And rightly so. Niekro is definitely the historical figure that I think it is important for Astros fans to remember in this situation. While Pettitte is a big reason why they're here, and his quote certainly sounds like something Niekro would say, Oswalt is the one that has the responsibility of "going Niekro" on the Co-ards. Knukzie always seemed huge for the Astros in the biggest games, much like we're needing The Man from Weir to do tonight. Because as great as Clemens is, from a cosmic perspective, I'm afraid he is the Nolan Ryan in all of this.
For those who might have been too young to remember Niekro's signature moment, it came at the end of the 1980 regular season. If you don't recall the exact situation, I refreshed myself on some of the details and thought I would share.
Oh, something else to consider - this is where all this crap started. While the first signs of the Astros making things extremely difficult on themselves had become evident during the 1979 stretch run, the final regular season series against the Dodgers in 1980 truly established the gutwrenching legacy in high-stakes baseball that has clung to the Astros to this day. And I agree, we don't need to hear anything else from the Red Sox and their people.
The situation on Friday, October 3, 1980 was this: the Astros go into Los Angeles with three games left in the season and a three game lead on the Dodgers. Win one, just one, and you're in.
Game One: Ken Forsch for Houston against Don Sutton. Fabulous pitchers duel. The Astros scratch out a 2-1 lead in the eighth on an Alan Ashby sac fly, but a Rafael Landestoy error sets the table for Ron Cey to tie it with two outs in the ninth on an RBI single. L.A. goes on to win in the tenth on a leadoff dong by Joe Ferguson off Forsch.
Game Two: Nolan Ryan starts for Houston. More fabulous pitching all around, but Steve Garvey's clout to lead off the fourth breaks a 1-1 tie. Jerry Reuss makes it hold up as he goes complete. The Blue Bastards pull to within a game with a 2-1 win.
Game Three: Vern Ruhle starts for Houston against Burt Hooton. Both are gone by the second inning. The Astros lead 3-2 late on the strength of classic Astrodome-era "little ball" and RBIs from Puhl, Ashby and Reynolds. But The Penguin strikes again, launching a 2-run bolt off Frank LaCorte in the eighth to give L.A. a 4-3 win and tie the NL West on the final day of the season.
To say that the momentum has swung at this point would be an understatement.
The Astros gather themselves for the one-game playoff Monday afternoon. Some of us stay home from school to watch it. Joe Niekro takes the ball and delivers one of the more dominating performances by a knuckleballer that you will see (provided of course that you're OK with "dominant" and "knuckleballer" in the same sentence), scattering six hits on the afternoon. Meanwhile, an Astros hitter finally steps up with RISP. Art Howe powers the offense, going 3-5 with a cracker and 4 RBIs, as the Astros torch Dave Goltz and Rick Sutcliffe early en route a 7-1 cakewalk. Niekro goes complete for his 20th win of the year, and Houston goes to its first postseason.
The moral of the story is that it is always difficult, but every now and then it ends well. The other thing about Niekro that you have to like is that his distaste for the Dodgers was out there for all to see. Aside from maybe LaCorte, no one on the team was more outspoken about how much they hated losing to "the $#!@ Dodgers." He's a big reason why a lot of us still see the Los Angeles Dodgers, and not the Braves or Co-ards, as the real enemy.
Niekro would build on his Dodger-killing and big game legacy in the strike-necessitated 1981 NLDS, when he threw eight shutout innings in the Astrodome before Ashby's monumental blast into the right field pavillion sent everyone home happy in the 11th.
So while Jayson Stark prefers to conjure the spectres of Bunghole Kim and Donnie Moore, I would humbly suggest to the Astros and their fans that there has never been a better time to appreciate and emulate Joe Niekro than right now. They also should've retired his damn number.
