Prior to the Chicago Cubs’ run this week, only three teams in major-league history had come back to win a World Series after trailing three-games-to-one and facing the prospect of two road games to close out the series.
I have pretty vivid memories of two of them. Yes, I am that old.
I can’t speak with any authority to the ’58 Yankees who overcame the deficit to knock off the Milwaukee Braves, denying Hank Aaron a shot at a second consecutive championship. I do have access to a record book, however, and it tells a pretty remarkable tale—New York had Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford and famous names and yet the Yankees prevailed thanks to Bob Turley, a right-hander who had the season of his life that year, 21 wins and the Cy Young.
Notable for his curious no-wind up motion, Turley seemed more likely goat than hero when he lasted just a third of an inning in his Game 2 start against the Braves, but he all but carried the Yanks to the championship in the last strokes—a win in his Game 5 start, a one-out save in Game 6 and 6.2 innings of relief in to get the W in Game 7.
Bob Turley wasn’t an all-time great by any stretch—he racked up 101 wins versus 85 losses lifetime. He bounced around from the St Louis Browns to the Orioles at the beginning of his career and landed with the expansion Angels and Red Sox at the end—he even mounted a failed comeback with the Houston Colt 45s. He was a real who’s-he and played one on TV, Mr X no less. His thumbnail profile reads journeyman through and through, except for the line about being World Series MVP. Turley died a few years back but his life lesson endures: if you’re gonna be great for a week, you might as well make it the biggest week of your career.
Okay, I’ve only seen grainy highlights of the ’58 series but the others I watched in real time and rooted for the teams doing the coming back.
The Tigers were a lot of fun to watch in ’68 but when you get down to it, they probably had no business being on the same field as Bob Gibson and his St Louis Cardinals. In the late 60s Gibson was the best pitcher in the game—you could see batters in the on-deck circle swallowing hard as he mowed down their teammates. His ERA was—and this is not a misprint—1.12.
The Cards’ No. 3 starter was Steve Carlton who at that point hadn’t quite become the Steve Carlton you know but was still as good as you’d hope for in a supporting role. St. Louis had Lou Brock, who went to the Hall of Fame, and Curt Flood who could have been in there and will be if Marvin Miller has God’s ear in heaven. The NL champs had Orlando Cepeda, a professional hitter, and what was left of Roger Maris. They had a lot going on.
Back in that era the American League was the junior circuit and Detroit might have had a better team in ’67 (when they coughed up a fur ball in losing the AL to the Impossible Dream Red Sox) than they did in the year that followed. If you gave the Tigers any chance you’d have imagined that they’d have to ride on Denny McLain who won 31 games and the AL Cy Young that season. But McLain sputtered somewhat in September—it happens when you pitch 336 innings including 28 complete games.
Reprising the role of Bob Turley and bettering it was Mickey Lolich, a tubby journeyman who won his three starts, all complete games, including Game 7 vs Gibson. Lolich stuck around another decade, won 217 games across his career, set a record for most strikeouts in the AL by a left-hander. Lolich was and is a guy who is easy to like. But again, in a contest of merit between Gibson and Lolich, bookmakers would cease to take action on Gibson early on—something Denny McLain might have been able to advise you on at the time.
Okay I have one particularly awful memory of ’79. ABC was doing broadcasts of the World Series—this being a break from the classic calls of MLB on NBC that I grew up with. The network assigned Howard Cosell in all his self-congratulatory self-styled glory to work the Series between Baltimore and Pittsburgh. The worst World Series in broadcasting history, to that point anyway.
I can still hear Cosell say: “Look at Mrs Moreno go, she’s singing ‘We Are Family.’” Mrs Moreno was the light-footed wife of the Pirates’ light-hitting centre fielder Omar Moreno and We Are Family is paying Sister Sledge royalties as you read this. The band members deserves every cent of them for having to listen to Cosell covering their signature song and probably wrecking their careers.
The Orioles had a few great teams from the mid-60s through the early 80s under Earl Weaver. Most of the time they found a way to lose and in the final five games of that series first baseman Eddie Murray, the offensive linchpin, found a way to go 0 for 21. Yeah, Murray went silent. (See what I did there?) The ’79 Orioles weren’t a great team that season, just an over-achieving one. It looked like they had the Pirates dead to rights.
As bad as Cosell’s singing were the Pirates unis in 1979. They were good for covering up mustard stains but that’s about it. But the Bucs had Willie Stargell who went in the Hall of Fame and Dave Parker who had more talent than all but maybe five guys who made it to Cooperstown. Stargell went off in Game 7, four for five with two doubles and a homer in a 4-1 Pittsburgh win, Yeah, there would up being a lot of cocaine done by those in the Pirates’ clubhouse back in the day. Probably true most places where they played We Are Family.
What I could say without hesitation: The Cubs are a better team than the ’68 Tigers and the ’79 Pirates were. Also: The curse and all that makes them a far better story. Ok, I can’t stand Joe Maddon and the cult of managerial genius he has built around himself—give me the Tigers manager Mayo Smith any day. (Who names their son Mayo?) And there are bound to be endless Will Ferrell as Harry Caray sightings in coming days. But if the Cubs comeback puts an end to the Billy Goat, Steve Bartman and all that, I protest not.