History of the World Series – 1980
So, with the Browns out of the running, only one still-existing club from ’03 was still trying to hoist its first World Series flag: the long-futile Philadelphia Phillies.
The Phillies would get another crack at a Series title in 1980. “Another” might be overstating the case. They had qualified for the big event only twice, winning National League pennants in 1915 and 1950 in their first 97 seasons of NL play.
In their 98th season, the Phillies had vented considerable frustration even before the World Series began. So, too, had their Series opponents, the Kansas City Royals.
One step away from World Series berths in 1976, 1977 and 1978, both the Phillies and the Royals lost in Championship Series play all three years. While the Phils didn’t exact revenge against their conquerors (having lost to the Cincinnati Reds once and the Los Angeles Dodgers twice), they were able to clear the NL Championship Series hurdle in 1980, and did so at the expense of the Houston Astros. The Royals, on the other hand, reveled in overcoming an opponent that had been a bane to their existence. After losing down-to-the-wire AL Championship Series to New York in ’76 and ’77 and falling to the Yankees again in ’78, Kansas City blotted out the Yanks in three straight games in the 1980 playoffs.
Long-suffering Phillies fans couldn’t wait for the World Series to start. Then, in the early innings of Game 1 at Veterans Stadium, they suffered a little more. Amos Otis, a Royals outfield fixture since 1970 (the second year of the expansion team’s operation), cracked a two-run homer in his first Series at-bat, which came in the second inning, and Willie Aikens followed with a one-on blast in the third.
Staked to a 4-0 lead, 20-game winner Dennis Leonard couldn’t hold it. Not even for an inning. The Phils erupted for five runs in their half of the third, the final three coming on a homer by Bake McBride. The National Leaguers got single runs in the next two innings, with Bob Boone delivering the first with his second run-scoring double of the game and Garry Maddox driving home the second with a sacrifice fly. The runs proved crucial when Aikens, celebrating his 26th birthday, rammed his second two-run homer of the night in the eighth. At this point, with the Phils clinging to a 7-6 lead, relief specialist Tug McGraw took over for starter Bob Walk. McGraw, doing what he did best, closed out the Royals and made a winner out of rookie Walk.
In Game 2, Otis shot Kansas City into a 3-2 lead with a two-run double off Phillies standout Steve Carlton in the seventh. John Wathan followed Otis’ drive with a sacrifice fly, and the Royals subsequently turned the two-run lead over to bullpen master Dan Quisenberry. Working in relief of Larry Gura, Quisenberry fashioned a 1-2-3 seventh but ran into trouble in the eighth. Big trouble. The Phils tattooed the submariner for four hits and four runs, with McBride singling home the tying run and Mike Schmidt doubling in the go-ahead run. Ron Reed pitched the final inning for the Phils, who chalked up a 6-4 victory.
A 2-0 deficit in games obviously was bad news for the Royals. But it was just part of the bad news. George Brett, Kansas City’s superstar third baseman who thrilled fans nationwide during the regular season with his quest to bat .400 (he wound up at .390), had left Game 2 in the middle of the sixth inning after going 2-for-2 at the plate. It was disclosed that Brett was suffering from hemorrhoids, and was in considerable pain. Could Brett possibly be available in 48 hours for Game 3, the first Series game ever to be played in Kansas City? Could he come back at all after undergoing minor surgery?
Never fear. Hours after leaving a Kansas City hospital on the day of the third game, Brett stepped to the plate at Royals Stadium and belted a first-inning home run off the Phillies’ Dick Ruthven. The two clubs then traded runs, with the Phils matching Kansas City’s run with one of their own in the top of the second, the Royals scoring in the fourth and Philadelphia tying the game at 2-2 in the fifth. Rookie Manager Jim Frey’s American Leaguers regained the lead on an Otis homer in the seventh, only to see the NL champions forge another deadlock in the eighth. Kansas City then foiled the Phillies’ next-inning-comeback scenario by scoring in the bottom of the 10th. With Willie Wilson on second base after a walk and a steal, and Brett on first following an intentional walk, Aikens drilled a two-out single to the gap in left-center and the Royals emerged with a 4-3 victory.
Aikens continued to smoke in Game 4, walloping a two-run homer in the Royals’ four-run first inning and then hitting a bases-empty shot in the second. The two drives made Aikens the first man in history to connect for a pair of two-homer games in one Series. Leonard worked into the eighth inning and took a 5-3 triumph.
What had once been a deteriorating situation for the Royals was turning brighter all the time. After trailing two games to none and not knowing the status of Brett, Kansas City had regained Brett’s services and also deadlocked the Series. And soon the Royals would be on the verge of seizing the Series lead.
After Schmidt broke a scoreless tie in Game 5 by depositing a Gura pitch over the wall for a two-run homer in the fourth inning, the Royals broke through against rookie Marty Bystrom on Brett’s RBI groundout in the fifth. Otis then rapped a game-tying, leadoff homer in the sixth off Bystrom, and U.L. Washington stroked a sacrifice fly later in the sixth off reliever Reed (with the run being charged to Bystrom).
Now armed with a 3-2 edge, Kansas City’s Gura quickly found himself in a two-on, one-out jam in the seventh. Quisenberry came to his rescue, though, and the game slipped through the eighth and into the ninth with the Royals still guarding the one-run lead.
Schmidt led off the final frame by singling off Brett’s glove. Pinch-hitter Del Unser then whacked a Quisenberry pitch past Aikens, the Royals’ hulking first baseman, and down the right-field line. The hit went for a double, scoring Schmidt and tying the game. After Keith Moreland sacrificed Unser to third, Maddox grounded out to third as Unser retreated to the bag. But Manny Trillo singled off Quisenberry’s glove — Brett grabbed the ball and fired to first, but his throw was too late — and Unser dashed home with the go-ahead run.
McGraw proceeded to tug at Royals fans’ heartstrings — not to mention his own — when he issued three walks in the last of the ninth. But Jose Cardenal struck out, ending the game.
Now 24-game winner Carlton would get his second start for the Phillies. And he was in outstanding form. Through seven innings, it was 4-0, Phils, with Schmidt supplying the big hit with a two-run single off Royals starter Rich Gale in the third.
The Royals got Carlton out of the game, though, when their first two batters reached base in the eighth. Dallas Green, in his first full season as the Phils’ manager, again went to McGraw. The lefthanded reliever got the job done, even if in not-so-pretty fashion. Kansas City managed to load the bases three times in the last two innings, but cashed in only one run.
The crowning achievement — it all but crowned the Phillies as World Series champions — came with one out in the ninth, the bases full of Kansas Citians and the Phils on top, 4-1. McGraw induced Frank White to hit a foul pop near the Philadelphia dugout, and catcher Bob Boone camped under it. The ball popped in and out of Boone’s mitt — the Royals’ hopes rose for a fleeting moment — but first baseman Pete Rose, also giving chase on the ball, was there to snatch it out of the air. The Royals’ Wilson struck out for a Series-record 12th time, ending the 1980 fall classic.
At long last, the Phillies had done it.
