NEW YORK – George Brett watched the Kansas City Royals prepare to face the New York Yankees and remembered the combustible clashes of the 1970s.
“This isn’t a series, this is war,” said the Hall of Famer, tossing in a profanity for emphasis.
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Brett slid late into Graig Nettles in 1977's Game 5 of the best-of-five AL Championship Series, catching the third baseman on the face with an arm. Nettles kicked Brett in the teeth. Brett threw a punch as benches and bullpens emptied.
“You've got to find a way to turn it up a notch,” Brett said Friday by the Royals dugout at Yankee Stadium as he watched Kansas City's workout ahead of Saturday's Division Series opener. “Obviously, if you do something that we used to do to each other out here, you’re kicked out of the game here or it’s an automatic double play or whatever. I mean, me and Nettles got in a fistfight at third base and didn't even get kicked out of the game, for crying out loud.”
Kansas City, which started play in 1969, reached the playoffs for the first time in 1976. Brett hit a tying three-run homer in the eighth inning off Grant Jackson in Game 5, but Chris Chambliss homered leading off ninth inning against Mark Littell.
A year later in the sixth inning of Game 2, Hal McRae made a leaping body block of Willie Randolph well past second base in the sixth to break up a possible inning-ending double play on Brett's grounder to Nettles, allowing Freddie Patek to score the tying run from second base.
“It didn’t take much for anybody there on either side to get into a ruckus,” Yankees star Reggie Jackson told an MLB Network documentary.
Three days later, Brett's first-inning RBI triple off Ron Guidry led to the brawl with Nettles, who was grabbed from behind by Royals third base coach Chuck Hiller as Guidry tried to restrain Brett.
“Marty Springstead was the umpire, and after everything had cleared, he goes: 'All right.' He points to me. He goes: 'This is an important guy.' He point to Brett, he goes: 'This is an important guy, and this is an important game, so nobody's getting thrown out the game,'" Nettles told the TV show Las 5 Esquinas de NY a few years ago.
Jackson was controversially benched by manager Billy Martin after starting the series 1 for 14, then had a pinch-hit single in the eighth that cut New York's deficit to 3-2. The Yankees scored three times in the ninth for a 5-3 win.
When the teams met again in the 1980 ALCS, Kansas City swept. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner fumed after third base coach Mike Ferraro sent Randolph home, trying to score from first on Bob Watson's two-out, eighth-inning double in Game 2, with New York trailing by a run. Brett took left fielder Willie Wilson's throw and relayed to catcher Darrell Porter for the out.
Manager Dick Howser refused to fire Ferraro, and Brett hit a go-ahead, three-run homer off Rich Gossage as the Royals won Game 3 to complete the sweep. Steinbrenner forced out Howser after the series and Howser was hired as Royals manager the following August. Ferraro joined his staff in 1984 and the Royals won their first World Series title in 1985.
“They both came over to Kansas City and became my dear friends,” Brett said.
His most famous moment in the Bronx occurred on July 24, 1983, in what became known as the Pine Tar Game. The Royals trailed 4-3 with two outs in the ninth when Brett hit a two-run homer off Gossage. Martin argued Brett's bat had pine tar in excess of the 18-inch limit, and plate umpire Tim McClelland agreed and signaled out. Eyes bulging, Brett stormed out of the dugout toward McClelland and had to be restrained by Howser and umpires.
Kansas City filed a protest that was upheld by AL President Lee MacPhail, who wrote “games should be won and lost on the playing field — not though technicalities of the rules.” The game continued on Aug. 18 and the Royals won 5-4.
Now in his 31st season as a Royals vice president, Brett travels with the team during the postseason to fire up the current players with the decades-old history.
“They weren't born yet. Some of our coaches weren't even born yet. I'm going to remind them,” he said. “This series means more to me than it means to them.”
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