October 8, 1972: A’s win Game 2 of ALCS despite Bert Campaneris’s ejection for throwing bat

The newly relocated Oakland Athletics were on the rise. A doormat when domiciled in Kansas City from 1955 to 1967, the nomadic club built on second-place finishes in 1969 and ’70 to capture an American League West title in ’71. This marked the franchise’s first postseason berth in 40 years, at which time it called Philadelphia home. Oakland was swept in the AL Championship Series but gained momentum – and attitude – heading into its next campaign.

The 1972 squad was full of homegrown young talent sporting flowing locks and rebellious facial hair in an era of clean-cut ballplayers. The “fun-loving cast of characters” seemed to take on the personality of eccentric owner Charlie Finley, who utilized $300 bonuses to entice players to grow the then-taboo mustaches.1 “We were a bunch of crazies from Oakland,” ace reliever Rollie Fingers said. “We broke the mold back in ’72.”2 The huckster Finley even prohibited all uses of the trailblazing club’s historic Athletics moniker in favor of the simplified A’s name to create a fresh brand identity.3

Division winners for the second consecutive year in 1972, the 93-62 A’s were set to face the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS. Bad blood existed between the teams; an August contest between the two devolved into an all-out brawl. The antithesis of the flashy green- and gold-bedecked “Mustache Gang,” the conservatively attired Tigers were an aging bunch with nary an untrimmed whisker in sight. Of particular concern to the 86-70 AL East champs was A’s All-Star shortstop Bert Campaneris, who was the confessed top fear of fiery Detroit manager Billy Martin. “Don’t walk him at any time,” the skipper’s scouting report noted. “His speed on the bases is a strong weapon.”4 The Tigers’ controversial approach to neutralizing Campy’s fleet feet would become a flashpoint in the series.

Oakland was the host for the first two games of the best-of-five series. The A’s won the opener but filled only 29,566 of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum’s 50,000 seats. The emptiness could to some degree be attributed to a residual negative fan response toward the historic players strike in April that shortened the season and created unbalanced schedules. But others – including the home team’s own players – blamed fan apathy in part on Oakland’s uninspiring ballpark. “Look at how drab this place is,” A’s third baseman and team captain Sal Bando said of the Coliseum. “All gray cement. It’s so dead, so gray, no fans.”5 And left fielder Joe Rudi called it “the worst field in baseball.”6

October 8 brought cloudy skies and another disappointing crowd to the East Bay for Game Two. However, the 31,068 fans present in the “Oakland Mausoleum” were in for an enlivening afternoon in witnessing among the most infamous incidents in baseball’s annals.7

The A’s opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning. Campaneris led off with a single, stole second and third, and scored on Rudi’s one-out base hit. “Campy’s steals put us in motion,” Bando said.8 Tigers lefty starter Woodie Fryman, a waiver pickup in early August who bolstered the pitching staff down the stretch run, struck out the next two batters to limit the damage.

The score remained 1-0 until Oakland broke the game open in the bottom of the fifth. Base hits by George Hendrick and Campaneris set the table for Matty Alou’s one-out RBI single that chased Fryman from the game. Journeyman reliever Chris Zachary immediately threw a wild pitch to score Campy. After another wild pitch and a walk to Rudi, Zachary was sent to the showers in favor of stalwart bullpen arm Fred Scherman. Slugger Reggie Jackson greeted Scherman with a bases-clearing double into the left-center-field gap to give the A’s a five-run lead.

With neither team able to manage a single hit the rest of the way, let alone a run, Oakland took a two-games-to-none series lead with its 5-0 victory. Despite the dearth of offense after the fifth inning, the remaining frames did not lack excitement.

Campaneris had been the “chief executioner of Tiger hopes” through the game’s first six innings with his three hits, two runs scored, and two thefts.9 In the bottom of the seventh, the league’s stolen-base leader led things off against reliever Lerrin LaGrow, who replaced Scherman an inning earlier. LaGrow’s first-pitch fastball struck the red-hot “roadrunner” on the ankle.10

Straightening up, Campy “glared out at the Detroit pitcher for a moment and then with his eyes blazing, wound up and threw the bat with all his might.”11 The bat helicoptered over the head of the ducking LaGrow, prompting both benches to empty onto the field.. The umpiring crew “turned in the finest performance of the day” when preventing a potential melee by restraining the enraged Martin from going after Campaneris..12 “You can bet your [expletive] I was going out there for him.” Detroit’s pugnacious manager admitted. “I’m not going to get after him now but if there’s ever another fight out there, I’m going out there and find him and beat the [expletive] out of him.”13

Home-plate umpire Nestor Chylak ejected both Campaneris and LaGrow “to keep order in the ballpark.”14 Although the fracas was extremely “emotion-charged” and included shoving and cursing, no punches were thrown.15 “We didn’t fight because there was everything to lose and nothing to gain,” Bando explained.16 There was one item bashed during the mayhem, however—Campaneris’s weapon. Tigers utilityman Ike Brown grabbed the bat and shattered it on the ground.

The irascible Martin pulled no punches when sharing his thoughts on Campy’s actions after the game. “That was the dirtiest thing I ever saw in my entire life in baseball,” he said. “He could have killed my pitcher.”17

For his part, Campaneris denied wanting to hit or injure LaGrow. “I [didn’t] try to hit him with the bat,” he said. “If I want to hit him, I throw it more side-arm than overhand. I just want to warn him not to do that again to me.”18 Campy believed he might be targeted after nearly being beaned during the two teams’ violent August matchup. “On my way to the plate, I say to myself to be ready because I’m betting he’ll knock me down,” he said. “But it wasn’t close. It was right at me. I couldn’t get out of the way.”19 A “confused and apologetic” Campaneris later said of the incident that left him stigmatized for the rest of his career: “I don’t know why I threw the bat.. My ankle hurt so bad. I knew he was going to throw at me, but people now tell me it’s better to go and fight. I don’t know. I just lost my temper.”20

There was much conjecture surrounding LaGrow’s intentions. Although the young Tigers hurler contended that the pitch “just got away” from him and he “didn’t throw at anybody,” Bando disagreed.21 “This is LaGrow’s first year in the big leagues,” he said. “He wouldn’t throw at anybody unless he was told. And Martin told him to throw at Campy.”22 Martin denied the accusations.

Somewhat overlooked in all the kerfuffle was the outstanding performance by Oakland starter Blue Moon Odom. The two-time All-Star pitched with “nonchalance that mocked the explosive situation” in stifling a lineup that included star batsmen Al Kaline, Norm Cash, and Willie Horton.23 Odom, who had remarkably bounced back from being shot twice in January while thwarting a burglary, allowed only three baserunners (all singles) in his shutout.

The league fined and suspended Campaneris for the rest of the Series but not until after the A’s declared he would be sidelined anyway due to his swollen ankle. Nonetheless, Oakland defeated Detroit in the ALCS in five games. The A’s – with Campy allowed to suit up – next triumphed over the Cincinnati Reds for their first World Series title since 1930. And with two more championships in 1973 and ’74, the Swingin’ A’s became a dynasty.

In 1981 Martin admitted – while ironically managing Oakland – that to spark his team he had indeed instructed LaGrow to throw the fateful pitch. “There’s nothing illegal in baseball about that,” he maintained. “We weren’t throwing at his head. They used to throw at Mickey Mantle’s legs all the time.”24 Tigers catcher Duke Sims also later copped to the intentional hit-by-pitch. “That’s what needed to be done to get [Campaneris] out of the series,” he said. “So it was premeditated, yeah. … We were trying to go to the World Series. That was the plan at the time.”25

Campaneris eventually reconciled with his adversaries. In 1992 Campy and LaGrow, neighbors in Arizona at the time, traveled together to Detroit to play in an old-timers game. And relations between Campaneris and Martin began thawing in 1977 when the latter picked the former for the AL All-Star squad. The two fully mended fences in 1983, when Martin, then helming the New York Yankees, added Campy to the roster as a valuable backup infielder. “That should tell you what he thinks of me,” Campaneris said. “We’re both winners.”26

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for box scores/play-by-play information and other data.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK197210080.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1972/B10080OAK1972.htm

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also accessed Archive.org, GenealogyBank.com, NewspaperArchive.com, Newspapers.com, Paper of Record, Stathead.com, Weather Underground, and a recording of the game’s television broadcast from NBC posted on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qJm9efEoFI, accessed February 5, 2025).

Notes

1 John Shea, “In 1972, the Athletics Launched a Dynasty,” National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, https://baseballhall.org/discover/baseball-history/in-1972-the-athletics-launched-a-dynasty, accessed February 2, 2025; Dan Epstein, Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging ’70s (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2010), 173.

2 Shea.

3 Bill Libby, Charlie O. & the Angry A’s (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1975), 34.

4 Watson Spoelstra, “Billy Fears This … From Him,” Detroit News, October 6, 1972: 1D.

5 Art Spander, “In Oakland, ‘Nobody Cares,’” The Sporting News, May 26, 1973: 20.

6 Spander.

7 Spander.

8 Bucky Walter, “Odom Cool and Collects, 5-0,” San Francisco Examiner, October 9, 1972: 49.

9 Ralph Ray, “Swinging A’s Put Tigers Down for Two Count,” The Sporting News, October 21, 1972: 21.

10 Jack Berry, “Cronin Shows Tigers How to Get Campy Out,” Detroit News, October 9, 1972: 1D.

11 Joe Falls, “A’s Star Hurls Bat at Tiger Pitcher,” Detroit Free Press, October 9, 1972: 2A.

12 Ray.

13 Falls.

14 Falls.

15 Jim Hawkins, “Tigers Have Backs to Wall Now … Those A’s Go 2-Up with Odom, 5-0,” Detroit Free Press, October 9, 1972: 1D.

16 Walter, “Odom Cool and Collects, 5-0.”

17 George Ross, “Look Who’s Crying ‘Dirty,’” Oakland Tribune, October 9, 1972: 33.

18 Ron Bergman, “Oakland Fans Welcome Their Hero – Speedy Campy,” The Sporting News, October 28, 1972: 20.

19 Ron Bergman, “Wasn’t Going to Play,” Oakland Tribune, October 9, 1972: 35.

20 Bruce Markusen, Baseball’s Last Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Oakland A’s (Indianapolis: Masters Press, 1998), 134-135.

21 Ross, “Look Who’s Crying ‘Dirty,’” 35.

22 Ed Levitt, “A’s Safe – So Far,” Oakland Tribune, October 9, 1972: 33.

23 Walter, “Odom Cool and Collects, 5-0.”

24 Ron Bergman, “The Glory Years,” Oakland Tribune, October 6, 1981: D-5.

25 Matthew Silverman, Swinging ’73: Baseball’s Wildest Season (Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press, 2013), 7.

26 Associated Press, “The Comeback,” Elmira (New York) Star-Gazette, August 7, 1983: 5C.