Sep 25, 2022 9 min read

Twenty years before Rafael Cabrera hit and Sid slid, there was a wild pitch and a race home by George Foster. Cincinnati went bananas. Pittsburgh grieved.

Soon after throwing away their chance to win back-to-back World Series titles, the Pirates burgeoning dynasty was no more.

Their great right fielder, Roberto Clemente, who joined the 3,000-hit club shortly before the postseason, would die in a plane crash a few months later. Their ace starting pitcher Steve Blass couldn’t throw a strike the next season.

Pittsburgh remained a strong team throughout the 1970s, winning division titles in 1974, 1975 and a National League and another World Series championship in 1979. But that 1972 season was perhaps the best Pirates team ever.

“(The late) Bill Virdon (the manager of the Pirates in ’72) with all his playing, managing and coaching experience and all he had accomplished said that team was the greatest baseball team he ever saw,” Blass said in a recent interview. “That team had it all. We could hit. We had good pitching, great players and we were young.”

Twenty years later in 1992, a heartbreaking loss in Game 7 of the 1992 National League Championship Series sent the Pirates into another spin that really has never stopped.

While that team and a generation had their hearts broken, those who followed and studied and loved that 1972 Pirates team understand that gut-wrenching loss in the ’72 NLCS, on a Bob Moose wild pitch, cost the franchise immensely. The Pirates had the necessary talent, and were young, to put together three or four championships in a relatively short period.

They had won three straight division titles from 1970-72.

“We were basically intact as a team in 1972 from 1971,” Blass explained. “We were better in ’72 because we had won and proven ourselves in 1971. We knew we could do it. Until you do it, you don’t know.

“Going into 1972, we had a feel about how good we were and how good we could be. It was a pleasure to pitch for the team we had. We could hit, play defense and pitch.”

The Pirates lineup that season was catcher Manny Sanguillen, Willie Stargell at first, Dave Cash at second, Gene Alley at shortstop, Richie Hebner at third and from left to right in the outfield were Vic Davalillo, Al Oliver and Clemente.

Rennie Stennett, Bob Robertson and Gene Clines were top reserves. Jackie Hernandez, Milt May, Jose Pagan and Bill Mazeroski were other backups.

Beyond Blass, the starting rotation consisted of Nelson Briles, Dock Ellis, Bruce Kison and Bob Moose. While Giusti was the closer, other late-inning relievers were Ramon Hernandez and Bob Miller. Bob Johnson and Luke Walker were long relievers and made some spot starts.

Stennett was 23-years old. Cash and Hebner, who both went on to play for multiple teams in postseason play, were just 24-years old in ’72. Oliver was 25, Sanguillen, 28. Robertson and Clines were 25 while May was 21.

In most baseball circles, the thinking was the ’72 Pirates were better than the 1971 World Series champion team.

“The ’72 team was better than the ’71 team,” Blass said. “All the young talent that started to develop and come together in the late 1960s just started becoming a great team in Pittsburgh.”

The argument for the ’72 Pirates is an easy one. They had one starter (shortstop Gene Alley) hit under .280. Their pitching staff didn’t have anyone who threw 10 innings or more with an earned run average (ERA) above 3.40.

Stargell hit 33 home runs, drove in 112 and hit .293. He slugged .558 and his OPS was .930. Sanguillen hit .298 and drove in 71. Hebner hit .300, had 19 homers, drove in 72, had an on-base percentage of .378 and a .886 OPS.

Oliver hit .312 with 27 doubles, 12 homers, 89 RBI and a .789 OPS. Davalillo hit a team-high .318 and an OBP of .367.

Blass won 19 games with a 2.49 ERA and a 1.246 WHIP. Ellis won 15 games with a 2.70 ERA and 1.157 WHIP. Briles won 14 games with a 3.08 ERA and a 1.165 WHIP.

Giusti had 22 saves with a 1.93 ERA while Hernandez saved 14 games with a 1.67 ERA and a 1.029 WHIP.

The Pirates went 7-11 the last three weeks of the season and still won the division by 11 games, going 96-59 in a season which started in mid-April because of a strike. Blass just missed winning 20 games, in large part because of an injury that could have threatened his participation in the postseason.

Seeing Red

The Pirates had won three consecutive East Division titles. Cincinnati won two of three West Division crowns.

The Reds swept the Pirates in 1970. It was the first postseason baseball played on artificial turf. It was also the first of 10 NLCS series between 1970 and 1980 featuring either the Pirates or Philadelphia Phillies. The only year that neither won the division was 1973 when the New York Mets won.

Both the Reds and Pirates were loaded with talent – Hall of Fame talent – in 1972.

Future Hall of Famers for the ’72 Reds were Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez and manager Sparky Anderson.

The Pirates had three future Hall of Famers on their roster: Clemente, Stargell and Mazeroski.

Pete Rose would obviously be in the HOF if not for his lifetime ban. Shortstop Dave Concepcion was a HOF-type player.

Like Concepcion, Oliver – the Pirates’ centerfielder – was a HOF-type player.

One other HOFer appeared in the NLCS – umpire Doug Harvey.

Cincinnati set its 1972 season up in November 1971 when it acquired Morgan, a second baseman – along with infielder Dennis Menke, pitcher Jack Billingham and outfielders Cesar Geronimo and Ed Armbrister from Houston for power-hitting first baseman Lee May and infielders Tommy Helms and Jimmy Stewart.

Morgan was the centerpiece of the deal for the Reds but Geronimo and Billingham were key components of Cincinnati’s team and Menke was a valuable infield reserve.

“The two teams hated each other,” said Bob Hertzel who covered the Reds as a Cincinnati beat reporter during the 1970s and during “The Big Red Machine” era. “They were confident. Look at the lineup. They were coming off a disastrous 1971, mostly because of injuries. I thought they were crazy trading a power hitter like Lee May. I was wrong.

“The (Reds) were out to prove themselves in 1972. Both teams had great hitters and the pitching of both teams was underrated.”

The Pirates captured Game 1, 5-1, while Cincinnati won Game 2, 5-3, at Three Rivers Stadium.

Pittsburgh took a big step toward returning to the World Series by winning Game 3 at Riverfront Stadium, 3-2.

But the Reds flexed their muscles in Game 4, winning 7-1, setting the stage for a decisive Game 5.

The Pirates led by a run going to the bottom of the ninth with Giusti heading to the mound.

But Bench hit an opposite field home run. Giusti was ineffective, allowing two batters to reach base and Virdon removed him in favor of Moose. The Pirates were an out away from playing in extra innings.

But Moose unleashed a wild pitch. Sanguillen had no chance to stop it and pinch-runner Foster raced and then danced home and Cincinnati started its run to becoming a dynasty.

“It was a good start to their run,” said Hertzel, who later became a beat writer in Pittsburgh covering the Pirates, “They just beat the defending champions.”

“The loss in 1972 was way worse than in 1992,” said life-long Pirates fan Stush Carrozza, a native of Washington and resident of Bethel Park. “The Pirates were confident, had great talent and were confident they could win again. It was a shocker. It was a team that should have won.

“I was a college freshman. We expected the Pirates to win another World Series. The team was that good. There’s no comparison between the loss of 1972 and 1992. I don’t think people thought the 1992 was the best team in baseball. I didn’t expect them to beat the Braves.

“I remember turning off the TV after Bench tied and two Reds got on base,” he continued. “I could not take seeing them lose. I turned it back on and then the wild pitch. It was heart break. Total sadness. And then it all fell apart. Clemente was killed and Blass could not throw strikes. The next season was the worst of the decade and even they were in contention until the end. The Pirates won other divisions titles and then won it all in 1979. But it wasn’t the same as the 1972 season or team.”

The Pirates just didn’t hit like normal in the NLCS. Clemente was four-for-17, Stargell was one-for-16, Alley was zero-for-16, Hebner three-for-16, Oliver was three-for-20. They hit .190 as a team and hit three home runs.

It is true the Pirates playoff chances essentially died in October 1992, when Bream beat a throw from Barry Bonds to send the Atlanta Braves to the World Series. It was the Pirates third consecutive NLCS loss.

It sent Pittsburgh baseball into oblivion. The Pirates have not been back to an NLCS since. They have not won a postseason series since 1979 – 43 years.

Only three times since 1992 have the Pirates qualified for the postseason – all as a wild card. Now, the team and franchise are a laughingstock – “A hodgepodge of nothingness,” said Boston Red Sox announcer Dennis Eckersley.

As bad as that loss in 1992 was and what has happened since, nothing changed the course of Pirates’ history more than the despicable loss to the rival Reds in 1972.

Said Stargell to reporters afterward: “It’s tough right now. Six months of planning and preparation and everything and it comes to this. Just like that, it’s over.”

“It (1970s) was a great era of baseball for Pittsburgh but that was hard to take,” Carrozza said. “The 1972 Pirates were a great team. While they remained a good team, it wasn’t the same after Clemente died and Blass lost it.

“Game 5 was the worst loss ever.”