Hairs vs. Squares by Gruver Ed;

Author:Gruver , Ed; [Gruver, Ed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SPO003030 Sports & Recreation / Baseball / History
ISBN: 4462571
Publisher: UNP - Nebraska
Published: 2016-02-18T05:00:00+00:00

Late summer found Steel City fans in a celebratory mood as well; it was clear the Battlin’ Bucs were still the beast of the East. Powered by a near endless array of hot hitters (Cash hit in nineteen straight games, Oliver and Richie Hebner in sixteen, and Sanguillen in fifteen), the Pirates posted a torrid .739 winning percentage (34-12) from May into July.

The Bucs had built a modern Murderers’ Row along the Monongahela. Blass, who opened the season with an NL-best 9-1 record en route to a 19-8 season, said Pittsburgh’s hitters were so awesome that it frightened him to watch them take batting practice. Reliever Bob Miller called the Pirate lineup deeper than the Pacific Ocean.

Blass fronted a deep and versatile array of arms that boasted double-digit winners in Ellis, Nelson Briles, and Moose, along with the clutch Kison. A staff that ranked second in the league in ERA and saves helped pace the Pirates to a major league-best 96 wins. Pirates general manager Joe Brown thought the 1972 staff the best the Bucs had fielded in his nineteen years with the team to that point.

Kison’s 7–4 win over the Cubs on July 2 allowed Pittsburgh to seize the lead for good. The Bucs became the first team to clinch when they beat the Mets 6–2 on September 21. With a third straight title secured and a chance to defend their world championship guaranteed, the only remaining drama for Steel City fans resided in Clemente’s slashing his way toward the magical three-thousand-hit plateau.

Fittingly the confluence of Clemente and baseball history took place in a Pittsburgh stadium built on the confluence of three rivers. Legendary Pirates announcer Bob Prince, “the Gunner,” provided the historic call as Clemente faced Matlack and the Mets on a steel gray afternoon on September 30: “Everybody’s standing and they want Bobby to get that big Number 3,000. . . . Matlack on the oh-and-one, Bobby hits a drive into the gap in left-center field. . . . There she is!”

As the crowd roared and Clemente raced around first base in his signature style, the Pirates’ great had become just the eleventh player in history to record three thousand career hits.

No one could have known it was the last regular-season hit of Roberto Clemente’s life.

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