The 1972 World Series is, in my humble opinion, one of the most overshadowed and underrated Fall Classics for one reason and one reason only. The two teams of the 1970s were unquestionably the A’s on the American League side and the Cincinnati Reds on the National League side. When you have the two best teams from the decade square off, you’d think that would be remembered, but it really isn’t.
We continue our 25 Greatest Oakland A's Wins weekly countdown by returning to October 14, 1972 for game one of the 1972 World Series. The game that would set the tone for the entire series and how the whole series would be played.
The Cincinnati Reds were known as the “Big Red Machine” ‘at that time and with players like Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Pete Rose their lineup was feared throughout the lead and that earned them the nickname. Sparky Anderson was the manager for the Reds and with Dick Williams managing the A’s, an interesting series between two brilliant baseball tactician was about to take place.
The Oakland A’s had fought a long, grueling series against the Detroit Tigers to get here, and the great talent that the A’s had drafted in the late 60s was finally molding into the team many thought they could be. Reggie Jackson, the A’s war slugger would be injured for the World Series after scoring the tying run in the deciding game 5 against Detroit, due to his injury, the Reds became the heavy favorites to win it all.
With Jackson’s injury, the A’s knew that they were going to have to win in low scoring ballgames, so the pitching was going to be the key factor in winning it all. Tasked with this job in game one would be the A’s veteran lefty, Ken Holtzman. For the Reds, the 24 year old, Gary Nolan would get the ball from Sparky Anderson.
The Cincinnati crowd filled Riverfront Stadium to capacity and created a great atmosphere, and no one on the A’s staff was better to combat this than Ken Holtzman. Especially since last time he pitched at Riverfront, Hotlzman threw a no hitter. The game began with both pitchers dealing 1-2-3 innings, Holtzman letdown the formidable trio of Rose/Morgan/Tolan in order to set the tone for entire evening. Campaneris, Rudi and Alou would also go down quietly.
The action would immediately pick up in the second inning, Nolan would get the first two outs of the inning quickly but a two out walk to George Hendrick appeared harmless at first, but Gene Tenace made Nolan pay in a big way. Nolan threw Tenace a fastball out over the play and Tenace launched the ball to deep right and it would sail over the right field fence for a two-run home run to silence the Cincinnati faithful, make it 2-0 A’s and the blast would make A’s owner Charlie Finley the only person in the whole stadium cheering. See it HERE. It was Tenace’s first World Series at bat and clearly he was dumb enough to know any better and made the A’s forget about Jackson for a moment.
Right away, the Reds would strike back. Johnny Bench, Tony Perez would single to lead off the inning, and then Denis Menke would walk to load the bases with nobody out. Dick Williams ordered the A’s to concede the run, playing the percentages and luckily for the A’s, Cesar Geronimo would pop out for the first out of the inning. The A’s would then move to double play depth, and the A’s would get the ground ball they were looking for, Campaneris would flip to Dick Green who fired it over to first but the relay was not in time and the Reds had pulled one back and it was now 2-1 Oakland. Holtzman would then strikeout his opposite number to end the inning with no more damage done.
The third would be uneventful, with the exception of both teams providing different ways of dealing with would-be, base stealers. Johnny Bench aka “The Human Shotgun” gunned down the speedy Campaneris to stifle the A’s rally in the third. And in the bottom half, Holtzman’s veteran savvy would serve him well as he picked off Bobby Tolan who was trying to steal second.
Action would then pick up in the bottom of the fourth, Holtzman would continue to have his issues with the Reds middle of the order as Bench got things going with a walk, then Tony Perez would line a sharp single, that allowed Bench to hustle over to third to make it runners at the corners. A groundout from Denis Menke would provide the RBI for the Reds that would even the score at 2-2. Maneuvering from Holtzman with the pitchers spot coming up would keep the score at 2-2.
The tie wouldn’t last long, Gene Tenace would come up second in the inning and with one out in the inning, Tenace would drive himself in with a no doubter shot down the left field line that Tenace himself would admire in a way that is reminiscent of Mike Napoli. Out of nowhere, Tenace had himself a two homer game in the World Series. And it was as big as they come.
Holtzman would set down the Reds top of the order in order, once again to complete the shutdown inning. His day would only include one more batter and Johnny Bench would continue his great game by smacking a leadoff double that appeared to Dick Williams to be the sign that it was time to make use out of the A’s bullpen. And with Rollie Fingers being the guy to come in, no one would really criticize this decision. Fingers foiled the Reds rally with devastating sliders on the outside corner of the plate to get Perez and Menke, and as a result, Bench would stay stranded at second.
Sparky Anderson would go to his bullpen in the 7th as well, bringing in Pedro Borbon and both bullpens would put on pitching clinics the rest of the way. In the bottom of the 7th, Fingers would give up a leadoff single to Reds speedster, Dave Concepcion. Sparky Anderson wasted no time in sending Concepcion on a steal attempt, Dick Williams started to notice Concepcion’s giant lead, so he called a pitch out and Williams could do no wrong, Tenace gunned out Concepcion to stifle the Reds rally, once again. With two outs in the 7th, Fingers would walk Pete Rose and out came Dick Williams again with the first sign of trouble as he called for the A’s heralded bullpen ace for the 1972 playoffs, Vida Blue. Blue would prove wild at first, throwing a wild pitch and walking Joe Morgan but he’d get Bob Tolan to foul out to the catcher and in the process, settle him down.
Clay Carroll would keep the score the same for the Reds in the 8th, and they knew they needed that, especially with Vida Blue in the game. Vida would prove clinical in the 8th inning, inducing two fly ball outs and striking out, Denis Menke to end the inning. The A’s were 3 outs away from a game one victory and things were looking rather set in stone, even with a one run ballgame.
In the bottom of the 9th, Vida Blue stayed in the game, looking to complete the 7 out save in impressive fashion. He’d give up a leadoff single to Hal McCrae, Dave Concepcion would then drop down a bunt to get the runner to second with one out, Julian Javier would then groundout to Dick Green which allowed the runner to get to third with two outs in the game and with the ever dangerous Pete Rose coming to the plate. On this day, Charlie Hustle would fail in crunch time and the A’s had completed the 3-2 victory to take game one of the series.
A tremendously managed game by Dick Williams ultimately made the difference to go along with the major heroics from his catcher, Gene Tenace. And as a result, this clip from Anchorman is quite relevant.
The series would get even more interesting, but we’ll get to that later.
Stay tuned, #7 is coming up next week!
-- Wes
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