Legends: The Best Players, Games, and Teams in Baseball

by Howard Bryant

  With so little room to be noticed, and with so many big stars elbowing for a bigger place on stage, Roberto Clemente often felt forgotten.

  Since the late 1950s, after he was given a chance by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who drafted him off of a Brooklyn Dodgers minor league team, Clemente had enjoyed a tremendous following of fans who loved his electric, slashing style of play.

  Clemente was the kind of ballplayer who did everything right, and he did it dangerously, but most important, when Clemente played, fans always expected something breathtaking to happen. When he hit, the ball would rip off of his bat low and flat, whistle through the infield, and crash into the outfield gaps. He was not a home run hitter like Frank Robinson or Aaron, but many times—240 times over his career—those line drives would cut through the air and sail over the fence.

  When Clemente ran the bases, it wasn’t just with his legs, but with his arms, with his teeth clenched, his whole body lurching and reaching for his destination. When he threw from the outfield, the ball resembled a comet, a bullet, a rocket. A batter would single into a gap in the outfield, hungry to turn the hit into a double, but Clemente would field the ball and fire it into the infield, causing the runner to retreat back to first or risk being gunned down at second by a perfect throw.

  Most fun for Clemente was when a runner on first would try to take third on a base hit to right field. Then he could really let loose a big throw, erasing his challenger at third. The crowd would buzz. Clemente could do something few players in history could do: He made defense as exciting as offense. As if to emphasize the point, he won twelve straight Gold Glove Awards.

  Clemente was all these things and something else, too: dark-skinned as if he were African American, yet born and raised in Puerto Rico, Clemente was baseball’s first Latin American superstar. He was the game’s first internationally recognizable figure, not just for his baseball fame, but also for being a symbol of success and humanity to baseball fans in places such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Clemente responded to his connection to Latino fans and their countries by giving more of himself: by trying to help poorer countries through raising money and promoting charity.

  It also meant having to conduct interviews in English, a second language for Clemente, when most American sportswriters not only did not speak Spanish (most still don’t today), but many also found Clemente’s struggle with English a source of ridicule.

  It meant having pride in being Puerto Rican while trying to make American baseball fans feel comfortable. For years, Roberto would go by the American nickname “Bobby” as an attempt to connect better with English-speaking baseball fans. Yet for all the fans who loved him, Roberto often felt as though he was not quite as accepted as stars like Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays.

  On the field, Clemente also felt slighted, because for all of his greatness, the national media focused on other players. In 1960, he led the Pirates to the World Series against the Yankees, and the Pirates upset the mighty Yanks in seven games—but that series would always and only be remembered for Bill Mazeroski’s home run in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7. Clemente led the National League in batting average four times, in 1961, 1964, 1965, and 1967. He led both leagues in hits twice. He piled up more than two hundred hits a season in four different years. He won the MVP Award in 1966. And of course, there were those twelve straight Gold Glove Awards. Yet Clemente played right field at the same time as two other all-time superstars in the National League: Henry Aaron and Frank Robinson. Aaron and Robinson seemed to generate the most headlines because of their prowess as power hitters.

  So in 1971, with the Pirates playing the mighty defending champion Baltimore Orioles in the World Series, Clemente made sure to take advantage of the opportunity to be on the big stage to prove that he was in the same class as the great ones, to ensure that no one would ever forget him.

  He’d already put together a fantastic playoff performance, having hit .333 in Pittsburgh’s four-game win over San Francisco in the National League Championship Series, but he was even hotter in the World Series. Clemente went 2 for 4 with a double in the first game and 2 for 5 with a double in the second, but the Pirates lost both games in Baltimore. When the series shifted to Pittsburgh, the Pirates won the next three games and Clemente had at least one hit in each game, including going 3 for 4 in Game 4. The Pirates were a game away from winning the World Series and Clemente had 8 hits in 17 at-bats—a .471 batting average.

  In Game 6, with the Pirates needing a win for the championship and the Orioles needing a win to force a winner-takes-all final game, Clemente hit a triple off Jim Palmer in the first inning and then gave the Pirates the lead in the third with a home run to right field.

  The Orioles would come back to win that game in the bottom of the tenth inning, leading to a series-deciding seventh game. Clemente had but one hit in Game 7, yet it was a home run in the fourth inning that gave the Pirates the lead. The Pirates would go on to win the game and the second World Series of Clemente’s career. Clemente, having hit .414 with two home runs, was named Most Valuable Player, the first Latin American to ever win the award.

  After the game he spoke on national television in Spanish and English, making him an even greater hero in his homeland of Puerto Rico, not to mention to kids in the Caribbean and Mexico.

  The next year, on the final day of the 1972 season, Clemente recorded his three-thousandth hit—a milestone that to this day is used as a measuring stick for a Hall of Fame career. Unfortunately, it would be the final hit of Clemente’s career.

  During Christmas of that year, a terrible earthquake struck Nicaragua. Clemente organized a mission to bring first aid and other supplies to the victims. On December 31 another great tragedy occurred, when Clemente’s plane carrying emergency supplies to Nicaragua crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff. His body was never recovered.

  Baseball still honors Clemente’s commitment to others by awarding the Roberto Clemente Award each season to the player who “best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team.”

  For all the years when he did not think he was recognized as the great player he was, Roberto Clemente would never have to worry about being forgotten. His greatness would be in his ability to inspire baseball fans and generations of future players both with his play on the baseball field and with his selfless humanity off of it.

  Roberto Clemente

  TOP TEN LIST

  It doesn’t always happen, but the World Series is the ultimate stage for the best players to be great. Roberto Clemente used the 1971 World Series to show the public his talents. Other Hall of Fame players (and soon-to-be Hall of Famers) have followed, saving their best for the last series of the year, the World Series.

  Hank Aaron, 1957: Hit .393, 3 HR against Yankees

  Babe Ruth, 1928: Hit .625, 3 HR against Cardinals

  Reggie Jackson, 1977: Hit .450, 5 HR against Dodgers

  Bob Gibson, 1967: 3–0, 1.00 ERA, 26 K against Red Sox

  Willie Stargell, 1979: Hit .400, 4 2B, 3 HR against Orioles

  Sandy Koufax, 1965: 2–1, 0.38 ERA. Pitched 2-hit shutout in Game 7 against Twins

  Brooks Robinson, 1970: Spectacular defense, hit .429 average against Reds

  Derek Jeter, 2000: Hit .409, 2 HR against Mets

  Lou Gehrig, 1932: Hit .529, 3 HR, 8 RBI against Cubs

  Madison Bumgarner, 2014: 2-0, 1 SV, 0.43 ERA, 21 IP, 17K against Royals

  The Best Ever

  THE 1975 WORLD SERIES

  Even today, in a different century, people still think the 1975 World Series was better than the rest, better than all the ones that came before it, even the ones that had Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Willie Mays, and Joe DiMaggio in them, and better than the ones that came after, with Derek Jeter and Reggie Jackson, David Ortiz and Albert Pujols. Some historians may think the 1912 Red Sox–
Giants classic was best. Others may point to the 1947 Yankees–Dodgers showdown. Today’s baseball fans may prefer the 1991 Twins–Braves World Series, the 1993 Phillies–Blue Jays, the 2002 Giants–Angels, or the 2011 Cardinals–Rangers. Everyone is entitled to their opinions.

  It is one thing, however, to talk about a game or a player or a series as “the best ever,” and quite another to explain why a certain series was so special. As for the thriller between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox, here are just a few reasons why, decades later, people still talk about the 1975 World Series:

  Two games were decided in extra innings.

  Two more games were decided in the ninth inning.

  Six of the seven games were won by a team who had to come from behind.

  In one game, the winning team came from behind twice.

  The Reds had won 108 games in 1975 and were considered one of the greatest teams of all time, “The Big Red Machine.”

  The Red Sox were one of the best young teams, primed to be dominant for years.

  Combined, the two teams fielded five future Hall of Fame players: Carl Yastrzemski and Carlton Fisk of the Red Sox; Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Tony Perez of Cincinnati. Sparky Anderson, the Reds’ manager, would also make the Hall of Fame. Boston’s Jim Rice, who would one day also make the Hall of Fame, missed the series with an injured wrist, and another Hall of Fame–level player, Pete Rose—baseball’s all-time leader in hits—would not be allowed entry into the Hall of Fame because he was caught betting on baseball. In total, eight Hall of Fame talents from just two teams.

  Game 6, widely considered the greatest playoff game ever played, also featured one of the game’s most famous moments: Carlton Fisk’s dramatic twelfth inning, game-winning home run off the foul pole, still shown on highlight reels to this day.

  The stakes were high for two of Major League Baseball’s oldest franchises. The Reds hadn’t won a World Series since 1940, and the Red Sox’s Series winless streak dated back all the way to 1918.

  When it was over, no one wanted it, or the baseball season, to end.

  This series was certainly not a mismatch on paper, but Cincinnati had been the best team in baseball all season and they were expected to win. “The Big Red Machine,” as they were known, had steamrolled the National League, winning 108 games and clinching a playoff spot in the first week of September, with a full month of the season left. They were that good.

  Cincinnati had the big names, like the hard-nosed Pete Rose, who was famous for always giving the game his all (thus his nickname, “Charlie Hustle”); second-baseman Joe Morgan, who had won the regular season MVP Award (which he would win again the following season); the brilliant catcher, Johnny Bench, who had won two MVP Awards of his own in 1970 and 1972; and the manager with the colorful nickname, Sparky Anderson.

  The Red Sox were good and colorful, too, with two pitchers, Luis Tiant and Bill Lee, who were as much showmen and personalities as they were baseball players. Tiant, known as El Tiante, was from Cuba and when he left his country because of the political climate, he knew he could never return. He was known for his unique pitching delivery on the field and large cigars off of it. Lee was from California, he disliked being told what to do by anyone, would say crazy, funny things, and in general liked to clown around both on the mound and off (earning him the nickname “Spaceman,” because his head always seemed to be in outer space), but was such a good pitcher he got away with it all.

  The Red Sox earned their ticket to the World Series by toppling the Oakland A’s, winner of the previous three World Series, with a three-game sweep in the American League Championship. For Boston to win the World Series for the first time since 1918, they would have to beat two classic teams. They had beaten one in Oakland, but the Big Red Machine was still to come.

  The Red Sox looked like they were on their way. Tiant beat a baffled Reds team in the opener in Boston, 6–0. He could throw any pitch from any angle, including a knuckleball. Sometimes when he pitched, Tiant looked up to the sky instead of at home plate while he delivered the ball.

  In the second game, with Lee pitching, the Red Sox had the lead once again, up 2–1 in the ninth inning, until the Reds scored two runs and then shut down the Red Sox in the bottom of the ninth. The series headed to Cincinnati tied 1–1.

  The Red Sox scored first in Game 3 and would end up hitting three home runs in the game, yet the Reds would overcome the barrage by winning in extra innings, 6–5. The game turned on a controversial call between the Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk and the Reds pinch-hitter Ed Armbrister, who bunted in the tenth inning, but didn’t get out of Fisk’s way when Fisk was trying to throw to second base. Fisk took the ball and threw it wildly into center field. The Red Sox screamed and protested that Armbrister interfered, thus forcing the wild throw, and that he should have been called out for interference.

  By rule, Armbrister should have been called out, but the home plate umpire, Larry Barnett, blew the call. Two batters later, Morgan won the game with a single. The controversy surrounding the non-call seemed to raise the stakes even further.

  In Game 4, Tiant showed his toughness. He did not have his best pitches that day, but knew the Red Sox, down two games to one, could not afford to lose. The game was wild early. The Red Sox led 5–4 after four innings, giving the impression that there would be more runs to score, but there weren’t. The final score was 5–4, Red Sox. Most pitchers in baseball today are removed after throwing 100 pitches. On that night, Tiant threw 163, and the Red Sox needed every last one of them.

  The series was tied once again.

  The Reds won Game 5 by a score of 6–2, putting them a game away from their first championship since 1940. The two teams moved back to Boston for Game 6, with Tiant pitching for the third time, and the Red Sox immediately took a 3–0 lead in the first inning, desperately trying to keep their season alive.

  But as the game wore on, the steam in the great pitcher, and in his team, finally ran out. The Reds were just too good. They battered Tiant, who fought bravely against the Cincinnati bats, but was exhausted by a long season, the playoffs, and those 163 pitches he had thrown in Game 4. He had pitched heroically, but the season looked to finally be coming to an end when the Cincinnati center fielder Cesar Geronimo hit a long home run off Tiant in the eighth to make it 6–3.

  Then, more magic: Two out, two on, bottom of the eighth, down 6–3, Bernie Carbo entered the game as a pinch hitter for the Red Sox against the Reds’ big fireballer, Rawley Eastwick. Eastwick threw so hard that hitters heard the ball pound the catcher’s mitt before they saw it.

  But somehow, some way, Carbo hit an Eastwick fastball to left center field for a three-run homer.

  With one swing of the bat, the game was tied! The Fenway Park fans erupted in cheers.

  In the ninth, with Ken Griffey Sr. on first, the dangerous Joe Morgan hit a rocket to right. Dwight Evans, the young Red Sox right fielder, ran all the way back to the wall, 380 feet, and snagged Morgan’s drive right by the foul pole. He then turned and threw to first base, beating Griffey back to the bag for a double play.

  On to the bottom of the ninth. The Red Sox loaded the bases with no outs! The fans were on their feet, expecting a win. And yet . . . and yet the Sox were unable to score.

  Into extra innings went one of the great games of all time. The Red Sox had been up 3–0, down 6–3, tied 6–6. It was now after midnight, 12:34 a.m. Carlton Fisk was up at bat, facing the eighth Reds pitcher of the game, Pat Darcy. Fisk hit a long fly ball down the left-field line, toward Fenway Park’s famous Green Monster, as the giant green wall is known. But would the ball stay fair or go foul? As it soared toward the top of the wall and the foul pole, Fisk could be seen watching it along with everyone else in the stadium. He took a few steps toward first, waving his arms, trying anything and everything to keep the ball fair.

  It was. The ball actually hit the foul pole.
It was a home run, winning the now-greatest game in World Series history for Red Sox, 7–6.

  One more game to decide the series. Winner take all, last game of the baseball season.

  The Red Sox, as they had the night before, took a 3–0 lead, this time with Lee on the mound. Yet the Reds were just too good to lose. They fought back, tied the game, and in the ninth inning, Morgan, again, won it with a little bloop single up the middle. The Red Sox had their last chance in the bottom of the ninth, with their future Hall of Famer Yastrzemski at the plate. But Yaz popped up to Geronimo in center. The game was over. The Reds, finally, after losing in 1970 and 1972, were World Series champions.

  The Reds and their Big Red Machine had won the best World Series ever, but the real winners were anyone who’d been lucky enough to see it happen.

  The 1975 World Series

  TOP TEN LIST

  The 1975 World Series may always be considered the greatest ever played, but that doesn’t mean it stands alone in the debate. Here are ten World Series that were pretty memorable, too.

  Twins–Braves, 1991: The Twins and Braves both finished in last place the year before, yet they reached the World Series in 1991 and played a seven-game classic.

  Yankees–Diamondbacks, 2001: Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling combine to win all four games for the D’backs, thwarting the Yankees’ bid for a “four-pete” by scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7.

  Red Sox–Giants, 1912: Three outs from a title, the Giants drop a fly ball and lose!

  Red Sox–Cardinals, 1946: St. Louis will always remember Enos Slaughter’s dash home all the way from first base!

  Dodgers–Yankees, 1947: Jackie Robinson’s debut World Series . . . Yankees’ Bill Bevens loses a no-hitter and the game in the ninth inning of Game 4, Al Giondfriddo robs DiMaggio of a home run in Game 6. Yanks win Game 7!