Saturday, September 21, 2002
Greatest Stadium Moments, No. 7:
Game 3, 1976 NLCS (Oct. 12, 1976)
By John Erardijerardi@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Late-inning thunder was so commonplace at Riverfront Stadium in the mid-1970s, that there is a tendency to under-rank the back-to-back ninth-inning home runs of George Foster and Johnny Bench in the deciding game of the 1976 National League Championship Series. But it is the way the comeback unfolded that is worth remembering and makes it significant.
The 1975 Reds, for all of their talent (108-54), were not as intimidating as one might think. The Boston Red Sox, even without slugger Jim Rice, gave the Reds a great World Series, taking it to the final inning of Game 7, decided by a bloop hit off the bat of Joe Morgan.
But the '76 Reds downright unnerved the Phillies in the NLCS.
The Phillies, trailing 2-0 in the series, were up 6-4 entering the ninth, and if they could close it out, they'd be coming back with their ace, Steve Carlton, in Game 4.
In fact, Reds manager Sparky Anderson was so sure it was going to Game 4, he looked at Carlton sitting in the visitors' dugout and said the following words loud enough for one of his coaches to hear: “You big giant. We'll see you tomorrow.”
But Anderson's players had other ideas.
Foster's home run was so crushed - he hit Ron Reed's hanging slider an estimated 480 feet deep into the left-center field seats - that Reed was still shaken when Bench stepped up. It was Bench who had rescued the Reds from defeat in the fifth game of the 1972 NLCS with an improbable, opposite-field home run off Dave Giusti in the ninth inning to tie things up.
“I'd be lying if I said to you I wasn't thinking about that homer (in '72) when I went up there,” Bench said after the game.
Pow! He unloaded on Reed's high fastball, smacking it 400 feet, far beyond the left-field wall. The crowd of 55,047 went nuts.
The game was tied. “I knew right then we had it won,” said Anderson.
Davey Concepcion singled. Cesar Geronimo came up to bunt, but reliever Tom Underwood couldn't control his nerves enough to throw him a single strike, walking him on four pitches. Ed Armbrister laid down a perfect sacrifice, and Pete Rose was intentionally walked (Underwood uncorked two nearly wild pitches in the process). Ken Griffey topped an infield hit to first base that Bobby Tolan couldn't field cleanly. He probably couldn
Geronimo came up to bunt, but reliever Tom Underwood couldn't control his nerves enough to throw him a single strike, walking him on four pitches. Ed Armbrister laid down a perfect sacrifice, and Pete Rose was intentionally walked (Underwood uncorked two nearly wild pitches in the process). Ken Griffey topped an infield hit to first base that Bobby Tolan couldn't field cleanly. He probably couldn't have gotten Concepcion at home, even if he had.
The next day, Reds superscout Ray Shore said he would be disappointed if the Reds lost so much as a game to the New York Yankees in the World Series. The Reds didn't. They swept the Yankees, just as they had swept the Phillies, and were proclaimed by the experts to be second only to the 1927 Yankees as the greatest team of all-time.
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Greatest Stadium Moments No. 7: Game 3, 1976 NLCS
