October 15, 1981: Yankees sweep Billyball aside, clinch AL pennant

The 1981 American League Championship Series was primed for epic status before it began. Billy Martin, fired twice as manager by the New York Yankees, now led his up-and-coming Oakland Athletics against the Yankees in the postseason. Martin made no secret of his animus, telling reporters, “I’m going to beat [Yankees owner George] Steinbrenner’s ass like a drum.”1

But Martin’s Athletics couldn’t deliver his desired revenge. In Game One, the Yankees’ Tommy John made a three-run Yankee first inning stand up for a 3-1 win. In Game Two, a seven-run fourth inning sent the Yankees on their way to a 13-3 laugher. Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles led the offensive attack, going a combined 5-for-7 with 6 RBIs in the first two games.2

As the series shifted to Oakland, Game Three on October 15 offered one last chance for the Athletics to redeem themselves. But New York rookie sensation Dave Righetti outdueled Oakland’s Matt Keough on the mound. Key hits by Willie Randolph and Nettles made the offensive difference for New York, while injuries forced Oakland stars Dwayne Murphy and Rickey Henderson out of action. A 4-0 Yankees victory sent the team to its 33rd World Series and Martin home to stew in defeat.

Of the teams, the Athletics entered the ALCS in a seemingly stronger position. During the regular season – torn into halves by a players strike – Oakland won the first-half AL West Division title and finished a game behind the Kansas City Royals in the second half. The Athletics’ 64-45 record was the best in the AL and second-best in the majors.3

The divided season required the Athletics to play the Royals in an AL West Division Series, and Oakland eliminated Kansas City in three games, scoring 10 runs while allowing just two.4 The Athletics’ assets included the speed of Henderson, who led the AL in stolen bases for the second of seven straight seasons;5 the power of Murphy and AL home-run champ Tony Armas; and the guile and endurance of a five-man starting rotation that completed 59 of its 103 starts.6 It all added up to a hustling brand of baseball widely known as “Billyball.”

The Yankees seemed to stand on shakier ground. They qualified for the postseason by winning the first-half AL East title. Then, hindered by slumps and injuries, they dropped all the way to sixth place in the second half. This led to another of Steinbrenner’s many managerial changes: First-half skipper Gene Michael was replaced in early September by Bob Lemon, who had sparked the Yankees to a World Series title after replacing Martin down the stretch in 1978. This move failed to light a fire in 1981, as Lemon went 11-14 in the regular season.

The Yankees then survived a tough AL Division Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, winning the first two games, losing two, and taking the decisive Game Five behind the pitching of Righetti and ace closer Rich “Goose” Gossage.7 Righetti had also won Game Two.

Righetti, a 22-year-old lefty from the Bay Area,8 had gone 8-4 with a 2.05 ERA in the regular season and was headed for the AL Rookie of the Year Award. He was pitching in front of his parents for the first time as a professional.9 His mound opponent, Keough, was a 26-year-old righty who had posted a 10-6 record and a 3.40 ERA in 19 regular-season starts, including 10 complete games. Game Three marked his first appearance in the 1981 postseason.10

Some 47,302 fans turned out at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. They almost had their hearts broken from the get-go, as a one-out single off Keough’s leg by Larry Milbourne, a wild pitch, and two two-out walks loaded the bases for Nettles in the top of the first. Keough managed what other Oakland pitchers hadn’t: He retired Nettles on a sinking line drive to Armas down the foul line in right, keeping the Yankees off the scoreboard. (Keough also angered the Yankees by throwing the game’s first pitch high and tight to Jerry Mumphrey, who complained of difficulty seeing the ball in the late-afternoon mix of light and shadow.11)

The Athletics started their half of the first in classic form, as Henderson hit a leadoff single. But Murphy, next up, painfully wrenched his back on an emphatic swing and had to leave the game.12 Rick Bosetti took his place, striking out as Henderson stole second. Former Yankee Cliff Johnson drew a walk before Armas grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.

The second inning brought more fruitless threats. In the top half, Randolph and Mumphrey collected two-out singles before Milbourne’s grounder stranded Randolph on third. The Athletics harvested one-out singles from Kelvin Moore and Dave McKay, only to have Jeff Newman strike out and Rob Picciolo ground into a force play.

Leading off the third, shortstop Picciolo’s two-base throwing error handed Dave Winfield second base, and Bobby Murcer’s grounder to short moved Winfield to third. (Murcer was designated-hitting in place of former Oakland star Reggie Jackson, nursing a left calf injury.13) Again the New Yorkers couldn’t score, as Oscar Gamble lined to second and Nettles ended the inning with a grounder. Henderson returned to his old tricks in the bottom half – a leadoff walk, a steal of second – but Righetti got Bosetti and Johnson to pop out and Armas to strike out.

In the fourth, Milbourne’s two-out grounder stranded runners on first and second, while McKay followed Moore’s second single of the game by hitting into an inning-ending double play. New York’s pitching stiffened at this point, retiring 14 straight Athletics batters starting with McKay. Moore was the last Oakland hitter to reach base until two were out in the ninth inning.

The Athletics suffered another body blow in the bottom of the fifth, when Henderson injured his wrist on a swing14 and was forced out of the game. Mike Heath, who’d played in the 1978 World Series for the Yankees, took Henderson’s place in left field the following inning.

Randolph, the Yankees’ All-Star second baseman, had plowed through a disappointing season in 1981, hitting just .232 in the regular season and .200 in the ALDS. But he broke through with two out in the sixth, hitting Keough’s second pitch over the left-field fence to give the Yankees a 1-0 advantage.15 He’d hit only two homers during the regular season and hadn’t homered since April 28.16

Righetti gave way to Ron Davis for the seventh inning, and Davis worked two perfect frames. Keough kept Oakland within a run until the ninth, when the game and the season unraveled for Oakland. Mumphrey drew a leadoff walk. Milbourne bunted, reaching first when McKay, covering the base, dropped Keough’s throw.17

One out later, lefty Tom Underwood – who’d been traded by the Yankees to Oakland on May 20 – replaced Keough.18 Pinch-hitter Lou Piniella singled to left; Heath threw out Mumphrey trying to score, but the Yankees still had runners on first and second. Barry Foote’s pinch-single loaded the bases, bringing up Nettles. The third baseman put the game away – and clinched the ALCS Most Valuable Player Award – by bombing a deep ball to center field on a 3-and-2 count. Bosetti, playing in place of Gold Glove winner Murphy, misjudged it,19 and the ball fell for a double that scored Milbourne, Piniella, and pinch-runner Bobby Brown for a 4-0 Yankees lead.

Although the Yankees had widened their lead, Lemon beckoned Gossage for the ninth anyway. Bosetti and Johnson struck out against the flamethrowing closer. Armas kept the season alive with a single into right field, bringing up Wayne Gross, who had pinch-hit unsuccessfully for third baseman Mickey Klutts in the seventh inning and stayed in the game. Gross flared a pop to Randolph, who ran it down in short center field,20 and the game was over in 3 hours and 19 minutes.

After the game, Martin declined to blame the loss on the injuries to Murphy and Henderson. “We ended up wounded but I’ve got no excuses. They beat us,” he said.21 Others in the Oakland clubhouse disagreed. “When they got hurt, it took all the sting out of us,” pitcher Mike Norris said.22

The Yankees celebrated their win in varied style: Later that evening, Nettles reportedly punched Jackson in the mouth during an altercation at a victory party.23 A more heartwarming story came from Righetti, who told reporters about meeting his father in the clubhouse after the win. “It was the first time I’ve seen tears in his eyes,” the pitcher said. “Dad asked for a hug. He’s never done that before.”24

After a four-day layoff, the Yankees lost the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games, bringing a sour end to their last postseason appearance until 1995. Game Three also turned out to be Martin’s last postseason game, and the end of Billyball’s brief glory. The Athletics slumped to 68-94 the following season, and three more turns by Martin in the Yankees’ musical-chairs managerial role later in the decade failed to produce a playoff team.25

Author’s note

This game has been cited as the sporting debut of “the Wave,” a phenomenon in which fans take turns standing up and raising their arms, one section at a time, to create a “wave” that ripples from one side of a stadium to the other. “Krazy George” Henderson, a well-known sports fan in the Bay Area, had been hired by Athletics marketing head Andy Dolich to stir up fan interest. After false starts, Henderson initiated several successful Waves during the game, which were shown and discussed on the NBC-TV national broadcast. The Wave subsequently spread throughout the sports world.26

Acknowledgments

This story was fact-checked by Bill Marston and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author thanks John Fredland for research assistance.

Sources and photo credit

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for general player, team and season data and the box scores for this game. The author also reviewed the NBC-TV network broadcast of the game.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK198110150.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1981/B10150OAK1981.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cavl_ZU0RY

Image of 1981 Donruss card #105 downloaded from the Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Wire service reports, “Dodgers, Expos, Yanks Advance to League Playoffs,” Sacramento (California) Bee, October 12, 1981: D1. (Some newspapers sanitized Martin’s remark as “beat his tail like a drum.” One example: Peter Gammons, “Billy & George Back on Broadway,” Boston Globe, October 13, 1981: 49).

2 This marked a turnabout for Nettles, who had gone just 1-for-17 at the plate (.059) in the AL East Division Series against Milwaukee.

3 Only the Cincinnati Reds, at 66-42, posted more wins than Oakland. Despite this achievement, the Reds did not make the 1981 playoffs because they did not win a division title in either half. (See the next note for an explanation of that year’s distinctive playoff structure.)

4 The unique playoff structure adopted in 1981 required the first-half and second-half winners in each division to play each other in a Division Series. The two winners of each league’s Division Series then faced off for the league pennant. In addition to Oakland and Kansas City, other division winners who took part in the 1981 playoffs included the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers (National League West), Montreal Expos and Philadelphia Phillies (NL East), and New York Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers (AL East).

5 All told, Henderson led the AL in stolen bases 12 times – the last in 1998, in his age-39 season. In 1981 he stole 56 bases. This was more than seven entire teams, including the Yankees, who stole 47.

6 The Athletics handily led the AL, and the majors, with 60 complete games. (In addition to the 59 completed by the five-man rotation, Tom Underwood – who relieved in Game Three – also added a complete game to the total.) The next-closest teams, the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers, posted 33 apiece, and the AL average was 24. The National League’s top-ranking team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, had 26 complete games.

7 The Athletics closed out the AL West Division Series on October 9, then had three days off while they waited for the Yankees to eliminate the Brewers; the AL Championship Series opened on October 13. Whether the layoff hurt the Athletics in some fashion is open to conjecture. (The same thing happened in the World Series: After eliminating the Athletics, the Yankees spent four idle days waiting for the Expos and Dodgers to settle the NL pennant. The rest didn’t seem to help, as the Yankees lost the World Series.)

8 Specifically, Righetti was born in San Jose, California, and attended both high school and college there. He had appeared in three 1979 games for the Yankees but did not reach rookie status until 1981.

9 Murray Chass, “Yankees Beat A’s, 4-0, and Gain World Series,” New York Times, October 16, 1981: Section A: 25. Righetti’s father, Leo, was a former minor-league infielder.

10 It also turned out to be Keough’s only postseason game.

11 Chass, “Yankees Beat A’s, 4-0, and Gain World Series;” Phil Pepe, “Sweep City!” New York Daily News, October 16, 1981: 55.

12 News accounts at the time gave different descriptions of Murphy’s injury, with the most common being a pulled ligament in his rib cage. One example: Ralph Wiley, “Injuries Take Sting out of A’s,” Oakland Tribune, October 16, 1981: D3.

13 Chass, “Yankees Beat A’s, 4-0, and Gain World Series.”

14 The Oakland Tribune’s Ralph Wiley described the injury as a bruised left wrist. Wiley, “Injuries Take Sting out of A’s.” The injury to Henderson delayed the game by several minutes.

15 Kit Stier, “Injuries Help New York Sweep AL Series,” Oakland Tribune, October 16, 1981: D1. The NBC-TV game broadcast caught Keough shaking his wrist just before the home-run pitch, apparently trying to loosen himself up.

16 Randolph’s two regular-season homers of 1981 had been hit off Texas’s Danny Darwin on April 11 and Detroit’s Dan Schatzeder on April 28.

17 “Yankees’ Style Is a Winner,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), October 16, 1981: 128.

18 Full terms of the trade: Underwood and Jim Spencer to the Athletics; Mike Patterson, Dave Revering, and minor-leaguer Chuck Dougherty to the Yankees.

19 “Yankees’ Style Is a Winner.” The announcing crew on the NBC-TV broadcast of the game also described Bosetti as misjudging the ball.

20 Chass, “Yankees Beat A’s, 4-0, and Gain World Series”; NBC-TV broadcast.

21 Jane Gross, “Martin: No Excuses – ‘They Beat Us,’” New York Times, October 16, 1981: Section A: 26.

22 Wiley, “Injuries Take Sting out of A’s.”

23 Wire reports, “Graig’s Last Hit on Reggie,” Oakland Tribune, October 16, 1981: D1.

24 Nick Peters, “Righetti Unflappable in First Big Test for Yankees,” Oakland Tribune, October 16, 1981: D3.

25 Martin returned as Yankees manager for part or all of the 1983, 1985, and 1988 seasons. He died in an auto accident on December 25, 1989.

26 Ron Kroichick, “Krazy George Has Joyously Been Riding the Wave for 40 Years,” San Francisco Chronicle, posted October 17, 2021, and accessed August 24, 2024, https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/article/Forty-years-since-he-invented-the-Wave-Krazy-16536925.php; NBC-TV game broadcast. According to Kroichick’s article, Henderson invented the Wave but did not name it; the name appears to have been coined at the University of Washington.