This day in baseball history: Oakland is king of the American League
Orioles fall to As in classic ALCS
The Baltimore Orioles dominated the American League in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the seven years leading up to 1973, the Orioles won four pennants and two World Series. No other AL team won more than one pennant during that period.
In 1971, the Oakland As emerged as a threat to Baltimore’s dominance. The Orioles swatted them down that year, sweeping the upstart As in the ALCS. But in 1972, the As won the AL pennant and the World Series.
However, because 1972 was a down year for the Orioles, Oakland’s path to the championship did not run through Baltimore. Until the Orioles faded away or the As beat them head-to-head, it would be an open question as to which team was king of the American League.
In 1973, a revived Orioles team — boosted by young stars Al Bumbry, Rich Coggins, Bobby Grich, and Don Baylor —dominated the AL East. Oakland, after a rough start, dominated the AL West. Thus, the ALCS would feature a true clash of titans — the kind we don’t see enough of these days due to the proliferation of “wild card” teams in the playoffs.
Baltimore’s record was 97-65. Oakland’s was 94-68. And, as noted, these were the only two teams that could claim to be dominant in the AL of the early 1970s.
Both teams featured three top-notch starting pitchers. Baltimore had the old firm of Palmer, Cuellar, and McNally. They combined for 57 wins in 1973. Oakland countered with Hunter, Holtzman, and Blue — 20 game winners, all.
On offense, the teams had nearly identical output. The Orioles scored 754 runs during the regular season. The As scored 758.
However, the two managers — Dick Williams and Earl Weaver — had different philosophies of lineup construction. Williams used the same nine players regardless of whether the opposing pitcher was right-handed or left-handed. With switch-hitting Bill North out of the ALCS due to injury, Williams had the opportunity to platoon Angel Mangual (right-handed) and Vic Davalillo (left-handed) in centerfield. He did not take advantage of this opportunity by benching Mangual in Game One against Palmer, but did in Games Four and Five.
Earl Weaver, on the other hand, platooned at three lineup slots. He did this even though it meant benching longtime star Boog Powell and rookie stars Al Bumbry (.337 batting average) and Rich Coggins (.319 average). And because two of Oakland’s three aces (Holtzman and Blue) were southpaws, this meant that Powell, Bumbry, and Coggins would sit more than they would play in the ALCS.
But Weaver knew what he was doing. The “splits” (comparisons of player performance against right-handers and left-handers) show that the Orioles skipper was clearly correct to use Baylor, Merv Rettenmund, and Andy Etchebarren against lefties and Powell, Bumbry, and Coggins only against righties.
Game One
Jim Palmer and Vida Blue squared off in the Series opener, played in Baltimore. Blue, then a rookie sensation, had pitched and lost the opener of the 1971 ALCS against the Orioles, which was also played in Baltimore.
Blue performed okay in defeat on that day, but not on this one. The Birds chased him in the first inning, scoring four runs.
Tommy Davis, Blue’s friend and mentor with the ‘71 As, contributed a key double, on his way to a 3-5 day. For Davis, it amounted to revenge for being unceremoniously released during a 1972 exhibition game by Charlie Finley, who blamed him for Blue’s holdout in a contract dispute.
Four runs were more than enough for Palmer. He shut out the As, limiting them to five hits. Reggie Jackson summed up Palmer’s performance: “Man throws like that, he don’t lose no games.”
Game Two
The Orioles rode a 10-game ALCS winning streak into Game Two. In fact, they had never lost an ALCS game — the four-team playoff format having been installed in 1969.
The As ended that streak in Game Two thanks mainly to Sal Bando. In his second at-bat, Bando was robbed of a home run by a spectacular catch by Bumbry in leftfield. But the next time up, Captain Sal hit one that nobody could catch. His homer, following one by Joe Rudi, put the As up 3-1 in the top of the sixth.
Two innings later, Bando homered again, driving in Bert Campanaris to put Oakland ahead 5-2. All of this was at the expense of McNally.
Hunter and Rollie Fingers, a pair of future Hall of Famers, made the lead stand. The pair did put the tying runs on base in the bottom of the eighth, but Fingers got Baylor on a ground ball to end the inning.
The final score was 6-3 Oakland. The Series was tied at one game apiece.
Game Three
The pivotal third game, played in Oakland, was the gem of the Series, especially for those of us who love pitchers’ duels. Starters Ken Holtzman and Mike Cuellar both went the distance in a tense 11-inning struggle. Combined, they gave up only three runs and seven hits.
Holtzman had been the best pitcher in the AL during the first half of the season, but he tailed off during the second half, probably due to fatigue from pitching in a four-man rotation. In early July, his ERA was below 2.00. By season’s end, it had ballooned to 2.97.
However, Holtzman was on more than a week’s rest when he took the mound for Game Three.
Unlike Holtzman, Cuellar had come on strong in the second half of the season. He was no longer quite the same pitcher he had been when he dominated the league in 1969, but had won 18 games in 1973 with a 3.27 ERA. And Cueller was a consummate big-game pitcher.
The Orioles scored early on a solo homer by Earl Williams in the second inning. Cuellar made the 1-0 lead stand until the bottom of the eighth. Pinch hitter Jesus Alou singled to lead off that frame. Allan Lewis, Finley’s pet pinch runner, replaced Alou, and pinch hitter Mike Andrews moved Lewis to second with a sacrifice bunt.
Cuellar struck out Campanaris, but Rudi tied the game with a single.
The score remained tied until the bottom of the 11th. Williams had a rested bullpen due to a rainout the day before, and he contemplated removing Holtzman in extra innings. But the normally mild-mannered left-hander told his manager, “If you pull me out, I’ll kill you. I don’t give a shit if this game goes 40 innings. I’m not leaving.”
The Orioles failed to put a runner on base during extra innings.
Campanaris led off the bottom of the 11th. He had homered the day before and now he homered again to end the game. Campy hit only four home runs in 151 games during the regular season.
Game Four
Game Four was a rematch of the first game — Palmer v. Blue. The outcome was the same, a Baltimore victory, but the game was very different.
This time, the As rocked Palmer with three runs in the second inning. Weaver removed his ace before the frame was over.
By the top of the seventh, Oakland led 4-0 and Blue seemed to be coasting towards his first post-season victory.
But with one out in the seventh, Blue walked Williams and gave up back-to-back singles to Grich and Robinson. That brought Etchebarren to the plate as the potential tying run in a 4-1 game.
Williams must have thought about removing his tiring starter in favor of Fingers, his bullpen ace. But that move would have enabled Weaver to counter with one of his left-handed stars — most likely Powell or Bumbry.
So Williams decided to take his chances against Etchebarren and his .257 regular season average. The catcher rarely homered (just two in 71 regular season games), so even if Blue didn’t retire Etchebarren, the As figured to keep the lead. After that, Williams could consider his options.
But Blue, perhaps losing faith in his fastball as fatigue set in, decided to throw Etchebarren a lefty-to-righty curveball, only his second curve of the day. Etchebarren hit it over the 375 sign in left-center for a game-tying home run.
Only then did Williams call on Fingers. He retired the Orioles in the eighth, but gave up a leadoff home run to Grich in the top of the ninth. Baltimore now led 5-4.
Reliever Grant Jackson made the lead hold up in the bottom of the inning, and the Series was tied, 2-2.
The days drama wasn’t over, though. In the As dugout, Fingers looked at Blue and complained that the As had let the game slip away. John “Blue Moon” Odom, who had been accused by Blue himself of choking in Game Five of the 1972 ALCS, took offense on Blue’s behalf.
He reminded Fingers that the reliever, not Blue, gave up the game-winning home run. The two pitchers then squared and a fight seemed certain.
But Reggie Jackson got between them and managed to keep the peace. Afterwards, Jackson, reminding folks that the As were at their best when they were at each other’s throats, said “we’ll probably score 25 runs tomorrow.”
Game Five
The deciding game of the 1973 ALCS, played on this day in baseball history, will always be special to me. It was the first post-season baseball game I ever attended.
I sat with a few law school classmates in the right field bleachers. I don’t remember what the ticket cost, but I’m pretty sure it was no more than $10.
Even at great prices, the As did not come close to a sellout for the biggest game of the season. The attendance was only 27,497.
Dick Williams brought back his Game Two starter, Catfish Hunter. Who else?
Earl Weaver decided not to use McNally who had been roughed up in his Game Two start. Instead, he selected 23-year old Doyle Alexander.
The Os had acquired Alexander from the Dodgers in the Frank Robinson deal. He was a good young arm and would go on to win 194 big league games. But considering his youth and his 3.86 regular season ERA, Alexander seemed like an odd choice for the deciding game of the ALCS.
Yes, McNally had been hit hard in Game Two and yes, he would be pitching on three days rest (like Hunter). But the lefty had a 7-3 record in playoff games.
Alexander started strong. He breezed through the first two innings and though he gave up a run in the third, it was unearned — the result of an error by Brooks Robinson, of all people (Joe Rudi singled home the run).
In the bottom of the fourth, it seemed to me that Alexander was starting to get his pitches up the strike zone — not where he wanted them to be. Nonetheless, he set down the first two hitters, Bando and Jackson.
But Gene Tenace singled and Davillilo, a great late season pickup by Finley, followed with a triple, Then, Jesus Alou, Finley’s other great late season pickup, singled home Davillilo. Before Weaver could do anything about it, the Orioles trailed 3-0.
Weaver pulled Alexander, replacing him with Palmer who had started the day before. This time, Palmer was back to his usual self. He shut down the As the rest of the way on just two hits.
Meanwhile, Hunter, though piling up scoreless innings, was not quite his usual self. Uncharacteristically, he walked two batters in the first four innings and hit another one. He was getting neither strikeouts nor ground outs.
But late in the game, as he began to tire, Hunter’s pitches started to sink and the groundball outs came. All three outs in the eighth inning were on grounders.
By the ninth, Hunter was running on fumes. He retired Williams and Blair on grounders but gave up a double to Robinson. He then fell behind Grich, 2-0.
Williams went to the mound. He told Hunter not to walk Grich and not to try to strike him out. “Just let him hit it.”
Hunter obliged, as did Grich. The second baseman hit a grounder to Campanaris, and that was the game and the Series.
Hunter had a shutout and the As had the AL crown. They were the undisputed kings of the League and would repeat the next season. Baltimore wouldn’t win another pennant until 1979.
The day’s drama wasn’t over, though. Reggie Jackson, peacemaker the day before, got arrested in the evening for traffic violations and attitude. Eventually, he was bailed out — against his instructions.
The As had more grist for the needling mill (for example, Bill North would give a clubhouse lesson in the proper way to stand for a search) as the Swingin’ As headed to the World Series for dates with the New York Mets.
And for more weird drama.