1980 American League Championship Series
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The 1980 American League Championship Series faced the 97-65 Kansas City Royals against the team that had defeated them three straight years in the ALCS from 1976-1978, the 103-59 New York Yankees.
Managers: Jim Frey, Kansas City; Dick Howser, New York
Umpires: Steve Palermo, Joe Brinkman, Larry McCoy, Bill Haller, Ken Kaiser, George Maloney
Television: ABC (Al Michaels, Jim Palmer, and Billy Martin announcing)
Series MVP: Frank White, Kansas City
[edit] Game 1
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 1 |
| Kansas City | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | X | 7 | 10 | 0 |
| W: Larry Gura (1-0) L: Ron Guidry (0-1) | ||||||||||||
| HRs: NYY – Rick Cerone (1) Lou Piniella (1) KCR – George Brett (1) | ||||||||||||
[edit] Game 2
Game 2 proved to be much more exciting. With the Royals clinging to a 3-2 lead, the Yankees threatened in the eighth. Willie Randolph singled, and with two outs Bob Watson ripped a liner to deep left field. Confident in Randolph's speed, Yankee third base coach Mike Ferraro decided to wave Randolph home. Leftfielder Willie Wilson threw the ball over the head of his cut-off man, the shortstop, but third baseman George Brett made a heads-up play by backing up the throw. He whirled and threw Randolph out at the plate. The Royals ended up winning by that 3-2 margin, and after the game Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was furious at his third base coach.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 0 |
| Kansas City | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 3 | 6 | 0 |
| W: Dennis Leonard (1-0) L: Rudy May (0-1) S: Dan Quisenberry (1) | ||||||||||||
| HRs: NYY – Graig Nettles | ||||||||||||
[edit] Game 3
With a 2-0 series lead, the Royals headed to Yankee Stadium for Game 3. Holding on to a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning, pitcher Tommy John gave up a two-out double to Willie Wilson. Yankee manager Dick Howser brought in hard-throwing Goose Gossage, who gave up a single to U.L. Washington, bringing up Brett. Brett had wowed the majors during the year, flirting with batting .400 before finishing the year at .390.
Brett blasted a Gossage fastball into the upper deck, stunning the Yankee Stadium crowd. The Royals had a 4-2 lead with All-Star reliever Dan Quisenberry on the mound. The Yankees mounted a major threat in the eighth, loading the bases with no one out. Quisenberry then got Rick Cerone to line into a double play and the next batter to ground out to close out the inning. The ninth went one-two-three as the Royals and the long-suffering Kansas City baseball fans finally won the American League Pennant.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas City | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 12 | 1 |
| New York | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 0 |
| W: Dan Quisenberry (1-0) L: Rich Gossage (0-1) | ||||||||||||
| HRs: KCR – George Brett (2) Frank White (1) | ||||||||||||
A fascinating postscript to the Brett-Gossage matchup came three years later in a regular season game on July 24, 1983, when the two would face each other again, and again Brett would homer, this time in the ninth to give the Royals a 5-4 lead. But after umpire Tim McClelland looked at Brett's bat and seeing pine tar applied above the area allowed, he ruled Brett out. Brett charged out of the dugout in a rage, but to no avail. The Yankees would end up winning 4-3. However, the American League president later ruled that the home run should stand, and all the players went back out onto the field at Yankee Stadium on August 18 and played out the game with the runs put back on the board. The Royals ended up winning the game, but it was rather anticlimactic as neither team would come close to making it to the playoffs that year.
| American League Championship Series 1969 |
