Oct 29 2008
Remembering how rain halted the Braves in ‘82
By Bud L. Ellis
braves.today.com
ATLANTA — Heavy rains have turned Game 5 of the World Series into one long waiting game.
In watching the deluge that pounded the Phillies and Rays during Monday’s now-suspended fifth game of the Fall Classic, and pondering when baseball’s powers that be would stop the contest, my mind raced back 26 years.
(And for what it’s worth, I’m glad the Rays scored. Just seems more fair for the game to be tied when they pick things up later tonight up in Philly. But really, you can’t blame baseball for trying to play, with the forecast they had … the rains just hit harder and fiercer than anybody predicted.)
Anyway, back to the past.
In 1982, the Atlanta Braves found themselves champions of the old National League West, ending a 13-year hiatus from the postseason. Back then, the two division winners met in the League Championship Series, with the winner advancing to the World Series.
The Braves faced St. Louis in the NLCS, and sent 43-year-old Phil Niekro to the hill in Game 1. The Hall of Famer, who pitched for the Braves against the Mets in the first NLCS in 1969, had enjoyed quite a season: 17 wins, and a big homer on the final Friday night of the regular season in San Diego.
Now Atlanta, under the guidance of one Joe Torre (yes children, THAT Joe Torre), took the field at old Busch Stadium looking to get the franchise its first playoff victory since the Milwaukee Braves won Game 4 of the 1958 World Series.
(Those Braves, by the way, lost the next three games of that Fall Classic, losing to the Yankees. Add in the three-game sweep by the Mets in ’69, and the postseason losing streak stood at six as the 1982 postseason dawned.)
Niekro was spot-on in the opener, holding the Cardinals scoreless through 4 1/3 innings. The Braves gave him a lead, but as the afternoon wore on the clouds thickened and rain began. Two outs away from completing the fifth inning, which would’ve made the contest an official game, the game was halted. The rains never let up, and the game was never resumed.
Since it wasn’t an official game, the Braves and Cardinals started Game 1 again from scratch the next day. A five-run sixth carried St. Louis to a 7-0 victory. Game 2 was postponed by rain for a day, allowing the Braves to bring Niekro back. On two days rest, the old knuckleballer held the Redbirds to two runs in six innings, turning a 3-2 lead over to the bullpen.
But St. Louis rallied with single runs in the eighth and ninth to win 4-3. Game 3 in Atlanta was a mere formality: St. Louis hung four runs on Rick Camp in the second, and were on their way to the World Series with a 6-2 victory and a 3-0 series sweep.
What might have been if the Braves could’ve squeezed two more outs in before the rains fell in Game 1? As we all know, it would be nine years before Atlanta returned to the postseason, during the Worst-to-First 1991 season that saw the Braves reach the World Series.
As for Niekro? I spoke with him in 1999, on the eve of the Braves and Mets hooking up in that season’s NLCS, 30 years after Niekro pitched for the Braves against the New Yorkers in the first NLCS. I remember asking Knucksie about enjoying the Braves’ successful run in the 1990s, and he was quick to point out the ’82 team sat two outs away from a 1-0 NLCS lead on that rainy day in St. Lou.
A little postseason history, dampened by rain, as we wait on Game 5 to resume tonight.
—30—
