The Pirates, awakening from an 18-year coma, are in town this weekend to try to open some more eyes, while men of a certain age vividly recall Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski knowing better than to even blink during an at-bat against Bruce Kison.
The Pirate right-hander repeatedly came in higher than even the Phillies aspirations in the 70s, tighter than the tensions when they played their Pittsburgh nemeses.
Ive seen Bruce (now a talent evaluator for the Orioles) around, said Chris Wheeler, Hes mild-mannered and soft-spoken and I told him I still hate your guts.
He said I dont blame you. There was genuine dislike between those two teams.
Also, a respect deepened during 11 seasons when the Lumber Company of Willie Stargell and the Phillies of Steve Carlton, Larry Bowa, Bob Boone, Tug McGraw and, ultimately, Pete Rose combined for all but one of the NL East titles, plus three World Series championships.
You dont have rivalries like that now, said Bowa, an analyst for the MLB Network.
Theres Boston and the Yankees of course, but with the wild-card they can both make the playoffs. In the 70s it was us or the Pirates every year.
MLB
Every game had a playoff atmosphere. Every year there was going to be a bench-clearing brawl. There were never any warnings from umpires in those days; you just took care of those things yourself. They had old school guys and we did, too.
They were dominant in the early 70s and beat us up good and then the tables got reversed.
But only until the Pirates, who had become bridesmaids to the enormously talented Phillies teams of 1976-78, beat them to a World Series championship in 1979, before the Phillies paraded gleefully over the Pirates the very next year.
It never got old until those teams finally did. The Cardinals, then Mets ruled through the 80s. By the time the Pirates rose again to three straight NL East titles from 1990-92, the Phillies had gone bad, which the Pirates have stayed ever since the 1993 expansion, when they fled to the new NL Central, thinking it presented them a more level financial playing field than did New York, Philadelphia and the Time-Warner Braves.
A record 18 straight losing seasons later, to say it hasnt worked out for the Pirates is an understatement even bigger than Dave Parker. The Pirates went so bad for so long they couldnt even rival Schmidt for Bert Blylevens affections, let alone develop any fear and loathing by the Cardinals, Cubs and Brewers.
Pittsburgh has little to lose by a move back to the NL East, which Pirates President Frank Coonelly is on record as saying he wants, even if he didnt respond to numerous requests to explain why for this story.
With a larger realignment in the air, it may not be as simple as creating a six-team East. But hopefully this has a shot, although probably not as good as the catcher Johnny Oates (5-foot-11, 188 pounds) took from Parker (6-5, 230) in scoring the tying run on a sacrifice fly with two outs in the ninth on Opening Day 1976 at The Vet.
Smoked him, said Bowa. Broke his collarbone.
The Pirates won that one in extra innings. But the upstart Phillies, who in their emergent year, 1975, had been tied with the Pirates for first as late Aug. 18 before the Bucs pulled away to a fourth NL East title in five years, raced to a 15-game lead in 1976.
The proud Pirates fought back with a 17-4 run, which, coupled with the Phillies going 6-17, put the lead down to four on Sept. 17, when rookie pinch-runner Rock Bosetti got picked off in a one-run game in the bottom of the ninth and the Pirates completed a two-game sweep at the Vet. It went down to three the next day until Carlton beat the Cubs and the Phillies righted themselves and pulled away for their first division title.
In 1977, the Pirates were 8 games back on July 7 in Pittsburgh, when Kison hit Schmidt and Schmidt immediately warned the pitcher that the next time there would be retribution.
What are you waiting for? asked Kison. Schmidt, who declined an interview for this story, did not turn Kison down. In the resulting mle, he had has finger stepped on and broken by Pirates catcher Ed Ott.
The brawl went into left field and was bad enough for Stargell to go to the Phillies clubhouse before the next afternoons game to appeal for a truce. Maybe the classiest thing I ever saw in baseball, recalled Boone.
The Pirates swept the series, got the lead down to one by Aug. 5 and went on to win 96 games. They still finished five behind the Phillies, who nevertheless knew better than to assume the Pirates were dead in 1978, even if they were 11.5 back on Aug. 13.
When I went to the Phillies (traded for Al Holland in 1985) guys there told me they started scoreboard watching us on April 1, recalled Kent Tekulve, the side-arming, skin-and-bones reliever, who came to represent a skull and crossbones to the Phillies. Sure enough, back came the Pirates again, going 37-12 the rest of the way and extending their chances to the final weekend when they hosted the Phillies, needing a four-game sweep to force a playoff.
The Pirates won the first game of the Friday twinighter in the ninth when Garry Maddox and Bake McBride let Otts fly ball fall in deep right-center and Maddoxs throw for third hit Ott and went into the dugout. The Pirates won the second game in the ninth when Warren Brusstar balked in Phil Garner.
Maddox and McBride screwing up like that, it just didnt happen, said Tekulve. Were thinking something special is going on here.
The next afternoon, Stargell hit a first-inning grand slam off Randy Lerch. The Phillies looked spooked until things got downright eerie. Lerch hit two solo homers off Don Robinson to get the Phillies within a run.
We just had to win that game, said Bowa. Luzinski hit a three-run homer to put the Phillies ahead, Richie Hebners two-run double off Tekulve appeared to put the division away and yet, the Pirates, down 10-4 in the ninth, still refused to go away.
McGraw gave up four hits to the five batters he faced and Rick Reed gave up another to Bill Robinson that put the tying run to the plate before Phil Garner grounded out to Bowa. Cant tell you how relieved I was to see that ball coming right at me, Bowa recalled.
The Pirates started badly again in 1979, when the Phillies held first until May 25. We had more big bodies than anybody else in the league and big guys have trouble getting loose in the cold weather, said Tekulve. When it warmed up, we would have staying power over the rabbits.
The Pirates traded for Bill Madlock, went over .500 for good on June 15 and were three games up on the Phillies when they came to Pittsburgh for a five-game series in early August.
Left-handed John Milner, Chuck Tanners choice as a pinch-hitter for a Steve Nicosia against the left-handed McGraw, never mind the right-handed Nicosia was 4 for 4 for the day, hit a two-out grand slam in the ninth to win the first game of the Sunday doubleheader and the Pirates also took the nightcap to sweep the series.
Six days later, they erased an 8-0 deficit at the Vet and won 14-11, taking three out of four in the series and leaving the Phillies in the dust. The Pirates race was with the emergent Expos, who had a chance to force a playoff with a victory over the Phlllies in Montreal on the final day of the season.
Dallas Green, who had been looking at kids after succeeding Danny Ozark as manager on Aug. 30, played his veteran lineup.
Maddox told me when I got to Philly that guys asked to play that game because they wanted the Pirates to earn it, said Tekulve, which Blyleven did by beating the Cubs after Carlton had shut out the Expos, 2-0. The Pirates went on to win the World Series that the Phillies bitterly had been denied by the Reds (1976) and Dodgers (1977 and 1978).
It was hard seeing the Pirates win, admitted Bowa and it grew difficult hearing and reading, too, that the Pirates were clutch and the Phillies soulless. So the following Memorial Day at the Vet, when Blyleven twice buzzed Schmidt after he had shaved Luzinski, too, Schmidt pointed to the mound in warning. In the sixth Kevin Saucier drilled Blyleven in the rear end and the benches emptied.
One of the best fights Ive ever seen, recalled Green. It went on all over the place. I dont think coach Mike Ryan had anything against Madlock, he just happened to be a Pirate in the way. The two of them were rolling on the ground throwing em.
The Phillies rallied in the ninth to beat Tekulve, but were six back and in third place after a desultory Pirate Three Rivers Stadium sweep in August of a Sunday doubleheader and series, which had become practically an annual event.
The first game we stunk up the joint, said Green. The second game we were pretty much the same way.
Ron Reed was pitching and I ordered an intentional walk (to Stargell). Ronnie apparently disagreed and Boonie was out there and they were hemming and hawing, so I finally screamed at Boonie and they did what I told them to do.
It worked, as Madlock hit into a double play. But Ronnie was still (bleeped) and so was I, so we went at in the dugout, said Green. And after the game I raised a little bit of hell.
Dallas went off on us in the clubhouse and you could hear it in their clubhouse, Bowa said. Told us we were overrated, werent as good as we thought we were and it was time we put up or shut up.
Im not saying what he said was right, but it woke everybody up. Dallas started playing Keith Moreland and Lonnie Smith more and we took off from there.
The Phillies won two out of three in Chicago, swept a five-gamer in New York and surged to a 37-18 finish, while the Pirates were going 19-31. Willie was up there (age 40), we were an older team and just ran out of gas, said Tekulve.
The Phillies won their race with Montreal in Game No. 161 at Olympic Stadium on Schmidts 10th-inning homer and were on their way to redemption.
As much as we disliked them those years they went to the playoffs instead of us, we knew how good they were, said Tekulve. It would have been a total disservice had they not won at least one.
We pulled for them those years they beat us out, at least I did. Never told them, that, though.
Mostly those Phillies and Pirates kept no secret of their dislike for each other, but the respect was mutual and everlasting.
By 80, when we had to win those (three) extra-inning games in the NLCS against Houston we were pretty battle-tested, said Bowa. And I think lot of it had to do with all those wars with the Pirates.
Three decades, including 18 consecutive losing seasons, later, they come to town as Phillies wannabes, hanging in the NL Central race with the help of two wins out of three in June in their retro park loaded with retro Phillies fans.
It could perhaps have been the start of something mean, spiteful and delicious, should these teams be together again where the Pirates belong, in the NL East.
Read about that, said Boone, assistant GM of the Nationals. I agree, get em over here.
The major leagues may or may not need a larger realignment. But the sun went out on baseball in Pittsburgh at about the same time the Pirates decided they wanted to play Houston instead of Philadelphia. And the moon and stars have been misaligned ever since.
For ending one of the best rivalries ever, the baseball gods clearly have been almost as mad at the Pirates as, once upon a time, was Mike Schmidt.
E-mail Jay Greenberg at jayg16@aol.com.