This article, "A contrast in styles: Herzog and Kuenn" by Dick Kaegel, originally appeared in the October 25, 1982 issue of The Sporting News.
MILWAUKEE— Harvey Kuenn, his face impassive, surveyed the scene before him. It was the fifth game of the World Series and his Milwaukee Brewers had a lead of 6-4. The St. Louis Cardinals had a basemnner, which meant batter Darrell Porter represented the tying run. Brewers pitcher Mike Caldwell had labored through 8.1 innings and 128 pitches, allowing the Cardinals 14 hits—the last three by successive batters.
The question was... had Kuenn noticed all this?
The Harvey Kuenn face gives no indication of the manager's inner machinations. The large hunk of chewing tobacco moves slightly. He spits. Slowly, he starts toward the mound.
This is the Harvey Kuenn manner, and the 79th World Series will be remembered not only as a battle between clubs with contrasting styles and reputations but of contrasting methods of managing. Conservative Kuenn vs. the more impetuous manager of the Cardinals, Whitey Herzog.
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When Kuenn excused lefthander Caldwell and thanked him for his 14-hitter, Bob McClure arrived to get the last two outs. Patience must be a virtue, for the victory sent Kuenn's Brewers back to St. Louis with the advantage, three games to two, in the annual best-of-seven adventure.
Kuenn's method in the first five games of the series was to send the same nine players onto the field, in virtually the same batting order, and once in a great while—if the spirit moved him—to make a pitching change. His rashest act was to change his designated hitter in mid-game a couple of times.
Herzog, meanwhile, used three different lineups (and indicated more to come in the St. Louis wrapup of the Series); had relief pitchers wearing a path through the outfield; and employed pinch-hitters, pinch-runners and defensive replacements in profusion. The Cardinals tried eight steals, the Brewers two
Whitey's wheels, it seems, spin in 16 directions.
But if Kuenn operates as if he has stripped gears, the method obviously has merit. After he took over as manager on June 2, the Brewers ran up a 72-43 record. And it was Kuenn who went to St. Louis just one victory away from the world championship.
This was an unfamiliar position for the Brewers, who had to fight the Baltimore Orioles to the final day of the season to win the American League East, then were forced to crawl out of an 0-2 hole in the A.L. Championship Series to defeat the California Angels.
Overcoming such troublesome situations does not seem very tough stuff for Kuenn. He has, after all, battled back from a heart bypass, colon removals and a leg amputation. Next to those items, the winning of baseball games comes under the category of trivial.
Not that the people of Milwaukee, where Kuenn was born, by the way, consider the Brewers' success a trivial matter. When the Brewers won the fifth game at County Stadium, the fans trooped onto the field and wouldn't leave until Kuenn, Robin Yount, Mike Caldwell and others emerged from the clubhouse to take a triumphant bow.
This was a splendid excuse, of course, to turn Wisconsin Avenue into a snake-dancing, hell-raising beer bust. Cops closed off the downtown street and let the celebration roar. Just what might be going on at Cesar's Inn—the saloon owned by Kuenn's wife near the ballpark—was almost too awesome to contemplate.
Any fear that the flow of beer might run dry was ridiculous, of course. Milwaukee is a brewery town and Pabst and Miller maintain the inventory. Brewers fans are adamant on one point, however—during this event, no swallow of Budweiser will cross their lips. That would be considered giving aid and comfort to the enemy since Bud is produced by Anheuser-Busch, the St. Louis brewery which owns the Cardinals.
Kuenn's method was to send the same nine players onto the field.
The city of St. Louis was excited by the Cardinals' first World Series since 1968, but Milwaukee was flat-out bonkers. Baseball fans here last saw a World Series in 1958, in the days before the Braves slipped away to Atlanta. And then, after an alleged baseball team called the Seattle Pilots became the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970, they had to endure years of second-division torture.
With the frustration wiped away, 25,000 Brewers fans showed up at County Stadium on the night before Game 3 just to whoop it up. No game, no players. Just your basic True Blue Brew Crew at their deep-throated, horn-honking, beer-guzzling best.
This Six-Pack Series between two conservative Midwestern beer towns began October 12 at Busch Stadium, hard by the St. Louis Arch and the Mississippi River of Mark Twain lore. And it soon developed into a barroom brawl of impressive proportions.
Just to get things started, the Brewers whacked the Cardinals over the head with a chair, 10-0. Considering this Series matched the majors' No. 1 home run team (the Brewers hit 216) and the team with the fewest (the Cardinals hit 67), such a score should be no surprise.
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The surprise came in how the Brewers accomplished the blowout. Only one of their 17 hits was a homer (by the triumphantly-returning ex-Cardinal Ted Simmons). And the team called Harvey's Wallbangers did not hit the stadium wall even once. They did it in the style the Cardinals were supposed to employ—bouncing hits off the AstroTurf, plugging the outfield gaps and the run 'n' fun game.
Lefthander Caldwell worked the three-hit shutout, and for his trouble was chastised by some of the Cardinals for using the illegal spitball. “Funny,” Caldwell mused, “when I get beat, nobody says I throw a spitter.”
Of major historical interest were five singles by Brewers leadoff batter Paul Molitor. Never in 78 previous Series had any player stroked five hits in a single game. Molitor's bat was solicited by representatives of the Hall of Fame in Coopers-town, N.Y.
“We got a good old-fashioned butt-kicking,” said Herzog. “I'm glad we didn't have a doubleheader.”
It is a law of baseball that no important series of games can be played without criticism of the gentlemen in blue. So the next night, it was plate umpire Bill Haller wHo was accused of poor judgment. Pete Ladd, a.k.a. Big Foot, had just hulked out of the Brewers' bullpen to defend a 4-4 tie in the Cardinals' half of the eighth inning. A 3-and-2 pitch to Lonnie Smith was adjudged by Haller to be ball four.
“Mr. Haller,” declared Ladd, “was the only person in the ballpark who thought it was a ball.”
Being deprived of a strikeout discombobulated Ladd to such an extent that he couldn't come close to the plate on his next four pitches. Pinch-hitter Steve Braun was the recipient of the bases-loaded walk which gave St. Louis a 5-4 victory.
Manager Kuenn was operating at a disadvantage in the Series because his celebrated relief wizard, Rollie Fingers, was put out of business by a sore shoulder. Manager Herzog, though, had his celebrated relief wizard, Bruce Sutter, ready for the firing line. And Sutter pitched the last 2⅓ innings with customary efficiency: two hits, no runs.
Rookie Willie McGee was the hero of Game 3 both In the field and at bat, robbing Gorman Thomas of one homer and hitting two himself.
When the Series shifted to Milwaukee, the Cardinals could look out of their hotel room windows and observe this sign hanging on Major Goolsby's saloon: THE BEER CAPITOL OF THE WORLD WELCOMES THE 'BUSCH' LEAGUE.
The Cardinals did some putting down on their own in Game 3, the October 15 contest at County Stadium. “I think people underestimate our power,” said the Cardinals' Keith Hernandez after St. Louis won, 6-2. Certainly almost everyone underestimated the muscle of wispy Willie McGee, who whacked two homers good for four runs.
The rookie also look a potential home run away from the Brewers' Gorman Thomas with a slam-dunk leap that resulted in a superlative catch in the ninth inning. “If he doesn't catch that ball, Mr. Sutter might have been in a little trouble,” Herzog said.
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The only reason Sutter was in the game was because Joaquin Andujar, in the seventh inning of a shutout effort, took a hard shot off the leg and collapsed in pain. Two other pitchers had problems, so again Herzog counted on Sutter for the last seven outs. He got them, but the long outing was costly.
Herzog wasn't inclined to use Sutter so early the next day, and when the Brewers were working on what developed into a six-run seventh inning, the save specialist was held in reserve. But the need to get an out or two never arrived. Game 4 belonged to the Brewers, 7-5.
The six-run inning began when Cardinals pitcher Dave La-Point, holding a 5-1 lead, dropped a throw while covering first base. “It's a case,” said the Brewers' Molitor, “when a little thing becomes gigantic.”
On October 17, while Caldwell was working on his 14-hitter, Brewers shortstop Robin Yount wrote another line into the World Series record book. He went 4-for-4, including a homer, in the 6-4 win and thus became the first player to have a pair of four-hit Series games. He also had four in the opening game.
“He's the best all-around shortstop I've ever seen play,” said Kuenn.
Said Kuenn? Oh, yeah, Harvey talks. A little. Conservatively. And slowly.
