As fans of the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team await word on whether Game 5 will continue and lead to a World Series win, The Mercury has dug through its archives all the way back to 1980, when the Phillies last were World Champions.
On that Wednesday night, the Phillies defeated the Kansas City Royals 4 games to 2.
"Those last two innings, I was so shook ... I can't remember much," said an ecstatic Tug McGraw, who pitched the last two winning innings.
It was the first world championship win for the team.
"This is the proudest I'll ever be as a baseball player," McGraw said.
Area fans celebrated in joy, with police on edge keeping the peace.
According to the story run that day, Wednesday, Oct. 22, "At the Pottstown Holiday Inn, a crowd at the bar went nuts," wrote reporter Frank Warner. "It was like sitting in the stadium," said John Pfeiffer, the Holiday Inn's auditor. "They were just standing on chairs, sitting on the bar, staying glued to that set. They didn't even know the band was playing."
At Cutillo's, the general manager was "worried about the glass in the windows."
"We thought it was going to break. Between the two bars it was crazy!" said general manager Mary Ann Cutillo.
When consulted Boyertown Bears coach Dick Ludy said he was surprised the Royals didn't score in the final minutes.
According to Warner's report, "Ludy said the key to the game was a bunt single by Pete Rose in the third inning, but he questioned manager Dallas Green's replacing starting pitcher Steve Carlton with McGraw in the eighth inning.'No way would I have taken Carlton out then,' Ludy said."
It wasn't just the adults who were excited by the win. "Parents throughout the area are sure to find their children reluctant to go to wake up for school this morning," according to the report in The Mercury. And "except for a few cruising hot rods, area roads were nearly deserted during the game."
But excitement would soon pour over as fans were held back from the field in Philadelphia by mounted police who rode horses around the edge of the stadium.
"A noisy parade featuring the triumphant Phillies on two flatbed trucks snaked through the city to John F. Kennedy Stadium for a victory celebration," according to the report the next day.
But it wasn't the only parade celebrating the victory.
Students and teachers at Pottstown's Lincoln School paraded around the block at the end of the day, cheering for their winning team, waving pennants and singing "Ain't no stopping us now," according to a report by Nancy Pinkerton, who is currently the editor of The Mercury.
Ringing Rocks fifth-graders got a great surprise that Thursday when a trip to the Art Museum in the city gave them a chance to see their heroes up close in the parade that began in front of the museum.
Banners were displayed at Pottsgrove Manor, crepe paper festooned cars driving around town and newstands in the area were sold out of copies of that day's papers.
"So what does it all mean?" asked reporter Nancy Pinkerton.
"After all the frustration, after all the waiting, after 1950 and 1964, and three years in the playoffs without a pennant, after all that, there is this fantastic feeling of seeing it become a reality," said Guy Sperat, Pottstown tax collector at the time.
"There is an exuberance, a mood of gaiety that has done something for the city and the whole region. People got taken up with this team, like a swelling wave of emotion," said Sperat.
Do you have photos and memories of the Phillies' 1980 win? Share them with us. Email them to
fausteileen0.mercphotos@blogger.com. And don't forget to check out our
Phillies fans photo gallery.Fan Shot
1980 World Series ParadeThis photo was submitted by Grace on our photo sharing Web site. It's a shot of the 1980 World Series parade for the Phillies.
Labels: a look bac k, Phillies win, World Series
Banners were displayed at Pottsgrove Manor, crepe paper festooned cars driving around town and newstands in the area were sold out of copies of that day's papers.
RSS Feeds