Keep Your KC Royals Ticket Stub: Willie Wilson runs off the Yanks

The KC Royals-New York Yankees rivalry: A primer

The basic concept is foreign to baseball fans in the present, at a time when the Royals and, frankly, most midwestern sports teams are regularly overlooked by the media and world-at-large, but there was a time in the late 1970s and early 80s when the Royals and Yankees made up the fiercest rivalry in baseball.

The teams were American League Championship Series opponents four times between 1976 and 1980. Unfortunately, the Yankees came out on top more often than not, winning three straight pennants against the Royals. Chris Chambliss started the fireworks, breaking the Royals' hearts with one of the most chaotic walk-off home runs in major league history to win Game 5 of the '76 ALCS.

Between that and George Brett's iconic home run off Goose Gossage in the '80 ALCS, which finally got the Royals over the hump and allowed all of Kansas City to take a deep breath, the two clubs went back and forth like wrestlers in a cage match.

So many moments etched themselves into baseball history. Hal McRae tried to slide through Willie Randolph. Brett hopped up from a slide and punched Graig Nettles in the mouth, clearing the benches. Three years after the rivalry reached its high-water mark, Brett went ballistic during the Pine Tar Game. The ghost of that animosity could even be sensed by a generation that never experienced any of it when Yankee second baseman Robinson Cano snubbed Billy Butler during the 2012 Home Run Derby at Kauffman Stadium.

By contrast, 1979 was a down year for the rivalry. It was the only time the two teams did not meet in the ALCS between 1976-80. Not that either team was bad: Kansas City finished 85-77, good for second place in the AL West, and the Yankees were 89-71 and finished fourth in the AL East. Neither team knew they wouldn't be seeing each other in the playoffs again when they got together in KC that June, however, but they treated a national television audience to yet another thrilling chapter in their saga.

The Game of the Week lived up to the hype

The Saturday afternoon contest at Royals Stadium was NBC's Game of the Week. Rain had cleared out, leaving behind a wet artificial turf but a beautiful day for baseball. Tommy John took the mound for the Yanks against Larry Gura.

The villain (or hero, depending on your allegiances) of the 1976 ALCS, Chris Chambliss got the scoring started in the top of the second with a two-run homer. Lou Piniella, the former Royal — he was the 1969 AL Rookie of the Year in the Royals' first season — broke the game open in the following inning with a two-run single. Another run scored on a throwing error, and the Yankees led 5-0. This was just the start of a big day for Piniella.

The Royals showed some signs of life in the bottom of the fourth. Al Cowens singled in Amos Otis, and Darrell Porter smacked a two-run homer to cut into New York's lead. In the sixth, John Wathan tripled in two runs, and then scored on Freddie Patek's single, giving the Royals their first lead of the day.

Then both teams took turns trying to give the game away.

Kansas City's Willie Wilson sprints to the finish

His team having lost the lead, Piniella continued to torment his former club. He singled in two runs in the top of the seventh to give the Yankees back the lead, 7-6. Not to be outdone, Brett doubled in a run in the bottom of the inning to tie it back up. The situation looked bleak in the ninth, though, when Nettles doubled in Randolph to give New York the lead again.

But few combinations were more potent for the Royals in that era than Wilson and Brett. Wilson walked, advanced to third on a pair of sacrifices, and Brett knocked him in to send the game to extra innings. From there, the bullpens traded goose eggs until the bottom of the 13th.

New York's Ken Clay came out for his second inning of work, and Wilson stepped back into the box. In typical Wilson fashion, he worked fast. He jumped on the first pitch of the inning and lined it to left-center, directly between Mickey Rivers and Roy White, who was playing Wilson along the line.

As reported by the New York Times, Wilson admitted he slowed down to watch the ball as he rounded first base, but when he saw it splash against the turf and roll to the wall, he turned on the jets. The big home crowd urged him onward with a huge collective roar.

Yankee manager Bob Lemon blamed a bad relay throw for the end result, but White echoed the sentiments of most onlookers when he told the Times, "I don't know that it would have made any difference." By the time Nettles ended up with the ball and fired it home, Wilson was already celebrating with his teammates.

No one did inside-the-park home runs quite like Willie Wilson. He hit five of them in 1979 alone, and he has more than any player in major league history since the Deadball Era with 13. But perhaps none were quite as dramatic as his walk-off (or run-off, if you will) against the Yankees on my birthday.

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