The World Series (7 page)

Unfortunately for Pirates fans, the decade would end without Pittsburgh reaching the Series again. New York returned for the
next four years, winning back-to-back championships in 1961 and 1962, but then losing it twice in a row.

CHAPTER SEVEN
1970s

After their second straight World Series loss in 1964, the Yankees' star finally began to fade. The team that had won nineteen
World Series since 1923 wouldn't return to the big game until the next decade. During their absence, other teams rose to greatness.
The most notable being the Oakland Athletics. The A's were “three-peat” champs in 1972, 1973, and 1974, making them the second
team in Major League history to win more than two in a row.

In 1975, however, two other teams took the field to battle for the championship. And by all accounts, that Series was one
of the most memorable in baseball history.

That year, the Cincinnati Reds were the dominant team in the National League. The “Big Red Machine,” as they were known, was
powered by Pete
Rose, Ken Griffey Sr., Johnny Bench, and Dave Concepcion, among others. They crushed the opposition, winning 108 times while
losing only 54. In the postseason, they swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in three straight games and entered the World Series
hungry for victory.

But their competition was equally hungry — and almost as strong as the Reds. The Boston Red Sox had ended with a 95–65 record
thanks to the might of rookie sluggers Jim Rice and Fred Lynn as well as veterans Dwight Evans, Carl “Yaz” Yastrzemski, Luis
Tiant, and Carlton Fisk. They, too, swept their opponents in the playoffs. If they won this World Series, it would be their
first since Babe Ruth pitched for them in 1918.

Game one took place on October 11 at Fenway Park. Inning after inning passed without a run. The score was still zero to zero
when the Sox came up to bat at the bottom of the seventh.

First up was pitcher Luis Tiant. He hadn't come up to bat in the last three regular seasons. But World Series rules state
that all pitchers must hit and surprisingly, Tiant connected for a single into left field.

That brought up Dwight Evans, who laid down a
bunt toward the pitcher's mound. The pitcher fielded the ball cleanly, turned to throw out Tiant at second, and slipped! By
the time he'd recovered, Tiant and Evans were safe on base.

The next batter bounced the ball between third and short for a single. Bases loaded, no outs — and power hitter Yaz was on
his way to the plate. Things did not look good for the Reds.

A minute later, they looked even worse. Yaz stroked a single to right. Tiant took a trip home, missed the plate, but returned
to tag it to give the Sox the first run of the game.

Two pitchers and two innings later, the 0-0 deadlock had turned into a 6-0 blowout for the Sox. Tiant walked off the field
with a complete-game, five-hit shutout under his belt.

The Reds tied the Series the next day, vaulting over the Red Sox with two runs late in the game.

Game three looked good for the Reds, who led 5–2 after six innings. But one run at a time, the Sox whittled away the Reds'
lead until they'd tied things up and forced the game into extra innings. They came close to going up in the top of the tenth,
when
Yaz clocked the ball to deep center field. But River-front Stadium has plenty of room for fielders to chase down balls, and
that's just what center fielder Cesar Geronimo did. Yaz was out, and when Fisk hit into a double play, the inning ended with
the score still tied.

Geronimo helped the Reds again by leading off with a single to right. Pinch hitter Ed Armbrister came up next with instructions
to bunt.

What followed was a confusing and controversial baseball moment. Armbrister bunted the ball into the dirt right in front of
home plate. A split second later, the umpire called it fair.

Catcher Carlton Fisk darted forward to nab the ball. As he did, he collided with Armbrister. After they separated, Armbrister
headed for first and Fisk threw to second, hoping to get Geronimo out.

But his throw was wild — so wild, in fact, that Armbrister made it all the way to second and Geronimo stood safe at third!

Sox manager Darrell Johnson raced out of the dugout to protest. According to baseball rules, any runner who interferes with
a fielder trying to make a
play on a batted ball is automatically out, even if the interference is not intentional. Armbrister had interfered with Fisk
and was therefore out — or so it seemed to Johnson, the rest of the Sox, and many others who'd seen the play.

But the umpire stood by his call. When the Reds pushed across the game-winning run three batters later, the Sox stormed off
the field, furious.

They channeled that fury the next day, beating the Reds 5–4. But game five belonged to the Reds, thanks to two powerful home
runs from Tony Perez's bat.

Like most World Series, this championship had provided plenty of excitement. But game six made every other match look dull
in comparison.

After a three-day rain delay, Luis Tiant took the mound. He retired the first three Reds in order. Then, in the Red Sox's
first at bats, Fred Lynn lambasted a three-run homer.

The score stayed 3–0 until the top of the fifth, when the Reds scored twice on a triple by Griffey, and then again on a single
by Bench.

Two innings later, the Reds added two to their
side. They added yet another in the eighth with a home run by Geronimo.

The Sox came up in the bottom of the eighth with the score 6–3. Lynn singled and Rico Petrocelli walked to put runners at
first and second, no outs. Bernie Carbo came in to pinch-hit for pitcher Roger Moret. It was Carbo's first at bat of the game.
He took two strikes and then connected weakly for a foul ball. One more strike and the inning would be over.

That strike didn't come. Instead, Carbo absolutely crushed the next pitch, blasting the ball deep into home-run territory
to tie the game!

The score was still 6–6 after nine innings. And after ten innings. And after eleven — although the Reds came very close to
winning the game that inning. With Ken Griffey at first, slugger Joe Morgan slammed a sizzling line drive down the right-field
line. Griffey took off, certain that the hit was unreachable.

But nobody told Dwight Evans that. He beat the ball to the wall, nabbed it in the webbing of his glove as he crashed into
the concrete, and then threw to first for the double play!

With the clock ticking past midnight, the game continued into a twelfth inning. But no one watching the game was yawning;
it was simply too suspenseful!

Bottom of the twelfth, the score was still tied. As leadoff batter Fisk readied himself in the on-deck circle, he turned to
Fred Lynn and said, “I'm gonna hit one off the wall. You drive me in.”

Lynn answered, “Sounds good to me.”

Fisk stepped into the batter's box. He let the first pitch go by for ball one. The next pitch would have been a strike if
Fisk had let it go by or had swung and missed. But he did neither. Instead, he connected.

Boom!
The ball soared high in the air toward the left-field line and vanished into the outfield lights. Fisk tracked the ball's
flight, and then began hopping and chopping his arms sideways toward right field, willing the ball to stay fair of the foul
pole.

Clang!
The ball hit the pole square on! Home run!

Red Sox fans swarmed the field as Fisk frisked around the bases. When he reached home, he gave a final jump and came down
on the plate with both feet.

“I don't think I've ever gone through a more emotional game,” Fisk told reporters later.

Sadly for Boston fans, the Red Sox couldn't follow up that amazing win with another the following night. After leading the
game 3–2 through six innings, Boston gave up two runs without being able to score any more of their own. The Series outcome
didn't come as a surprise to anyone who relied on statistics to predict the winner — after all, the Reds were the strongest
team ever in baseball history — but it did come as a disappointment to those hoping for a “Cinderella story” finish.

Cincinnati took the championship the following year as well, sweeping the New York Yankees in four straight games. But in
1977, the Yankees were back on top, thanks to a record-tying performance by one of the game's best players, Reggie Jackson.

Jackson had played in two previous World Series, in 1973 and 1974, as a member of the Oakland Athletics (he would have played
in three, but an injury during the playoffs sidelined him prior to the 1972 championship). In 1973, he was named the Series
MVP, when his two-run homer in the third inning of the seventh game gave the A's the jump they needed over the New York Mets.

In 1977, Jackson returned to the Series, this time
wearing Yankee pinstripes. Once again, he showed the world what a clutch player he was.

After five games, the Series score stood at New York 3, Los Angeles 2. The Dodgers led game six, 3–2, going into the bottom
of the fourth inning. With a runner at first, Jackson came to the plate —and blasted the first pitch thrown for a two-run
homer. Then, in the bottom of the fifth inning, he did the same thing again. And then, incredibly, Jackson homered a
third
time, once again sending the first pitch into the stratosphere. Three consecutive at bats, three first pitches, three home
runs!

The only other player to hit three homers in a row in the World Series? Babe Ruth. New York won the game 8–4, and pocketed
their first championship ring in more than a decade. Jackson pocketed a nickname, “Mr. October,” and a place in the history
books as the only player ever to hit five home runs in a single Series.

CHAPTER EIGHT
1980s

Reggie Jackson's outstanding 1977 World Series performance made him a household name. But sometimes, it's an error that puts
a player's name on everyone's lips. In 1986, one man's mistake blackened his reputation for years to come.

According to baseball legend, Babe Ruth had cursed the Boston Red Sox when the team traded him to the Yankees in 1919. That
curse, the story went, had prevented the Red Sox from winning a World Series ever since. When the Sox earned a trip back to
the October Classic in 1986, everyone hoped they would put the Curse of the Bambino behind them forever.