Series tied 3-3
Game 1: CHI 6, CLE 4
Game 2: CHI 2, CLE 1
Game 3: CLE 5, CHI 3
Game 4: CLE 6, CHI 1
Game 5: CLE 5, CHI 0
Game 6: CHI 6, CLE 4
Game 7: CHI 4, CLE 3 (13 inn.)

GAME SEVENS

1959 sf 5, BRO 3 (14) 1965 chi 4, CLE 3 1970 was 4, CHI 1 1972 was 2, CHI 1 HOME team in caps

GAME 1 - Chicago 6, Cleveland 4    BOXSCORE
Maris Blasts Colts to Victory
Singer Overcomes Early Jitters, Richard Does Not
CHICAGO (Oct. 2) -- Roger Maris got the postseason monkey off his back today, launching a 3-run homer in the first inning to lead the Colts to a 6-4 victory in Game 1 of the 1973 UL World Series.  Maris, who had hit just .229 with no homers in eight previous World Series games, hit a 390-foot blast to right-center after Cleveland starter J.R. Richard walked Carl Taylor and Carlos May.

Richard, the Barons' second-year ace, displayed postseason jitters, walking four and giving up two doubles and a homer in the first two innings.  The Colts built a 5-2 lead and the Barons offense never made up the difference, despite Cecil Cooper's two-run homer in the fifth.  Richard allowed just four hits, but walked eight men, four of which ended up scoring.  Singer scattered eight hits, and only had two 1-2-3 innings in his eight innings of work.  Sing Sing improves to 3-4 in seven World Series starts.

GAME 2 - Chicago 2, Cleveland 1    BOXSCORE
Mazeroski Delivers Clutch Hit
Wood Continues Playoff Dominance
CHICAGO (Oct. 3) -- Bill Mazeroski delivered a two-run double in the seventh inning to reverse a 1-0 deficit and set the Colts on course for a 2-1 Game 2 win.  The Barons struck first in the second inning on an RBI single by Rennie Stennett, but failed to expand their lead despite loading the bases with no outs.  Cleveland starter Rick Reuschel left the game after 1.1 innings with a knee injury, and his replacement Al Fitzmorris battled Wilbur Wood in a classic pitcher's duel.  Reuschel was scratched from the series and will probably be replaced by Burt Hooton in Game 5.

Fitzmorris--the last man selected for Cleveland's 25-man playoff roster--allowed just one hit and one walk in 4.2 stellar innings, as both he and Wood induced groundball after groundball all afternoon.  But the game turned as soon as Fitzmorris left and Charlie Williams took the hill.  Amos Otis singled and Hank Aaron walked, setting up Mazeroski's decisive hit with two outs in the seventh.  With a 2-1 lead, Colts manager Lance Mueller used four reliever for the final six outs, and Harry Parker earned his second save in as many games.

Wood allowed just one unearned run in seven innings, improving his World Series ledger to 3-0 with a 1.24 ERA in four starts.  Colts fans celebrated the win, while acknowledging that the Series was far from over.  After all, Cleveland won the first two games in the 1965 Fall Classic, which the Colts came back to win in seven games.

Game 3 probables are Jim Palmer (14-16, 3.26) and Bill Parsons (12-11, 3.42).

GAME 3 - Cleveland 5, Chicago 3    BOXSCORE
Demeter Snaps Deadlock in 8th
Palmer Goes the Distance for 5-Hitter
CLEVELAND (Oct. 5) -- Don Demeter broke a 3-3 tie with a two-run blast off Bill Parsons, reversing a gradual Colts rally and giving the Cleveland Barons their first win in three World Series contests.  Cleveland drew first blood in the second on Duane Josephson's sac fly to plate Cecil Cooper, and they extended their lead to 3-0 on back-to-back doubles by Cooper and Demeter in the third.  But Chicago chipped away, scoring one run in three straight innings off Palmer to tie the game.  Roger Maris homered in the fourth, Bill Parsons singled home Al Gallagher in the fifth, and Amos Otis slapped a two-out RBI double in the sixth.  But Palmer settled, allowing just two walks to his next 12 batters faced.  Parsons had settled too, allowing just three baserunners in four inning heading into the eight, but the trouble began with Cecil Cooper's leadoff walk.  Demeter then lifted his first pitch 370 feet to left for the game-winner.

GAME 4 - Cleveland 6, Chicago 1    BOXSCORE
Richard Mesmerizes Colts
Barons Level Series on Youngster's Gem
CLEVELAND (Oct. 6) -- Cleveland ace J.R. Richard had his best stuff today, striking out 11, including four caught looking, and walking just one to lead the Barons to a 6-1 Game 2 win, leveling the 1973 UL World Series at two games apiece.  As in Game 1, Richard was a bit nervous out of the gate, serving up a leadoff homer to Carl Taylor to start the game.  But after the first, the 22-year-old sophomore scattered three hits and a walk over the next six innings, with only two balls hit out of the infield.

The Barons immediately captured the lead 2-1 on three singles and a double off Bill Singer in the bottom of the first.  Singer then retired seven in a row and it looks as though the game might settle into a pitchers duel, but the Barons loaded the bases in the fourth and Richard drove in a run with a ground ball, and Cecil Cooper hit a solo homer in the fifth for a 4-1 lead.  Vada Pinson's RBI triple highlighted the two-run seventh as the Barons put the Colts away.

Richard's 19 strikeouts in two starts is one shy of the World Series record (set by Chicago's Billy Pierce in 1962).

Game 5 will see Game 2 winner Wilbur Wood facing off against either Burt Hooton (15-8, 3.35) or Mike Cuellar (14-10, 3.06).

GAME 5 - Cleveland 5, Chicago 0    BOXSCORE
Hooton Shafts Wood
Barons on Brink After Two-Hit Gem
CLEVELAND (Oct. 7) -- Sophomore hurler Burt Hooton tossed a two-hit shutout in a 5-0 Game 5 win that puts the Cleveland Barons on the brink of their first UL championship.  The twenty-two year old righthander gave up singles to Roger Maris in the fourth and Carl Taylor in the sixth, and walked Joe Foy twice, but retired the other 26 batters he faced.  The Barons took an early 2-0 lead on RBI hits by second baseman Don Money and catcher Duane Josephson in the second, and put the game out of reach with a three-run sixth.  Game 2 winner Wilbur Wood loaded the bases with two walks and a single, before serving up a two-run single to Money and a sac fly to Josephson.

Wood went the distance for the Colts and had only two bad innings, but they were doozies.  In his six good innings, Wood allowed just two singles and a hit batsman; in his two bad innings, he was touched for five hits and two walks.  The Colts were without their top hitter Carlos May, who led the team in home runs, RBIs, and total bases.  May pulled a quad on the last play of Game 4 and is out for the balance of the series.

Cleveland leads the Series 3-2, just as they did in 1965, when the Colts rallied to win the last two games, securing their first (and so far only) UL title.  The series shifts to the Windy City for Game 6, which will see Jim Palmer (14-16, 3.26) face off against Jerry Janeski (4-1, 2.91).

GAME 6 - Chicago 6, Cleveland 4     BOXSCORE
Le Grande Orange
Janeski Dazzles, Game 7 on Tap
CHICAGO (Oct. 9) -- "Le Grande Orange" picked up the Colts today and carried them on his back.  Rusty Staub--the 29-year-old utility outfielder with the .230 average--homered twice and drove in five runs as the Colts edged Cleveland 6-4, forcing a Game 7.

With the wind blowing out to center on a cool night at Comiskey, Ron Hunt and Staub exchanged solo shots in the first two innings.  Ron Hunt's third inning error allowed Carl Taylor to score, and Staub singled home Amos Otis in the fifth for a 3-1 Chicago lead.  Cleveland starter Jim Palmer wasn't nearly as sharp as in his Game 3 win, but he kept his team close until the bottom of the seventh, when the wheels fell off.  Toby Harrah and Roger Maris singled, setting up Staub's second dinger of the game, a three-run blast that put the home team up by five.  Cleveland scratched back three runs in the eighth, but were shut down in the ninth by Harry Parker, who notched his third save.  Parker joins Bob Miller (1961), Don Gross (1967), and Ray Narleski (1970) in the World Series three-save club.

Jerry Janeski dazzled for Chicago.  The righthander has pitched only 70 innings and nine career starts in the UL, but gave up just three hits in his first seven innings.

The Colts win sets up a rematch between J.R. Richard and Bill Singer in the fifth Game Seven in UL World Series history, and the third in the last four years.  The visiting team is 4-0 in previous Game Sevens, and the Washington Monuments defeated the Colts at Comiskey in Game 7 in 1970 and 1972.

GAME 7 - Chicago 4, Cleveland 3 (13 inn.)     BOXSCORE
Otis Game-Winner in 13th Caps Wild and Wooly Game 7
Colts Capture 2nd UL Title
CHICAGO (Oct. 10) -- The Chicago Colts won their second UL championship in a dramatic see-saw battle that lasted 13 innings, as the Cleveland Barons again fell one game short of their first title.

GM Lance Mueller made some lineup adjustments that paid immediate dividends, inserting 3B Pete Ward and 2B Joe Foy into the bottom of the batting order for Gallagher and Mazeroski.  The Colts jumped to an early 2-0 lead with an RBI double by Ward and a RBI single by Foy.  Hank Aaron tacked on a solo homer in the third for a three-run cushion, which appeared to be more than sufficient for Chicago ace Bill Singer, who pitched a perfect game until the fifth inning and a no-hitter until the eighth.  But after retiring 21 of 22 batters faced, Sing Sing ran into control issues in the eighth, plunking Ed Charles and losing his no-hitter to Duane Josephson.  An RBI groundout by Vada Pinson and an RBI double by J.R. Richard slice the lead to a run.  By this point in the game, Richard was the more dominant pitcher, retiring 15 in a row from the fifth to ninth innings.

When Harry Parker entered the game in the top of the ninth, the drama was just beginning.  Parker notched saves in the three previous Series games at Comiskey (1, 2, and 6), and swiftly retired the first two batters he faced: Jorge Orta and Don Demeter.  But first baseman Cecil Cooper, who terrorized Chicago pitchers all series, kept the Barons alive with a two-out single, moved to third on Jim Gentile's pinch double, and scored the tying run on Carl Taylor's passed ball. 

Neither team got a man on base in the 10th and 11th innings, as the league's top two bullpens locked horns.  Chicago threatened in the 12th.  Dick Dietz hit a leadoff double off Al Fitzmorris, but on the next play Cooper made a great defensive play, pouncing on Ward's bunt and firing to third to nail Dietz.  Lefty Bill Laxton pitched into a jam in the top of the 13th, loading the bases with a walk, a single, and a hit batsman, but Cooper, who led all batters with eight RBIs in the series, came up empty with a feeble fly to left.  Toby Harrah then singled to lead off the bottom half of the inning, moved to second on Steve Mingori's wild pitch, and scored on Otis' single, sliding under the tag from Ben Oglivie's throw from left. 

Otis' hit stands besides Jim Lemon's 14th inning home run to win the 1959 Series for San Francisco as the most famous hits in UL history.  Harry Parker, who came a passed ball away from the first four-save performance in World Series history, was named Series MVP for his 0.00 ERA in five innings of work.  The series will rank among the best, if not the best, World Series in UL history.  Five of the seven games were decided by two runs or less and four were decided after the seventh inning.  It was the second Game 7 decided in extra innings, but the first by a walk-off hit.  It is the second Colts triumph in nine attempts, and the first celebrated on home soil.  Cleveland is now winless in three trips to the World Series, having twice lost to the Colts after taking a 3-2 lead.  Next season will see the debut of the expanded four-team playoff format.