Montreal Gazette - October 22, 1980
Phillies win the Series
Gazette News Service
PHILADELPHIA - Steve Carlton, baseball's silent man, spoke volumes with his pitches last night and brought the Philadelphia Phillies their first World Series.
Carlton combined with Tug McGraw on a seven-hit, 4-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals in the sixth game of the series.
In winning the series, four games to two, the Phillies ended 97 years of frustration and heartbreak... and touched off a wild celebration.
Carlton was simply overpowering over the first seven innings as he allowed just three hits before tiring in the eighth and turning the reins over to the reliable McGraw.
Phillies capture first World Series
Phillies 4, Royals 1
By Michael Farber of The Gazette
PHILADELPHIA – Somehow, the phrase "if necessary" never dawned on the Philadelphia Phillies.
For Philadelphia, the last charter member of the major leagues never to win a championship, this was going to be the best-of-six World Series.
The Phillies were right, of course, but not before last night's 4-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals ran the gamut – a win crammed with nuance, pathos and some incredible pitching and one incredible play by their first baseman.
Shower the Phillies' first World Series title with a bouquet of Roses.
They only needed one.
For seven innings, Game Six of this World Series was all Steve Carlton. The Phillies call him Lefty, as if that precludes anyone else being pitching a baseball left-handed. Perhaps it does. Working with a four-run cushion – Series' Most Valuable Player Mike Schmidt had singled in two runs, Bob Boone, one, and Bake McBride drove in another with an infield out – he was at his Carltonesque best.
But John Wathan – who had broken an 0-for-20 streak with a sixth inning single – walked to open the eighth, and Jose Cardenal lined a soft single to left. After 332 innings beginning with his opening day victory over the Expos, Carlton was through.
So in came Tug McGraw, who is pretty incredible all by himself. The World (Series) is a stage, and Tug its player. He appreciates pathos as well as anyone... or at least pitches that way. He cannot leave it alone, not with a record 65,838 at Veterans Stadium (which doesn't count the attack dogs or the mounted policeman who prevented the Vet patrons from being members of the VFW – Veterans of Frenzied Wars), not with a global audience and a baseball in the palm of his left hand.
"I hate to bore people," said McGraw. "Almost anything is acceptable but boring people."
No, these innings would be drama of the highest order – maybe too high if they obscure in the mind the wonderful work of Carlton in ending the 97-year Philadelphia drought. For the lefty to protect a lead, he needed the Lefty.
McGraw, who appeared in all but one of the six Scries games, retired Frank White on a foul fly to Pete Rose, the star in the supporting cast one inning later.
But this seemed too easy, so he walked Willie Wilson walked on five pitches. U.L Washington drove in one run with run with a sacrifice fly and George Brett, the winning run, came to the plate.
'Hurt too much'
This could have been his moment. It had been during the American League playoffs, when his third game home run beat the Yankees. He could have watched the ball fly into the upper deck or taken a figurative victory lap then, but he didn't. "That home run," he said that day, "hurt too much."
So all he needed was a home run, another minor miracle to force the Philies into Game Seven. All he got was an infield single – better than his strikeouts in Game Five, but not much.
“I’ll never forget this World Series," said Brett in the sanctuary of the Royals clubhouse. "I've forgotten losing in the playoffs three years, but this always will stay with me."
The stage was set for Hal McRae, but with McGraw extant, the stage can get crowded. McRae jumped ahead, 3-0, McGraw rallied with two strikes, and McRae hit two more fouls before swinging at a pitch which stretched the parameters of the plate.
He grounded out.
"Maybe the pitch is a ball," McRae said, "but this is the World Series. The worst thing you can do is be called out on strikes with the bases loaded in the World Series."
The passions play continued in the ninth. McGraw struck out Amos Otis, walked Willie Aikens, and allowed singles to Wathan and Cardenal to load the bases again. White represented the lead run.
Worth every penny
And then came The Play, the play which cost Ruly Carpenter $3.2 million and was worth every penny.
White swung at the first pitch ("Thank goodness," McGraw said. "I was dog tired") and lofted it in the direction of the Phillies' dugout. Catcher Bob Boone and first baseman Pete Rose – the 3.2 Million Dollar Man – both gave chase, but Boone called for the ball. He didn't catch it, but he did get credited with an assist. The ball bounced off his floppy catcher's mitt and into the glove of the hovering Rose.
McGraw doesn't get credited with the only save of Game Six.
"He's the only first baseman who makes that play," McRae said. "Pete's knees were flexed, anticipating a carom, ready to catch the ball. Instead of giving up, he makes the play. Everybody else gives up."
Brett was equally eloquent. "Why now?" he said.
And so the game would end with Wilson, as is fitting for the tragic figure in this six-act semi-masterpiece. Wilson had 230 hits during the regular season and set a record for most consecutive stolen bases without being caught. The only Series record he set was strikeouts. McGraw caught him flailing at a 1-2 pitch for record-setting 13.
If they still gave a car to World Series players, Wilson would get a K-car.
Schmidt merely receives a gold watch and a $5,000 scholarship in his name – not too bad for his leading the exorcism of the Phillie ghosts which had haunted this franchise since its beginnings in 1883.
Began to disappear
The ghosts began to disappear last night in the third inning against Royals starter Rich Gale, starting with a "phantom" force.
But second base umpire Bill Kunkel wasn't buying any of it... after accepting the play as pro forma pro forma the entire American League season.
Lonnie Smith had hit a grounder to second baseman White, who threw to second to catch Boone, the lead runner. The throw pulled Washington slightly off the base, but Kunkel wasn't letting anything slide. Instead of one out and Smith on first, the Phillies had no outs and two on.
And then baseball turned to chess as managers Dallas Green and Jim Frey kept putting bunt signs and bunt defence plays on and off. Green finally out-guessed him. Rose (three-for-four) bunted down the third base line on 3-1, after the Royals had taken off their play where Brett charges. Gale was slow off the mound, and Rose had a single.
Schmidt, who. finished with seven runs-batted-in, then singled to centre for two. The Royals had a play at the plate on Smith, who had stumbled rounding third, but Washington held the relay.
Two more runs against four more Royals pitchers, and the stage would belong to Tug.
"I told him between the eighth and ninth innings, 'Hey Tug, don't make it too exciting,'" said Green. "Of course he heeded my advice, just like all the rest of them did all year."
Series MVP won by slugger Schmidt
PHILADELPHIA (UPI) – Reflecting before the World Series on his personally disappointing playoff, Mike Schmidt confessed the champagne would have tasted "just a little bit sweeter" if he had been able to contribute just a little more.
"I just wanted to walk into the clubhouse and feel my uniform was dirty," he said.
Well, now the uniform is dirty and the champagne tastes as sweet as any human concoction ever could. The Philadelphia Phillies won their first World Series last night, defeating the Kansas City Royals 4-1 to take the Fall Classic four games to two, and Schmidt was named the Most Valuable Player.
"I don't know what to say," said the 31-year-old third baseman. "Right now I'm in kind of a coma."
One of these days, however, he will awaken to the memory that his bat and glove helped the Phillies reverse their long' and seemingly unbreakable pattern of the failure.
He scored two runs in Game One, sparked a four-run eighth with an RBI double in Game Two and hit a two-run homer and singled to set up the winning rally in Game Five.
Finally, in the third inning of the clincher, Schmidt chased loser Rich Gale with a two-run single that gave the Phillies a 2-0 lead. It proved to be enough with Steve Carlton and Tug McGraw on the mound.
"I was confident with Carlton pitching," said Schmidt. "I thought today would be the day with Lefty pitching."
Then, reflecting on a dramatic eighth inning in which McGraw induced Hal McRae to hit into a bases-loaded bounce-out to end an uprising, Schmidt hailed McGraw.
"The eighth inning was the whole game," Schmidt said.
McRae, even in defeat, found time to recognize what Schmidt had achieved.
"He is the MVP," said McRae. "He's the MVP over McGraw because he drove in the runs. You don't win without the runs."
The recognition proved a sweet vindication for Schmidt, whose previous playoff failures made him an ideal target for those looking to explain Philadelphia's postseason flops.
This season, Schmidt led the majors with 48 home runs and drove in 121 runs and he contributed mightily down the stretch, culminating the season by hitting a pair of game-winning home runs in Philadelphia's crucial, division-clinching series with the Expos.
Despite his sub-par performance in the playoffs, he rebounded in the Series. But Schmidt was too busy spreading credit to take any for himself.
"We played great baseball in the stretch," he said. "Coming from behind meant a lot. I just hope we get proper credit throughout the country for being champions, I think the media wanted New York or Los Angeles to win."
Schmidt received praises from McGraw, perhaps his closest competitor for the MVP award.
"I'm happy for Mike," McGraw said. "He's been the key to our offence all year,"
Phillies’ fans enjoying opportunity to feel like winners
By Michael Farber of The Gazette
PHILADELPHIA – On the day the Philadelphia Phillies were attempting to win their first baseball championship in 97 years, on the day 7,500 policemen readied to deal with what the department called "expected sporadic violence," on the day NBC allegedly ordered attack dogs to protect its equipment, a man in an office in California said: "Go Phillies."
The man was Thomas Tutko, and the only difference between Thomas Tutko and the vendors on Walnut Street hawking World Series and 'Beat the Royals T-shirts is that he knows more about baseball than they do, even though he wasn't sure how many doubles Pete Rose hit or was aware Dan Quisenberry once tried to drown himself in the shower in high school.
No, Tutko is a sports psychologist, the Steve Carlton and George Brett of his profession. I mean, when it comes to psychology, the man can bring it. One "Go Phillies" from Dr. Tutko is worth about 50 from the jerks on Walnut Street.
"I grew up in Pennsylvania," said Tutko, "and I suppose I'm more partial to the Pirates. But as a kid, I always wanted to be fast as (Phillie outfielder) Richie Ashburn."
So that's justification for a crise d'octobre?
"Not at all," said the doctor, who was preparing for curveballs from his Psychology of Coaching class at San Jose State University. "Sport should be seen as an opportunity to love, not ruin a city.
"But you have to understand the frustration of the Phillie fan who has gone through so much. What has it been, 30 years since the Phillies were in a World Series? What's pent-up is going to erupt like Mount St. Helens. The stuff in the mountain had been building for a long time, too."
Right, doc. Please continue. I don't get this stuff from Carlton.
"The vast majority of people," Tutko said, "feel like losers. They don't like their work, they may not even like their lives. The Phillies are their gratification.
"Actually, fan identification is a no-lose situation. If the team wins, vou identify with a winner. If the team loses, you second-guess the manager, the strategy."
Hold it a minute, doc. Weren't you the guy who almost ruined his life rooting for the San Francisco '49ers? The guy who thinks anyone older than 13 who wears a team cap is just a shade whacko?
"Sure," the voice on the telephone said. "I weaned myself away from the '49ers when I realized that if they lost, I was miserable the entire week. That's the problem of fan identification with losing. It's also the problem of fan identification with winning. It's painful because once you win, you must win again.
"Right now, the people of Philadelphia must feel pretty good about themselves. If you pump gas everyday or do menial labor, you can take pride vicariously in the Phillies. Like an (Aldous) Huxley book, The Ape and Essence. In the book, for 364 days a year, everyone must refrain from sexual behavior. On the other day, you can go crazy. What Philly is having is a community orgasm. That's if you take the Freudian view of sport."
Freud, he was the second baseman on the 1950 Philadelphia Whiz Kids, huh, doc?
"That's not bad; I'll have to remember that," Tutko said. "You don't condone the violent behavior. The tragic part really is that people can entirely lose their own sense of identity through sport. When sport becomes more important than they are. That's the prostitution of athletics.
"Maybe everyone should go out and have some positive community action. Celebrate by hugging someone." Sounds good to me, doc. It's gotta be nicer than the 1960 riot in Pittsburgh or the 1977 mugging in Yankee Stadium. Hugging; that's a real California idea. Hey, give you guys white wine and a hot tub and you go crazy.
"I spent the first 18 years of my life in Pennsylvania," the doc said. "You don't lose that.
"Sometimes your values just change."
Phillies’ Green says he’ll return if ‘Pope’ wants
Series Notes
PHILADELPHIA (Gazette) – If his boss wants him back to manage the world champion Philadelphia Phillies next year, Dallas Green is coming back.
And his boss, general manager Paul Owens, left no doubt whatsoever what his feelings were for the man who led the team to its first championship in 97 years with a climactic 4-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals in the World Series last night.
"I do what the Pope tells me to do," gasped a champagne-soaked Green, referring to Owens, who goes by the nickname "The Pope".
Owens named Green manager of the Phillies last September while he was still serving as the director of the Phillies minor league operations in the front office.
"It was the best move I ever made in my life," said a teary-eyed Owens, hugging Green with his right hand and reliever Tug McGraw with his left. "He's got the job as long as he wants. I brought him down from the front office last September and he showed me so much courage. He surprised a lot of people but he didn't surprise me.
"Give me one more year and then he could have my job," continued the 57-year-old Owens who has been with the Phillies for 25 years. "I'd like another world championship and then I will have had enough."
Before the National League playoffs with the Houston Astros, Green said flat out he wished to return to the front office if they would beat the Astros and then go on to win the World Series.
Immediately after the Phillies nailed down the final out in last night's sixth game, Green wasn't at all sure of what he wanted to do next year.
"It's too early to tell," he said, standing on a raised platform with Owens, McGraw and Pete Rose. "But I do what the Pope tells me to. If he wants me to come back and manage then that's what I'll do."
• • •
A tugboat was named in honor of Tug McGraw yesterday. It's name: Tug McGraw. You were expecting chopped liver? McGraw himself participated in the afternoon ceremony.
Phyllis McGraw speaking about her husband and the Phillies: "For three years, they barred Tug. They didn't like Tug's up and positive attitude. Everything had to be cool. You know, like Schmidt and Maddox and Luzinski. It was a time when baseball wasn't a sport. It was a business. Anything these players wanted they got. Tug just wasn't used to this spoiled atmosphere here."
• • •
Philadelphia radio stations can't play it often enough and Phillies fans are expected to buy more than 20,000 copies of it.
The No. 1 hit song in Philadelphia Monday was the recorded version of the McFadden and Whitehead platinum hit Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now, with new lyrics to cheer the Phillies through the World Series.
• • •
Ten-year-old Petey Rose was in Philadelphia last night to watch his father play – and he owes the trip to the Hamilton County Domestic Relations Court.
It took a court order last Thursday before Pete Rose's son was allowed to accompany him to the series games against the Royals in Kansas City.
Rose's former wife, Karolyn, divorced from Rose in August after 15 years of marriage, had tried to block her son's trip because the Roses' 15-year-old daughter, Fawn, was not invited.
• • •
John Wathan, 0-for-19 in 10 previous post-season games, was the Royals starting catcher in place of Darrell Porter (.143), a lefty-righty move against Steve Carlton. Jose Cardenal played right instead of Clint Hurdle, Willie Aikens was dropped from fourth to sixth in the lineup, and U.L. Washington and Frank White switched places in the order – Washington batting second, White ninth.
Greg Luzinski again was the Phillies designated hitter.