1972 Oakland Athletics Championship: You Never Forget Your First
The 1972 World Series
After the Oakland Athletics had a contentious ALCS against the Eastern Division champion Detroit Tigers that saw Bert Campaneris suspended for throwing a bat at pitcher Lerrin LaGrow, clubhouse bomb threats, a critical of error by an out-of-place second baseman in Game 4 to blow an extra-inning lead, and outfielder George Hendrick dodging thrown batteries and other missiles in Game 5 to capture the last out for the AL pennant, the Athletics were headed to their first World Series as an Oakland franchise.
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The pennant did not come without an extreme cost. A’s slugging right fielder Reggie Jackson was out for the series after tearing his hamstring in a second inning steal of home in Game 5 of the ALCS.
The series, dubbed “The Hairs vs. The Squares” denoting the A’s for their long hair and mustaches against the clean-cut Cincinnati Reds, would go the distance, seven games, and see an unlikely star that would go on to be part of “The Mustache Gang” throughout their championship years to come.
In Game 1, Gene Tenace, who went 1-for-17 in the ALCS and hit .225 for the season, became the first player in MLB history to homer in his first two World Series at-bats. Tenace had only hit 5 HRs the entire 1972 season. The A’s won the match 3-2 that saw Ken Holtzman get the victory and of all pitchers, 1971 MVP and Cy Young Award winner, Vida Blue, get the save with one inning of work in the ninth inning.
On Sunday for Game 2, Jim ‘Catfish’ Hunter started, going 8 2/3 innings, and even contributed to his cause with a second inning single to score Hendrick giving the A’s a 1-0 lead. The following inning left fielder Joe Rudi homered to deep left. Rudi would also figure later in the game with a spectacular (and very memorable) ninth inning catch off a Denis Menke fly. After another dazzling diving play for the second out in the ninth by A’s first baseman Mike Hegan, who was in for defensive purposes, Hunter gave up a RBI single to Hal McRae and was replaced by Rollie Fingers who only needed four pitches to retire Julian Javier for the 2-1 victory.
The A’s were up two games to none and headed to Oakland. No team had ever lost its first two World Series games at home and had come back to win the series.
Game 3, a Tuesday night affair and Oakland’s first ever World Series game, was postponed when a heavy rain and hail drenched the Oakland Coliseum just before the teams took the field. As a 13-year-old boy living in San Leandro, just seven miles away, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing on television – dark skies and a downpour – when just outside was a sunny fall afternoon. When the NBC cameras pulled back, viewers could see a funnel cloud located only above the Coliseum causing fans to wonder if some divine intervention was keeping a World Series game from being ever played in Oakland.
When Game 3 resumed the following night, a pitchers’ duel between John Odom and Jack Billingham went scoreless through six innings until the top of the seventh with one out when Cesar Geronimo singled home Tony Perez as the game’s only run. Unfortunately, A’s second baseman Dick Green was apparently unaware that Perez had slipped on the wet grass as he was rounding third base; otherwise, it appeared as though Green may have had a play at the plate.
Fans may remember a deception play that occurred in the eighth inning of Game 3. With Joe Morgan on third and Bobby Tolan on second base and NL MVP Johnny Bench at the plate, A’s manager Dick Williams visited the mound. After a long discussion, he motioned toward first base as if to signal for an intentional walk. Tenace returned to behind the plate and stood to catch ball four, but as Fingers went to throw, he returned to his crouch as Fingers delivered a strike on the outside corner. Bench watched the pitch go by for strike three and the end of the inning.
Game 4 was started by Holtzman, and Tenace banged out his third homer in the fifth inning giving the A’s a 1-0 lead. The Reds came back with two runs of their own and the lead in the top of the eighth when Dave Concepcion hit a 2-RBI double. History was made in the ninth when the A’s used three successive pinch hitters – Gonzalo Marquez, Don Mincher, and Angel Mangual – to get three hits and score two runs for a walk-off 3-2 victory.
Game 5 was the last ever daytime weekday World Series game in MLB history, a make up for the Tuesday night rainout. Up three games to one and with ace Catfish Hunter on the mound, the A’s looked to close out the series in front of the hometown fans. The Reds got a first inning HR from Pete Rose, but Tenace delivered a 3-run shot of his own in the second, his fourth of the series, equaling the World Series mark set by Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Hank Bauer.
The Oakland Athletics got another run in the fourth to take a 4-2 lead, but the Reds followed with solo runs in the fifth, seventh, and eighth to take a 5-4 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth. The A’s weren’t going to go down easy, wanting to avoid having to go back to Cincinnati and giving loyal fans an on-field celebration. Tenace started the inning with a walk. However, Ted Kubiak was not able to advance him when his sacrifice attempt resulted in a pop-up. Pinch hitter Dave Duncan singled sending Odom, who was running for Tenace, to third on the play. Bert Campaneris had the chance to tie the game, but ended up fouling a pop-up toward the right field bullpen mound. Second baseman Morgan raced over, caught the ball, and fired home to nail pinch runner Odom who had tagged from third as the Reds staved off elimination.
Of all the games, Game 6 was the most un-dramatic as the Reds tied the series at three games apiece in an 8-1 rout of the A’s. In that game, the score was tied 1-1 in the fifth until the Reds pulled ahead in the sixth and had a five-run seventh inning sending 13 batters to the plate.
The deciding seventh game saw the A’s strike first with a first inning Gene Tenace RBI single. The Reds tied it up in the bottom of the fifth, but the Oakland Athletics responded in the sixth with two of their own on back-to-back RBI doubles by Tenace and Sal Bando. In the game, Williams held nothing back by using star starting pitcher Odom and fans saw relief appearances by aces Hunter, Holtzman and Blue. Rollie Fingers closed out the game that had Pete Rose hit a lazy fly to Joe Rudi making the 1972 Athletics World Champions. As the players celebrated on the field, A’s owner Charlie Finley and Manager Williams were atop the A’s dugout kissing their wives.
Gene Tenace was the easy choice for Series MVP hitting a record-tying four World Series home runs and setting a Series-record for slugging percentage. It was the first championship of any kind in the Bay Area and more than 10,000 fans greeted the team at the Oakland Airport that night – I was one of them.