left. Reliever Renie Martin, who had come on in the fourth, then hit Luzinski in the back, loading the bases.
The count went to 3-2 before Garry Maddox lifted a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Schmidt to make it 7-4.
While the Phillies were building their lead. Walk had settled down nicely. He was perhaps a batter away from being knocked out in the third when a two-out walk to Porter and hits by Otis and Clint Hurdle threatened to increase the Royals' lead to 5-0. But Porter was cut down trying to score on Hurdle's hit, ending the inning and saving Walk.
When be next took the mound the Phillies had shot to the front on their big five-run inning. The young right-hander mowed down nine straight batters over the middle three innings, and going into the eighth he had a string of 12 out of 13. But then he ran out of steam.
Brett, the major league's leading batter with a remarkable 390 average this season, opened the eighth with a double to the fence in left-center — his first hit of the night. Then Aikens ripped his second homer — another rocket that jumped out beyond the fence in rightcenter field.
It marked the 29th time in Series history that a batter had bit two homers in a World Series game and the first time since Gene Tenace in 1972 that a player making his Series debut belted two homers.
Phils Manager Green then went to the bullpen and it was no surprise when the man who popped out of the relief cart was McGraw, the 35-year-old left-hander who was all but unhittable down the September stretch drive.
McGraw had set a league championship series record by appearing in all five games and Green wanted desperately to give him another day's rest. But with the lead down to a single run, he could not risk it.
The veteran left-hander, who has become something of a folk hero in his historic town, permitted a one-out single to Otis — his third hit of the game. But he got pinch-hitter John Wathan to slam into an inning-ending double play as he carried the slender 7-6 lead into the ninth. The fans roared louder and louder as he retired leadoff batter Frank White on a grounder to third. With the crescendo of cheers building, McGraw then struck out U.L. Washington for the second out in this battle of former also-rans. Both the Phillies and Royals bad won their divisional titles in 1976, 1977 and 1978, only to fail in league championship playoffs. But now they were closing the first game of the 1980 World Series.
As the scoreboard flashed a sign that said: "This Joint is Jumping," and with most of the fans on their feet to prove the scoreboard right, McGraw struck out Willie Wilson to end it.
And as McGraw lifted his hand high and flashed a No. l sign, the fans turned this brisk autumn evening into a New- Year's Eve in October. The so-called boo-birds of Philadelphia opened a wild celebration that they deserved.
Sixty-five years is a long time to wait between victories.
Psychic Dixon Sees Phils Winning Series
The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Sunday night's wild National League championship final on ABC was the highest rated baseball playoff game in history and the highest rated telecast for last week, figures announced by the network indicated Tuesday.
Philadelphia's 8-7, 10-inning fifth-game victory over Houston scored a 27.8 rating (percent watching of all sets) and a 44 share (percent watching of sets in use). ABC research estimated that 60 million people saw some or all of the game that sent Philadelphia into the World Series against Kansas City.
The five prime time playoff broadcasts, including three NL games and two for the American League series between Kansas City and New York, also set a ratings record. The average was a 22.7 rating and a 38 share, beating the average rating from four prime time games in 1978. when ABC logged a 21.8.
Robin Roberts Recalls Last Time Phillies Were In Series
The Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Robin Roberts has been watching Philadelphia pitching ace Steve Carlton this season — and wistfully remembering the Phillies' team he led to the World Series 30 years ago.
Roberts, now head coach of the University of South Florida's baseball team, planned to quietly watch the Phillies' first Series appearance since his 1950 "Whiz Kids" on television at home Tuesday night
Wednesday, he will fly to Philadelphia, where he will throw out the first ball of the second game and get to see his favorite pitcher first-hand.
"I'm excited about it, and I'm extra happy because Carlton is pitching." Said Roberts, who calls the veteran lefthander "the best pitcher in baseball today."
Roberts, as a 23-year-old rookie, pitched three games in the final five days of the 1950 season, including a 4-1, 10- inning victory over Brooklyn on the final day to help the Phillies win the National League pennant. A 20-game winner during the regular season, Roberts lost a 2-1 duel to the New York Yankees' Allie Reynolds in the second game of the Yankees' Series sweep.
At the time. Carlton was a 5-year-old, playing games in North Miami. Roberts sympathized with rookie Bob Walk, given the Phillies' starting assignment Tuesday night
"I never felt any special pressure. The game was the only pressure I felt" Roberts said. "There was nothing from the fans.
"Today it's different. They are higher paid, there's more pressure, big stadiums, big salaries, television — all big, big, big. I don't think the players are allowed time to relax and enjoy things."
Roberts said that since his retirement in 1968. he has been an avid Phillies fan. He has suffered with other Phillies' fans through the team's previous, recent failures.
"I think the team has potentially had what it takes in the last four or five years, but they weren't able to pull it off before. They've had some hard luck," he said.
This year's team, a slight underdog against Kansas City, seems different, he said.
"It's a miracle they came back. There were times when they were out of it... They pulled it out in September. I hope they can pull it out now. I've never been a gambling man, but I would not bet against them. They're solid," Roberts said.
Roberts, enshrined in baseball's Hall of Fame in 1976. won 286 games in his 18- year career. He pitched for Philadelphia for 13 years, and won 20 games six straight seasons.
Roberts misses the competition of major league baseball, but said, "I'm happy here."
In five seasons here, his South Florida teams have compiled a 110-120 record.
Royals' fans finding tickets hard to get
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Begona Flores flew from Caracas, Venezuela, to watch the Kansas City Royals play in their first World Series.
But she will be watching the games from her motel, just a few miles from Royals Stadium.
Flores. her sister in Kansas City and thousands like them are finding that World Series tickets are virtually impossible to obtain.
Still, she says she hasn't lost hope that some tickets might surface before the series shifts to Royals Stadium Friday night Kansas City police report some tickets are available from scalpers, but the prices are at high as S200.
Club officials report that all 17 lines at the stadium switchboard were jammed for nearly an hour early Monday, and calls continued two and three at a time for the rest of the day.
Calls came from Canada, Mexico, Washington, Las Vegas, New Orleans — and especially Philadelphia.
Callers from Philadelphia "want to know what we're doing with all those tickets." said Donna Ivanko. one of the switchboard operators at the stadium.