Allentown Morning Call - October 23, 1980
Opinion: We believe, Tug! We savor, Mike!
Ya gotta believe when Francis Edwin "Tug" McGraw says, "Ya gotta believe." The record crowd of 65,838 at Veterans Stadium did believe. So did the small army of riot-equipped policemen and assorted extras lining the field. The fans sensed the kill and roared Tuesday night as their team took the field. And they got it – the Phillies won their first World Series championship in history in Game 6.
They did it the hard way, the way they struggled past the Montreal Expos in the playoffs, the way they took the National League championship from the Houston Astros. Ace lefthander Steve Carlton breezed through seven innings as Mike Schmidt and company pecked away for two runs in the third, another in the fourth, another in the fifth, 4-0.
Carlton tired noticeably in the eighth – it's been a long season for him – as Kansas City's John Wathan walked and Jose Cardenal lashed a stinging single to left. Carlton needed help, and who was to provide it? The man one sign in the stadium hailed as it proclaimed : "How do you spell relief? T-U-G-G-E-R."
They did it the bizarre way. Whoever saw a man (Lonnie Smith) score from second base on a single – and fall down on the way? Whoever saw a catcher (Bob Boone) catch a foul and watch it pop out of his glove, to be caught on the fly by a first baseman?
Weary relief pitcher McGraw faced the Royals with the bases loaded in the two innings he pitched. He tested the faith and well-being of millions of Phillies fans in the Delaware Valley and beyond. But he made them believe.
Kansas City scored one run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly. With three Royals on base and two outs in the ninth, McGraw ended it. Veterans Stadium exploded when he reared back for what he later said was the last fastball he had left in his overworked arm and blew it past Willie Wilson. McG raw's comment: "With all those people watching on television, I hate to make the game boring."
Boring it wasn't. Satisfying it was. And for Phillies fans, it mattered not that a New York sports writer had said of their players: "They are... the world's worst winners. Their clubhouse is a mausoleum and their motto is meanness, rudeness and ignorance. Their town deserves them."
Baseball's most coveted pennant will fly over Philadelphia this year, not Kansas City, much less New York, whose Yankees are known for their amiability, courtesy or intelligence and still were wiped out by the Royals in three straight games.
Many stayed on to roar their approval. Outside the stadium the streets were jammed with people roaring, "We're No. 1 ! " and cars, their horns blaring. Masses jammed center-city Philadelphia streets. Normally quiet suburbs to the north were alive with celebrators.
Staid old Philadelphia was still rocking yesterday as a crowd estimated at 500,000 lined the Broad Street parade route and tens of thousands waited to greet their team inside and outside John F. Kennedy Stadium.
Series Most Valuable Player Schmidt told the stadium crowd, "Take this championship and savor it, because you deserve it. ' Indeed they – and we – do deserve it after so many years. And we're savoring it.
Phils #1
Trapping K.C.’s rabbits key to Phils’ series triumph
By Gordon Smith, Associate Sports Editor
PHILADELPHIA – Kansas City Royals outfielder Willie Wilson sat dejectedly in front of his lockerroom cubicle at Veterans Stadium. He had tears in his eyes.
"I can't believe this (4-for-26) has happened to me," he blurted. "It got so after a while I even lost my confidence. It was like I knew I couldn't hit the ball."
Strange how so many people can be wrong. From Game 1 of the World Series through climactic Game 6, experts and pseudo-experts felt the Phillies could win if they could hold down the explosiveness of George Brett and the big lumbermen – Amos Otis. Willie Aikens and Hal McRae.
In the final analysis, however, that wasn't the key to the Phils winning their first World Series ever. To the contrary, the big boys had big series.
The reason the Phillies are champions of North America today is because they kept Kansas City's rabbits off base. They tied Willie Wilson, U.L. Washington and Frank White in knots.
In a batting order where a designated hitter is employed, there is no beginning and no end. It's a continuous order, where men with high on-base ratios are batted in the ninth spot, a place reserved for the poorest offensive player in regular-season National League competition.
Consequently, when Royals Manager Jim Frey put White in the ninth spot, Wilson in the first spot and Washington in the second spot, he was figuring to jam the bases with runners ahead of the third, fourth and fifth batters, Brett, McRae and Otis.
If White, Wilson and Washington had had even a fraction of success they enjoyed in the regular-season, Kansas City would have scored heavily.
White scored 70 times in the regular-season and batted .264. Wilson batted .326 and scored 133 runs and became the only player in history to get at least 100 hits from both sides of the plate. And Washington scored 79 runs and batted .273.
These are Kansas City's rabbits. These are the guys who get on base, steal bases, score on groundouts and short fly balls. These are the guys who make it easier for Brett. Aikens and McRae to fatten their RBI totals.
But when the sixth game was completed. White, Wilson and Washington had batted a combined .208. They had collected only 12 hits in 73 plate appearances. They had scored only four times, and they had drawn only five bases-on-balls.
"It wasn't our team playing out there tonight, or any night," Brett would admit. "We have to have our singles hitters on base. I'm not blaming them; don't get me wrong. I'm simply putting everything in perspective.”
Wilson wasn't adverse to absorbing the blame, however. "I played poorly," he said. "I never got it going. Me, Frank and U.L., we have to get on base. That's the name of the game. And we didn't."
Meanwhile. Brett (.375), Otis (.478) and McRae (.375) had a marvelous series. They collected 29 of the Royals' 60 hits – only one short of half. But their RBI total was only 11. They hit all eight Kansas City home runs, and the Phils only had three.
"I'd say that's a perfect analysis," Royals Manager Jim Frey told a reporter. "It's all there, right up front. Our big RBI men hit the tar out of the ball, but we only have 23 runs to show for it in six games. That's less than four-a game. We averaged more than five a game during the season.”
The contrast in the importance of the batters late in the order getting on base is magnified when you examine Larry Bowa. batting eighth, and Bob Boone, batting ninth, in the Phillies order.
The Phils' lumbermen – Mike Schmidt and Bake McBride – knocked 12 teammates, one more than three KC strongmen did. And, of those 12 runs, 10 came in with the ninth, first and second batters in the lineup on base.
That caging of Kansas City's rabbits stands up as the major key. But there were others.
Boone, for example, had a magnificent series. Many felt he was as deserving of MVP honors as Schmidt, who won the award. The Phillies catcher had seven hits in 17 at bats for a .412 average. tops on the club. He scored three times and knocked in four runs. And he handled the pitching staff beautifully.
Bowa banged out nine hits in 24 at bats ( .375 ) and set a World Series record for starting double plays (seven). "I think Larry Bowa is the best," Green said during the exciting aftermath Tuesday. And General Manager Paul Owens, standing nearby, said, "Larry has played the best baseball of his life over the past five weeks."
Green received more than adequate performarices from his starting pitchers – Carlton (twice), Ruthven, Christenson, Walk and Bystrom. Each experienced some rocky times, but the ever-present Tug McGraw was ready to help everytime.
McGraw wasn't spotless by any means, but he had the big pitches when he needed them most, like in the eighth and ninth innings of the final game with the bases loaded each time and the winning run at the plate for Kansas City.
Del Unser continued to answer the pinch-hitting call with big base hits, and second baseman Manny Trillo not only came up with timely hits, but also shared defensive plaudits with KC's Frank White.
All the Phillies came through at one time or another. "That's the mark of this team," Green said. "It has been all season."
All the ghosts have been eliminated... All the futility of losing the big ones has been washed down the drain... All the critics can take a back seat to the champions.
There will be changes in this team before next season begins. Already there are rumors that Greg Luzinski will end up with the Cubs. Already Bowa is saying. "They can trade me if they want, but I'm not going just anywhere. I have the final say on any trade."
When the celebrating is completed, and when heads are clear again, one aspect of this game is clearly inescapable: It's still business, as usual.
More truth than fiction in ‘Break Up Champions’
By John Kunda, Executive Sports Editor
Remember the old tongue-in-cheek comment, "Break Up the Yankees?"
Seems it used to surface every October when those terrors of baseball would run up another World Series flag on the Yankee Stadium flagpole. After a while, jt wasn't tongue-in-cheek anymore.
They kidded Oakland about it, too. "Break Up the A's," they hollered after the A's won three straight titles. They said it about Cincinnati, too. Yes, "Break Up the Champs" is a popular post-World Series comment.
You don't have to kid about it concerning the 1980 Phillies. With them, the comment could be more realistic than anyone knows.
A couple of those Phillies you saw in Tuesday night's championship game against Kansas City could be playing elsewhere when spring training 1981 arrives.
It's been said before that the second biggest Phillies' story (the first, of course was the club's initial World Series title) would come during the off-season.
Start with the manager, Dallas Green. He has said he wants out if the team wins the World Series. He said he took the job only because of his close friends, Ruly Carpenter and Paul Owens.
There's a job waiting for Green upstairs. He's as solid with the organization as Owens himself.
The big question is, will Carpenter and Owens allow him to give up the field duties? As friends, they might be able to talk Green into staying.
There's always the possibility, too, that Green, once he savors all that has happened in this championship year, might change his mind and stick it out until another is groomed.
There's no denying the value of Green. He was the man, through his old-fashioned, stern ways, who kept the Phillies together. Nice guy Danny Ozark couldn't come close.
Where would the Phillies search for another field manager? Bobby Wine's name has been mentioned a lot. He's an organizational type, just like Green. In fact, they say that Wine had much to do with the tactical moves of this year's team.
Wine, by the way, would be very happy to have the job. His name will be first on the list when, and if, Green decides to call it quits.
Another name to surface is that of Pat Corrales, the ex-Texas manager. Corrales just got fired by the Rangers, but he's an old friend and former roommate of Green.
Corrales is cut from the same cloth. He's a tough, no-nonsense kind of man, just like Green. With the Rangers, however. Corrales supposedly had all kinds of personality clashes. It might have been a good training ground for the Phillies.
Player deals will attract more attention.
Never has there been as much talk about breaking up a championship team as there has been in recent months with the Phillies. Some guys want to go – others are going whether they like it or not.
Greg Luzinski heads the list. Larry Bowa, Bake McBride and Randy Lerch follow.
Bowa, whose service career allows him to veto any trade, made some interesting comments during the World Series.
"I'm respected around baseball," he said. "If this organization doesn't want me here, then I'd rather play somewhere else. But I'm not going to start at the bottom (of the standings) and work my way up again. I've already done that once in my career. If that happens, I'll tell them where I want to go and maybe they can work it out."
Bowa, like Luzinski, is a legitimate Phillie. They matured and blossomed in the organization. Bowa has strong attachments to this team and the organization. He hates to see it broken up.
"I don't think they should break up this team," Bowa said. "I don't think people realize how good this team has been. Not great, but good. A lot of teams would like to win three straight divisional championships. Last year, they got on us because we finished fourth, but we had injuries. I guess people think it's easy to play with a broken bone, a cast on your hand or your foot."
Bowa called the Phillies a "proven team." And, as a proven team, he said, "we shouldn't be subjected to what we've gone through."
He said the team was picked on by the press. "After a while you get tired of that stuff," he said. "I don't think we deserved it."
Bowa made perhaps the biggest mistake a pro can make when he called the Philadelphia fans the worst in baseball. Of course, he attempted to amend the statement, but it still came out the same way.
Nonetheless, let the Phils enjoy it. Let the organization enjoy it, too... and the fans.
More will come later.
Phillies manis smooth
By the Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – It was Philadelphia Phillies mania in this usually staid city yesterday.
After 98 years the Phillies had won a World Series, and the natives celebrated with a parade that rattled William Penn's statue.
According to Police Commissioner Morton Solomon, at; least 500.000 lined a parade route through center city, down the main North-South artery to John F. Kennedy Stadium where 85,000 inside the vast site of many Army-Navy games acclaimed the team.
There appeared to be as many outside, who got in their cheering as the motorcade slowly moved into the stadium.
Phillies' owner Ruly Carpenter, general manager Paul Owens and manager Dallas Green headed the contingent of players, coaches and club officials riding on flatbed trucks.
A high school band led the parade, which rivaled the -celebration accorded the Philadelphia Flyers in 1974, when they won the National Hockey League' s Stanley Cup.
Banks were closed, and many schools also must have given pupils the day off – or there were a lot of truants – as the crowd predominantly featured the younger generation.
People lined the sidewalks four and five deep. In some areas they pushed into the street, almost brushing the trucks as they passed. Police, however, quickly moved the people back before someone was injured.
It was a big day for sellers of pennants – thousands waved under coolish, sunny skies. Homemade signs, praising the team and individual players, were everywhere.
The most popular was Tug McGraw, the relief pitcher who many times in both the National League Playoffs and the World Series sauntered in to close out an opposing rally. It was McGraw who got the last out of the final game Tuesday night, striking out Kansas City's Willie Wilson with the bases loaded and the Phillies leading 4-1.
The fans took pictures. Fathers hoisted little children on their shoulders. Intersections were blocked. Workers on scaffolds of unfinished buildings tipped their hard hats for a job well done.
There were few incidents as the police, with the " experience of the Flyers' parade, kept the thousands of cheering fans in line. A police spokesman said there were no major incidents or arrests.
There was some bottle throwing after the parade at a South Philadelphia High School, but police quickly dispersed the troublemakers.
"Everything just went real smooth," the spokesman said.
Among the signs most prevalent were hand warmers with "Phillies, 1980 Champions" emblazoned on the front. The usual paper and ticker tape floated from skyscrapers, where occupants watched the proceedings and made their contribution.
"We're No. 1" filled the air.
At various times along the route firecrackers exploded in the background.
In the Phillies' truck. Carpenter, Owens and Green clasped hands. They waved to the crowd. They flashed the No. 1 sign.
McGraw beamed and waved as he saw signs, "McGraw for President," and "Tugadelphia."
At the stadium. Gov. Dick Thornburgh told the excited throng, "Nobody competes with the Phillies today. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania today is the baseball capital of the world."
"All Pennsylvania is proud of you," the governor told the team.
Mayor Bill Green said, "This is the greatest baseball team in the world and you are the greatest fans in the world... We're No. 1 and nobody does it better."
Ironically, the only negative note was interjected by Carpenter, who often has complained of a negative media.
"There are a few people here who didn't think we could do it," said Carpenter. "But we're here."
Owens, who appeared to be having the best time of all watching the team he built be honored for reaching baseball's pinnacle, said, "You are beautiful fans. Just your reaction today made it worthwhile for me and my kids."
Dallas Green merely uttered, "You people are beautiful and this baseball team is beautiful."
The crowd cheered, but the constant refrain was, "We want Tug."
When McGraw was introduced, he received a 25-second standing ovation.
The town actually went nuts Tuesday night after the Phillies won the Series. People poured out of bars and houses to dance and kiss in the streets under a harvest moon. While the celebration was going on, one man was shot to death in North Philadelphia as a group of 30 to 40 youths fled. Police said, however, that it was not clear if the shooting was linked to the festivities.
There were scattered incidents of violence and robberies reported, but police said the crowds generally were well behaved.
Sixty persons were reported injured and more than 35 arrested for various offenses, a police spokesman said.
At the stadium Wednesday several other players spoke.
Pete Rose, who came to the Phillies two years ago from the Cincinnati Reds, told the cheering crowd. "I've been in the Series five times, but there is no doubt in my mind you people are the greatest."
Mike Schmidt, voted the Most Valuable Player in the Series, said he never saw so many sincere people as he did in the parade."
"Take this championship and savor it, because you deserve it." Schmidt said.
The Phillies’ triumph provides therapy for the masses
By Gordon Smith, Associate Sports Editor
PHILADELPHIA People fainted, and policemen carried them to first-aid stations. Others cried with joy and hugged and kissed people they didn't know.
Many were drunk; many weren't. Many were high on dope; most were naturally in orbit.
Businesses closed for the day. Nothing was accomplished at City Hall.
Youngsters didn't go to school; teachers didn't show up in classrooms. Some schools finally sent smatterings of students home.
It was bigger than Pope John Paul's visit. It made the Flyers' Stanley Cup celebration seem small.
If the word "unbelievable" could ever be properly employed, it would be yesterday, when the City of Brotherly Love celebrated the end of a century of baseball heartbreaks.
From Center Square all the way down Broad Street, and into JFK Stadium, Phillies Phanatics, their minds blown, screamed their brains out for their heroes.
Even the forlorn were caught up in the madness. Bums in tattered clothes hollered and waved. The party was the best therapy for mental health since electroshock.
It will be a while before the hundreds of thousands of people find they've lost something outside of themselves to concentrate on; something drawing themselves and their problems away from themselves. The blues won't descend until they re-enter the patterns of frustration they had before the Phillies won their first World Series ever.
In a city all-too-often painted as Underdog Utopia, the Phillies' triumph in the autumnal classic of sport might even be enough to carry fans beyond the post-series blues.
Yesterday they peaked. They reached the summit of their vicarious participation. Even normally placid people let it all hang out.
This celebration of all celebrations put the finishing touch on two weeks of ballfield battles that allowed people to transcend real life. That's why sports is so successful; it allows people to take part in large-scale battles, victories.
The symbolism in sports that is substituted for the spectacle of battle is very real. There's a paradox there. It doesn't make sense in terms of enduring achievement, yet the sports fan pays an extraordinary amount of attention to it, and clearly overvalue it.
People reach a "who cares if I act goofy" level, and, for a lack of studies that prove otherwise, it seems extremely healthy.
An Allentown man, a Phillies fan since he was old enough to know anything about baseball, paid $50 for a ticket to the Phillies' clinching victory Tuesday night. He would have paid $100 "if I had to."
Normally, this man is a reserved, proper, deeply religious man; and, although he did nothing to contradict his devout beliefs, he did go through a metamorphosis of sorts.
"I screamed and hollered like everybody else," he begins his story. "Then I got into my car and started driving up Broad Street. I wanted to get a feeling of everything going on. I felt I should be part of it. I'd rooted for the Phillies forever.
"The traffic was unreal. I had to stop. A man walked right up the hood of my car and over the top of it. Another ' banged happily on my windows. Then a guy came along with a chair and plunked it down right between the cars and sat down."
This young man from Allentown didn't turn around and leave, though. "I was enjoying every bit of it. I must admit I finally decided it would be good to leave, because I just recently bought the car, and I didn't want it damaged. But I was successful in grasping what I wanted – some of the -emotional involvement I apparently yearned to have."
The fan screams, "We've won! " In reality he, himself, has won nothing. But his inexpensive high is not unhealthy. It has the danger of any kind of intoxicant. To a point, it gives the fan a nice buzz. Beyond that, it turns a man into a wild man.
Unfortunately, there were some wild ones at the celebration, too. Unfortunately, there's at least one death possibly attributable to the World Series victory of the Phillies.
For the masses, however, the everyday problems of life have been suffocated, at least for a few more days.
The blues… the letdown... the decarbonation all comes later.
Ticker-tape parade greets Royals in K.C.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Bouyed by a ticker-tape welcome from an estimated 100,000 fans, the Kansas City Royals returned home yesterday after their World Series loss and vowed to sweep to the world championship in 1981.
"The Royals are taking it one step at a time," Frank White, the team's golden-glove second baseman, told a throng of screaming supporters at a rally in a downtown park. "This year, the American League pennant. Next year, the World Series."
The team, along with coaches and Royals officials, attended the rally after snaking through the city's downtown in an emotional ticker-tape parade. They arrived home on a late-morning flight after the Philadelphia Phillies won 4-1 Tuesday night to take the World Series in six games.
The scene resembled a snowstorm as the parade passed between tall buildings on some downtown streets. Office workers threw open their windows and dropped handfuls of shredded paper on the players, who rode below in open cars. Police conservatively estimated the total crowd for the welcoming festivities at 100.000.
"I don't believe I've seen anything like it since World War II," team general manager Joe Burke told the rally crowd.
Star third baseman George Brett rode in the parade on a horse decked out with a black-and-silver saddle. The loudest cheers came when he rode up in front of the stage at the rally at the Liberty Memorial.
Brett, loose and joking with the crowd, offered to play a song in honor of the fans, on a trombone borrowed from a member of a high school band. "It may not sound good, but it's my version of, “The Greatest Fans in the World." Brett said before blowing a few sour notes.
A few of the players were apologetic.
"I really don't feel we deserve this," said Hal McRae. the designated hitter. "But I really felt great in the parade, and I really felt I wasn't (great) after we lost."
Willie Wilson, the team's fleet left-fielder, had the dubious honor of setting, a World Series record for six games by striking out 12 times. "I'm very deeply sorry that I couldn't perform the way people have been seeing all year," Wilson said, to a chorus of "No!" from the crowd. "I guess I wanted it too bad. But one day we'll be World Series champions."
Fans at the rally and along the route held up dozens of signs for the players to read. One seemed to sum them all up: "Roses are red. Royals are blue, the Phillies won, but we love you."
Phillies’ celebration marred in Lansdale
Lansdale's celebration of the Phillies World Series victory ended early yesterday morning with 11 disorderly conduct citations, three injured police officers and two injured celebrants, police said yesterday.
Lansdale Chief James Hansely said crowds at the designated celebrating area of Broad and Main streets generally were orderly, but some celebrants took their rejoicing too far. breaking bottles, smashing nearby store windows and throwing firecrackers.
Hansley said the injured were treated at North Penn Hospital and released. One officer suffered a broken finger in the melee.
The two civilians, he said, were bitten by police dogs brought in to control the crowd.
Hansley said the celebrating was orderly until about 1:30 a.m. yesterday, when Lansdale's 10-man force sought the assistance of nearby departments, bringing about 30 more police to the intersection.
A Towamencin police car window was smashed during the incident, Hansley said.
3 Allentown College students hurt in crash
Three Allentown College students en route to the Phillies parade in Philadelphia early yesterday ended up in Grand View Hospital, Sellersville, after they hit two parked cars and an abandoned car on the Route 309 Bypass, three miles north of Route 563.
Mary Kinnelly, 20, of 50 Garden Ave., Fords, N.J., suffered multiple facial cuts and bruises. She was admitted in stable condition.
Donald McGee, 19, of 935 S. 50th St., Philadelphia, was treated for multiple facial cuts and released.
Kevin McBride, 20, of 3878 Dungan St., Philadelphia, was treated for a deep cut of the forehead and lacerations of the face and released.