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. “I.