Nightengale: Series evokes recollections of the 1985 NLCS…

Nightengale: Series evokes recollections of the 1985 NLCS…Series evokes recollections 1985…

Nightengale: Series evokes recollections of the 1985 NLCS.

ST. LOUIS — Tom Niedenfuer awoke Thursday morning in his Florida home, turned on the television, and gasped as he saw the score. Please. Not again. Not now. Two hours later, the phone rang, which could only mean one thing. He told USA TODAY Sports, “Let me guess what this is all about.”

“Congratulations, you are the first to call,” he remarked. “My phone will be ringing all week. That’s why I was out here pulling against the Cardinals, so I wouldn’t have to hear all of this.

With their Division Series victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, the St. Louis Cardinals have advanced to the National League Championship Series for the third year in a row and the eighth time in the past 13 years. This time, however, they face the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Series evokes recollections 1985…

Yes, a replay of the 1985 National League Championship Series will begin tonight at 8:37 p.m. ET at Busch Stadium. The videotapes from the series will be shown all week. Tommy Lasorda, the former Dodgers manager, will face further scrutiny. Ozzie Smith and Jack Clark’s exploits will be celebrated once more. And one middle-aged dad, whose daughter, Kristy, won the Miss Tennessee beauty pageant last week in order to compete in the Miss USA pageant, will have his senses bombarded until the series is mercifully over.

Niedenfuer despised the renowned Jack Buck radio call. If Kirk Gibson’s home run was named the greatest moment in Los Angeles sports history, Niedenfuer is the opposite, allowing successive game-winning home runs in the best-of-seven series. “It sucks,” admits Niedenfuer, 54. “It still sucks. It’s been nearly 30 years; you’d think they’d have anything better to broadcast on television, yet they keep doing it, especially this time of year.

Series evokes recollections 1985…

It was bad enough when Ozzie Smith blasted the game-winning home run in Game 5 at Busch Stadium, just moments after NBC reminded the world that the switch-hitting Smith had never hit a left-handed home run in 3,009 at-bats. Two days later, it was merciless. Jack Clark launched a tremendous three-run, two-out, ninth-inning home run off Niedenfuer, sending the Cardinals to the World Series and Lasorda screaming into the night.

“It broke my heart,” Lasorda said Thursday. “It still bothers me now.” Niedenfuer will always be reminded of this loss. “I know it was a great baseball moment,” Niedenfuer said, “and a great moment takes two guys. “I wish I wasn’t in it.”

Many Dodgers weren’t even born during the 1985 NLCS, but they were reminded of it Thursday during batting practice at Busch Stadium. The giant right-center scoreboard continued to display the home runs, which were part of the greatest moments in Cardinals playoff history. Over. And it’s over. Every three minutes, all of the Dodgers could see this.

Series evokes recollections 1985…

Smith happily ran around the bases, flinging his right arm into the air, and the old Busch Stadium crowd went crazy. Clark, slowly trotting around the bases, with Dodgers left fielder Pedro Guerrero slamming his glove to the ground, in front of a dead-still Dodger Stadium crowd. What was not revealed was a late-night phone call four years later from a woman sobbing uncontrollably at 1:30 a.m., which woke Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog.

Judy, Niedenfuer’s wife, is a former actress and model. Niedenfuer just received word from the Seattle Mariners that he has been dismissed. Judy, knowing the misery and torment her husband had undergone during the 1985 playoffs, was now asking Herzog if he would hire him. Herzog signed Niedenfuer the next day, and he played the last year of his career with the Cardinals.

“I never told that to anyone before,” Herzog told USA TODAY Sports Thursday, “but I’ll never forget it as long as I live. She felt so horrible for Tom. What happened to him in the playoffs was not fair. “He shouldn’t have been in that circumstance. “I tell Lasorda that all the time.” Niedenfuer took over as the Dodgers’ closer when Steve Howe was fired following another drug relapse. Niedenfuer was exhausted in September, he added, pitching 106 1/3 innings that season with a 5.70 ERA over the final five weeks. He was brought into the game with one out in the seventh inning and the Dodgers up 4-1.

Two innings, 13 batters, and 68 pitches later, Niedenfuer was still pitching. “Different times back then,” says Niedenfuer, a 10-year veteran who retired after 1990. “Everything changed after Howe left.” Niedenfuer, attempting to maintain a 5-4 lead, ran into difficulties in the ninth. He stood on the mound with runners on second and third, two outs, and cleanup hitter Jack Clark at bat. Lasorda was presented with a difficult decision: intentionally walking Clark to load the bases for left-handed outfielder Andy Van Slyke. Or pitch to Clark, whose 22 home runs that year belied his status as the power hitter in a lineup full of rabbits.

It just took one pitch to realise the wrong decision had been taken. Clark hit the ball so far that Niedenfuer felt it would hit the Goodyear Blimp and land deep in the left-field pavilion. The Dodgers fell 7-5, and the series ended 4-2, but the memory lives on.

“You had to walk Clark,” Herzog explained. “I don’t care if it’s Babe Ruth or Humpty Dumpty at bat. You’ve got to walk him. I always thank Tommy for throwing to Jack Clark. Lasorda is 86 years old, but he still resents criticism. “People can second-guess me,” Lasorda said Thursday, heading to the Dodgers’ hotel, “but at least I took it off.” I’m not going to walk Clark and put him against a left-handed bat like Van Slyke.

Lasorda, his voice beginning to rise, continues, “People forget I had him walk Tommy Herr in the seventh inning and strike out Clark. He struck him out! How come no one brings this up? “People who second-guess don’t know enough to make a first guess. And those who second-guess require two guesses to get it correctly. Niedenfuer refuses to second-guess Lasorda. If there is any doubt, he claims it is about his pitch selection. He struck out Clark with sliders in the first inning. Catcher Mike Scioscia, now the Angels’ manager, approached the mound and instructed Niedenfuer to continue throwing sliders. Niedenfuer declined and suggested a first-pitch fastball.

“One of the reasons Mike came to the mound, too,” Niedenfuer says, “was because some shadows were beginning to appear across home plate. We were attempting to stall so that the shadows could spread across home plate. “We did not stall long enough.” Three years later, the Dodgers experienced their own golden moment when Gibson hit the game-winning home run off Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. It turned out to be their last World Series victory.

“I sit back and wonder how many pennants and World Series the Dodgers would have won if Steve Howe hadn’t had those issues,” Herzog remarked. He was such an excellent reliever. He would have made an enormous difference. “If he’d been around that year, we might not be talking about Clark’s home run.” Now, Niedenfuer begs, let it happen again, but in reverse, to erase that memory.

“I’d love to see the Dodgers win this series,” he stated. “I’d really like to see something dramatic happen. Anything to get them to stop displaying Clark’s home run. “Believe me, I’ve seen it enough.” That’s enough to drive a man insane.