1972 National League Championship Series
Encyclopedia
Game 1
Saturday, October 7, 1972 at Three Rivers StadiumThree Rivers Stadium
Three Rivers Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1970 to 2000. It was home to the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pittsburgh Steelers, the city's Major League Baseball franchise and National Football League franchise respectively.Built as a replacement to...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
The Reds got a first-inning homer from second baseman Joe Morgan
Joe Morgan
Joe Leonard Morgan is a former Major League Baseball second baseman who played for the Houston Astros, Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, and Oakland Athletics from 1963 to 1984. He won two World Series championships with the Reds in 1975 and 1976 and was also named the...
to take a short-lived 1–0 lead. But Pittsburgh bounced back with three in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by an RBI triple from Al Oliver
Al Oliver
Albert Oliver, Jr. is a former Major League Baseball player. Over the course of his 18-year career, he played for the Pittsburgh Pirates , Texas Rangers , Montreal Expos , San Francisco Giants , Philadelphia Phillies , Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays...
and an RBI double from Willie Stargell
Willie Stargell
Wilver Dornell "Willie" Stargell , nicknamed "Pops" in the later years of his career, was a Major League Baseball left fielder and first baseman. He played his entire 21-year baseball career with the Pittsburgh Pirates...
. Pittsburgh never looked back, getting a two-run homer from Oliver in the fifth and coasting to the win behind the strong pitching of Steve Blass
Steve Blass
Stephen Robert "Steve" Blass is a former Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher and a current broadcast announcer for the Pittsburgh Pirates.-Playing career:Blass was born in Canaan, Connecticut...
. The frustrated Reds ultimately stranded eleven baserunners, and their manager Sparky Anderson
Sparky Anderson
George Lee "Sparky" Anderson was an American Major League Baseball manager. He managed the National League's Cincinnati Reds to the 1975 and 1976 championships, then added a third title in 1984 with the Detroit Tigers of the American League. He was the first manager to win the World Series in both...
was ejected in the fourth inning. The time of game was a brisk 1:57.
Game 2
Sunday, October 8, 1972 at Three Rivers StadiumThree Rivers Stadium
Three Rivers Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1970 to 2000. It was home to the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pittsburgh Steelers, the city's Major League Baseball franchise and National Football League franchise respectively.Built as a replacement to...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
Cincinnati bounced back to even the series with a much tighter win in Game 2. Pittsburgh starter Bob Moose
Bob Moose
Robert Ralph Moose Jr. was a Major League Baseball pitcher from 1967 to 1976. Moose spent his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. His best season came in 1969 when he posted a 14-3 won-loss record and a 2.91 Earned Run Average working equally as a starter and reliever...
, who would suffer an even worse fate in the final game of the series, got nobody out as the Reds began the game with five straight hits. Bobby Tolan
Bobby Tolan
Robert Tolan is a former center and right fielder in Major League Baseball. Tolan, who batted and threw left-handed, played for the St. Louis Cardinals , Cincinnati Reds , San Diego Padres , Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates...
and Tony Pérez
Tony Pérez
Atanasio Pérez Rigal , more commonly known as Tony Pérez, is a former Major League Baseball player. He was also known by the nickname "Big Dog," "Big Doggie," and "Doggie."...
both hit two-run doubles to give the Reds a 4–0 lead and chase Moose. The Pittsburgh bullpen stopped the Reds offense, though, and the Pirates came back to make it a 4–3 game with single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth, as Milt May
Milt May
Milton Scott May is a former professional baseball player and coach who played in the Major Leagues from to for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, and San Francisco Giants. May was a catcher who hit for a fairly high batting average during the era in which...
, Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente Walker was a Puerto Rican Major League Baseball right fielder. He was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, the youngest of seven children. Clemente played his entire 18-year baseball career with the Pittsburgh Pirates . He was awarded the National League's Most Valuable Player Award in...
and Dave Cash
Dave Cash (baseball)
David Cash, Jr. is a former Major League Baseball second baseman who played in the National League for the Pittsburgh Pirates , Philadelphia Phillies , Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres .Cash established himself as a solid singles hitter and a good defensive second baseman in his seasons with...
picked up RBIs. Joe Morgan
Joe Morgan
Joe Leonard Morgan is a former Major League Baseball second baseman who played for the Houston Astros, Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, and Oakland Athletics from 1963 to 1984. He won two World Series championships with the Reds in 1975 and 1976 and was also named the...
homered in the eighth to give the Reds a crucial insurance run, and Cincinnati reliever Tom Hall
Tom Hall (baseball)
Thomas Edward Hall , is a retired American professional baseball player, a left-handed pitcher who played in the Major Leagues from 1968 to 1977...
finished a long and strong relief stint to get the victory.
Game 3
Monday, October 9, 1972 at Riverfront StadiumCinergy Field
Riverfront Stadium , later known as Cinergy Field , was the home of the Cincinnati Reds National League baseball team and the Cincinnati Bengals National Football League team. Located on the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, the stadium was best known as the home of "The Big Red Machine," as the...
in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
The series moved to Cincinnati and produced a tense, low-scoring contest. Cincinnati's Darrell Chaney and Bobby Tolan
Bobby Tolan
Robert Tolan is a former center and right fielder in Major League Baseball. Tolan, who batted and threw left-handed, played for the St. Louis Cardinals , Cincinnati Reds , San Diego Padres , Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates...
hit RBI singles to open the scoring in the bottom of the third. The Pittsburgh hurlers would shut down the Reds offense for the remainder of the game, however, while the Pirates managed just enough hitting of their own. In the fifth Pittsburgh catcher Manny Sanguillen
Manny Sanguillen
Manuel De Jesus Sanguillen Magan, better known as Manny Sanguillen or "Sangy" , is a former professional baseball player who was a catcher in the Major Leagues. He was named to the All-Star team three times, in , , and . He played primarily for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but also for the Oakland...
homered to get his team on the board, and Rennie Stennett
Rennie Stennett
Renaldo Antonio Stennett Porte , is a former second baseman in Major League Baseball. Stennett played with the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants . He batted and threw right-handed...
tied the game in the seventh with an RBI single. The Pirates scored the go-ahead and decisive run in the eighth on a groundout by Sanguillen. Pirates closer Dave Giusti
Dave Giusti
David John Giusti, Jr., is a retired Major League Baseball pitcher who played from 1962 to 1977....
, who would yield a memorable homer in Game 5, came on in the eighth to get the save. Pittsburgh was now just one win from a series victory.
Game 4
Tuesday, October 10, 1972 at Riverfront StadiumCinergy Field
Riverfront Stadium , later known as Cinergy Field , was the home of the Cincinnati Reds National League baseball team and the Cincinnati Bengals National Football League team. Located on the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, the stadium was best known as the home of "The Big Red Machine," as the...
in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
The Reds evened the series with an easy win in Game 4 behind a sparkling two-hitter from Ross Grimsley
Ross Grimsley
Ross Albert Grimsley II is a former left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Cincinnati Reds , Baltimore Orioles , Montreal Expos and Cleveland Indians...
. The Reds got three early runs off Pirates starter Dock Ellis
Dock Ellis
Dock Phillip Ellis, Jr. was a professional baseball player who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, among other teams in Major League Baseball. His best season was 1971, when he won 19 games for the World Series champion Pirates and was the starting pitcher for the National League in the All-Star...
, aided by Pittsburgh errors in the first and fourth. Grimsley himself singled in another run in the sixth and the Reds eventually added three more. Grimsley hardly needed the extra runs as he shut down the Pirates almost completely, allowing only two hits, both by Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente Walker was a Puerto Rican Major League Baseball right fielder. He was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, the youngest of seven children. Clemente played his entire 18-year baseball career with the Pittsburgh Pirates . He was awarded the National League's Most Valuable Player Award in...
. Pittsburgh got their only run on a seventh-inning homer by Clemente, the last he would ever hit.
Game 5
Wednesday, October 11, 1972 at Riverfront StadiumCinergy Field
Riverfront Stadium , later known as Cinergy Field , was the home of the Cincinnati Reds National League baseball team and the Cincinnati Bengals National Football League team. Located on the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, the stadium was best known as the home of "The Big Red Machine," as the...
in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
Game 5 proved to be one of the most memorable postseason contests in baseball history. Pittsburgh took an early 2–0 lead with second-inning RBIs from Richie Hebner
Richie Hebner
Richard Joseph Hebner is an American former professional baseball third baseman. He played from 1968 to 1985 in Major League Baseball. He played with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, and Chicago Cubs, all of the National League, and the Detroit Tigers of the American...
and Dave Cash
Dave Cash (baseball)
David Cash, Jr. is a former Major League Baseball second baseman who played in the National League for the Pittsburgh Pirates , Philadelphia Phillies , Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres .Cash established himself as a solid singles hitter and a good defensive second baseman in his seasons with...
. The Reds got one back in the third on an RBI double by Pete Rose
Pete Rose
Peter Edward Rose , nicknamed "Charlie Hustle", is a former Major League Baseball player and manager. Rose played from 1963 to 1986, and managed from 1984 to 1989....
. But Pittsburgh inched further ahead with another run-scoring hit from Cash in the fourth. César Gerónimo
César Gerónimo
César Francisco Gerónimo Zorrilla , known as César Gerónimo, is a former outfielder in Major League Baseball, who was a member of the famed Big Red Machine of the Cincinnati Reds during the 1970s. He batted and threw left-handed....
cut the Pirates' lead to 3–2 with a homer in the fifth, and the pitchers for both teams kept any more runs off the board until the bottom of the ninth.
With Pittsburgh needing only three outs in the ninth to get to the World Series
1972 World Series
The 1972 World Series matched the American League champion Oakland Athletics against the National League champion Cincinnati Reds, with the A's winning in seven games. These two teams would meet again in the fall classic eighteen years later...
, Pirates closer Dave Giusti
Dave Giusti
David John Giusti, Jr., is a retired Major League Baseball pitcher who played from 1962 to 1977....
yielded a dramatic game-tying homer to Johnny Bench
Johnny Bench
Johnny Lee Bench is a former professional baseball catcher who played in the Major Leagues for the Cincinnati Reds from 1967 to 1983 and is a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame...
on a hanging change-up. The inning rapidly turned chaotic for the Pirates. Tony Pérez
Tony Pérez
Atanasio Pérez Rigal , more commonly known as Tony Pérez, is a former Major League Baseball player. He was also known by the nickname "Big Dog," "Big Doggie," and "Doggie."...
singled and was replaced by pinch-runner George Foster. Denis Menke
Denis Menke
Denis John Menke is a former professional baseball infielder. He played all or part of thirteen seasons in Major League Baseball from 1962 to 1974. He played for the Milwaukee Braves , Atlanta Braves , Houston Astros and Cincinnati Reds , all of the National League...
followed with another single, and the Pirates replaced Giusti with Game 2 starter Bob Moose
Bob Moose
Robert Ralph Moose Jr. was a Major League Baseball pitcher from 1967 to 1976. Moose spent his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. His best season came in 1969 when he posted a 14-3 won-loss record and a 2.91 Earned Run Average working equally as a starter and reliever...
. A fly ball out advanced Foster to third. After Darrell Chaney made the second out on a popup with nobody scoring, Moose threw a wild pitch to pinch-hitter Hal McRae
Hal McRae
Harold Abraham McRae is a former left fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Cincinnati Reds and Kansas City Royals . Utilized as a designated hitter for most of his career, McRae batted and threw right-handed...
. Foster came home with the winning run amid wild scenes of jubilation in the stadium. The Reds went on to the World Series where they would lose to the Oakland Athletics
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
, the first of three consecutive World Series championships for Oakland.
Composite box
1972 NLCS (3–2): Cincinnati RedsCincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the National League Central Division. The club was established in 1882 as a charter member of the American Association and joined the National League in 1890....
over Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions...
Series quotes
External links
- Baseball-reference.com - 1972 NLCS