#1 The Dawn of a New Era

“The bigger the game, the better he pitched.”

That’s the first sentence on Jim “Catfish” Hunter’s Hall of Fame plaque. And I know, we’ve already written a lot about Catfish but this series should illustrate the importance Catfish was to the franchise in transforming the once trouble Kansas City A’s into a dynasty-filled Oakland A’s team in a matter of a few years.

We finish our countdown of the 25 Greatest Oakland A's Wins, and return to October 22, 1972 for game 7 of the 1972 World Series. Another game 7 in this blog series and yet another big crowd, this time, it would be 56,000 in Cincinnati filling Riverfront Stadium cheering on the home team Reds. Win, and you’ve added a big ring to your jewelry box, while a loss brings nothing but thoughts of what could’ve been.

In a time of transition for the entire culture of the country, baseball was going through something similar at that time. The 60’s had come and gone, now with the 70s in full view, a crossroads for the country was in store. And a perfect representation of that struggle was occurring in this World Series. The Reds represented the old guard, their management dictated a uniform attitude and swagger for the ball club to follow and the players followed it without any complaint. The Big Red Machine was the classic team, with the usual black shoes and clean cut look. While the A’s were the rebellious teenagers with colorful uniforms and wild facial hair.

The series had already been a wonderful one for the neutrals, while the fans of the respective teams had gone through an emotional roller coaster. All but one of the first 6 games was decided by one run and there were plenty of pivotal moments that seemed to swing momentum on a dime. The battle of the two managers: Dick Williams and Sparky Anderson was worth the price of admission. Williams’ genius was on display in game 4 when in extra innings, Williams used three pinch hitters, and all three singled to get the winning run in and give the A’s the win(first time in World Series history that such a thing ever happened). Even in defeat, Dick Williams still seemed to make brilliant moves, including famously fooling NL MVP, Johnny Bench seen HERE.

To get the Reds back into the series being down 3-1, Sparky Anderson turned up the heat with plenty of steals that exposed A’s catcher, Gene Tenace. Tenace was having an epic series at the plate, and was really a lock to win World Series MVP by the end of game 4, but his struggles behind the plate brought the Reds back and allowed for a game 7.

The pitching matchup for game 7 would be a rematch of the one from game 3 which was a 1-0 Reds win. It would be Blue Moon Odom for the A’s and Jack Billingham for the Reds. Both pitchers dominated in their starts in game 3 with them combining for 18 strikeouts in that game. And with the struggles of Gene Tenace, Dick Williams took no chances and decided to move Tenace to first and give Dave Duncan the start at catcher.

The action for the game started fast, after Bert Campaneris started off by flying out, the part-time player, Angel Mangual hit a liner at Reds centerfielder, Bobby Tolan. The result was catastrophic for Tolan who completely misplayed the ball, but somehow nearly recovered by timing his jump but that wasn’t enough, the ball popped off his glove and the ball rolled all the way to the outfield wall. Mangual reached third easily and just like that, the A’s were now in business. Joe Rudi gave Billingham some hope to get out of the inning unscathed after Rudi flied out to shallow left. The next at bat would put the Reds on the backfoot and once again, it was Gene Tenace who was the quintessential catalyst. Tenace would hit a high chopper to third and it would bounce over the head of Denis Menke which allowed Mangual to walk home and give the A’s a 1-0 early lead.

Blue Moon Odom would face the minimum in his first action of the game, thanks to the negating of a Joe Morgan leadoff single with a double play.

Billingham would struggle in the second, but would get out of it with no further damage. By then, it appeared that both pitchers had settled in and looked rather comfortable.

In the bottom of the 4th, with one out in the inning, Joe Morgan would walk to give himself another appearance on base. And with the stealing strategy of Sparky Anderson being so successful in the previous two games, Anderson sent the speedy Joe Morgan but this time, it would be Dick Williams’ change of putting in Dave Duncan at catcher that would look genius. Dave Duncan would gun down Morgan to once again stifle the Big Red Machine.

The trouble that Odom faced in the 4th would only foreshadow a little of what he’d face in the 5th, Tony Perez would double just inside the chalk down the line in left to leadoff the inning. Odom would blow away the next batter, Denis Menke but a walk to Cesar Geronimo and then falling behind Dave Concepcion would spell the end of Odom’s day with Dick Williams not wanting to take any chances in this deciding game. Williams would turn to arguably his best pitcher, Catfish Hunter on just a single day’s rest. It was a gamble, but a manager is not supposed to have regrets leaving these types of games and bringing in Catfish was just such a move. As Don Zimmer always told Joe Torre, “Trust me, you don’t want to risk leaving Mariano on the bench to rot.”

With the bases loaded and one out, Catfish was put in a difficult situation. And it got tougher when Sparky Anderson decided that this opportunity was too important to leave in the hands of a pitcher batting, so he brought in Hal McCrae to pinch hit for the starting pitcher, Jack Billingham thus ending his day. McCrae provided a professional at bat against Catfish and the at bat ended with McCrae hitting a deep drive to center that would be plenty deep enough to plate Perez from third to tie the game up at 1. Next up came Pete Rose. Charlie Hustle actually threw a couple jabs at Catfish through the press earlier in the series, after game 2 Rose said that he wasn’t too impressed with Catfish and vowed to get him next time he saw him. Rose kept his promise by hitting a leadoff home run off Catfish in game 5. Rose might’ve given Catfish a scare in this particular at bat, but instead this fly ball landed in the glove of Angel Mangual to end the inning with both teams level.

With his starter out of the game, Sparky Anderson turned to his reliever, Pedro Borbon. Earlier on in the series, Borbon had famously ignored advice from his manager which got him pulled midway through an at bat. Here he was again, in a critical situation. Right away, the A’s showed signs of life against Borbon. Campaneris would start it off with a sharp single up the middle. Williams didn’t even bother sending Campaneris against Johnny Bench’s arm, so he ordered Mangual to bunt and he got it down to allow Campy to scoot over to second with one out. Then Rudi would hit a ground ball to the right side of the infield to allow Campy to move to third with some real station to station baseball. And with two outs in the inning, the A’s hottest hitter was up at the plate. Gene Tenace had already had a sensational World Series, and that would only continue in this clutch at bat, Tenace crushed a ball over the head of Pete Rose up against the wall which was more than enough to score Campaneris and give the lead back to the A’s. Dick Williams took the opportunity to pull Tenace out of the game and bring in the speedy Allan Lewis, especially with the more defensive Mike Hegen primed to play first for the rest of the ballgame. And Sal Bando would come up and give the A’s a critical captain’s moment by lining a ball towards the warning track in center, it appeared that Tolan had a chance to run this one down, then suddenly, Tolan’s already disastrous day in the field became catastrophic as his hamstring went out as he stepped on the warning track, this allowed the ball to bounce up against the wall, allowing Lewis to score and now it was 3-1 A’s on Bando’s double. It had been a disastrous outing for Borbon, and he was promptly pulled after Bando’s double.

Catfish would stay in the game, and facing the top of the order, Catfish would see a little bit of trouble. With two outs in the inning, Bert Campaneris would make a rare error that allowed Johnny Bench to reach base. Catfish would then walk Tony Perez to make it first and second with two outs, he’d then make it more interesting by throwing a wild pitch but then Denis Menke would fly out to short right to end the inning with a shutdown inning at a tremendously critical time.

Catfish would throw a perfect inning in the 7th, tallying a couple strikeouts to boot. Catfish had already pitched brilliantly on one day of rest, but the question was how long Dick Williams would stay with him, Williams had already shown earlier on in the game that he had a tight leash on all his pitchers in this top stakes game.

The answer would be made in the 8th, Pete Rose would get the better of Catfish by singling to leadoff the inning and sure enough, Dick Williams came out to take the ball from his ace. He would bring in another starting pitcher and this time it was Ken Holtzman. Holtzman would last all of one batter after Joe Morgan would double down the line in right that somehow wasn't able to score Pete Rose from first. 

Once again, Williams took no chances and made yet another pitching change.  This time it would be Rollie Fingers coming in to try and slam the door on the Reds once and for all. Rollie would get the first batter to pop out for the second out, he’d then walk Johnny Bench and take his chances with Tony Perez who promptly hit a deep fly ball to the outfield that would give the Reds their second run on yet another sac fly. With Morgan representing the tying run at third, it was imperative that Fingers weathered the storm. Anderson would call for Johnny Bench to steal second to try and force a throw to second which would allow Morgan to race home and tie the game but the A’s would not bite and Fingers focused on the batter. And just like the 6th inning ended, Denis Menke would once again fail to come through with runners on second and third with two out: Menke would sky one to Joe Rudi which would end the inning and send it to the 9th.

With the A’s failing to add on in the top of the 9th, it was all up to Rollie Fingers to close the Reds’ coffin and bring Oakland their first world championship in any sport. Fingers showed signs that his pitches were on today, Cesar Geronimo would pop out to Bert Campaneris for the first out of the inning and then Dave Concepcion would weakly groundout to Dick Green at second to make the A’s one out away from achieving greatness. They would have to wait one batter longer though, as Fingers hit the next batter to keep the Reds alive and bring Pete Rose to the plate.

With the game on the line, Williams came out to the mound to think about pulling Fingers but then Dave Duncan lobbied with Williams to let Fingers finish it off, and I’d like to think this is the moment that would foreshadow Duncan’s great career as a pitching coach several years later. Pete Rose would get a lot of the ball that Fingers threw but after the initial look off the bat, it was clear that it was going to stay in the park. And then Joe Rudi glided under it, put this glove up, and once he caught it, he started jumping up and down repeatedly in celebration. The A’s had won the 1972 World Series! The new era in baseball had begun and it was a green and gold era that would awaken the baseball world to new rivers in innovation in more ways than just new uniforms.

A’s owner Charlie Finley jumped onto the dugout with his wife. Then Dick Williams would go up to join him with his own wife. All four of them embraced each other, Williams kissed Finley’s wife, Finley kissed Williams’ wife and it seemed as though they were the unbreakable tandem. In only a year later, Williams would quit due to disagreements with Charlie Finley, it’s amazing how much a year makes.

Some may question why this game is number 1 in our countdown, and it’s real simple: the stakes of this game were through the roof, and it really was a tight contest that kept you on the edge of your seat. Most importantly though, this game gave the A’s the confidence to know how to win. Without winning this game, who knows what becomes of the 1970s A’s teams? Maybe they never get over the hump because they never learn how to win? Either way, we all are thankful for what that first title did for the Oakland A’s as a franchise.

Gene Tenace was given the World Series MVP after the game in unanimous fashion, and I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted that result.

On the other side, Reds manager, Sparky Anderson had this quote from his autobiography on this series, “Everybody says the Cincinnati-Boston World Series in 1975 was the best in history, I don’t. I’ll always maintain that the best Series I was ever involved in was the 1972 World Series against Oakland. That’s because those were two of the finest ball clubs go against each other that you’ll ever see in I don’t know how long.” Talk about a class act. Historians now are starting to realize how great this World Series was, after all, these two teams shared the decade as the team of the 70s.

Well, this concludes our series, it’s been a wonderful pleasure to write this entire collection. I sure hope many of you learned new things about the team you love so much and hopefully, upcoming games will take their rightful place on this list! 

Now’s time for the debate, which ones did we miss? Dallas Braden’s perfect game? Stephen Vogt’s walk-off in 2013 ALDS? Please share your thoughts and let us know.

-- Wes

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