Philadelphia Journal - October 13, 1980

Ah, Sweet Victory At Last

Phillies Share Their Joy With Champagne And Tears

By Rosemarie Ross- Getting To The Heart Of Sports

HOUSTON- Too exhausted to talk, they just held each other and let the champagne soak the hard concrete floor of the clubhouse.

The half open bottles dangled from their limp arms and the tears mixed in the sweet victory brew on the ground. It had been such a hard and troublesome road to the World Series.

But last night the Phillies showed their true grit, reaching farther than most people thought them capable, wrestling the National League pennant away from the clawing and scratching Astros with a thrilling 8-7 win in the 10th inning.

"It took us an awful long time to get here," said Greg Luzinski. "People so often said we didn't really want it. I think we showed them this time we did.

"It took every man on this team to do it. But that's what makes a championship team. When you can go to that bench and always still find somebody who'll go out there and do the job."

Perhaps it was only fitting that this should showcase so prominently the men who have gotten so little credit and done so much by coming through in clutch situations all season long. And the youngsters that mean so much to the Phillies.

Greg Gross, the patient and gently man who sat most of the year going half-crazy, laid down a beautiful bunt single in the eighth in the Phils' five-run inning.

"I didn't have a great year, but having a good series makes up for the whole year," he said. "It was such a topsy-turvy series the whole time. Things were going out way and then they weren't. So often we just couldn't seem to do anything right. And they were doing the things they needed to do. They were playing great defense and doing everything they had to do.

"But today we got a couple of breaks. When we came back and scored those five runs in the eighth, that was great because it was something we hadn't done too much this year.

"Us extras, except for Lonnie (Smith) didn't have the kind of year we wanted to have- we said in the short series maybe we can make amends for that. That maybe we can come up and do our job and maybe help us win this darn thing. And I really think the guys on the bench did a super job in the series."

Bystrom Amazing

And then there was the amazing young Marty Bystrom. Still in Oklahoma City until September 1, he was named to start this all-important last game and he handled the job like a veteran.

The same kid nobody even looked at in high school, who went to junior college because he wasn't drafted.

A few days ago he didn't even know if he'd be on the post-season roster.

Dallas Green told him before the start of the series to hang around one more day. Marty already had his suitcase packed to head back to his home town of Miami. He came in the next day and Green gave him the good news.

Then, he didn't know that he'd pitch. He certainly didn't figure he'd be starting the decisive fifth game. But, Saturday night, he found out he would.

"I wasn't nervous," he said happily. "I was a little shaky in that first inning when the outfielder (Terry Puhl) got on. I had cotton in my ears so I couldn't hear the crowd. I don't know, I didn't have that good stuff tonight. But when we went up 2-1 in the second inning that felt really good. And from then on I knew we had 'em and that all I had to do is keep them from scoring.

"It's just all unbelieveable right now."

What a strange twist of fate for this great youngster. Once, he said, he thought if baseball hadn't come along and saved him, he'd have been a bum all his life.

Lefty: No Comment

And, perhaps, people such as Steve Carlton realize he's where the Phillies' future lies today.

Because Carlton, standing all alone in one corner, looked glum last night.

Asked if, for a change, he had a comment on the joyous occasion, Carlton replied, "No, no comment."

And that's kind of sad, because he has done so much this year to get the Phillies where they are.

They hoisted Garry Maddox on their shoulders when he caught the last out to let him know the ball he'd dropped in L.A. a couple of years ago was long forgotten, and that everything was beautiful now.

And that's how it should have been. Because who cares about the past when you're finally in the World Series?

And this time, baby, the Phillies made it. And there is joy in the City of Brotherly Love this morning.

Clubhouse Chatter: Bull Quiet After Biggest Hit of Career

By Gene Collier

HOUSTON- Greg Luzinski's career is filled with clutch hits. He hit division title clinching homers in 1976 at Montreal and in 1978 at Pittsburgh and had homered in every Phillies' playoff victory up until Saturday's.

But his pinch hit double in the 10th inning of that game, won by the Phillies 5-3, might have been THE momentus hit of his career.

The Bull's two-out double scored Pete Rose all the way from first, a furious trip punctuated by a forearm to the head of Astros' catcher Bruce Bochy. It was the winning run in the most significant comeback in the history of the franchise.

Unfortunately, Greg had nothing to say about it afterwards, apparently upset because he was not in Dallas Green's starting lineup. Green said he had no discussion with the Bull over the matter.

"I just posted the lineup," Green said.

•

The Astros came into the fifth game with an LCS team batting average of .202, threatening the record for the lowest batting averagre in a championship series held by the 1973 Mets, who beat the Reds in five games.

•

The Phillies set a new LCS record for 18-1/3 consecutive scoreless innings.

•

Before the game, Harry Kalas admitted to no preconceived notion of what to say in the even of the first Phillies' pennant in 30 years.

"No way I plan something to say," Harry said. "What comes out, comes out."

•

With his single in the third inning last night, Pete Rose now has a 14-game hitting streak in NL Championship Series play, breaking the record formerly held by Greg Luzinski.

In the 13 games previous to last night, Rose was 25-for-58 or .431. The last time he'd gone hitless in an LCS Game was in Game Two of the 1973 series against the Mets.

•

The last three extra inning games in this series are the most ever in championship play. No World Series ever included as many extra inning games.

Fans OUTSIDE Vet Do Their Line Dance

By Steve Weaver, Journal Reporter

You didn't need the price of a pint of booze to get drunk at the Vet last night. The high spirits came from the Phillies 2,000 miles away.

There may have been 65,746 empty seats inside the site of tomorrow night's opening World Series game, but outside the gates, 200 Phillies fans' screams resounded for blocks up Broad St.

I've got a sleeping bag, a bucket of fried chicken, two television sets, some refreshing beverages to drink, and a great team to cheer for," said South Jersey's Joe Manino when Dick Ruthven proceeded to shut down the Astros in the bottom of the 10th. "That's why I'm here, and I can already feel those tickets in my pocket."

"The fans were waiting in line to buy World Series tickets that went on sale this morning at 9. The first to arrive planned to wait 22 hours.

"I didn't watch the game, but you can bet I was praying," said Delores Medici, of Fairless Hills, who sat with her back to a nearby TV because she "couldn't stand the tension."

"My prayers have been answered," she said after centerfielder Garry Maddox speared the final, pennant-clinching out.

"I've been waiting 30 years for this day, 30 years," signed Roseann Hoffman, who brought a coat for her Chihuahua. "I bought a sign to the airport when the Phils lost in '64. I'll be at the airport to greet 'em this time, but you can bet I'll say something different."

The pennant-winning Phils are due back home at 1:45 this afternoon at the Overseas Terminal at the Airport.

Celebrations erupted simultaneously across the city.

At least 1,000 Phillies fans assembled near the intersection of Kensington and Allegheny. Another large celebration was taking place near Frankford and Cottman in the Northeast.

No Guns, No Fits, No Terrors

The Philadelphia police radio room went an hour without any calls last night during the bizarre final Phillies-Astros playoff game. "I don't know what's going on, we're all listening to the game here- everybody's listening to the game!" the officer on duty said.

Phillies Win The Pennant

By Gene Collier

HOUSTON- Hope and frustration have one thing very much in common. They are retroactive.

It was a 30-year back-up that exploded into ecstacy last night in Houston and it brought Philadelphia a treasured windfall of emotion.

Del Unser and Garry Maddox slapped 10th inning doubles off Frank LaCorte for the run that beat the Astros 8-7 in the fifth game of the greatest game of the greatest National League championship series ever played.

And so, here, finally, are the words of what were so long a fruitless anticipation.

The Phillies won the pennant.

Losers and chokers do not win pennants. And this team shed those tags by scoring a total of 11 runs in the eighth, ninth and tenth innings of the final two games, which found them behind two games to one at the start.

It ended when Enos Cabell flied to Maddox in center for the sixth straight out thrown by Dick Ruthven, the sixth Phillies pitcher working in relief for the first time this season.

The World Series will open at Veterans Stadium tomorrow night when the American League champion Royals send Dennis Leonard (20-11) to the mound against Dallas Green's still-to-be-determined pitcher. Gametime is 8:15 and all games will telecast on channel 3 and channel 17.

Manny Trillo, who batted .381 with four RBIs and superlative defense, was named the Playoff MVP over Pete Rose and Tug McGraw.

Phils Strike Early

Bob Boone jerked the Phillies into a 2-1 lead and the spotlight onto Bill Virdon when he slapped a 99 mile per hour Ryan fastball into centerfield with two out in the second to score Trillo and Maddox.

Trillo started the inning with the fourth hit in his last five at-bats, a one-out single to center, and strolled to second when Ryan did the impossible by walking Maddox on four pitches. Larry Bowa hit a dribbler back to Ryan that perplexed him long enough to move the runner, but not long enough for Bowa to reach base.

So, with first base open, two out and Marty Bystrom on deck, Virdon gave Boone a figurative slap in the face by electing to deal with him. It was either a slap at Boone or Ryan, in whom Virdon evidently had no confidence that he would not walk the pitcher with the bases loaded.

Boone's single reversed a 1-0 Houston established in the first against Bystrom, who appeared to have his good stuff even though he was a tad up with it.

Terry Puhl lashed his seventh hit of the series to start things for the 22-year-old righthander making his first post-season appearance in what was only the biggest Phillies' game in 30 years. Puhl stole second on the 1-1 pitch to Joe Morgan and scored when Jose Cruz ripped a 2-2 pitch for a double to right.

Bystrom held the lead in the second when Bake McBride, Trillo and Boone combined superb efforts on a classic relay that nailed Luis Pujols trying to score from right on Craig Reynolds' one-out double.

Bystrom pitched in a constant stew and responded with ample courage through five innings, but ran out of good fortune and great defense in the sixth. Worse, he ran out of ordinary defense too.

It was a 2-1 pitch that Denny Walling sent screaming into left center. Walling is a left-handed hitter and his liner was falling toward Greg Luzinski as the Bull charged in the opposite direction.

Bull's Error

The ball struck Luzinski's glove and popped free over his left shoulder for a two-base error that put Walling on second with nobody out. For that moment, Luzinski was forced to relieve (sic) the horror that was his non-catch in the ninth inning of Game Three in 1977, won by the Dodgers 6-5 with three runs that inning, an inning perpetuated by the Bull's play on Manny Mota's two-out liner.

The Bull got a temporary reprieve when Art Howe hit a bouncer to Mike Schmidt for the first out, but was sentenced when pinch hitter Alan Ashby stroked what would be Bystrom's final pitch into centerfield and Walling beat Maddox' throw to the plate to tie the game 2-2.

The Phillies roared back from a three-run Houston outburst staged in the seventh against Larry Christenson, who was working with just one day's rest.

Phils' 8th

Bowa and Boone managed leadoff singles in the eighth against Ryan, who'd held them to five hits to that point. Greg Gross dropped a perfect bunt to load the bases and Ryan walked Rose to force in a run that made it 5-4 (sic) Houston and elicit his own exit.

Keith Moreland pinch hit for McBride against Joe Sambito and scored Boone with a grounder to the right side, but Ken Forsch came on to strike out Mike Schmidt looking on three straight pitches. Del Unser kept the rally in progress with a game-tying single to right and Trillo drove his third hit of the game and eighth of the series into the left field corner for a two-run triple that put a pennant in Philly's grip.

Then Houston scratched four singles, including the fourth of the game and record 10th of the series by Puhl, off exhausted McGraw that wrung two runs out of an eighth inning and sent the game reeling into the ninth.

3 Stars

1.       Manny Trillo

2.       Garry Maddox

3.       Terry Puhl

Phils "Love" Each Other

No Author Given

HOUSTON- The bickering, cover-your-backside, pennant-winning Phillies, found room for a little affection last night.

"I can't believe how many guys told each other 'I love you,'" third baseman Mike Schmidt said. "Look at Bake (McBride), he's doing more hugging than anybody.

Indeed, the rightfielder who is disaffected with Manager Dallas Green could say following his team's gut-wrenching fifth-game win over the Houston Astros in the National League Championship Series, "I have a place in my heart even for him."

The Phils rallied no fewer than three times last night to finally subdue the stubborn Astros 8-7 in the fourth straight extra-inning game of the series.

"I can't believe," Schmidt said, "what we had to overcome to win this thing. I can't believe what we had to do in this series.

"That team over there (the Astros) has as much heart as we do."

Reliever Tug McGraw, one of the most inspirational Phillies this season who set a playoff record by pitching in all five playoff games, said his team had finally put to rest 20 years worth of criticism.

"I'm just so proud to be a Philadelphia Phillie today," said Tug, a member of the '69 World Series-winning "Miracle Mets." "As you can see around you, the guys are just letting loose with 162 games worth of emotion. All year long people have doubted us, but today we proved them wrong."

Wet eyes were numerous in the raucous Philadelphia dressing room and the moisture was not from the abundant champagne.

Greg Gross said he felt deeply for the Astros, his former teammates for three years, and the team he broke in with as N.L. rookie of the year.

"They're a great club," he said. "You can't say anything bad about them. They battled us every inch of the way, but so did we. It's a shame anybody had to lose."

Royals Are HOT

By Jack McCaffery

NEW YORK- George Brett held the bottle of bubbly in one hand and instructed a friend to do an about-face with the other.

Pop! The cork took off across the Royals' clubhouse like a Ron Guidry fastball, managed to avoid collision with photographers and correspondents from every publication but Meat Packing Monthly, and struck the poor guy in the seat of the pants.

It was the American League Championship Series record for longest cork bullseye.

"Am I hot, or what?" Brett laughed, almost uncontrollably, following a 4-2 victory Friday night which sent the Royals to the World Series and the Yankees to the mercy of George Steinbrenner's unsolicited opinions. "Oooooooooooohhh! Are we hot?"

The Royals are so hot that when the grounds crew watered the infield, they stripped and jumped into the spray to cool off. So hot that upper deck fans at Yankee Stadium didn't have to bring matches to light whatever it is they light in the upper deck. So hot that the Yankees wouldn't tag them out without potholders on their throwing hands.

The Yankees won more games than any team in baseball this summer, but the Royals defeated them on three consecutive days with hot pitching, hot hitting, hot relieving, hot hitting.

Pitching The Key

Good pitching might beat good hitting, but good pitching will never beat better pitching and that's why the Royals will be representing the American League in the World Series tomorrow night.

Ron Guidry had trouble with location in Game One, but Ron Davis and Tom Underwood didn't pitch badly in relief. Yet Larry Gura, who hadn't won since August 25, complete-gamed the Yankees, pitching nicely around 10 hits for a 7-2 win.

Rudy May had one bad inning in Game Two, but it was one more than Dennis Leonard and Dan Quisenberry had, and if a more accomplished defensive outfielder was playing right instead of John Wathan, the Royals would have likely shut New York out.

Brett HR

Tommy John - who scholars of Phillies history know is second only to that Noah character in rainy-weather effectiveness - was pitching well in a drizzle Friday night, but was replaced by Goose Gossage in the seventh. Gossage threw one bad pitch to Brett and it wound up in Queens, giving the Royals the AL pennant. Paul Splittorff and Quisenberry, meanwhile, were holding the Yankees to two runs, and to this minute Reggie Jackson has yet to hit a post-season home run in the '80s.

"The pitching staff was outstanding in this series," Brett was saying. "Larry Gura, who had struggled at the end of the season - outstanding. Dennis Leonard, who had struggled - outstanding. Paul Splittorff - outstanding. Dan Quisenberry - out-staaaannnnding."

The Royals were 7-18 from September 1 through September 28, and needed five wins in a six-game home stand to salvage a 12-19 record out of their September/October epilogue to the story they'd written May 22, when they took first place in the American League West for keeps.

"But when we came back for that final home stand," recalls manager Jim Frey, "it seemed that the overall attitude of the team had changed. You could see it by the enthusiasm in the clubhouse, the enthusiasm on the bench. But when we won five of six on that last home stand, I knew we had turned the corner."

"I think we were playing as individuals, not as a team, toward the end of the season," said Brett. "We were going after individual goals at that point, not team goals. Everything was me, me, I, I. I was struggling, I was trying too hard. I firmly believe Larry Gura would have won 20-22 ballgames if we didn't have such a big lead (he won 18). I believe Leonard would have won 24 (he won 20). Me, maybe I would have hit .391, I don't know."

The Umps Blew It!

Off The Wall By Gene Collier

HOUSTON- Through the fourth inning of what would take its place among the most memorable of Phillies playoff adventures (and for reasons, finally, other than utter disgust), Saturday's Phils were losing the League Championship Series all by themselves.

They needed no assistance from a six-man crew of National League umps, but they were about to get it anyway.

Garry Maddox was about to become the 23rd consecutive Phillies not to get a hit with runners in scoring position, but the way he'd do it would underline another Phillies playoff theme, namely wretched umpiring in their opponents' behalf.

With Bake McBride on second and Manny Trillo on first, Maddox had just failed to get the bunt down when Houston's Vern Ruhle threw him a 1-2 pitch that was sent looping back toward him with a checked swing.

Short Hop!

Ruhle caught the ball on a short hop, at least he did through my American Optical contect lenses and through the eyes of home plate ump Doug Harvey, who signaled no catch. Ruhle threw to first for one out, leaving McBride on third and Trillo on second.

First base ump Ed Vargo and third base ump Bob Engel then persuaded Harvey that Ruhle caught the ball in the air and Harvey suddenly decided he was screened on the play and never saw it. Why Harvey would signal no catch on a play he never saw is inexplicable and inexcusable.

By reason of the decision by Vargo and Engel, Ruhle's quick throw to first doubled Trillo off, and the Astros quickly got the ball to second and tagged McBride, then left the field after what they thought was a triple play.

After both teams announced they were protesting the game, Bill Virdon later said he didn't know what he was protesting. But somewhere in the course of a 20-minute delay featured conversations of varied volume between Dallas Green and Harvey, Bobby Wine and Harvey, Harvey and Virdon, Harvey and NL President Chub Feeney, Larry Bowa and Larry Bowa, and Feeney and someone wearing an ABC blazer, who asked Feeney every question but what he saw on the play, it was decided that McBride would be permitted to remain at second after a doubleplay.

"Simple," Harvey said. He really said that. "I felt my no catch call put the runner on second in jeopardy. He went to third on my call. I felt the runner on first broke immediately and never could have gotten back no matter what the call was. The jeopardy rule has been in the rule books for a long time. It gives the umpire the right to correct a mistake if they feel they've put a runner in jeopardy. That's exactly what happened."

What happened four innings later was even simpler. Bruce Froemming, who umpired the plate Friday with a 102 degree fever and didn't feel much better Saturday, blew a call on Manny Trillo's sinking liner that Jeff Leonard trapped. It took the sixth sense of Pete Rose, who was on third when the play started, to tag up and score the lead run.

All of this served to remind the misfortune afflicted of Game Three of the 1977 (Series) against the Dodgers, perhaps the most infamous Phillies loss of all time.

The Dodgers scored thrice with two out in the ninth to win, 6-5. One of those runs scored when Steve Garvey collided with Bob Boone at home plate.

Home plate ump Harry Wendlestedt called Garvey safe with a most definitive sign. Replays showed Garvey still hasn't touched the plate. Another Dodger run, the tying run in the ninth, scored when Davey Lopes smashed a Gene Garber pitch off Mike Schmidt at third that caromed to Larry Bowa, who threw Lopes out by a fraction to end the game.

Froemming called Lopes safe. Lopes stole second, Bill Russell singled him in. The Phillies lost 6-5 and lost the next night 4-1 and an image at that point was solidified.

It is perhaps outrageous to suggest that National League umps have a subconscious image of the Phillies as playoff losers and that part of their subconscious takes over on borderline plays.

But what happened here Saturday was equally outrageous.

Unser, Maddox Saved The Day

Different Kins of Hitters Won It For Phils

By Gene Collier

HOUSTON- This is part of the story of how a very disciplined hitter and a very undisciplined hitter combined their considerable talents to put the final touch of discipline needed for the 1980 Phillies to become National League Champions.

Del Unser had two shabby strikeouts in his memory coming into this, the most important Phillies game in 30 years.

Garry Maddox had much more than that in his. He was still stained from a week-long stay in Dallas Green's doghouse and was 0-for-his-last-7 as the Championship Series thundered into extra innings for the fourth consecutive game.

Unser suggested he might yet have a contribution left when he poked Ken Forsch's first pitch to right field to score the tying run in the eighth inning. That wiped out a devastating three-run lead Houston had taken into its half of the seventh. The single in the middle of a five-run Phillies fire drill that put them back on top 7-5. And the Astros quickly took the supercharged momentum of that away by scoring twice in the bottom of the inning to make it 7-7.

Laser Beam

Unser waited on deck in the 10th as Mike Schmidt struck out for the third time. He stepped in and hit the next pitch like a laser beam toward first baseman Dave Bergman. The ball shot into the dirt in front of Bergman and leaped into right field for a double.

"It was a fastball and I was just trying to swing down and through the ball," Unser said through a glistening mask of champagne. "I had to work on it because I hadn't been making contact. That prompted me to go and work with Bill (DeMars) on doing what I just did.

"I'm just glad to be able to do it. The Phillies resurrected me from free agency and gave me another chance."

Manny Trillo, this series' MVP for his .381 series average (8-for-21) and four RBIs and surely as much for his superlative defense, then drove Unser to third by riding Frank LaCorte's 1-1 pitch close to the track in center field.

Maddox then stood in an admitted state of emotional exhaustion.

Garry Worried

"I didn't know if I was going to be able to enjoy it if we did win because I was worried so much before we tied it and again when they tied it in the ninth," he said.

Maddox picked on the first pitch, as he is wont to do, and sent it slicing into center field in front of, ironically, Terry Puhl, who sent a new NLCS record with 10 hits, including four in this classic fifth game. Puhl couldn't handle the first hop and Maddox was at second with the hit that took its place beside Dick Sisler's two-run 10th inning homer on a similar Sunday in 1950.

"I was just thinking about seein' the ball and tryin' to make contact," Maddox reasoned later. "It was a fastball right down the middle."

In the clubhouse pandemonium, Maddox was called upon to be reflective. He did his best.

Total Team Effort

"This is what it's all about," he said. "We never gave it up. When we were down, the guys on the bench kept yellin' to us. They never let us get down. That's why this was a total team effort."

Greg Luzinski, who helped win this series much more than he almost lost it, had one point he wanted badly to make.

"I think we proved to the world that we don't have a quitter on this team."

What Our Phillies Said After Winning Pennant

No Author Given

The Phillies are going to the World Series for the first time since 1950 and had this to say after their 8-7, 10-inning victory in the fifth-game of their playoff series with the Houston Astros to win the National League pennant last night:

MANAGER DALLAS GREEN: "Grind 'em out. We were screamin', it was a good bench. We had the feeling all along. That's a grind-it-out win. It shows the character of this team. I've badgered and hammered it into these guys from spring training on. Sometimes I think they wondered what I was talkin' about. Now they know."

LARRY BOWA: "I've wanted to be in the World Series since I was 5 years old. This is the greatest feeling in the world. We didn't quit. I can't believe this feeling.

MIKE SCHMIDT: "This is obviously the best feeling I've ever had. I was dead weight out there- I didn't do anything. And I got picked up every time up. And I just want to tell (Kansas City Royal Superstar third baseman) George (Brett), see ya' in Philadelphia."

GREG LUZINSKI: "I wasn't worried about the first two shots, that's history. It happened in Philadelphia when (Dodger) Manny Mota got that double (in playoff loss to Dodgers). And tonight, I thought, "Oh, Christ, here we go again.'"

THIRD BASE COACH LEE ELIA: "They can't call me a bum in Philly now! This has got to go down as one of the greatest playoffs I've ever seen."

OWNER RULY CARPENTER: "I really can't express my thoughts. I just wish my father (Bob Carpenter) were here to see this. I guess he's watchin' on TV back home. I don't know how many packs of gum I chewed, that's how I dealt with the nervousness. I just hope we don't have to wait another 30 years to get to the World Series again."

MARTY BYSTROM: "I wasn't nervous out there, I was just trying to go out and pitch the same way I've been. I didn't think I had a good fastball. I just went out there and pitched."

DEL UNSER: "This is somethin' else. There certainly is nothing that could compare. That hit was the biggest of my season, maybe my whole career. I'm all choked up. I was just thinkin' about gettin' a good pitch to hit. I went down and worked with coach Billy DeMars before the game. I was droppin' my shoulder. But Billy got me back in that beautiful groove."

GARRY MADDOX: You've been sayin' that I shouldn't swing at the first pitch, well I thought I'd try something different. It was a fastball down the middle. It felt good to contribute. I haven't had the year I'd like to have. But we finally got one after four years."

WINNING PITCHER DICK RUTHVEN: "I haven't relieved for a long time. When I broke my leg down in Atlanta I did and once in 1975. I've never been scored on in relief. It's not good for the heart."

MVP

Phils second baseman Manny Trillo last night was voted the NL playoff series' Most Valuable Player, beating out teammates Pete Rose and Tug McGraw for the honor. Trillo was exceptional in the field and at the plate.

WHIZ KID

Phils right-handed starter Marty Bystrom, 22, last night became the youngest pitcher ever to appear in the N.L. playoffs. The magnificent "Whiz Kid" hurled well enough to win, and was hurt by Greg "The Bull" Luzinski's error in left field that opened the gates to a three-run Astro inning.