And there it is. For the
second time in two years Oakland
won a Game Seven to take the Series title. Here Sal Bando jumps on Darold
Knowles who has jumped on top of Ray Fosse after Knowles got Wayne Garrett to
pop up to end the game. That appears to be umpire Russ Goetz rushing to safety
in his maroon jacket before the field gets stormed by A’s fans. They’d actually
already mobbed Reggie Jackson in right after the second out and time had to be
called until they were escorted away from things. But for a few short moments
it was good to be an A. Yeah, their very successful manager was leaving and the
players all had to still put up with owner Charlie O Finley. But for the rest
of the off-season the battling A’s didn’t have to battle any more and they
would return essentially intact for ’74 and one more Series win. What’s a
little controversy if it means three straight titles?
So once again Topps disses
the pitchers, which is too bad since they generally outperformed the hitters.
We remedy that below. So the Mets outhit, outscored, out-homered, out OBA’d,
and, from that fat difference between runs and RBI’s,
out-took-advantage-of-errors and still ended up on the losing end. But they
also left a bunch more guys on base – about 68 to 58 – and, from my recall of
the narratives, just weren’t as clutch. On the Oakland side Joe Rudi quietly had himself a
nice Series and Gene Tenace, though he only hit .158, had a .467 OBA from all
those walks – nearly half his team’s total. Reggie had a nice Series too, but
he got recognized for it by being named mvp. On the NY side Rusty Staub really
kicked butt and added a homer to his three from the NL championships. I love
that Willie Mays went out with a respectable .286. NY was pretty democratic
with the walks but poor Wayne Garrett really stands out with all those K’s. But
the big question NY fans had after the Series was why wasn’t George Stone used
more? On the surface the answer was pretty obvious: he was a lefty as was most
of the Oakland
starting roster. But Jerry Koosman and Jon Matlack were lefties also and they
each got plenty of time. Stone was NY”s hottest guy down the stretch and he had
a real nice start against Cincinnati
in the playoffs but Yogi went with his three guys and that was the hand he
dealt himself. For the Oakland
guys it must have been nice for the other team to have some controversy for a
change. Here are the pitching stats:
G
|
GS
|
W
|
L
|
S
|
IP
|
H
|
R
|
ER
|
BB
|
SO
|
ERA
|
|
Koosman
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
8.2
|
9
|
3
|
3
|
7
|
8
|
3.12
|
Matlack
|
3
|
3
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
16.2
|
10
|
7
|
4
|
5
|
11
|
2.16
|
McGraw
|
5
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
13.2
|
8
|
5
|
4
|
9
|
14
|
2.63
|
Parker
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
3.1
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
-
|
Sadecki
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
4.2
|
5
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
6
|
1.93
|
Seaver
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
15.0
|
13
|
4
|
4
|
3
|
18
|
2.40
|
Stone
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
3.0
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
-
|
7
|
7
|
3
|
4
|
3
|
65.0
|
51
|
21
|
16
|
28
|
62
|
2.22
|
|
G
|
GS
|
W
|
L
|
S
|
IP
|
H
|
R
|
ER
|
BB
|
SO
|
ERA
|
|
Blue
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
11.0
|
10
|
6
|
6
|
3
|
8
|
4.91
|
Fingers
|
6
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
13.2
|
13
|
5
|
1
|
4
|
8
|
0.66
|
Holtzman
|
3
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
10.2
|
13
|
5
|
5
|
5
|
6
|
4.22
|
Hunter
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
13.1
|
11
|
3
|
3
|
4
|
6
|
2.03
|
Knowles
|
7
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
6.1
|
4
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
5
|
-
|
Lindblad
|
3
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
3.1
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
-
|
Odom
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
4.2
|
5
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
3.86
|
Pina
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3.0
|
6
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
-
|
7
|
7
|
4
|
3
|
4
|
66.0
|
66
|
24
|
17
|
26
|
36
|
2.32
|
Those are some damn good
pitching lines. Lots of unearned runs, particularly behind Matlack and Fingers.
And poor Tom Seaver: the guy had the best stats of anyone and only came away
with a loss.
It’s December 31 and this
puppy is going to bed for the year. Happy New Year!
