1972 World Series
The 1972 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's 1972 season. The 69th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League champion Oakland Athletics and the National League champion Cincinnati Reds. The Athletics won in seven games for their sixth World Series championship. It was the first World Series championship for the Athletics since 1930. This was the first major professional sports championship won by a team from the San Francisco Bay Area.
This was the first World Series in which both teams wore pullover uniforms, a style that remained the norm until 1982, after which at least one team in the fall classic would wear them until 1990, when the Cincinnati Reds wore them. Coincidentally both this World Series and the 1990 World Series featured the same two teams, the Athletics and the Reds, both far different results. The Athletics won this one in a hard fought seven games, while the Reds swept the defending champion Athletics in four games in 1990.
Background
The Athletics won the American League West division by games over the Chicago White Sox, then defeated the Detroit Tigers three games to two in the American League Championship Series. The Cincinnati Reds won the National League West division by games over both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Astros. The Reds dethroned the defending World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates three games to two in the National League Championship Series, marking the first year in which an LCS series in either league went the full five games since divisional play was introduced in. The Reds won one fewer game than the Pirates during the strike-reduced regular season and became the first team in MLB history to reach the World Series without having the best record in its respective league. In each of the first six League Championship Series, the team with the better record advanced to the World Series.This was Cincinnati's second trip to the World Series in three years, previously falling to Baltimore in five games in the 1970. It was Oakland's first-ever trip to the Series, and the first for the franchise since 1931, when the team was located in Philadelphia.
This was a matchup of the two premier MLB dynasties of the 1970s, with the Reds winning two World Series in four WS appearances, while the Athletics won three straight. Iconoclastic club owner Charlie Finley's "Swingin' A's" featured day-glo uniforms, white shoes, much facial hair, colorful nicknames, and explosive personalities, while "The Big Red Machine" was a more traditional franchise with a more traditional look —and an everyday lineup with three future Hall of Famers as well as all-time hits king, Pete Rose. The Series was dubbed "The Hairs vs. the Squares."
Oakland played the Series without its star outfielder Reggie Jackson, who was injured stealing home in the second inning of the final game of the ALCS at Detroit on Left-handed reliever Darold Knowles was also missing for the Athletics, breaking his thumb on September 27, less than three weeks before the Series opener.
With Jackson out, the Athletics were decided underdogs. George Hendrick was inserted into center field for Jackson. And while Hendrick only went 2-for-15, unheralded catcher Gene Tenace stepped up. Tenace had a poor regular season, hitting only.225 with five home runs. He was even worse in the AL Championship series against Detroit, going 1 for 17, although his one hit drove in the go-ahead run in Game 5. In the World Series however, Tenace was spectacular, hitting four home runs equaling the World Series mark set by Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Hank Bauer. He also had nine RBI in the Series—no other Oakland player had more than one. Tenace was voted World Series MVP.
By contrast, the stellar Oakland pitching kept the middle of the Reds lineup quiet for most of the series. Johnny Bench, Tony Pérez, and Denis Menke, combined for only two homers and five RBI the entire Series. Perez did lead both teams with 10 hits and a.435 batting average, but 8 of his 10 hits were singles. It didn't help that the Reds' "table-setters," Pete Rose and Joe Morgan were a combined 1 for 28 through the first four games, when the Reds lost three of those games.
The teams were fairly equal statistically, each club totaling 46 hits with the same.209 batting average. The Reds outscored the Athletics by five runs, but all four of their losses were by a single run. Six of the seven games in the series were decided by one run, marking perhaps the most closely contested World Series in history.
Summary
†: postponed from October 17 due to rainMatchups
Game 1
Oakland jumped out to a one-game series lead behind catcher Gene Tenace, who hit a home run in each of his first two at-bats. Tenace became the first player ever to homer in his two initial Series plate appearances, a feat later matched by Andruw Jones of the Atlanta Braves in 1996. Only two Oakland players collected hits, a pair each from Tenace and Bert Campaneris. The Athletics received a combined four innings of shutout relief from Rollie Fingers and Vida Blue to secure the victory for starter Ken Holtzman. Blue stranded the potential tying run at third base to end the game by inducing Pete Rose to ground out to second base.Game 2
The Game 2 hero was Athletics left fielder Joe Rudi, who smacked a home run and added a sparkling, game-saving catch up against the wall in the ninth inning on a ball hit by Denis Menke. Catfish Hunter pitched eight strong innings, consistently wiggling out of trouble, and also added an RBI single in the second off Ross Grimsley. The Reds' failure to produce in the clutch was as much the story as Rudi's heroics as Cincinnati had leadoff baserunners in five innings but only scored a run in the ninth.The Athletics scored a run in the second when George Hendrick beat out a double-play grounder after Sal Bando led off with a single. Hendrick went to second on a Dick Green single and scored on a close play at the plate on a Hunter single. Bert Campaneris followed with a hit and Green attempted to score, but was successfully thrown out at the plate by Pete Rose. The Athletics had four hits in the inning, but only scored one run. Rudi extended the lead to 2–0 with his home run in the 3rd.
In the ninth, Tony Pérez led off with a base hit before Rudi's catch of Menke's drive for the first out. Oakland first baseman Mike Hegan then made another great defensive play when César Gerónimo, the next Reds hitter, lined a shot that appeared headed down the line for extra bases. Hegan dove for the ball, knocked it down, and dove for the bag, barely beating Geronimo. Pérez took second and scored on a Hal McRae single through the middle. Rollie Fingers then relieved Hunter and induced pinch hitter Julián Javier to pop out to Hegan in foul territory to end the game. The World Series home loss was Reds' seventh-straight, which included three in the 1961 World Series against the New York Yankees and two in the 1970 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles.
Prior to the game Jackie Robinson, the first black major league player of the modern era, made his final public appearance in an on-field ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of his breaking of the color line. Former Reds radio announcer Red Barber, who had been with the Brooklyn Dodgers' broadcast crew for Robinson's inaugural 1947 season with that team, hosted the ceremony. In a brief speech, Robinson expressed his desire to see a black manager in the majors, a color barrier that hadn't yet been broken. Two years later, Frank Robinson was hired in October 1974 to manage the Cleveland Indians to break It would take until 1992 before another black manager, Cito Gaston, would win the World Series with the Toronto Blue Jays
Game 3
Heavy storms delayed Game 3 by a day, but the Reds got back into the series behind a strong performance from starter Jack Billingham, who held the Athletics to three hits in eight innings. The Reds pushed across the game's only run in the seventh when César Gerónimo singled home Tony Pérez. Pérez scored despite slipping on the still damp grass as he rounded third. Oakland shortstop Bert Campaneris was apparently unaware that Pérez had slipped; otherwise, it appeared Campaneris may have had a play at the plate. Clay Carroll pitched the ninth for the save.A rare trick play occurred in the eighth inning. The Reds had Joe Morgan on third and Bobby Tolan on first base with Rollie Fingers pitching to NL MVP Johnny Bench. Fingers pitched carefully to Bench before Tolan stole second base on ball three. After the stolen base, with the count 3–2 on Bench, Athletics manager Dick Williams visited the mound. After a long discussion, he motioned for an intentional walk to Bench. Athletics catcher Gene Tenace stood to catch ball four, but at the last second returned to his crouch as Fingers delivered a strike on the outside corner. Bench watched the pitch go by for strike three.
Game 4
and Oakland non-starters put the Athletics up 3 games to 1.The game was a pitchers' duel between a pair of left-handed starters: Cincinnati's Don Gullett and Oakland's Ken Holtzman. Through seven innings, the game's lone run was a result of a fifth-inning home run by Tenace, his third homer of the series. With two outs in the top of the eighth inning and Dave Concepción on second base, Athletics manager Dick Williams replaced Holtzman with left-hander Vida Blue to face left-handed hitters Joe Morgan and Bobby Tolan. Blue walked Morgan and allowed a clutch two-run double to Tolan, giving Cincinnati the lead as the Reds seemed poised to tie the series at 2 games apiece.
In the bottom of the ninth, however, with one out, the Athletics strung together four consecutive hits to score two runs. Pinch hitter Gonzalo Márquez singled, Tenace followed with a single, Don Mincher followed with another pinch-hit single scoring pinch-runner Allan Lewis to tie the game before a third pinch-hitter, Ángel Mangual, singled off Clay Carroll to score Tenace with the game-winner to put Oakland up three games to one. It was the first time that a team collected three pinch hits in the same World Series inning.