History of the World Series – 1970
History of the World Series – 1970
Avenge, the Orioles did. Only it wasn’t against their 1969 conquerors, the New York Mets, but instead against the Cincinnati Reds. Playing under rookie Manager Sparky Anderson, the Reds ran away with the NL West championship and swept Pittsburgh in the Championship Series.
In the first World Series game ever contested at Riverfront Stadium, which had supplanted Crosley Field as the Reds’ home in late June, Cincinnati jumped to a 3-0 lead — Lee May’s two-run home run was the big blow — before the Orioles rebounded for a 4-3 triumph on homers by Boog Powell (a two-run shot), Elrod Hendricks and Brooks Robinson. Baltimore was helped along by a controversial sixth-inning call at the plate by umpire Ken Burkhart.
With one out and Bernie Carbo on third base and Tommy Helms stationed at first, Reds pinch-hitter Ty Cline bounced a high chopper in front of the plate. Burkhart straddled the third-base line and signaled a fair ball. Catcher Hendricks fielded the ball and, after apparently planning to throw to first base, whirled around at pitcher Jim Palmer’s urging and attempted to tag out Carbo, who was trying to score. Hendricks plowed into Burkhart and lunged for Carbo, and the umpire signaled “out” from the tangle of bodies. Replays showed Hendricks, holding the ball in his right hand, tagged Carbo with his empty glove.
The Reds’ sixth-inning at-bat also was notable in that it marked the beginning of the Brooks Robinson Show afield. Always known as a fielding wizard, third baseman Brooks outdid himself in the 1970 Series, the first fall classic to be played on artificial surface. The eye-popping exhibition began when May led off the sixth by smoking the ball between Robinson and the bag. Robinson took a few quick steps, backhanded the ball when it was past him and, while moving toward foul territory, turned and threw out May.
Cincinnati seized a 3-0 lead again the next day, but Powell hit a fourth-inning homer and Hendricks then capped a five-run Baltimore fifth with a two-run double. Baltimore won, 6-5.
Anderson’s Reds seemed poised to grab yet another quick advantage in Game 3, but Brooks Robinson would have none of it. After Pete Rose and Bobby Tolan began the game at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium with consecutive hits, Robinson made a sensational, leaping grab of Tony Perez’s hopper, stepped on third and fired to first for a double play. Orioles lefthander Dave McNally ended the inning by retiring Johnny Bench on a liner.
Robinson then jolted the Reds with his bat, staking McNally to a 2-0 lead with a first-inning double that scored Don Buford and Frank Robinson. In the second inning, Brooks raced in for Helms’ slow roller and threw out the Reds’ second baseman. In the sixth, he made a diving stab of Bench’s liner.
McNally, like Mike Cuellar a 24-game winner for the ’70 Orioles, obviously was grateful for Brooks’ handiwork. McNally left little to chance, though, hammering a bases-loaded homer in the sixth off Wayne Granger and thereby equaling Bob Gibson’s career mark of two Series homers by a pitcher. Buford and Frank Robinson also homered, giving the Orioles a 9-3 triumph.
Hurting with 14-3 pitcher Wayne Simpson unavailable for Series duty because of a shoulder injury and 20-game winner Jim Merritt yet to appear because of a tender elbow, Cincinnati trotted out first-game starter Gary Nolan again in Game 4. While Nolan, 18-7 for the Reds in ’70, couldn’t rescue his club (he lasted only 2 2/3 innings), May did. With the NL champions trailing 5-3 in the eighth, May blasted a three-run homer and the Reds held on for a 6-5 victory.
The ailing Merritt gave it a try in Game 5, but couldn’t make it through the second inning. Orioles starter Cuellar had problems initially, too, as Cincinnati — up to its old quick-strike tricks — cuffed him for three runs and four hits in the top of the first. But Cuellar pitched shutout ball the rest of the way, allowing only two additional hits, and Baltimore romped to a Series-clinching 9-3 decision.