The Pittsburgh Pirates are hoping history is on their side.
The last time Pittsburgh came back from a 3-1 deficit to win a best-of-seven championship was in the 1979 World Series, when they beat the Baltimore Orioles.
That year, the Pirates won Game 5 by a score of 7-1, which was the score Sunday night when they beat the Atlanta Braves in Game 5 of the National League playoffs.
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For the record, the scores in the sixth and seventh games of the 1979 World Series were Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 0 and Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1.
– Atlanta pitching coach Leo Mazzone has regular-season starters Charlie Leibrandt and Pete Smith on a special regimen to help them adjust to the bullpen for the playoffs. Mazzone has each pitcher throw about 10 minutes every other day if they haven`t been used, which they weren`t until Game 5 Sunday night. He likes them to get up twice in the bullpen before they go into a game. ”Naturally, they`d both like to be in there more,” Mazzone said.
”You wouldn`t want them if they didn`t feel that way. But they`re both professionals. They`re handling it well.”
– Time for another update on the ex-Cubs in the NL playoffs. Only Lloyd McClendon is doing himself, and his team, proud. McClendon is 5 for 8 with a run scored and three runs batted in for the Pirates. Catcher Damon Berryhill is 3 for 18 with one run batted in for the Braves. He also has thrown out two Pirates trying to steal. Outfielder Gary Varsho is 0 for 1 for Pittsburgh. And pitcher Danny Jackson, the loser in Game 2, is 0-1 with a 21.60 ERA.
– Pittsburgh`s rookie knuckleballer, Tim Wakefield, the winning pitcher in Game 3 and starter in Game 6 Tuesday night, figures his best pitch comes to the plate about 15 m.p.h. slower than a good Little League fastball. ”God didn`t bless me with a 95 m.p.h. fastball,” says Wakefield. ”When I pitch, you can take the radar gun, put it back in the case and forget about it. I`ve been timed at 52 m.p.h., but most of the time I throw in the 60s.”
– Bob Walk keeps his motto close to his heart when he pitches. The 35-year-old right-hander won Game 5 of the playoffs Sunday wearing a black-and-gold T-shirt under his uniform that reads: ”Work fast. Throw strikes.”
– Some Atlanta fans figured the NL playoffs would never be this way again in 1992, not after the Braves took series leads of 2-0 and 3-1 over Pittsburgh.
That hasn`t kept them from driving up scalpers` prices. Scalpers say tickets in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium cost $75 to $300. They are even more expensive for the World Series, with even outfield seats going for $250 minimum.