The All-Star game is less than a
week away and we are also closing in on Top Of The Third’s one-year
anniversary. Considering we started this blog with our Top 10 All-Star moments
from the past thirty years, what a better way to celebrate than to re-live some
more All-Star Game moments. However, unlike last year, when we crammed 10
moments into three posts, this year we will look at five different games—and
what made them classics—in a five-part series. Today, we start with the 1970
All-Star Game that was played in Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.
1970 All-Star Game, July 14
Riverfront Stadium
Cincinnati, Ohio
This game will forever be
remembered for its final play involving Cincinnati Reds’ super star, Pete Rose.
But before we look at that play, let’s explore the rest of the game. This was
the 41st All-Star Game held by MLB and it was the third time that
Cincinnati had hosted the event. The first two (1938 and 1953) were held at
Crossley Field. Another game would be held in Riverfront Stadium in 1988 and a
fifth All-Star game would be held in the Reds’ current home, All-American Ball
Park in 2015.
The American League team would
feature eight future Hall Of Famers (Rod Carew, Frank Robinson and Carl
Yastrzemski to name a few) while the National Leaguers would have 13 (including
Johnny Bench, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays). The starting pitching matchup was
Baltimore’s Jim Palmer for the AL and the Mets’ Tom Seaver for the NL (a couple
more HOFers). Both starters threw three shutout innings while allowing only one
hit each.
In fact, the game continued to
be scoreless until the sixth when the AL broke through. Yastrzemski singled to
score Ray Fosse. They added another in the seventh when Fosse hit a sacrifice
fly to score Brooks Robinson: 2-0 AL. The NL got on the board when Willie
McCovey hit into a bases-loaded double play scoring Bud Harrelson, but the AL
answered with two in the eighth when Brooks Robinson tripled to centre, scoring
Yastrzemski and Willie Horton.
The AL took their 4-1 lead to
the bottom of the ninth and brought Oakland A’s pitcher Jim “Catfish” Hunter to
finish the game. A solo home run by Dick Dietz and two singles knocked Hunter
out of the game, but the NL was not done. Willie McCovey singled in a run to
make the score 4-3 and Roberto Clemente hit a sacrifice fly to even the score
and send the game to extra innings.
The tenth proved uneventful as
did the eleventh. The AL had two runners on in the top of the twelfth, but
couldn’t cash either of them in. That would set the stage for the controversial
play in the bottom of the inning.
Pete Rose had acquired the
nickname “Charlie Hustle” when he was a rookie. It was given to him
sarcastically in Spring Training because he played as if it was the final game
of the World Series on every play. It would be his trademark for his whole
career. 1970 was Rose’s eighth in the Big Leagues and this was his fifth
All-Star Game.
He came up to the plate with two
out in the bottom of the twelfth and singled to centre and moved up to second
on a single to left by Billy Garbarkewitz. Which brings us to the play in
question.
Jim Hickman came to the plate
for the NL with a chance to deliver the game-winning hit for the National
League. Hickman singled to centre and Rose took off in a mad dash in an attempt
to score the winning run. AL centre-fielder Amos Otis fired the ball to catcher
Ray Fosse trying to throw out Rose at the plate. The ball arrived to Fosse at
the same time as Rose got to the plate, but rather than slide, Rose crashed
into Fosse with a devastating hit that would make any football linebacker
proud. The ball was jarred loose from Fosse and Rose scored the game-winning
run. National League-5, American League-4: Final. (Click here to see the play at the plate).
Fosse, only 23 at the time,
suffered a fractured and separated left-shoulder. He never regained his swing
and never returned to the level of play he performed at before the collision.
For years, fans and media have questioned Rose’s ferocious hit, thinking it was
unnecessary considering it was only an All-Star Game. For sure, if it happened
today, Rose would be suspended, but the hard-nosed style was accepted back
then.
Rose insisted that he wasn’t
attempting to injure Fosse, but rather just trying to score and Fosse was
blocking the plate. Fosse has never held any ill-feelings towards Rose, despite
his injuries, saying it was merely a baseball play in which he got caught on
the wrong end of the collision.
No comments:
Post a Comment