By Phil Ellenbecker
Among the greatest plays in baseball history that we see or read or hear about, I can't recall seeing great relay plays popping up. Derek Jerek's flip to home from off to the right side of the plate in the 2001 World Series comes to mind. That was a snazzy play, but that was not really a great relay play so much as a great play.
In fact, probably the most famous relay play in history was one that was botched — on Enos Slaughter's mad dash to home plate that won Game 7 of the 1946 World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals.
The relay I'll always remember, and one that I rate — until someone contradicts me — as the best in baseball history, from start to finish, came in Game 2 of the 1980 American League Championship Series, and it was executed by the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees.
With two out in the top of the eighth inning, Thursday, Oct. 9, at Royals Stadium, and the Royals leading 3-2 …well, let Al Michaels tell it:
"Leonard peering in for the sign, Randolph away over at first base, the 1-2 pitch to Watson; line drive base hit, in the corner, could be trouble; Wilson over to chase it down, plays the carom; Randolph rounding third, they're waving him home. Here comes the relay from Brett … He is … out. … Perfect execution by the Royals as Steinbrenner watches on, as the Royals cut him down at the plate on the relay, Wilson to Brett to Darryl Porter, and we go to the last of the eighth with the Royals leading 3-2."
Yes, left fielder Willie Wilson trailed Watson's shot to the wall and gloved it, got it into Brett at third base, and Brett gunned it to Porter straddling and blocking the plate. The K.C. catcher just wouldn't let Randoph by as he tried to lunge past Porter, and there was no doubt about it. O-U-T out. (See it here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uRX9Jwqx-I.)
And the ABC broadcast cut almost immediately to a shot of peeved Yankees owner George Steinbrenner pointing and tossing on his jacket, and probably deciding right then and there to fire Yankees third-base coach Mike Ferraro. Maybe. But that's a story for another day.
The story right now was the Royals' bang-bang-bang play that vaporized Randolph and gave them a big boost toward finally toppling the Yankees and earning their first trip to the World Series.
I can recall watching the game and hearing the announcers say that Brett must have thrown a 90-mph fastball on his relay home. Yet another in what was a mounting series of postseason heroics for Brett, this time killing them with his arm instead of his bat.
Brett's throw was the key element in making the play happen, but every part was important, timing was of the essence. And as Michaels said, the Royals didn't miss a beat.
While his defense got Dennis Leonard out of the eighth unscathed, he flirted with trouble in the ninth when Reggie Jackson led off with a single. First-year Royals manager Jim Frey then summoned Dan Quisenberry, who after retiring Oscar Gamble, yielded a single to Rick Cerone to put the tying run at second and the go-ahead run at the plate with Graig Nettles.
But Quisenberry, who in 1980 led the league in saves for the first of fives times in six years, then got a ground ball to shortstop U.L. Washington, who combined with Frank White to turn a game-ending double play. That gave the Royals a 2-0 series lead.
The Royals then polished off the Yankees the next night in Yankees Stadium, 4-2, behind Brett's towering three-run homer. The Royals lost in six games to the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.
K.C. got all the runs it needed in ALCS Game 2 in the third inning. After back-to-back singles with one out by Porter and White, Wilson brought them home with a triple to right. Washington followed with a double to center, making it 3-0.
The Yankees moved within the final margin in the fifth. Nettles broke up Leonard's shutout with an inside-the-park homer to right, and Randolph doubled in Bobby Brown to cut it to 3-2.
Leonard allowed two runs, both earned, and seven hits while striking out eight and walking one in improving his postseason mark to 2-3, after dropping two decisions in 1978, the Royals' previous appearance in the ALCS.
(Leonard, the Royals' bell cow during this period with the most wins of any major leaguer by a right-hander from 1975-81, didn't fare so well in the playoffs and World Series with a final postseason record of 3-5 and a 4.32 ERA.)
Aftermath
Ferraro didn't get fired over his decision to send Randolph. His manager did. Dick Howser, who'd led the Yankees to a major-league leading 103 wins during the regular season, was forced out after he refused Steinbrenner's order to fire Ferraro.
So Howser went on to take over the Royals after they stumbled the next season and Frey was fired. And Howser, after the Royals continued to stumble in '82 and '83, led K.C. back to the division title in 1984 and their first World Series title the next year before succumbing to brain cancer in 1987, at the age of 51.
And Ferraro ended up being hired as the Royals' third base coach by Howser in 1984. Ferraro succeeded Howser as manager when Howser fell ill in1986.
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