Game 6 of the 1973 World Series took place a little after two in the afternoon on October 20, a Saturday. After 3 dark and cold games in New York City, it was back to the west coast and warm sunshine. We had the best pitching in the National League. We had the A's up against the ropes up three games to two. How could we possibly mess this up??
The great Reggie Jackson,
always a reporters delight, was not looking so great entering game six. He was batting .190.
When New York beat the Cincinnati Reds in the '73 N.L.C.S. the A's slugger said,"Who Are the Mets? The Met's don't have any big stars except Tom Seaver and Rusty Staub."
"You beat them, you are the best."
Jax smacked 4 hits in game 2, but New York still beat Oakland in extra innings. For the Mets, keeping Reggie down was crucial. And they were doing a fine job of it, holding him to only 1 hit in all three games in NYC. If you removed Reggies game two numbers, he was 1 for 15 with 17 runners stranded.
The Athletics as a team on the whole were pretty feeble at the plate so far, batting .197 with no home runs. NO HOME RUNS!
A's manager Dick Williams: "We're being dominated by their pitching."
It was my personal belief that if George Stone wasn't going to start one of these west coast games Yogi was holding him back, like a secret weapon. Kind of like Gil Hodges had done with Nolan Ryan in the 1969 post season.
In retrospect it's easy to jump on the "Yogi screwed up" bandwagon, but I'm going to be honest. I'm gonna keep it 100. I was okay at the time with Yogi's decision to pitch Seaver in game 6. My simplistic logic was that if Tom said he wanted the ball for game 6, you gave it to him. If Tom's ready to go, get it over in six. And we still had Stone and Matlack for game 7 if needed.
Yogi's reluctance to use George Stone at all as a starter in the series mystified me at the time, but I had faith in Yogi's moves, and like I said I thought he would use him to the teams advantage. An ace in the hole. There were a number of ways the Mets manager could have gone with the pitching staff he had, and it's easy in retrospect to condemn his choice of strategy. In baseball sometimes it's just the way the ball bounces.
So it would be a rematch of game 3, Tom Seaver vs. Catfish Hunter.
Tom put in 8 innings in game 3, Hunter pitched 6. Both allowed only 2 runs on 7 hits. Both were pitching on three days rest.
The business about Seaver pitching on three days rest didn't concern me if Tom was healthy and ready. During the season Seaver had pitched with 3 days rest 6 times, one of them in the '73 N.L.C.S.
Four of those times he was coming off wins. In late September, down the stretch, Tom had started two games in a row on three days rest. Starting the run with a win he went 2-1 between September 13th to the 21st. His total record in games with three days rest during the '73 season was 3-3.
I know that's only .500 but we're talking Tom Seaver! At this age I might have been more concerned, or more analytical, but back then I had a kids faith in Yogi, our manager. He had gotten the Mets to the World Series. We were 5 games in and led 3-2. Nuff said. I was really confident that even with choices like this, there was no way we were gonna lose.
But in this series the Mets bats were alive. Milner was batting .350 coming into game six. Cleon Jones, a blistering .381. Rusty Staub had to sit out game one because of his shoulder injury in the N.L.C.S.. Staub still could not throw overhand in the field, but at the plate he contributed mightily. Coming into game six he was batting .444. No one else in the series had even come close to driving in 5 runs in one game, as he did in game five.
The A's starting pitcher himself would admit as much in a pre-game interview. "We didn't underrate the Mets' pitching," Catfish Hunter said,"but we underrated their hitters. They came out swinging and they're better than their batting averages indicate."
I really thought that no matter who was on the mound for New York, the Mets were in the drivers seat.
And then they play the game and all you can do is sit and watch.
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| Tom Terrific warms up before game 6 of the 1973 World Series |
It started out well enough. New York got two runners on as lead off hitter Wayne Garrett walked and Rusty Staub lined a one out single to center, putting runners on 1st & 3rd. The Mets had Cleon Jones and John Milner coming up. I thought this was starting perfectly. Cleon or The Hammer were going to get one of those runs home. But they didn't. Both popped out to center and the Mets half of the first was over.
After a shaky first Catfish Hunter settled down and began setting the Mets batters down in order. From the end of the first to the fifth inning Hunter retired 10 in a row.
Meanwhile, in Oakland's half of the third what Mets fans feared the most finally happened. The fact that Rusty Staub could not throw did not hurt the Mets so far. But it came up and bit 'em good at a most inopportune time. And again, it was Reggie Jackson in the middle of the action.
Rusty gloved the ball and knew he had to get it in quickly. He forcefully winged the ball to cut-off man Felix Millan who came out for the throw.
Now if Felix fielded the one hop serve from Rusty cleanly, we might have had a play at the plate on Bando. But he flubbed it and had to retrieve the ball from the grass, wasting crucial seconds. Sal Bando zipped home with Oaklands second run and Reggie Jackson pulled up at second with another RBI double.
A's reliever Darold Knowles, who had pitched in every game so far, came on to finish the 8th. But he was ineffective as Wayne Garrett followed with a single sending Boswell to third.
The A's 2 run lead was in jeopardy as Felix Millan stepped up to the plate. He kept the rally going with a dribbling grounder that managed to make it's way through the hole at second base and New York was finally on the board and threatening. Our big gun was up in Rusty Staub and things were getting exciting. But Knowels, who didn't look to have anything against Garrett and Millan, suddenly got his shit together and struck out Staub for probably the biggest out of the game.
| Rusty's shoulder still hurt him. |
I got a sinking feeling in my stomach after Rusty struck out. Dick Williams went to the A's bullpen again, this time bringing in relief ace Rollie Fingers to face Cleon Jones. I had the utmost confidence in Cleon, he was so clutch down the stretch. But Cleon could not come through either, popping out to center, and the inning ended with the score A's 2, Mets 1.
Reggie scooted around the bases and pulled up at third. With no out and a man on third, Oakland had little trouble getting Jackson home as pinch hitter Jesus Alou lifted an easy sacrifice fly to left. Reggie crossed the plate with the A's 3rd run. Tug was able to get out of the inning with no more damage, but now the Mets were down to three outs in the 9th.
Rollie Fingers made quick work of it, getting the Mets in order in the 9th, home-town favorite Ed Kranepool popping out to shortstop for the final out. New York had lost game six.
This wasn't due to Tom Seavers performance, which was not his best, but still better than most pitchers at their best. Tom only allowed 2 runs on 6 hits, walking 2. It was the lack of offense that did in the Mets in game 6. Their hot bats had cooled off, and Catfish Hunter was a tad better, giving up 1 run and scattering 4 hits while only walking one.
Post Game Quotes:
"The Tom Seaver you saw today was not the real Tom Seaver. He ate me up in New York," Reggie was also quoted as saying. "He just didn't have his breaking ball and overpowering fastball today."
"I didn't pitch badly," said Seaver after the game," Just badly enough to lose. It was immediately apparent to me that I didn't have good, strong stuff."
Yogi's pitching did not let him down. The Mets batters and fielders did. And so the best-of-seven series became a best-of-one.
Game 6 of the 1973 World Series
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