Calling Hal King... Not that the Reds need his karma quite yet, but they ought to at least track him down and put him on stand-by in case things take a turn for the worse.

        Going into their doubleheader with the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 1, 1973, the Reds were 11 games back of L.A. in the then NL West race.

        And it looked even bleaker that that, because the Reds were one strike away from being 12 games back as Reds pinch-hitter Hal King (lifetime .217 batting average) — the team's third-string catcher — stood at the plate in the first game of the doubleheader with the bases loaded in the ninth inning at then- Riverfront Stadium before 46,000 fans.

        The 29-year-old King, from Oviedo, Fla., had been called up to Cincinnati from Indianapolis only two weeks earlier. He'd had five seasons of off-and-on major-league experience with Houston, Atlanta and Texas. And at least he had a frame of reference on Dodgers pitcher Don Sutton: King had hit a grand slam off a Sutton screwball in 1971 (King was with Atlanta.)

        Still, the odds were with Sutton, who had been having his way with the Reds hitters all day. He figured he could sneak a screwball by King for strike three.

        He thought wrong.

        The left-handed hitting King, who was expecting the screw ball from the right-handed Sutton, swung so hard he broke a cleat in his shoe.

        The crowd went nuts when they saw the ball jump off the bat and head toward right field. It easily cleared the wall. Three-run, walk-off home run! Reds win 4-3! Ten games back and rolling!

        “I knew right then we were going to win the West,” said then Reds-manager Sparky Anderson in a recent phone call from his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif. “It was just one of those things that when it happens you immediately think: This is gonna turn us around.”

        Sure enough. The Reds came from behind again in the second game of that doubleheader (Tony Perez two-out doubled home Joe Morgan in the 10th inning), and again the following night on national TV when Perez blasted a two-run HR in the ninth to beat the Dodgers 4-2. The momentum never waned: King's home run rocketed the Reds to a 60-26 record (.697) over the final three months of the season.

        In the NL Championship Series, the Reds (99-63) were shocked by the pitching-rich New York Mets (82-79), but nothing could dim the memory of King's home run. Had the Reds gone on to win the World Championship that season, King's blast would rank among the Top Ten Cinergy Moments.

Reds 6, Brewers 4 Reds box, runs Reds Q&A The pride of Newberry DAUGHERTY: A strike for 'rights' is wrong Choosing stars no highlight for Brenly Cloudy forecast for Bud Bowl A fast but tenuous start Midseason report Cinergy Moment No. 20 - July 1, 1973 Down on the farm Graves 'Lucky' Griffey's return may come in 2 weeks Reds chatter Relief tempers envy of Yankees' Weaver trade Memories of an American original No funeral services for Kid Bats 3, Clippers 1 John Fay's power rankings AL roundup NL roundup Notes from Saturday's games

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GROESCHEN: Prep Insider

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