October 21st, 1980.

Can you believe it’s been 40 years? Four whole decades since Tug McGraw struck out Willie Wilson to win the first World Series in Phillies franchise history.

Here’s the fantastic call from Joe Garagiola, who decided to let the game breathe and allow the crowd of 65,838 to tell the story instead:

McGraw was awesome in games five and six of this series.

In game five, he entered in the seventh inning, with the Phillies losing 3-2. He went on to pitch three shutout innings, while the Phils came back and knocked in a couple of runs off Dan Quisenberry to take a 3-2 series lead home to Veterans Stadium.

In game six, McGraw came in during the eighth inning, with no outs and runners on first and second. He got out of that inning allowing just one run, then loaded the bases in the ninth before striking out Wilson.

Some fast facts about the 1980 World Series:

  • Series MVP Mike Schmidt knocked in seven runs and hit two homers while batting .381.
  • Hall of Famer Steve Carlton finished the series with a 2.40 ERA, giving up just five runs in 15 innings while striking out 17.
  • Larry Bowa led the Phils with nine hits.
  • McGraw pitched 7.2 innings and finished with a 1.17 ERA.
  • Three of the six games were decided by just one run, including game three, which went to extra innings.
  • Kansas City’s squad featured Hall of Famer George Brett and 1980 All Stars Larry Gura and Darrell Porter. Hal McRae and Amos Otis were multiple-time All Stars in other Royals seasons.
  • 54.9 million people watched game six, a Major League Baseball record.

 

Great stuff all around, really a lot of compelling storylines and interesting factoids surrounding the 1980 series. You’d have to be 50 years old right now to remember much of anything from the game, and younger Philly sports fans probably only saw Youtube clips or heard stories from your dad/uncle/grandfather, but it was really a fantastic moment for the city and an excellent and competitive series overall.