Montreal Gazette - October 15, 1980
Phillies take first game in Series
PHILADELPHIA (Special) - Philadelphia Phillies won the first game of baseball's 1980 World Series last night when they beat Kansas City Royals 7-6.
Phillies' ace relief pitcher Tug McGraw, as he has done so often this season, saved the game for the Phillies after Kansas City fought back from a 7-4 deficit.
Earlier, the Royals had led 4-0, but a three-run homer by outfielder Bake McBride put Philadelphia back in the game.
The best-of-seven series continues in Philadelphia tonight.
Phillies win opener on McBride’s homer
Phillies 7, Royals 6
PHILADELPHIA (UPI) – The Philadelphia Phillies, although battered by a barrage of two-run homers, including two by Willie Aikens, showed the moxie of an alley fighter last night and with Bake McBride's three-run homer providing the knockout blow, outlasted the Kansas City Royals 7-6 in the first game of the World Series.
The second game of the best-of-' seven series will be played at Veterans Stadium tonight with lefthander Larry Gura pitching for the Royals and lefthander Steve Carlton going for the Phillies.
Phillies' trademark
Survival has been the Phillies' trademark since the post-season competition began a week ago and they demonstrated that technique perfectly last night, recovering from a four-run deficit and then withstanding a late Kansas City surge.
Knocked to the canvas by a pair of two-run homers by Amos Otis and Aikens in the first three innings, the Phillies came roaring back with a five-run barrage in the third inning, which was highlighted by McBride's three-run homer off Kansas City ace Dennis Leonard.
Rookie Bob Walk was perhaps the best example of the Phillies newfound spirit of not giving in. Walk, the first rookie to start an opening game of a World Series since 1952, was pounded hard in the first three innings but then gritted his teeth and allowed only one baserunner from the fourth through the seventh innings while his team-mates built him a 7-4 lead.
Second in history
The youngster finally caved in in the eighth when George Brett, the major league's leading hitter, doubled and Aikens followed with a long home run to become only the second player in major-league history to hit two home runs in his first World Series game. Gene Tenace of the Oakland A's accomplished the feat Oct. 14, 1972.
After Walk departed, the Phillies left it up to their 36-year-old reliever, Tug McGraw, to put the finishing touch on the victory and the brash left-hander Was equal to the task. He got Darrell Porter on a fly to left, gave up a single to Otis, then got pinch-hitter John Wathan to hit into a double play to end the eighth. McGraw the set down the Royals in the ninth.
It appeared for a while that it was going to be a laugher for the Royals. Otis became the 16th player in World Series history to homer in his first at-bat when he followed a leadoff walk to Porter in the second with a home run over the ..left-field fence and Aikens connected with two out in the third after Hal McRae had singled with one out.
The Royals probably should have had another run in the third but Porter was thrown out at the plate by rookie left fielder Lonnie Smith as he attempted to score on Gint Hurdle's single.
Porter, who had walked and moved to second on an infield single by Otis, might have made it if he hadn't stumbled rounding third. As it was, he offered no resistance to Boone, giving himself up instead of sliding or bowling over the catcher.
Leading 4-0, however, 'the Royals seehied to be in control, especially with Leonard on the mound. Leonard, who had turned in a gutsy performance in beating the New York Yankees in the second game of the American League playoffs, started out well, retiring the first seven batters in order. But then, inexplicably, he suddenly lost his stuff and the Phillies took batting practice against him.
Larry Bowa started the Phillies on their way with a one-out single in the third and stole second. Boone then followed with a double to left to score Bowa and Smith grounded another single to left. Boone, not known for his speed, did not intend to score on Smith's hit but he came home when Smith fell rounding first base and got caught in a rundown.
Leonard then lost his control. He hit Pete Rose with a pitch and walked Mike Schmidt to bring up McBride. Royals manager Jim Frey might have gone to a new pitcher at that point, but he allowed Leonard to pitch to McBride and it proved costly as the Phillies' right fielder belted a 1-1 pitch over the fence in right-center for a home run.
The Phillies got to Leonard for another run in the sixth and this time the pitcher's own throwing error cost him. With one out, Manny Trillo beat out an infield hit and went to second when Leonard threw wildly past first base on an attempted pickoff. Trillo moved to third on Bowa's grounder to second and scored when Boone drilled a double into the right-field corner. Reliever Renie Martin then replaced Leonard.
Built lead
Philadelphia built its lead to 7-4 and scored what proved to be the winning run in the fifth. With one out, Schmidt walked and moved to second on a single to left by McBride. Martin then hit Greg Luzinski with a pitch to load the bases and Maddox lofted a fly to left that scored Schmidt.
After Aikens' homer in the eighth, the tension began to build for the Philadelphia fans, who have not seen a World Series game in their city in 30 years.
McGraw, who relishes such pressure, brought the crowd to its feet in the ninth when he struck out the last two batters, U.L. Washington and Willie Wilson, to end the game.
From an historical standpoint, Philadelphia had the advantage over Kansas City in Game One. The reason: The home team has won the Series opener 44 times (58 per cent) and swept the first two games at home 23 times. Seven of those initial two-game sweeps have led to eventual four-game sweeps. The last time that happened was in '76, when the Cincinnati Reds swept the New York Yankees.
• • •
Phillies' catcher Bob Boone is the fourth famous baseball son to follow in his father's footsteps by playing in a World Series. Boone's father, Ray, played on the Cleveland Indians' '48 World Series team. The other three father-son combinations with World Series experience are Jim Bagby Sr. ('20 Geveland) and Jim Bagby Jr. ('46 Boston Red Sox); Dolph Camilli ('41 Dodgers) and Doug Camilli ('63 Dodgers), and Jim Hegan ('48 and '54 Indians) and Mike Hegan ('72 A's).
• • •
Only two players with the Royals and three with the Phillies have previous World Series experience. Kansas City's Hal McRae played with the Cincinnati Reds in the 1970 and '72 Series, and his team-mate, Ken Brett, played for the Boston Red Sox in the 1967 Series. Phillies' first baseman Pete Rose played for Cincinnati in the 1970, '72, '75 and '76 Series. Pitcher Steve Carlton appeared in the 1967 and '68 Series with the St. Louis Cardinals and reliever Tug ! McGraw appeared for the New York Mets in the 1969 and '73 Series. Kansas City manager Jim Frey was a coach for the Baltimore Orioles' 1970, '71 and '79 World Series teams. Philadelphia coach Mike Ryan played in the '67 Series with Boston.
Series Notebook: Cards-Padres planned trade interests Expos
PHILADELPHIA (Gazette) – The St. Louis Cardinals are on the verge of completing a blockbuster deal with San Diego, one which may reshape Expo trade thinking.
The Cardinals plan a multi-player trade with the Padres starring San Diego reliever Rollie Fingers and St. Louis first baseman Keith Hernandez. The Expos were interested in both players.
If the housecleaning deal by both also-rans – a virtual certainty – doesn't include Hernandez, he may be going to San Francisco in exchange for, among others, Gary Lavelle, a left-handed reliever the Expos also like.
No trade can be made officially until five days after the World Series ends, however.
Most front office people have expressed an interest in the young Expo starters – Scott Sanderson, Bill Gullickson and David Palmer – and minor league second baseman Tim Raines, who will play outfield in winter ball as grooming for the probable vacancy in left field if Ron LeFlore opts for free agency. (Both the Yankees and Dodgers are thought to be interested in LeFlore). The Expos would be averse to unloading any of the kids.
More likely trade bait, from an Expo standpoint, would be Steve Rogers, Larry Parrish, Warren Cromartie and Ellis Valentine.
The Expos talked with the Texas Rangers last season about the availably of Al Oliver, a left-handed RBI man, and are expected to talk again.
• • •
Expos' lefthander Bill Lee reached home in Bellingham, Wash, yesterday after a cross-Canada drive, and he called the Expos to find out who won the playoffs. "The ash from Mount St. Helens is blowing the other way, right to Montreal," Lee said. "Maybe it will land on the Olympic Stadium field, and grass will grow."
• • •
The Royals are making their first appearance in a World Series; the Phillies have played in two earlier Series. Both teams, however, are looking for their first world championship. The Phillies lost the 1915 World Series to the Boston Red Sox, four games to one, and were swept in four games by the New York Yankees in 1950. If Houston, rather than Philadelphia, had won the National League championship, the 1980 World Series would have been the first since 1906 1 to feature two teams appearing in their maiden classics. Ten teams have won in their first Scries appearance. The last team to do so was the Oakland A's in 1972, which defeated Cincinnati in seven games.
• • •
The Royals' Brett brothers, third baseman George and pitcher Ken, are the 22nd set of brothers.to play in a World Series. They are only the eighth set of brothers to play for the same team in a World Series and the first since Felipe and Matty Alou played for the San Francisco Giants in the '62 classic.
• • •
For the third time in World Series history, the designated hitter is being used. The DH, used during the regular season by the American League but not by the National League, has been used in alternating years of the World Series since 1976. Reggie Jackson of the New York Yankees has the best average of any World Series DH. He hit .391 with two homers and six RBI in his team's 1978 Series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
• • •
Private funeral services for Louia C. Kuhn, 87, the father of Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, will be held in Augustine, Fla., tomorrow. Kuhn died Monday following a lengthy illness at his home in St. Augustine. The baseball commissioner missed last night's World Series opener end will not be present tonight when the clubs meet at Veterans Stadium for Game Two. During his absence, the Series is being supervised by Alexander "Sandy" Hadden, secretary-treasurer and general Counsel.
• • •
Game One last night was the 26th Series game played in this city. The Philadelphia A's of the American League were host to 20 previous World Series games and the Phillies to five.
Schmidt glad he has chance to improve on dismal playoff
PHILADELPHIA (Gazette) – Mike Schmidt knows he could have played better in the National League playoffs. Unlike in other years, however, Schmidt still has time to redeem himself.
"I got my chance," the Philadelphia Phillies' third baseman said in an obvious reference to the 78th World Series, which began last night "I'm glad I'm not watching George Brett do his interviews and get his hits on TV."
Schmidt batted only .208 during the playoffs with one RBI. He reached a low in the fifth game, striking out three times, once looking.
He contributed in other ways, by playing his usual solid third base and by keeping his head up when it must have been very difficult for him to do so. Still, he's the one who hit 48 homers for the Phillies this year, including two that helped them win the East Division, and he would like to have accomplished more.
"I didn't feel like I was in the flow in the playoffs," Schmidt said. "I wasn't stinging the ball, scoring runs, making something happen."
Schmidt admitted that once he began to struggle at the plate, he began having trouble away from it, too.
"I was trying to take my time, block out negative thoughts," he said. "There definitely can be too much of that. It worked one night, but then it didn't work the next, and I found myself saying, 'Boy, I wish I would have just stepped in there and hit.’"
Like many of his teammates, Schmidt found himself slightly in awe of what the Phillies had accomplished in rebounding from a 2-1 deficit in games to oust Houston in the Astrodome.
"If I was a betting man, and the score was 5-2 and the pitcher was Nolan Ryan, I would have said some deep digging had to be done by the Philadelphia Phillies," he said. "There were times when it was so loud in there that you could get a little scared.
"When they were scoring three runs in the seventh (to go ahead 5-2) the roar was so loud. It was a little devastating to have your eardrums busting and to look at the scoreboard and know we had to get four to win this thing.
The Phillies, it turned out, needed more than four, and they got them. They survived.
"I remember thinking after the game that this was the second time in a week I'm drinking champagne and there was just a little difference in the way it tasted," Schmidt said. "I wish I coulda' walked into that clubhouse with my uniform dirty.
"But obviously, I never got into the flow."
• • •
Bob Walk of the Phillies became the first rookie pitcher to start the first game of the World Series in 28 years last night.
The last rookie pitcher to start the opening game of the fall classic was Joe Black of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952.
• • •
Philadelphia Mayor William Green has bet an "equitable" amount of soft pretzels to Kansas City Mayor Richard Berkley's one dozen steaks that the Phillies will beat the Royals in the Series.
When Green was asked what he considered an "equitable" amount of pretzels, he said he thought six was enough.
• • •
The National Weather Service said temperatures at game time for last night's opener of the Series would be about 50 degrees, dropping to 40 later in the night.
Skies were to be clear with a light breeze. The weather service said temperatures would warm to the low 50s for the second game today.
• • •
Paul Pryor of the National League is umpiring in his third World Series.
Pryor, Harry Wendelstedt and Dutch' Rennert were chosen from the NL, and Bill Kunkel, Don Denklnger and Nick Bremigan are representing the American League.
Wendelstedt, Kunkel and Denkinger are working their second Series. This is the first World Scries for Rennert and Bremigan.
Pryor also worked in the 1967 Series between Boston and St. Louis, and the 1973 Series between Oakland and the New York Mets.
• • •
World Series fever has hit one of Kansas City's elementary schools, which was symbolically renamed after Royals third baseman George Brett.
Banners were strung through the hall yesterday and many of the 580 pupils at Southeast elementary school wore buttons or carried signs supporting the Royals.
Principal Let Short said pupils were attired in the Royals' colors, blue and white, and the first day of the World Series was declared Royals Fever Day. He said pupils voted to name the school George Brett elementary school for the remainder of the series.
One fourth grader carried a Philadelphia Phillies sign.
"The other kids made fun of him, but he said he's a Phillies' fan, so we let him keep it," Shert said.
Royals’ comic reliever discovers sidearm fame
By Michael Farber of The Gazette
PHILADELPHIA – The best of Dan Quisenberry, Kansas City Royals' relief pitcher and set 'em down comic:
• "I'm a member of the 30-30-30 club. Thirty saves, 30 strikeouts, and 30 great plays behind me."
• "I still get a groundball when I hang a slider. It just goes 360 feet before it bounces, that's all."
• "That ball Reggie Jackson hit landed on the embankment (in Royals Stadium) and burrowed its way to St. Louis."
• "My influence for throwing sidearm was my mom, the first time she spanked me. Actually, I was always orthodox with side-arm tendencies. I came out of the closet in 1975."
Pretty good comic relief for somebody who figured he – like Gabe Kaplan – would do his number for a bunch of high school sweathogs. Instead, he goes coast-to-coast on prime time, and he doesn't even have to battle John Travolta for attention.
But, oh, what price fame. Quisenberry was upset yesterday somebody had written he is a lefthander trapped in a right-hander's body.
"And he's a Harlequin novelist trapped inside a sportswriter's body," Quisenberry said last night before Game One of the World Series between the Royals and the Phillies. "I'm righthanded, and proud of it. Or as proud as anybody can be of something like that."
Quisenberry is as unprepared for national figurehood as much as any normal 26-year-old with a space between his teeth. For Quisenberry, the thrill always had been getting the batter out rather than have Joe Garagiola scream it to the world. This World Series stuff – the World Serious to some – can get in the way.
"I don't want the pressure to be a national figure, the pressure to be 'on' all the time," he said. "The other day I thought: 'Please, God, don't let me change.' I hate to be praised all the time. Everybody says, 'You're so great, you're so good. You're the reason we won the pennant.' I don't know how to respond. I still would rather talk about looking for a house or kids or things which have nothing to do with baseball. Now, all everybody wants is the baseball me."
Not long ago, Quisenberry, who had 33 saves and 12 wins for the Royals during the regular season, wasn't sure anyone wanted him. He had 10 saves the previous year – half of them at Omaha, a Nebraska city where you can have a funny shtick and nobody much cares. Indeed, he had come out of the overhand closet in '75, but Jim Frey, the new Royals manager, decided Quisenberry would be better looking at the world upside down from the mound. He already did off it.
Frey came upon the notion while watching Kent Tekulve of the Pittsburgh Pirates during the 1979 World Series. Frey had a better view than most, having watched the Baltimore hitters flail from the Oriole first base coaching box. After moving to Kansas City, Frey at a cocktail party, appropriately enough – hit upon the idea of Tekulve giving his Quisenberry a submarining lesson in spring training.
"Part of my problems is that nobody could teach me anything because of my style," Quisenberry said. "Nobody else threw that way, so pitching coaches just stayed away from me.
"I was expecting Tekulve to give me some theory in the submarine. Instead, he redid my entire delivery in one hour. I felt so awkward. There I was trying to make the team, and I felt like I was going to fall down on every other pitch."
That was. before he mastered the sinker – "My Titanic pitch", it drops to the bottom; and his improved slider "My Peggy Lee. Hitters say, 'Is that all there is?" (Phillie reliever Tug McGraw has stolen both lines, which shows you he knows talent when he hears it).
"I call Teke 'Pops' or Dad' because he is the father of my pitch," Quisenberry said. "I sent him a card on Father's Day. If I had known his size, I would have sent him an appropriate gift, like a tie or argyle socks."
And so the rap continued in the dugout before the game, because this was an audience and this was Quisenberry. The chemistry always had been there. Just now, everyone was noticing. "That's how my mother can tell how I really feel – by reading the papers," Quisenberry said. "If I give my usual answers – (When asked if the World Series were a different world, he said, 'No, there still are wars in .the Middle East') she knows I'm okay. If I give your basic baseball cliche, then she knows something is bothering me.
"What can I tell you? It's a flaw in my character."