Spring Break
Dave's Place - Big Ed's Royals
David Cordill
Issue date: 10/20/08 Section: Sports
In the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees sent Chris Chambliss to the plate, poised to rip my heart out and toss it back to me through my TV screen.
Chambliss sent Littell's first offering over the fence in right-center field. Fans stormed the field and mobbed the Yankee hero who tried unsuccessfully to circle the bases. Sometime after the game, he would go back out onto the field and touch the home plate area to make the home run official.
The following year, the Royals were again one win away from reaching their first World Series. With the series tied at two games apiece, Game Five in Kansas City was a winner-take-all affair. Going into the top of the eighth and leading 3-1, prospects looked good for Kansas City.
But those damned Yankees scored a run in their half of the inning and added two more in the ninth for a 5-3 victory.
Watching the telecast, I remember the cameras switching back and forth from the Yankees celebrating on the field, to the Royals dugout, where an inconsolable Freddie Patek sat alone and wept.
New York disposed of the Royals in four games in 1978, winning the series three games to one. In Game Three, George Brett's trifecta of home runs went all for naught in a 6-5 loss. The Kansas City pitching staff held the Yankees to four hits in Game Four but their offense could only muster up a run in a 2-1 defeat.
So when the Royals took on the hated Yankees in the 1980 ALCS, I was desperately optimistic, but prepared for heartbreak all the same.
Kansas City eased my worries a great deal by taking the first two games from the Yankees. Then, returning to the cursed confines of Yankee Stadium on Oct. 10, 1980, the Royals went for the sweep, a game sponsored by Big Ed and Budweiser.
Big Ed was more into "Star Trek" than baseball, but even he knew how important this game was. Together, we nervously gulped our increasingly tepid beers which neared room temperature as the game progressed.
Frank White's fifth inning blast off of Tommy John put the Royals up 1-0. New York responded with a couple of runs in the sixth, for a 2-1 lead.
Chambliss sent Littell's first offering over the fence in right-center field. Fans stormed the field and mobbed the Yankee hero who tried unsuccessfully to circle the bases. Sometime after the game, he would go back out onto the field and touch the home plate area to make the home run official.
The following year, the Royals were again one win away from reaching their first World Series. With the series tied at two games apiece, Game Five in Kansas City was a winner-take-all affair. Going into the top of the eighth and leading 3-1, prospects looked good for Kansas City.
But those damned Yankees scored a run in their half of the inning and added two more in the ninth for a 5-3 victory.
Watching the telecast, I remember the cameras switching back and forth from the Yankees celebrating on the field, to the Royals dugout, where an inconsolable Freddie Patek sat alone and wept.
New York disposed of the Royals in four games in 1978, winning the series three games to one. In Game Three, George Brett's trifecta of home runs went all for naught in a 6-5 loss. The Kansas City pitching staff held the Yankees to four hits in Game Four but their offense could only muster up a run in a 2-1 defeat.
So when the Royals took on the hated Yankees in the 1980 ALCS, I was desperately optimistic, but prepared for heartbreak all the same.
Kansas City eased my worries a great deal by taking the first two games from the Yankees. Then, returning to the cursed confines of Yankee Stadium on Oct. 10, 1980, the Royals went for the sweep, a game sponsored by Big Ed and Budweiser.
Big Ed was more into "Star Trek" than baseball, but even he knew how important this game was. Together, we nervously gulped our increasingly tepid beers which neared room temperature as the game progressed.
Frank White's fifth inning blast off of Tommy John put the Royals up 1-0. New York responded with a couple of runs in the sixth, for a 2-1 lead.
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