This day in baseball history: Oakland wins Game 4 of the 1972 World Series.
Takes a 3 games to 1 lead
The 1972 World Series featured two dynasties in the making. Between them, the contestants — the Oakland As and the Cincinnati Reds — would win five straight world championships (1972-1976).
Neither team could claim anything like dynasty status yet. However, both had shown signs of what was to come.
Oakland won 101 games in 1971 and 93 out of 155 in the shortened 1972 season. Cincinnati won 102 games in 1970 en route to the World Series. After slumping in 1971, the Reds rebounded to win 95 games out of 154 in 1972.
Oakland had by far the best pitching staff in baseball, with a team ERA about a quarter of a run lower than its nearest rival (Pittsburgh). Cincinnati scored the most runs of any team, bar the Houston Astros who outscored the Reds by one run.
The two teams were evenly matched, but the Reds were strong favorites. This was due in part to superior hype and in part to the fact that Oakland’s best hitter, Reggie Jackson, would be unable to participate. He had injured himself stealing home in the deciding game of the ALCS.
Game One — A star is born.
Game One, in Cincinnati, featured lefthander Ken Holtzman (19-11, 2.57 ERA) vs. righty Gary Nolan (15-5, 1.99 ERA). Both pitched reasonably well, but Oakland’s Gene Tenace stole the show.
Tenace had been a backup catcher until late in the season when starter Dave Duncan (later a great pitching coach under Tony LaRussa, his teammate on the 1971 As) was called up for Marine Corps Reserve duty. Although Tenace batted only .225, manager Dick Williams picked him over Duncan for the ALCS. And despite going only 1-17 (but that hit knocked in the pennant winning run), and despite Duncan’s edge in throwing out base stealers of whom the Reds had several, Williams stuck with Tenace as the World Series began.
It didn’t take long for Williams’ faith to be rewarded. In the second inning, with two out and one on, Tenace pulled a Nolan fastball over the left-field fence to give the As a 2-0 lead.
The Reds got one of the runs back in the bottom of the inning. Singles by Johnny Bench and Tony Perez, a walk to Dennis Menke, and a groundout by Dave Concepcion did the deed. But Holtzman was able to escape a bases loaded, no out jam with only that one run allowed.
The Reds tied the game in bottom of the fourth in nearly identical fashion. This time it was singles by Bench and Perez and a groundout by Menke that accounted for the tally.
Tenace’s second World Series at-bat came in the fifth inning with one out. Again he homered, this time hammering a Nolan curve ball, to put Oakland up 3-2. Tenace thus became the first man in World Series history to homer in his first two at-bats.
That was it for the scoring. The As had constructed a bullpen ahead of its time, led by three closer-quality relievers — Rollie Fingers, Darold Knowles, and Bob Locker. Knowles, the lefty of the trio, was hurt and unavailable for the Series (he would pitch in all seven games the next year), so Williams replaced him with southpaw starter Vida Blue and went with a three-man starting rotation.
When Bench doubled to lead off the bottom of the sixth (his third straight hit) Williams turned to Fingers. He retired the next three batters, striking out two of them including the dangerous Perez.
When Fingers got into a spot of trouble in the seventh, and with left-handed hitters Joe Morgan and Bobby Tolan due up, Williams turned to Blue. He walked Morgan but retired Tolan on a pop-up to end the inning.
Blue gave up only one hit in the final two innings to close out the 3-2 win for Oakland.
Game Two: Williams under-manages, gets away with it.
Jim “Catfish” Hunter started Game Two for Oakland. His regular season record was an outstanding 21-7 with a 2.04 ERA, but he had been considerably better than that from July on.
Sparky Anderson picked 22 year-old Ross Grimsley (14-8, 3.05 ERA) to try and level the Series. Grimsley had beaten Pittsburgh in the NLCS, limiting the Bucs to one run and only two hits.
The As got to Grimsley for single runs in the second inning (on a single by Hunter) and the third inning (on a home run by Joe Rudi). After that, they watched Hunter mow down the mighty Reds for eight innings.
But in the bottom of the ninth, with a 2-0 lead, Hunter suddenly was laboring. Perez led off with a single. Menke then blasted a shot to left field that had “home run” written all over it.
But Rudi, who had been taught to play the outfield by one-time As coach Joe DiMaggio and who later would win three Gold Gloves, made a spectacular leaping catch to rob Menke and Reds. Williams called this the best catch he had ever seen.
By now, it was time to pull Hunter. But Dick Williams, often accused of over-managing, under-managed this time. He stuck with his ace.
The next batter, Cesar Geronimo, smashed a Hunter pitch towards right field. Mike Hegan, in the game as a defensive replacement for Mike Epstein, made a fine diving play on the ball. He was unable to hold on when he hit the ground, which meant that Perez couldn’t be doubled up off of second base. But Hegan lunged from his knees to first base to record out number two.
Still, Williams stayed with Hunter. Only after the next batter, Hal McRae, lashed a single to drive in Perez did Williams call on Fingers. He got pinch hitter Julian Javier to pop out and end the game.
An interesting flight back to California.
The As were a notoriously combative outfit, and some of their worst moments followed victories. As I recounted here, Vida Blue and John “Blue Moon” Odom nearly fought in the clubhouse after Oakland’s pennant clinching victory over Detroit.
On the plane ride back from Cincinnati, it was Mike Epstein who couldn’t stand the team’s prosperity. Upset with being replaced by Hegan (standard practice throughout the season) and no doubt unhappy that he was struggling mightily at the plate, Epstein approached Williams in the front of the plane and started screaming at his manager.
Like Epstein, Williams had imbibed freely. He responded to his first baseman in kind. He also told reporters they could print his opinion of Epstein.
Later he would say, in a decent summation of what managing the As was like:
Here we are, two wins from a world title, and the manager wants to kick the shit out of first baseman and vice versa? We didn’t fight because even this team was not that crazy.
Back in Oakland the next day, Williams was conciliatory. He said he respected Epstein’s desire to stay in the game and admitted that he (Williams) had indulged in five or six scotches at the time of the argument.
But Epstein’s days as an Oakland A were numbered.
Game Three: Cincinnati gets back into it, as runs become even more scarce and Johnny Bench gets faked out.
The teams were now in Oakland for Game Three, with two days of rest — a “travel day” and a rainout. Sparky Anderson turned to Jack Billingham (12-12, 3.18 ERA) while Williams sent out Blue Moon Odom (15-6, 2.50 ERA).
On paper, then, the As had the edge in the pitching matchup. But that’s not how it worked out. Oakland had won the first two games by scores of 3-2 and then 2-1. Cincinnati won Game Three, 1-0.
Tony Perez scored the game’s only run. He singled to lead off the top of the seventh. Menke bunted him to second and Geronimo singled him home.
Game Three was far from the most memorable game of this Series, but it produced perhaps its most memorable moment. In the eighth inning, Williams brought in Fingers to pitch to Bench, with one out and runners on first and third.
Tolan promptly stole second, leaving first base open. Even with Perez due up, this would have been the time to walk Bench and set up the double play.
However, by the time Tolan stole second, Bench had two strikes on him. The count was 3-2.
Williams went to the mound for a lengthy conversation, ostensibly to decide whether to complete the walk intentionally. But that’s not what Williams had in mind. He instructed his catcher, Tenace, to call for an intentional ball and stand outside the plate. Tenace was then to move back behind the plate at the last second, as Fingers threw his best slider.
By all accounts the As had never discussed such a stunt, much less practiced it. Yet, it worked. Although some Reds, including Morgan saw what was coming and tried to warn Bench, the catcher was frozen and took Fingers’ slider for strike three.
Even in defeat, Oakland had managed to embarrass Cincinnati’s best player and NL MVP.
Game Four: Pinch hits galore.
On October 19, 1972, Holtzman returned to the mound for Oakland in Game Four. Anderson turned to Don Gullett, his hard-throwing 21 year-old southpaw. Gullett had been pitched well in the 1970 World Series and brilliantly in 1971, but struggled in ‘72 with a record of 9-10 and a 3.94 ERA.
On this day in baseball history, both Holtzman and Gullett excelled. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth when that man, Gene Tenace, hit a solo home run.
Holtzman took the 1-0 lead into the eighth inning. Concepcion led off with an infield single. Javier, a pinch hitter, bunted him to second. Holtzman bore down and retired Rose on a ground ball back to the mound.
Cincinnati’s lefty duo — Morgan and (if he reached) Tolan — were next in line. But Holtzman was a lefty too, and had been pitching brilliantly. Even in this inning, no ball had left the infield.
But Williams opted to replace Holtzman with Blue, his new lefty relief ace.
Was this a case of over-managing? Arguably. Blue wasn’t really a reliever and he had pitched the previous day.
In any case, the move didn’t work out. Blue walked Morgan and Tolan doubled home two runs to put the Reds ahead, 2-1.
The As didn’t score and the bottom of the eighth. Nor did the Reds in the top of the ninth.
Thus, entering the bottom of that inning, the As were three outs away from squandering the 2 games to none advantage they had carried back from Cincinnati. Pedro Borbon was on the mound trying to close the game for the Reds.
Mike Hegan, who had come on a defensive replacement for Epstein when Oakland was ahead, led off the inning. He grounded out.
Next up was Gonzalo Marquez, pinch hitting for George Hendrick, Reggie Jackson’s replacement who had done nothing of note in the Series. Marquez was a career minor league who hadn’t even played organized ball in 1971. A late season call up in ‘72, he had become a pinch hitter extraordinaire. In the post-season, he was 3-5 in that capacity.
Make that 4-6. Marquez singled to center. Anderson pulled Borbon for Clay Carroll, his best reliever.
Tenace was next. A home run would win it.
This time, Tenace didn’t homer, but he did single. Two were on with no one out. The Reds still led 2-1.
Next came another pinch hitter, Don Mincher, batting for Dick Green. Mincher had been a good hitter for a decade, but now, in the final year of his career, he had given Williams little reason for confidence. During his two-plus months with Oakland, Mincher batted only .148. In his one post-season appearance of the year, he had struck out.
But this time, Mincher singled home the tying run. Tenace took third base.
Rollie Fingers, on for Blue, was due up. Williams was out of left-handed pinch hitters, so he turned to Angel Mangual.
Mangual hadn’t had a particularly good 1972 and what success he experienced came mostly against left-handers. Against right-handers, his batting average was .222. Carroll was right-handed.
Williams played this moment to the hilt, conferring with Mangual, with Odom (pinch running for Mincher), and with third-base coach Irv Noren.
The Reds had to be thinking about the possibility of a squeeze play, although a manager who wants to call for one doesn’t ordinarily chat openly about it. Sparky played his infield all the way in, not at double play depth.
Mangual slapped a single past the drawn-in Morgan. Tenace scored the winning run.
Have there ever been three pinch hits by one team in a World Series inning? Maybe. Have there ever been three pinch hits in a World Series inning by one team that resulted in a walk-off win? I doubt it.
The A’s now had a 3 games to 1 lead. The next day they would try to finish the Series at home behind Catfish Hunter, the best pitcher on either team.
NOTE: Some of the material in this post comes from Jason Turbow’s excellent book about the Oakland As of the early 1970s.