October 10, 1980: After 3 failed attempts, the 4th time is the charm for the Kansas City Royals. George Brett's mammoth home run off Goose Gossage gives the Royals a 4-2 win and a sweep of the American League Championship Series, for the 1st major league Pennant for a Kansas City team – the 1st Pennant won by any KC team since the Blues won the American Association Pennant in 1953.
The Yankees had beaten the Royals in the ALCS 3 straight times. In 1976, it went the distance, 5 games. In Game 5, the Royals' best player, 3rd baseman George Brett, hit a game-tying home run in the 8th inning, but Chris Chambliss hit a home run to win it in the bottom of the 9th.
In 1977, it went the distance again. The Royals led in games, 1-0 and 2-1, but the Yankees came back. The Royals led Game 5 3-1 after 7 innings, but the Yankees won it, 5-3. In the Royals' dugout, diminutive shortstop Freddie Patek was seen crying, because his mentor, Cookie Rojas, was retiring without having played in a World Series. (Rojas had also been a member of the ill-fated 1964 Philadelphia Phillies.)
In 1978, the Royals thought they finally figured it out: They needed a lefthanded reliever, and they signed Al Hrabosky, "The Mad Hungarian." In Game 1 of the ALCS, Hrabosky faced the Yankees' "Mr. October," and Reggie took him deep. In Game 3, Brett hit 3 home runs, but Thurman Munson hit a home run in the 8th inning to turn a 4-3 Royal lead into a 5-4 Yankee win, and the Yankees clinched in Game 4.
The Yankees lost the World Series in 1976, but won it in 1977 and 1978. In 1979, Munson was killed in a plane crash. They seemed to have recovered in 1980, winning a tough AL East race over the Baltimore Orioles, while the Royals, with Whitey Herzog replaced as manager by former Oriole coach Jim Frey, outlasted a revived Oakland Athletics. For the 4th time, all in 5 years, it would be Yankees vs. Royals for the Pennant. But, without Munson, things would be different.
The Royals couldn't touch Yankee ace Ron Guidry in Game 2 in 1977 or Game 4 in 1978. This time, in Game 1, they reached him for 4 runs in the 1st 4 innings, and won, 7-2. They led Game 2, 3-2 in the top of the 8th, when Bob Watson launched a drive that threatened to score Willie Randolph all the way from 1st base. Yankee 3rd base coach Mike Ferraro waved Randolph home, but he was thrown out at the plate, and the Royals' 3-2 lead held.
The Yankees had made so many comebacks over the years that the 1st-ever comeback from two games to none down in a League Championship Series seemed possible, especially since the rest of the series, however long it lasted, would be at Yankee Stadium. Sure enough, in the bottom of the 6th in Game 3, the Yankees took a 2-1 lead.
But with 2 out in the top of the 7th, Willie Wilson doubled. Manager Dick Howser took starter Tommy John out, and brought in closer Rich "Goose" Gossage. He gave up a single to U L Washington -- the Royals' shortstop separated his initials, but did not use periods -- and then Brett, who had batted .390, coming closer to .400 than anyone since Ted Williams did it 39 years earlier, crushed a drive into the upper deck.
Legend has it that this Brett homer left the Yanks totally lifeless the rest of the way. It's not true: They loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 8th. But submarine-throwing Dan Quisenberry, the reliever that Kansas City had been looking for since 1976, got a double play and a groundout to end the threat, and then a 1-2-3 9th inning. For the 1st time since 1953 -- when the Kansas City Blues were a Yankee farm team -- Kansas City had won a Pennant.
It is one of the most humiliating series in Yankee history. After the World Series, which the Royals lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, Yankee owner George Steinbrenner told Howser to fire Ferraro. He refused. So Steinbrenner fired Ferraro himself. Howser resigned.
In 1985, Howser won the World Series -- as the manager of the Royals. He then developed cancer, managed his last game as the winning manager for the American League in the 1986 All-Star Game, and died in 1987. Howser's successor as Royals manager? Mike Ferraro, although that, and his brief 1983 tenure with the Cleveland Indians, would be his only times managing a major league team. But Steinbrenner did forgive him, and brought him back as a Yankee coach.
Frey would end another team's drought: In 1984, he managed the Chicago Cubs to the National League Eastern Division title, their 1st postseason appearance in 39 years.
Brett would collect over 3,000 hits, and, through the 2022 season, his 317 home runs remains the most in Royals history. It sure seemed like he hit a lot of them to the short porch in right field at Yankee Stadium, including another blast off Gossage in the "Pine Tar Game" in 1983. Until David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox and his steroids came along, he was probably the biggest "Yankee Killer" of them all.
With him, the Royals made the Playoffs 6 times in 10 years from 1976 to 1985, culminating in a World Championship. Without him, the franchise didn't make the Playoffs until their back-to-back Pennants of 2014-15.
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October 10, 1980 was a Friday. On the same day, Game 3 of the National League Championship Series was held at the Astrodome. The Phillies and the Astros are tied at 1 game apiece. Before the game, Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas, whose previous team had been the Astros (his 1st MLB broadcast was the Astrodome's debut in 1965), tells his broadcast partners, Richie Ashburn and the recently-retired Tim McCarver, that this Game 3 is the key game of the series. "I don't agree," says Ashburn. "I think whoever wins the 5th game is going to win the series." Of course, that makes sense, since Game 5, if necessary, will decide it.
Joe Niekro pitched 10 shutout innings for the Astros, and Dave Smith pitched a scoreless 11th, while the Phils got 10 scoreless from Larry Christenson, Dickie Noles and Tug McGraw. But Joe Morgan led off the bottom of the 11th with a triple off Tug, and Denny Walling's sacrifice fly brought him home with the winning run. Astros 1, Phillies 0. The Astros are now 1 win away from their 1st Pennant.
They didn't get it. The Phils won Games 4 and 5, proving that Whitey Ashburn was right, and Harry the K was wrong: Game 3 was not the key to the series. It would be another 25 years before the Astros finally got their 1st Pennant.
Football was in midweek. The NBA season opened, with these 9 games:
* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Indiana Pacers, 110-91 at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. (It's now the Jersey Mike's Arena.)
* The Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 130-103 at the Boston Garden.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 106-103 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The Washington Bullets beat the Detroit Pistons, 95-85 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.
* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Denver Nuggets, 113-112 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.
* The Utah Jazz beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 96-86 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. Adrian Dantley led all scorers on the night with 36 points.
* The Phoenix Suns beat the Golden State Warriors, 121-101 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.
* The San Diego Clippers beat the Houston Rockets, 120-104 at the San Diego Sports Arena. (now the Pechanga Arena).
* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 99-98 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.
The NHL season had started the night before, and there were 3 games on this day:
* The Washington Capitals beat the Winnipeg Jets, 4-1 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.
* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Edmonton Oilers, 7-4 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton. The Oilers retired a number for the 1st time, the Number 3 of Al Hamilton, before this game, their season opener.
* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 at the Pacific Coliseum in Denver.
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