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Sunday, September 22, 2002

By Steve Ziants, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

" ... The stretch ... and a 1-1 pitch to McRae. ... In the dirt. It's a wild pitch! Here comes Foster! The Reds win the pennant! Bob Moose throws a wild pitch and the Reds have won the National League pennant."

-- Al Michaels, Oct. 11, 1972
Reds radio network

There have been 2,393 games played on the turf of Riverfront Stadium a.k.a. Cinergy Field since Bob Moose threw that fateful slider into the Cincinnati dusk almost 30 years ago. In terms that Pirates fans under the age of 30 will understand, imagine Francisco Cabrera and Sid Bream packaged into 5 ounces of yarn, horsehide and stitches.

That was that pitch.

"With a thick layer of heartbreak," adds Steve Blass, who started vs. the Reds that afternoon.

The doors will finally close on Three Rivers' evil twin this afternoon with the last out of the game between the Phillies and Reds in anticipation of its December implosion. As far as the Pirates and grown-up, broken-hearted 11-year-olds everywhere, it's 30 years too late. Like George McGovern, Gilbert O'Sullivan and Skybus, it wouldn't have been a disaster had Riverfront not made it out of 1972.

Instead, it has stood as a reminder of all that was lost that day. The Pirates lost four National League Championship Series' to the Reds during Riverfront's time, including three in the '70s when Pirates-Reds was as good a rivalry as there was. But foolish is the fan who will even consider arguing that 1972 was not the most stunning. The most bizarre. The most painful.

John Kuenster devoted an entire chapter to it in his 2001 book "Heartbreakers." When its final list comes out this morning, the Cincinnati Enquirer will rank it among the Reds' 10 most memorable moments in stadium history. Right there next to Hank Aaron's 714th home run, Pete Rose's 4,190th hit and Rose's wipeout of Ray Fosse in the '70 All-Star Game.

NLCS Game 5: 1972.

"When we took the field at the bottom of the ninth, I was out there in center field counting my World Series share. I was confident we were going to win," admitted Al Oliver in Kuenster's book.

The Pirates led, 3-2. Closer Dave Giusti was on the mound. One ball, two strikes on leadoff hitter Johnny Bench.

And then strangeness settled in over that blasted stadium like the mist that carries The Flying Dutchman on its voyage through time.

Bench, a dead pull hitter, homered to right field. Giusti allowed singles to Tony Perez and Denis Menke. Manager Bill Virdon brought on Moose. Sparky Anderson sent in Foster in to run for Perez. Foster moved to third on Cesar Geronimo's sacrifice fly to deep right (the last out Roberto Clemente would ever field). Darrell Chaney popped up to Gene Alley at short.

Two outs. Hal McRae pinch hit for Clay Carroll. One ball. Then one strike. Moose went with a slider. A too-wide slider. It bounced away from catcher Manny Sanguillen. It bounced all the way to the backstop. It bounced into Pirates fans' and players' memories. And it's still bouncing, torturing, like a mental tape loop. Imagine not being able to get Donny Osmond's "Puppy Love" out of your head.

Wild pitch. Puppy Love. Wild pitch. Puppy Love. Bounce, bounce, bounce ...

Won't it ever go away?

"It hasn't," Blass says. "To this day I think about that day and that team that was not going to the Series. ... That team was just a superior team, and to get that jolt, that wasn't fair."

One pitch. One misplaced pitch out of tens of thousands of pitches thrown in a season.

"What does it take for a pitch to get to home plate?" Blass wonders. "Two-thirds of a second? That a whole season, a good team, can be stopped in two-thirds of a second, the abruptness is the thing that shatters you. You see your season disappear."

As he told Kuenster: "I got that sick, empty feeling that we might never get back to the Series."

Funny how feelings are rarely wrong. Blass wouldn't get back. Clemente would die that New Year's Eve. The Immaculate Reception would energize the city's passion for football. The Mets would unseat the Pirates as AL East champs in 1973. Play-by-play voice Bob Prince would be gone by '75. Moose would die in '76.

In retrospect, almost like some cosmic punctuation mark, the incomparable Pirates of 1970-72 were never to be the same. Not to suggest that that single errant pitch caused the change. Rather, that it serves to define the line between Before and After.

The franchise would win three more NL East titles and another World Series in the '70s. But that one, single, stupid, dumb-luck pitch would be the last act of the team that then-Manager Bill Virdon called the best he'd ever seen.

"I still see [Clemente] going up on that fence, trying as hard as he could [to catch Bench's home run]," Anderson told Lonnie Wheeler of the Cincinnati Post earlier this year. "We were never to see him again after that."

The same could be said as evening settled in around that team. Now, the same can be said about that stadium.

Let it blow, let it blow, let it blow.

The 'eye' in team

From the Seeing-Is-Believing Dept.: Barry Bonds' two-year tear has fast become a case study in the impossible. Only nine times in major-league history -- and not since 1955 -- has a player who hit 40 home runs had more homers than strikeouts. Bonds had 44 homers, 44 strikeouts. Ted Kluszewski (three times), Lou Gehrig and Johnny Mize (twice each), Mel Ott and Joe DiMaggio are the only players to turn the trick.

None of them, however -- nor anyone else, for that matter -- has done what Bonds is about to do. With a 31-point lead over Colorado's Larry Walker, he will win the NL batting title while garnering more walks (a record 189 through yesterday) than hits (144). Of the 500 highest single-season batting averages since 1900, only Ted Williams in 1954 (.345, 136 BBs, 133 hits) had more walks than hits.

Brother act

Apart, the Giambi boys are on the verge of accomplishing what they could not do together in Oakland. With one more home run, Jason (now with the Yankees) and Jeremy (now with the Phillies) will tie Joe and Vince DiMaggio for most home runs by brothers in a season. Jason has 38, Jeremy 20. Joe (46) and Vince (13) set the record of 59 in 1937. In typical Giambi fashion, Jason's response when asked about it this week: "That would definitely be cool."

The final week

Taking the road less traveled, The Guy guides you through some other obscure feats, records and milestones possible in the season's final week. ... Brewers shortstop Jose Hernandez needs two strikeouts to break Bobby Bonds' single-season record of 189. ... Montreal's Bartolo Colon (20-7 overall) beat Florida, 6-5, Thursday to become the second player to win 10 games in both leagues in one season. The first was the evidently forgettable Hank Borowy (Yankees/Cubs, 1945). ... Alex Rodriguez (56) and Rafael Palmeiro (42) bid to become only the fifth set of teammates to combine for 100 HRs in a season (but the third since 1998). ... Braves pitcher Greg Maddux (14-6) seeks to tie Cy Young's record of 15 consecutive 15-win seasons when he faces Florida today. ... The Cubs are in line for a unique double. They lead the majors in strikeouts on the mound (1,257) and at the plate (1,219). No team since 1884 (Boston, Union Association) has pulled the double. Or bragged about it, anyway.

Good, wild & ugly

Good: Troy Glaus, Angels, Sunday: 5 AB, 4 R, 3 H, 3 HRs, 6 RBIs in a 13-4 win vs. the Rangers. This line in April pens a nice story; this line in September when it means first place pens an enduring place in history for its author.

Wild: Greg Colbrunn, Diamondbacks, Wednesday: 6 AB, 4 R, 5 H, 4 RBIs in a 10-3 win vs. the Padres. Un-fleet-of-foot Colbrunn, who had but 10 triples in 2,665 career ABs, needed one in the ninth to hit for the cycle ... and got one. "I don't think Colby would have stopped if we'd have put a barricade out there at second base," Manager Bob Brenly says.

Ugly: Curt Schilling, Diamondbacks, Friday: 7 1/3 IP, 14 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 1 BB, 3 Ks in a 9-4 loss vs. Rockies. The only stat that might be more outrageous to Pirates fans than Schilling's season-worst numbers in this one was the winning pitcher for Colorado -- Sean Lowe.

This 'n' that

How ironic that in the same week Manny Ramirez is the center of a Boston media firestorm for not running out a ground ball, he is named AL player of the week (.444, 5 HRs, 11 RBIs) and takes over the AL batting lead (.343). ... If Pedro Martinez (19-4) beats the Orioles today or the Devil Rays Friday, the Red Sox will become the first AL team since the 1980 Orioles to have two 20-game winners and not make the playoffs. ... Things are worse than we thought in South Florida. Only 6,103 showed up at Pro Player for Brad Penny Bobblehead Night Monday -- the lowest turnout in big-league bobble history. ... Royals Manager Tony Pena better break out his old shin guards. Both Royals catchers -- Brent Mayne and A.J. Hinch -- were on call to fly home for the birth of a child this week. Someone obviously missed a signal. ... Barry Bonds, 38, hit his second career homer off L.A. lefty specialist Jesse Orosco, 45, Monday. The first happened better than 14 years ago (July 9, 1988). That was his 56th. This was No. 611. Any significance? We've both been around a long time," Bonds said, but "he's been around a lot longer." ... We can take it on good authority that Bob Boone has never been angrier than he was after his Reds lost to the Pirates, 11-3, Tuesday. "That was as mad as I've ever seen him." The speaker? Aaron Boone, who has been his son a lot longer than one of his players. ... The final pitching matchup at Cinergy today: Philadelphia's Brandon Duckworth vs. Cincinnati's Jose Rijo. Says Rijo: "I'm at the highest level of excitivity." Aren't we all?

Shot and a jeer

Shot: Raiders QB Rich Gannon threw 64 "pitches" against the Steelers' defense Sunday, or one more than Ted Lilly, the starting pitcher for the A's -- their Network Associates Coliseum co-tenant back in Oakland -- threw against Seattle that afternoon. The Guy couldn't, uh, pass that one up.

Jeer: Father and son taking in a ballgame together. It doesn't ever figure to paint quite the same Norman Rockwell picture after family night at Comiskey Thursday.