April 15, 1977 - Brewers 7, Yankees 4
- Sal Maiorana
- Apr 15, 2017
- 2 min read
MILWAUKEE - I really began to start following baseball in the early 1970s, the dreaded Horace Clarke Era for the Yankees. Man, those were some lousy pre-George Steinbrenner teams that introduced me to the game. And it's funny, even though I was a Yankees fan, there were two players in Major League Baseball, not Yankees, who I always took a modest interest in.
They were outfielder Sixto Lezcano of the Brewers, and pitcher Joaquin Andujar of the Astros and later the Cardinals, and only because I just thought their Latin names were so cool. I mean hey, I grew up in white suburbia outside Syracuse, there were no dudes named Sixto or Joaquin in my neighborhood, just a bunch of guys named Russ or Johnny or Billy or Chuck. I wasn't the only guy who thought Sixto had a cool name. I found this blog about that very subject.
But early in the 1977 season, I was beginning to get over the whole Sixto thing, especially after, for the second time in less than a week, he single-handedly wrecked the Yankees, and pitcher Don Gullett. After hitting two home runs to give Milwaukee a 2-1 win on April 10, Lezcano was at it again in this game as he ripped a two-run single in the first inning, then capped a five-run uprising in the fifth with an RBI single off Dick Tidrow, who had just relieved the beleaguered Gullett.
Over the length of his career Lezcano was never really a Yankee killer, say like David Ortiz always was. He had career .324 on-base percentage against New York in 82 games, his fourth-lowest figure against a single team, but so far in 1977, the guy had played a key part in New York starting the season 2-4, including this, a third loss to Milwaukee in four tries.
Reggie Jackson did not play in this game, and there was controversy surrounding his absence, a precursor of what was to come in the 1977 season. Jackson had told the media that his elbow was sore, and that was a no-no in Billy Martin’s world.
“He’s the type of guy you have to explain things to,” Martin said. “I just wanted him to understand why I do certain things. Like he didn’t know I don’t allow players to tell the press about injuries.” Essentially, Martin punished Jackson by keeping him out of the lineup, playing Lou Piniella in right and sticking with red-hot Jimmy Wynn as the DH. And you got the feeling that Martin enjoyed doing it.
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