[wireman]

When the 1963 World Series returned to Kansas City for Game Six, the St. Louis Cardinals wanted to apply the coup de grace to the A’s before they could squirm back to life.

In the first inning, St. Louis, up 3-2 in the series, pounced on a shaky Tom Cheney. After the A’s starter walked leadoff batter Willie Davis, Earl Robinson singled Davis to second. Tom Tresh followed with a blooper to centerfield that dropped in front of Johnny Callison for a base hit.

Tresh’s hit could have loaded the bases but Davis, reflecting the Cards’ desire for an early knockout, broke for the plate. Callison seemed a bit surprised and hesitated an instant with his throw to the plate, exactly the effect Davis had counted on. Not only did Davis slide neatly under catcher Bob Oldis’ tag, but Tresh and Robinson advanced to second and third on the throw.

One run in, two runners in scoring position, still nobody out. And slugger Bob Allison headed to the plate.

A’s starter Cheney had had a roller coaster season, and it had been rolling all downhill since the beginning of August. For the last two months, the A’s righty had gone 2-8. So A’s skipper Ed Lopat, a sage old baseball head and particularly wise in the ways of pitchers, wasted no time heading to the mound to talk things over with his starter.

“I don’t know any pitcher I’d rather have on the mound than Tom -- when he‘s ‘on‘,” Lopat says, “but once he loses confidence, he’s just teeing it up out there.”

Lopat, who as a pitcher subdued opposing offenses with guile, wasn’t about to let that happen.

“When he’s in danger of a pitching nosedive, I get out there and try to hand him a parachute,” Lopat says. “I could tell he was getting off on the wrong foot and getting kind of a wild look, and I needed to just talk him down.”

Cheney struggled to his pitching feet like a newborn fawn, slipping and shaking, but eventually getting there. He got Allison to offer on a fastball out of the strike zone for an important first out. Fred Whitfield bounced a single to center, scoring Robinson and moving Tresh to third.

Ron Santo then a line drive that nearly got through to left field for still another hit. But shortstop Don Wert snared the screamer and, after a base-loading walk to Don Blasingame and an easy fly ball to center by Earl Battey, the A’s were out of the inning.

The Cardinals were up 2-0 and on course for a championship, but the A’s felt as though they had danced out of the grave.

Cheney and Cardinals starter Don Mossi then got down to work. Cheney, after further reinforcement from Lopat in the dugout, began to show why the A’s manager has such confidence in him, beginning a string of scoreless innings. Mossi weathered a leadoff single to Chico Fernandez -- his fourth straight game-opening hit -- a single to Bob Oldis in the 2nd, and a double to Fernandez in the 3rd. The grizzled lefty was tough when it counted, and wouldn’t let the A’s mount a real scoring threat.

In the bottom of the 4th inning, however, the A’s took control. Don Wert touched Mossi for a towering opposite-field homer to lead off the frame. Mossi, seemingly unperturbed, got Mike Hershberger to bounce the ball back to the mound for the first out. A short fly ball by Bob Oldis dropped in for a single, but Norm Cash hit a hopper to first that resulted in a force of Oldis at second.

With two outs, a runner on second, and Cheney at the plate, it looked as though the crafty Mossi would have no trouble holding onto the 2-1 lead. But Cheney, a .207 hitter during the regular season, got a no-frills fastball over the fat part of the plate and fought it off for a base hit to left.

The door thus opened, the A’s couldn’t help but stride through. Especially since Cheney’s hit brought Fernandez to the plate, a hitter Mossi hadn‘t been able to solve. And true to form, Fernandez laced a line-drive double down the right field line that scored both base runners.

The A’s had taken a 3-2 lead.

The game was uneventful until the 7th. But the 7th would more than make up for the lull.

Cheney had kept the Redbirds’ hitter caged since their 1st-inning rally. But he started out the 7th looking tired. Earl Robinson led off with a sharp grounder to left for a base hit. Tom Tresh bunted Robinson to second.

Lopat had seen enough. Cheney had faced a lot of batters and thrown a lot of pitches and was all the way to weary and beyond. While reliever Morrie Steevens finished warming up, Lopat had Cheney issue a pass to Bob Allison.

Steevens, a modestly talented 23-year-old, was a pleasant surprise for the A’s this season -- but this was his first postseason appearance.

“I put him out there, so I have to take the rap,” Lopat said, “but the kid looked like he’d had about forty cups of coffee. I suppose what happened was inevitable.”

What happened was this: Steevens walked Andre Rodgers to load the bases, then treated Ron Santo to a slack fastball that the Cards’ third baseman spanked into left for a two-run single.

Steevens got his bearings, getting pinch hitter Bob Scmidt to hit a bouncer that forced Santo at second, leaving runners on first and third. Unfortunately, Cash booted what would have been the inning-ending grounder by Earl Battey, letting in a third run. Steevens then disposed of Mossi.

The Redbirds were back in the driver’s seat, up 5-3 and needing just nine Kansas City outs for a world title.

On this day, however, Don Mossi just couldn’t abide prosperity. Staked to a two-run lead, he unraveled like an 80-dollar suit.

The bottom of the 7th started loudly, as Tony Taylor, pinch hitting for Steevens, launched a shot that looked like it would go halfway to Taylor’s native Cuba. It wound up in the leftfield stands. That brought up the second half of the A’s “Cuban Connection,” former Cienfuegos star Humberto Fernandez, known to norteamericanos as “Chico.” Fernandez drilled a Mossi delivery into the gap in right-center for his fourth straight hit. When the dust cleared at third base, Fernandez had taken up residence, 90 feet from tying the contest.

Ron Hunt didn’t keep the hometown crowd in suspense: he drilled a single to left-center that scored Fernandez and tied the game. Mossi bore down, getting Carl Warwick to hit a bouncer to Ron Santo. Santo, eager to get around the horn for a rally-killing double play, forgot to pick up the ball. All hands were safe, and there were still no outs.

Johnny Callison put the A’s back on top with a base hit to center, and Davis -- who, of all people, should have known better -- made an ill-advised throw to the plate in a futile bid to nail Hunt. The throw moved Callison and Warwick to second and third, respectively.

After Don Wert was intentionally walked, loading the bases, John Wyatt entered the game and was welcomed to Mossi’s nightmare by ever-reliable pinch hitter Charlie Lau. Lau drilled a single to right field that scored two more runs, and the A’s were up, 8-5.

Perhaps the A’s were just tired of running the bases by this point, perhaps Wyatt found his bearings. Bob Oldis struck out, Norm Cash flied out and Taylor, who started it all, bounced into a force. The big inning was over, but the A’s had a five-spot in their pocket and the Cards were in huge trouble.

Al Stanek was an offbeat choice to emerge from Lopat’s bullpen to pitch the 8th inning. But although just 19, Stanek showed poise beyond his years. The Cardinals batters might as well have been blindfolded, going down 1-2-3, the last two striking out.

But Stanek, of course, was just the opening act for the A’s true headliner: it was the imposing closer Dick Radatz the Cards had to deal with in the 9th inning.

Radatz finished applying the collar to Cardinals batting star Bob Allison, bringing the A’s to within two outs of a seventh series game. But Andre Rodgers touched Radatz for a soft liner to left-center that dropped for a hit, and when Santo coaxed a walk out of the big fireman, the Cardinal fans in attendance began to make some noise.

Pinch hitter Whitey Herzog stepped into the potential hero’s role, and nearly made the most of it. His fly ball to deep right-center field took Callison to the fence, where the A’s centerfielder stretched his 5-10 frame as far as nature would allow -- and made the catch.

Radatz didn’t let Earl Battey get nearly so close. His grounder to short ended the game and tied the series at 3-3.

Now it’s a one-game showdown for the title.

Ed Lopat, taciturn for most of the series, was expansive after the big Game Six win:

“I don’t think there’s a single player in this league who is not an exceptional athlete. Sometimes the fans think marginal major leaguers are just bums who fell off an onion truck and landed in a big league ballpark. But every one of these players can accomplish amazing things.

“You know, there was a skinny kid from Havana some years back that the Phillies thought enough of to trade four players and cash for. He never turned out quite the way they wanted but, right now, I think Chico Fernandez is worth all that and more to us.”

Fernandez was indeed the player the Phillies had prized so highly in 1957.

After his 5-for-5 performance in Game Six got the A’s going and kept them going, Fernandez is The Kansas City Star.