The year was 1982, and October baseball was warming up, when the Braves were in St. Louis to open the National League Championship Series against the Cardinals. Phil Niekro’s knuckle ball was dancing, and it appeared the Braves would breeze to a victory.
But the weather dictated otherwise.
In the fifth inning with one out and a 1-0 lead, Niekro, shown in the adjacent photo delivering another knuckleball during the game, thought the worse.
“They had been predicting rain for the last two days, and I really think what it came down to was they didn’t want a five-inning official playoff game,” he said. “It was starting to rain and (umpire) Billy Williams was talking to (commissioner) Bowie Kuhn. The hitter (Joaquin Andujar) kept stepping out on me. I was just going to throw him a fastball right down the middle of the plate and try to get an out. Finally they called for a stoppage and covered the field. Then it really started coming down and they called the game. Damn rain.’’
The Braves never recovered. The two teams sat around another day because of rain before the Cardinals took the new Game 1, 7-0. Braves starter Pascual Perez was shelled. Niekro came back for Game 2 and left with a 3-2 lead, but Gene Garber couldn’t hold it, and the Braves lost 4-3. St. Louis put away the series in Game 3 with a 6-2 victory against Rick Camp.
Niekro pitched for another five years, had 318 wins and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997. He looks forward to his trip to Cooperstown this year to see the inductions of Bobby Cox, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. Also going into the Hall will be Joe Torre, who managed that 1982 team.
“This is going to be one of the biggest years ever for the Hall,’’ he said. “I am being told there is not a hotel room for 60 miles.’’
These days, Niekro spends much of his time fishing at his home on Lake Lanier. Not too long ago he caught a 39-pound fish.
“It was at night and I caught it off my dock,’’ he said. “But I released it. It was March, and I like to keep them and eat them during the warmer months, when they are a little softer.’’
