Once in a Lifetime - Rose Ties Musial

The 1981 baseball season was filled with promise for the Philadelphia Phillies.  The Phils had just captured their first ever World Series crown, and were in prime position for a repeat run with stars like pitcher Steve Carlton, third baseman Mike Schmidt, and the ever-hustling Pete Rose.  Schmidt was the defending National League and World Series MVP, and Carlton was the 1980 Cy Young Award winner, coming off a 24-win season as well as a Series-clinching Game 6 win over the Kansas City Royals.  But the sparkplug of the team, the last piece of the puzzle who finally put the Phillies over the top, was Rose.

The consummate switch-hitting lead-off man, with a career .310 batting average and .380 on-base percentage, the 40-year-old Rose was a veritable hit machine.  By the start of the 1981 season, he had recorded ten 200-hit seasons and amassed a total of 3557 hits, only 73 hits short of Stan Musial's all-time National League record of 3630 hits.  This milestone was very important for Rose; as competitive as he already was, he was about to go head-to-head statistically with some of the giants of baseball history.  Only Musial, Henry Aaron (3771 hits) and all-time Major League leader Ty Cobb (4191 hits) stood in the way of Rose's quest to become the most prolific hitter ever.   Based on his career hits per game average, Rose was projected to break Musial's record somewhere around Game #58.  According to the Phillies schedule, that game would occur on June 14th.  By then, however, the wheels may have already fallen off the 1981 baseball wagon.

The baseball season which could be the Phillies' finest ever was threatened by a universal players' strike.  The baseball owners had been complaining for years about free agency and ever-rising player salaries, even though these very same owners were essentially responsible for the record salaries and long-term contracts.  The players wanted to maintain the current status-quo, unwilling to give up the recent legal gains which brought them free agency initially in 1976.  The owners could not reign in their spending without being accused of collusion and anti-trust violations, so they sought to restrain free agency by demanding compensation for lost free agents.  This compensation plan, a demand that every top free agent lost to a team would be replaced by another Major Leaguer from the signing team, was the crux of the disagreement between players and owners.  If such a plan remained on the bargaining table by mid-June, the players would strike and there would be no baseball for the foreseeable future.

Amid the roiling controversy over free agent compensation, the Phillies started the season very well, recording 31 wins in their first 52 games, and maintaining a 1/2 game lead over the St Louis Cardinals in the Eastern Division on June 7th.  The race was shaping up to be a close one between the Phils, the Cards and the Montreal Expos, portending a great stretch-run pennant chase in September.  The Western Division was a two-horse race between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds, with defending division champ Houston eight games behind.  Despite Houston's poor overall performance, Astro's fireballer Nolan Ryan was having a stellar season, with a 6-4 record, a 1.39 ERA and 68 strikeouts in ten starts.  In fact, Ryan had recently passed Bob Gibson for third place on the all-time Major League strikeouts list, with only contemporary rival Gaylord Perry and the legendary Walter Johnson still ahead of him.  Even with Carlton close behind on the list and racing for the same strikeout record, Ryan was likely to top Johnson's mark by early 1982.  Ryan, like Pete Rose, was also chasing history.


The Astros arrived in Philadelphia for the start of a three-game series beginning on June 8th, with Ryan and Carlton slated as the starting pitchers for game 3.  The Phillies took the first two games of the series, winning by scores of 4-3 and 10-3, setting up a potentially great pitcher's duel between the respective aces from the two staffs.  But one additional draw to this particular game was the fact that Pete Rose had reached 3629 career hits, and was just two hits short of breaking Stan Musial's National League hit record.  Witnessing Pete Rose break Stan the Man's record against the greatest strikeout pitcher in the game would be an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience for any baseball fan, if one was lucky enough to be there, at Veteran's Stadium on June 10th, 1981.

I was among those fortunate baseball fans on hand to see this classic game, a game resonant with historic overtones and brimming with tremendous potential.  I was attending college in Philadelphia at the time, and had become a rabid Phillies fan, forsaking my childhood favorites, the Baltimore Orioles, for the powerful and determined home town team.  I was anxiously following Rose's daily performance, and attending as many games as my meager budget would allow.  As Rose approached the record, I made it to the stadium by hook or by crook for every home game.  In the first game of the Astro's series, I saw Rose single off Don Sutton for hit number 3627.  Returning to the ballpark the next night, I saw Rose go 2 for 4 with two singles to reach 3629 hits.  I was aware that the baseball season could come to a screeching halt two days hence, and realized that this could be my last chance to see Rose break the record.

The game began quietly, with Carlton retiring the side in order in the top of the first.  The excitement in the stadium was palpable as Rose stepped in against Ryan to lead off  the bottom of the inning.  Rose dug in from the left side against the righthander Ryan, and promptly knocked a liner over the second baseman's head and into right-center field for a single.  He's done it!  Rose has just tied Musial!  The place erupted with loud and wild cheering, because we all knew that Rose would likely have at least three more chances this game to break the hallowed record.  Although the Phillies didn't score and Rose was stranded at second base, the fans all knew that something special was about to happen.

As the game progressed, a classic pitching duel was indeed taking shape.  By the top of the third, Carlton had given up just one hit and had struck out four.  Ryan was matching Carlton thus far, and was about to face Rose again in the bottom of the third.  When Rose came up with one out, the Astro's righty was just pushing it into the next gear.  Ryan easily struck out Rose en route to striking out the side.  Carlton continued to pitch well despite giving up a fourth inning home run to Jose Cruz, and the Astros held a 1-0 lead going into the bottom of the fifth.  After retiring the first two batters, Ryan again faced Rose, and again struck him out with his patented fastball.  The game was running out of innings, and Rose was running out of chances.  Up until that point, Ryan had given up only Rose's first inning single, and had struck out six.

The hometown cheering had quieted considerably after Rose struck out for the second time, and became downright feeble after Houston extended its lead to 4-0, thanks to Tony Scott's two-run double in the top of the seventh and Art Howe's sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth.  It looked as if Rose would have only one more chance to get a hit, since the great Nolan Ryan was easily setting down the Phils in rapid succession.  Rose was due up second in the bottom of the eighth, right after Greg Gross pinch-hit for Carlton.  Gross flied out to left, and Rose came up to the plate for what could be the final time in this game, and potentially for the final time of this season should a player strike consume the remaining schedule.  This was it...I could tell from my upper deck seat that Pete was pressing.  In all probability, Rose had rarely felt this much pressure at any other point in his career.  Ryan came in with his heater, and immediately put Rose behind in the count.  Just one more strike, and my dream of seeing the all-time National League hit record fall on this night would be over.

Rose dug in for one more pitch...Ryan let it go...swing and a miss...Rose strikes out!  Pete was so disappointed that he slammed his bat into the ground as he walked away from the plate.  The future strikeout king had beaten the future hit king in this matchup with three strikeouts to one hit.  That hit, Rose's leadoff single to begin the game, remained the only one that Ryan had surrendered in 7 2/3 innings.  With his one-hitter intact, Ryan faced pinch-hitter George Vukovich as a large portion of the crowd began to file out of the stadium.  While I watched the crowd thin out, I heard my Dad's voice whispering in my head..."It ain't over until it's over..."

Vukovich delivered the second hit of the game for the Phils, a single into center field, and then the unexpected happened.  What's this?  Ryan is coming out of the game?  Astro's reliever Frank LaCorte made his way to the mound as Ryan slowly left the field.  Apparently, he somehow tweaked his back during the Vukovich at-bat, and did not feel comfortable enough to continue.  Anyway, he pitched extremely well and was very likely to come away with the victory for his efforts.  Or maybe not.  LaCorte promptly gave up a run-scoring double to Gary Matthews, threw a wild pitch while walking Mike Schmidt to put runners at the corners with two out, and gave up another run on a Dick Davis single.  The Phils were making some noise.  Perhaps those people that left early had made a mistake.

The next batter was Phillies center fielder, Garry Maddox.  Although not known as a power hitter, Maddox could still deliver in the clutch, so LaCorte worked carefully.  Perhaps feeling the pressure of a rough relief appearance where he had already placed the tying run on base, LaCorte grooved one to Maddox, who rifled it deep to left-center.  As the ball carried over the fence for a three-run homer, I stood there in complete disbelief.  The Phillies had gone from being thoroughly dominated by Nolan Ryan to exploding for five runs in the bottom of the eighth to take the lead!  Something magic did happen tonight, although it wasn't the magic moment I had expected.

The top of the ninth provided its own suspense and promise, as pinch-hitter Harry Spilman singled with one out off reliever Mike Proly.  As Phillies closer Tug McGraw appeared from the bullpen, I thought to myself, "If the Astros tie the score, Pete will get another at bat in the ninth!  And it won't be against Ryan!"  There was still hope, should the Astros rally, to see Rose break the record.  The remaining fans were thinking exactly as I was, and we all let out a mighty cheer for Astro's pinch-hitter Terry Puhl.  Puhl was universally despised by Phillies fans because of his timely RBIs against the Phils, which had dropped the hometowners to defeat on many an occasion.  To hear Phillies fans cheering madly for a known Philly-killer was absolutely amazing, something out of an alternate universe.  Unfortunately, Puhl popped out to short for the second out, and was roundly booed in an apparent return to normalcy, although he was booed for NOT getting the game-tying hit!

Tug McGraw was as dependable as they come, and he struck out the Astro's final batter to end the game.  With an amazing comeback win, the Phillies had swept their 1980 NLCS adversaries in three straight.  Sporting a record of 34-21, the Phillies still led the Cardinals by 1/2 game in the standings, but the season was about to implode.  The players called a strike on June 12th, and all of the momentum that the Phillies had developed during the early part of the season evaporated into nothing.  By the time the strike was settled, two months had passed, and one-third of the season was lost.  When the season resumed in Philadelphia on August 10th, Rose broke Stan Musial's NL hit record in rather anticlimactic fashion against St Louis with an eighth inning single off Cardinal's reliever Mark Littell.  I was not at the game, having become disillusioned by the legal wrangling and the long strike, and vowing not to return to Veteran's Stadium for the rest of that season.

During the season's "second half", the Phillies finished under .500, and their dreams of a World Series repeat quickly disappeared.  On the other hand, the Astros got hot and finished 1 1/2 games ahead of the Reds to qualify for the expanded playoffs.  I remained a disinterested observer as the Phils fell in five games to the Montreal Expos in a manufactured "Divisional Series Playoff".  The Astros fared no better against the Los Angeles Dodgers despite the outstanding pitching of Nolan Ryan; Houston took a 2-0 lead in their series, only to lose three straight in LA.  It was very odd that neither the Cardinals nor the Reds qualified for the split-season playoffs, even though these two teams had the best respective full-season winning percentages in the NL East and NL West.  The Dodgers, who might never have even won their division across a full season, ended the nightmare with a mostly hollow World Series victory over the New York Yankees amid widespread national apathy.  The season which began with such promise for the Phillies' faithful had ended in a total disaster.

Pete Rose would go on in later years to exceed Henry Aaron's hit total, and then to reach the 4000 hit mark as a member of the Expos in 1984.  On September 11, 1985, once again playing in the uniform of his beloved Cincinnati Reds, Rose surpassed Ty Cobb's legendary all-time Major League hit mark with his 4192nd hit off Eric Show of the San Diego Padres.  As player-manager for his hometown Reds, Rose had reached his ultimate goal, but his joy would be short-lived.  A few years later, Rose went under investigation by Major League Baseball for alleged gambling activities while playing for and managing the Reds.  He was banned from baseball in 1989, and to this day remains ineligible for the Hall of Fame.  Despite his permanently tarnished reputation, Pete Rose is the all-time hit king of baseball, and his final record of 4256 hits is unlikely to ever be broken.

Nolan Ryan, who continued to pitch successfully into the 1990s, did go on to become the top strikeout pitcher in Major League history.  After a nearly five-season battle with Steve Carlton for the top spot, Ryan finally pulled away in 1985, finishing that season with 4083 career strikeouts.  He wasn't even close to being done then, continuing his career with the Texas Rangers in 1989, and striking out his 5000th batter in August of that year.  Ryan won his 300th game on July 31, 1990 against the Milwaukee Brewers, and pitched two more no-hitters for the Rangers in 1990 and 1991, giving him an astonishing seven no-hitters for his career.  He finished his career in 1993 at the age of 46, amassing an untouchable record of 5714 strikeouts.  Unlike Pete Rose, Nolan Ryan was well respected in the baseball community, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1999 with nearly unanimous support from the voters (491 votes out of 497 for a percentage of 98.8%).

When I think about the 40-plus years I have been a baseball fan, my mind often drifts to those heady days in the spring of 1981, when my Philadelphia Phillies were the defending World Series champs, and were well on their way to a possible repeat.  The games played before the June 12th strike showed every indication that the Phils of 1981 were even better than the 1980 team that went all the way.  The unparalleled excitement of Pete Rose's quest for the NL hit record combined with the phenomenal pitching of Steve Carlton and the mammoth home runs of Mike Schmidt provided me with many indelible memories.  But the greatest memory from that season, and one of my greatest baseball experiences ever, was watching Nolan Ryan deny Pete Rose the hit record on June 10, 1981, a rare confluence of events never seen before and never to be seen again.




Photo Credits:  Phillies Logo, Pete Rose 1980 Topps, Veterans Stadium, Nolan Ryan 1981 Fleer, Garry Maddox 1977 Topps, Sports Illustrated Cover, Time Magazine Cover, Nolan Ryan 1992 Upper Deck.

Many thanks to Baseball-Reference.com for Pete Rose, Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton career statistics, as well as for the play-by-play of the Phillies-Astros game of June 10, 1981.