History of the World Series – 1982
The Brewers, a team that started out as the expansion Seattle Pilots in 1969 before moving to Milwaukee the next year, put on quite a show in the club’s first World Series game. And Manager Harvey Kuenn’s heavy-hitting American League champions did it not in the friendly and relatively cozy confines of Milwaukee’s County Stadium, but at expansive Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.
Milwaukee cuffed four St. Louis pitchers for 17 hits. Leadoff man Paul Molitor banged out a Series-record five hits. Robin Yount drilled four hits. Former Cardinal Ted Simmons belted a home run for the team that had cracked 216 homers during the record season (and thus earned the nickname “Harvey’s Wallbangers”). Lefthanded pitcher Mike Caldwell spun a three-hitter. And the Brewers’ defense played flawlessly. It was a wipeout.
It also was reminiscent of Series-opening games in 1945 and 1959. Cubs 9, Tigers 0. White Sox 11, Dodgers 0. And we all know what happened to the thoroughly overwhelmed and dispirited Tigers and Dodgers of yesteryear. They scrambled back for next-day victories and went on to become World Series champions, that’s what.
The Cardinals demonstrated a similar resolve. Trailing 4-2 midway through Game 2, they tied matters on catcher Darrell Porter’s two-out, two-run double in the sixth inning.
The blow was satisfying for Porter, who hadn’t exactly won over St. Louis fans since his free-agent signing with the Cardinals in December 1980. In the wake of a blockbuster Milwaukee-St. Louis trade of the same time frame that included the dispatching of catcher Simmons to the Brewers, Porter was to fill the shoes of the sweet-swinging and popular switch-hitter. But Porter had terrible seasons in 1981 and 1982 and found himself in the fans’ doghouse. His outstanding Championship Series play preceding this fall classic had assuaged the St. Louis populace, at least to some degree.
With the game still tied at 4-4 in the eighth, Cardinals pinch-hitter Steve Braun coaxed a bases-loaded walk off reliever Pete Ladd and Whitey Herzog’s team had a lead for the first time in the Series. Relief ace Bruce Sutter made sure it didn’t get away and St. Louis was back in business with a 5-4 win.
Cardinals rookie Willie McGee, who had hit only four home runs all season, drilled two of Pete Vuckovich’s pitches out of County Stadium in Game 3, sparking St. Louis to a 6-2 victory. Along with his power show that netted four RBIs, center fielder McGee made two sterling defensive plays. He made a leaping catch of a 400-foot Molitor drive in the first inning and robbed Gorman Thomas of a home run in the ninth with a leaping grab above the fence in left-center.
One not-so-bright spot for St. Louis was a seventh-inning injury to starting pitcher Joaquin Andujar, who was felled by a Simmons line drive that struck him just below the kneecap. Andujar had allowed only three hits.
The Cardinals were coasting, 5-1, in the seventh inning of Game 4 when, with one out, pitcher Dave LaPoint dropped a throw from Keith Hernandez on Ben Oglivie’s grounder to the St. Louis first baseman. While it wasn’t much of an opening, Milwaukee made the most of it. The Brewers erupted for six runs, with Yount and Thomas connecting for two-run singles. The 7-5 score held up for Kuenn’s club, which had found itself in a 4-0 hole after an inning and a half and suffered the indignation of yielding a two-run sacrifice fly in the process.
With McGee on third base and Ozzie Smith, obtained from San Diego in February, on second with one out in the second inning. Tom Herr hit a long drive to center field. Thomas tracked down the ball and made the catch but slipped on the warning track. McGee tagged after the catch and scored and Smith steamed into third, going on home when Thomas lost his footing.
Milwaukee’s Caldwell followed his nifty three-hitter of Game 1 with a not-so-nifty 14-hitter in Game 5. But, with two-out relief from Bob McClure, it was good enough to win. The Brewers beat Bob Forsch for the second time, winning 6-4 and getting four hits from Yount. The Milwaukee shortstop thus became the first player to have two-four-hit games in World Series competition — and, of course, he achieved the feat within one Series.
Down three games to two as the Series moved back to St. Louis, the Cardinals frolicked in Game 6 much the way Milwaukee had in Game 1. Rookie John Stuper, despite waiting out two rain delays totaling more than 2 1/2 hours, pitched a complete-game four-hitter in a 13-1 laugher. Hernandez and Porter belted two-run homers and Hernandez wound up with four RBIs. Dane Iorg, St. Louis’ designated hitter, drilled two doubles and a triple.
Third-game casualty Andujar pronounced himself fit for Game 7. The Brewers went with Vuckovich. Andujar won out, thanks to a Cardinals comeback and two innings of perfect relief from Sutter. St. Louis faced a 3-1 deficit entering the last of the sixth, but the Cardinals got a game-tying bases-loaded single from Hernandez and a go-ahead base hit from George Hendrick.
Porter and Braun provided insurance wit run-scoring singles in the eighth as Milwaukee relievers, minus Rollie Fingers (injured in September), stumbled at a critical juncture. The Cardinals won the game, 6-3, and the Series for a ninth time, tops in the National League and second only to the New York Yankees’ 22.
So much for damaged psyches.
