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George Brett reminds Royals players of intensity of past playoffs against Yankees

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George Brett reminds Royals players of intensity of past playoffs against Yankees
Sport

Sport

George Brett reminds Royals players of intensity of past playoffs against Yankees

2024-10-05 23:28 Last Updated At:23:30

NEW YORK (AP) — George Brett watched the Kansas City Royals prepare to face the New York Yankees and remembered the combustible clashes of the 1970s.

“This isn’t a series, this is war,” said the Hall of Famer, tossing in a profanity for emphasis.

Brett slid late into Graig Nettles in 1977's Game 5 of the best-of-five AL Championship Series, catching the third baseman on the face with an arm. Nettles kicked Brett in the teeth. Brett threw a punch as benches and bullpens emptied.

“You've got to find a way to turn it up a notch,” Brett said Friday by the Royals dugout at Yankee Stadium as he watched Kansas City's workout ahead of Saturday's Division Series opener. “Obviously, if you do something that we used to do to each other out here, you’re kicked out of the game here or it’s an automatic double play or whatever. I mean, me and Nettles got in a fistfight at third base and didn't even get kicked out of the game, for crying out loud.”

Kansas City, which started play in 1969, reached the playoffs for the first time in 1976. Brett hit a tying three-run homer in the eighth inning off Grant Jackson in Game 5, but Chris Chambliss homered leading off ninth inning against Mark Littell.

A year later in the sixth inning of Game 2, Hal McRae made a leaping body block of Willie Randolph well past second base in the sixth to break up a possible inning-ending double play on Brett's grounder to Nettles, allowing Freddie Patek to score the tying run from second base.

“It didn’t take much for anybody there on either side to get into a ruckus,” Yankees star Reggie Jackson told an MLB Network documentary.

Three days later, Brett's first-inning RBI triple off Ron Guidry led to the brawl with Nettles, who was grabbed from behind by Royals third base coach Chuck Hiller as Guidry tried to restrain Brett.

“Marty Springstead was the umpire, and after everything had cleared, he goes: 'All right.' He points to me. He goes: 'This is an important guy.' He point to Brett, he goes: 'This is an important guy, and this is an important game, so nobody's getting thrown out the game,'" Nettles told the TV show Las 5 Esquinas de NY a few years ago.

Jackson was controversially benched by manager Billy Martin after starting the series 1 for 14, then had a pinch-hit single in the eighth that cut New York's deficit to 3-2. The Yankees scored three times in the ninth for a 5-3 win.

When the teams met again in the 1980 ALCS, Kansas City swept. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner fumed after third base coach Mike Ferraro sent Randolph home, trying to score from first on Bob Watson's two-out, eighth-inning double in Game 2, with New York trailing by a run. Brett took left fielder Willie Wilson's throw and relayed to catcher Darrell Porter for the out.

Manager Dick Howser refused to fire Ferraro, and Brett hit a go-ahead, three-run homer off Rich Gossage as the Royals won Game 3 to complete the sweep. Steinbrenner forced out Howser after the series and Howser was hired as Royals manager the following August. Ferraro joined his staff in 1984 and the Royals won their first World Series title in 1985.

“They both came over to Kansas City and became my dear friends,” Brett said.

His most famous moment in the Bronx occurred on July 24, 1983, in what became known as the Pine Tar Game. The Royals trailed 4-3 with two outs in the ninth when Brett hit a two-run homer off Gossage. Martin argued Brett's bat had pine tar in excess of the 18-inch limit, and plate umpire Tim McClelland agreed and signaled out. Eyes bulging, Brett stormed out of the dugout toward McClelland and had to be restrained by Howser and umpires.

Kansas City filed a protest that was upheld by AL President Lee MacPhail, who wrote “games should be won and lost on the playing field — not though technicalities of the rules.” The game continued on Aug. 18 and the Royals won 5-4.

Now in his 31st season as a Royals vice president, Brett travels with the team during the postseason to fire up the current players with the decades-old history.

“They weren't born yet. Some of our coaches weren't even born yet. I'm going to remind them,” he said. “This series means more to me than it means to them.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

FILE - New York's Graig Nettles slides into the dirt and safe at third as Kansas City Royals George Brett covers in the fifth inning in the American League championship at Kansas City, Oct. 3,1978. (AP Photo/John File)

FILE - New York's Graig Nettles slides into the dirt and safe at third as Kansas City Royals George Brett covers in the fifth inning in the American League championship at Kansas City, Oct. 3,1978. (AP Photo/John File)

FILE- Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett, right, rights with New York Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles in the first inning of Game 5, the final of the American League playoffs at Kansas City, Oct. 9, 1977. (AP Photo, File)

FILE- Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett, right, rights with New York Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles in the first inning of Game 5, the final of the American League playoffs at Kansas City, Oct. 9, 1977. (AP Photo, File)

George Brett, Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame infielder and vice president of baseball operations, watches the team work out ahead of an American League Division series baseball game against the New York Yankees, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

George Brett, Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame infielder and vice president of baseball operations, watches the team work out ahead of an American League Division series baseball game against the New York Yankees, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

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San Francisco’s first Black female mayor concedes to Levi Strauss heir

2024-11-08 09:39 Last Updated At:09:40

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco’s first Black female mayor, London Breed, conceded the race for mayor to Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie on Thursday, pledging a smooth transition as he takes over the job.

The Associated Press has not called the race.

Breed, who was raised by her grandmother in public housing, could not overcome deep voter discontent and lost to anti-poverty nonprofit founder Daniel Lurie.

“At the end of the day, this job is bigger than any one person and what matters is that we keep moving this City forward,” Breed said, adding that she had called Lurie to congratulate him. “I know we are both committed to improving this City we love.”

While San Francisco’s streets have been cleaner and homeless tents much harder to find in recent months, Breed’s fellow Democratic challengers on the campaign trail repeatedly hammered her administration for doing too little, too late as homeless tent encampments, open-air drug use and brazen retail theft proliferated during her six years in office.

Voters flocked to Lurie, 47, a city native from a storied family who pledged to bring accountability and public service back to City Hall. He is the founder of anti-poverty nonprofit Tipping Point Community, which says it has invested more than $400 million since 2005 in programs to help people with housing, education and early childhood.

“I’m deeply grateful to my incredible family, campaign team and every San Franciscan who voted for accountability, service, and change,” Lurie said in a statement. “No matter who you supported in this election, we stand united in the fight for San Francisco’s future and a safer and more affordable city for all.”

Lurie pumped nearly $9 million of his own money into his first-time bid for mayor, which drew criticism from Breed and other opponents. But he said that as a political outsider, he needed to introduce himself to voters and in the end, some voters said they liked that Lurie’s financial wealth shielded him from being beholden to special interests.

Lurie is an heir to the Levi Strauss & Co. fortune through his mother, Mimi Haas, who wed Peter Haas when Daniel was a child. Peter Haas, a great-grandnephew of Levi Strauss, was a longtime CEO of the iconic clothing company who died in 2005.

Both the Levi’s name and Haas family philanthropic foundations are deeply embedded in San Francisco’s history and identity.

Lurie’s father, Brian Lurie, is a rabbi and longtime former executive director of the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Federation.

Breed won election as mayor in June 2018 to serve out the remainder of Mayor Ed Lee’s term.

She was reelected in 2019 to a full term that has lasted five years instead of the typical four, after voters changed the election calendar to line up with presidential contests.

Mayor London Breed speaks during an election night watch party at Little Skillet in San Francisco on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Mayor London Breed speaks during an election night watch party at Little Skillet in San Francisco on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

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