1970 World Series
The 1970 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1970 season. The 67th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League champion Baltimore Orioles (108–54 in the regular season) and the National League champion Cincinnati Reds (102–60). The Orioles won, four games to one.
1970 World Series
October 10–15
Riverfront Stadium (Cincinnati)
Memorial Stadium (Baltimore)
Brooks Robinson (Baltimore)
Ken Burkhart (NL), Red Flaherty (AL), Tony Venzon (NL), Bob Stewart (AL), Billy Williams (NL), Emmett Ashford (AL)
Orioles:
Earl Weaver (manager)
Jim Palmer
Brooks Robinson
Frank Robinson
Reds:
Sparky Anderson (manager)
Johnny Bench
Tony Pérez
Curt Gowdy
Jim McIntyre (in Cincinnati)
Chuck Thompson (in Baltimore)
Jim Simpson
Chuck Thompson (in Cincinnati)
Jim McIntyre (in Baltimore)
Baltimore Orioles over Minnesota Twins (3–0)
Cincinnati Reds over Pittsburgh Pirates (3–0)
In this series Emmett Ashford became the first African American to umpire a World Series. It also featured the first World Series games to be played on artificial turf, as Games 1 and 2 took place at Cincinnati's first-year Riverfront Stadium.
This was the last World Series in which all games were played in the afternoon. It was also the third time in a World Series in which a team leading three games to none failed to complete the sweep by losing Game 4 but still won Game 5 to clinch the series; 1910 and 1937 were the others. This was the last World Series until 2017 in which both participating teams won over 100 games during the regular season.[1] This was also the first World Series to feature names on the back on both team uniforms.
Aftermath[edit]
This was the second of three consecutive appearances by the Orioles, who went on to lose the following year's World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates 4–3. Baltimore won both the Super Bowl and the World Series in the same season as the Baltimore Colts won Super Bowl V over the Dallas Cowboys. However, the city fell short of winning MLB, NFL and NBA championships within a one-year span as the Baltimore Bullets were swept by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1971 NBA Finals. Such a scenario is now unlikely as the Bullets have since relocated to Washington, D.C. and renamed the Wizards.
For the Reds, this was the first of four World Series appearances in the 1970s. After losing to the Oakland Athletics four games to three in 1972, they proceeded to win back-to-back championships in 1975 (4–3 vs. the Red Sox) and 1976 (4–0 vs. the Yankees).