It’s game six in St.Louis and the Cardinals are in the exact same situation that the 1978 Dodgers were in, returning home for game six being down 3 games to 2.
We had the Yankees in ’78. We had the Steinbrenner Free Agency Freaks. A store bought team, hmmm, much like today’s New York Yankees.
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| Davey Lopes homers to lead off the bottom of the first in Game 1 of the '78 Series |
We had ‘em, 2 games to nothing, taking the first two in L.A., backed by inspired play of Davey Lopes. Lopes blasted two homers out of the park and playing with a heavy heart as he dedicated the Series to Jim Gilliam, who had died the week before. Then in Game 2 we had 'em behind the heroics of Bob Welch, who closed out game two with an inspirational strikeout of Reggie Jackson to put the Big Blue Wrecking Crew up two games to nothing on the defending champs.
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| Jackson k's against Welch. Steve Yeager celebrates. |
We had 'em in game three, and then Graig Nettles started committing larceny down the third base line. Robbing Garvey in the 5th and Lopes in the 6th. Both times with two men on base and two outs.
We had ‘em in game four. Up by two runs in the 6th, when Reggie Jackson decided to stick his derriere into a throw that was going to result in an inning ending double play. When Frank Pulli decided to hose the L.A. squad by not calling interference on the play. Jackson, Mr. Cheating October was instrumental in turning the tide of the series. The Dodgers, in control of game 4, would have taken a 3-1 lead in the series had they taken that game. Judge for yourself in this shaky youtube clip below.
We had ‘em, going into game six, even though we were down 3 games to 2 because we were coming back to L.A. for the final two. No way that New York team was coming back to celebrate in our house.
We had ‘em and we were gonna shove it up Homer Howard Cosell’s snozzola and watch him weep on National TV, having to force himself to admit that the Dodgers, the LOS ANGELES Dodgers were going to be the World Champions. Okay, I know, NBC had the ’78 Series, but we had to stomach Cosell in ’77 and ’81. So I’m off on this point, but I couldn’t stand Cosell and his Yankee grandstanding and obvious bias at ABC.
And then it happened. Brian Doyle. The Red Sox in ’78 wince about Bucky Bleeping Dent. Dodger fans in ’78 groan over Brian Bleeping Doyle. Doyle, a lifetime .161 hitter entered the World Series coming out of the best season of his career where he hit a whopping .192. He must have had Don Sutton shaking in his spikes because Don took his third loss in the series that night. Doyle in his career, which spanned parts of 4 seasons in the majors, had a total of three extra base hits in his life, but in game six of the ’78 series, being forced to start due to an injury to Willie Randolph, he proceeded to wrap out 3 hits, including a double, to spark the Yankees to victory.
Doyle’s stat line from game six:
4 AB, 2R, 3H, 2 RBI, 4 TB
My brother, Eric, actually had tickets to Game 7 of the Series. And he was going to take me. It was going to be a surprise. He didn’t have the heart to tell me about it until 25 years later. For that reason, I state that 25 years after this series was over, my heart was broken again. I guess my brother felt that I’d eventually have the maturity to accept that fate, a full quarter of a century later. Well, he was wrong!
Brian Bleeping Doyle! Brian BLEEPING DOYLE!!! BRIAN BLEEPING DOYLE!!!!!! I want to go to that baseball camp of his in Lakeland, Florida and tear it down. I wanna tell all his students that they are taking hitting lessons from a .161 lifetime hitter and tell them to go to their parents and demand a refund. Yeah, that'd make me feel better.
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