Headlines and photos proclaim the tumult and shouting after Chris Chambliss' leadoff homer in the ninth inning of Game 5 gave the Yankees their first pennant since 1964.
By Phil Ellenbecker
A couple stories back, I presented the case for George Brett as a coming superstar by recalling his six straight three-hit games from May 8-13 in 1976.
I now present my personal memory, and probably many others', of when it appeared George truly had the touch of greatness. That came on Thursday night, Oct. 14, Game 6 of the 1976 American League Championship Series, when Brett brought the Royals back from the dead and on the cusp of the World Series in their first year in the postseason, in their eighth year of existence.
Didn't quite happen. Damn you, Chris Chambliss, who unloaded a homer off Mark LIttell leading off the bottom of the ninth inning, on the first pitch, giving the New York Yankees a 7-6 win and their first pennant since 1964.
Yankees fans, who'd earlier delayed the start of the ninth inning by tossing debris onto the field, marked the occasion by this time taking to the turf and swarming Chambliss. He was forced to make like a fullback and barrel over the intruders in an attempt to get around the bases, before being forced to plow his way into the dugout after reaching third base. Police later escorted him to home plate, but they found it had been pulled out of the ground.
Such high drama didn't seem in the offing heading into the eighth inning, with New York leading 6-3 and Yankees fans getting ready to unleash 12 years of pent-up frustration at seeing their once-proud franchise shut out of the postseason.
Then Brett shut them up. After Al Cowens and Jim Wohlford started the inning with back-to-back singles off starter Ed Figueroa and Grant Jackson, Brett flattened out on an inside, over-the-shoulder fastball from Jackson on the first pitch and uncorked a three-run homer down the right-field line.
"And-you-can-hear-the-qui-et-of-this-crowd," How-ahd Co-sell staccatoed into the ABC microphone as Brett, who'd hit just seven homers during the regular season, stepped into the dugout after circling the bases.
And by George, all of a sudden we had a brand new ballgame. But the Royals, who'd twice rallied from one-game deficits in forcing a fifth and final game (best of five in championship series then), failed to capitalize on the momentum of Brett's homer. Grant retired John Mayberry, Hal McRae and Jamie Quirk in order to close out the eighth.
Littell, who'd emerged as the Royals closer with 16 saves and a 2.08 ERA in his first full season and came on with one out in the seventh inning for Andy Hassler, retired the side in order in the Yankees half of the eighth. That made it five straight batters he'd gotten out. But he couldn't get the sixth.
On Chambliss' game winner, the ball sailed over the reach of the 5-foot-11 Hal McRae. Later, Royals manager Whitey Herzog said the ball would have been caught if the regular K.C. right fielder, 6-1 Al Cowens, had been in place. Cowens had to move to center after Amos Otis was sidelined for the series in the first game, spraining an ankle running out a grounder in his first at-bat.
Could Cowens have caught it? I'll chalk this up as another another lame excuse by crybaby Herzog. Two inches wouldn't have made a difference.
As noted by ABC color commentator Reggie Jackson, who'd be joining the Yankees next season, Brett was atoning for an earlier error when he turned hero with his homer in the eighth. The Yankees had made it 6-3 in the sixth when Brett's error on Carlos May's grounder allowed Chambliss to score.
(Chambliss was 3 for 4 on the night with two runs scored and three RBIs. He batted .525 in the series with five runs and eight RBIs.)
The night got off to a promising start for the Royals when Brett doubled and Mayberry homered in the top of the first inning.
But the Yankees came back in their half when Mickey Rivers tripled leading off, Roy White singled him in and Thurman Munson followed with another single, prompting Herzog to summon Paul Splittorff. White then scored on Chambliss' sacrifice fly.
The Yankees took control with two runs apiece in the third off Splittorff and the sixth off Hassler. The Royals had taken a 2-1 lead in the second when Buck Martinez singled in Cookie Rojas.
As it turned out, when he stepped up in the eighth Brett was only beginning to torment the Yankees in their own stadium and produce postseason heroics. The homer was the first of his 10 in the postseason, nine of them in the ALCS. He belted three, all of them solo and two of them leadoff, in his first three at-bats in the third game of the 1978 ALCS at Yankee Stadium. They went for naught, though, as the Yankees won 6-5 and went on to win the next game and advance to the World Series for the third straight year.
(Trivia: Did you know Brett, normally the No. 3 hitter in the Royals batting order throughout his career, was the leadoff hitter in this game? Brett batted leadoff 134 times in his career, including 39 in 1978.)
Brett's crowning moment as a Yankee killer came in Game 3 of the 1980 ALCS at the House that Ruth Built, with his three-run homer off Goose Gossage in the seventh inning that gave the Royals a 4-2 win and sent them into the World Series for the first time.
And then there's the infamous Pine Tar Game homer, again in Yankee Stadium and again off Gossage, on July 24, 1983. Brett's two-run shot in the ninth appeared to have won the game but was disallowed, at Yankees manager Billy Martin's behest, by umpire Tim Tim McClelland for what was ruled an excessive use of pine tar.
AL President Lee MacPhail ruled in favor of the Royals' protest, and K.C. completed the win when the suspended game was resumed Aug. 18.
(More trivia: Who was the batter who singled with two out both times to give George Brett the chance to hit his most famous homers? Answer: U.L. Washington. The toothpicked wonder kept the inning alive in Game 3 of the 1980 ALCS, and in the Pine Tar Game.)
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