April 17, 1977 - Brewers 2, Yankees 0
- Sal Maiorana
- Apr 17, 2017
- 3 min read
MILWAUKEE - Blanked by the Brewers, the Brewers who finished dead last in the AL East in 1976, 32 games behind the champion Yankees. This gave Milwaukee a clean three-game sweep, and it was its fifth victory in six meetings with New York.
And yes, George Steinbrenner was pissed because that’s what George Steinbrenner always was when his team lost. The joke in his heyday was that George expected to go to 162-0 every year, so 2-6 to start 1977, a year in which he was convinced his team would win the World Series, was unacceptable.
Through eight games, the Yankees had scored only 22 runs. Graig Nettles was batting .143, Roy White was at .182, Bucky Dent was at .208, and Reggie Jackson was at .222 with just one home run and one double. “I’m the hunted on the team that’s hunted,” Reggie said at the beginning of spring training. “They’re looking for me, but I’ll handle it like a big dog.”
Well, not so much so far, and since Jackson was Steinbrenner’s buddy in the eyes of Billy Martin, the manager was starting to bristle whenever Jackson’s name came up, which it often did. A palpable tension between manager and owner seemed to be rising, and when Martin had the opportunity to bench Jackson for the first game of this series, in one way it was a chance to stick it to Steinbrenner.
“The man better stay off his back,” one player anonymously told the New York Times. “One thing Billy has going for him is that he has more players on his side than the owner has. All I know is the more we lose, the more often Steinbrenner will fly in. And the more often he flies, the better the chance there will be of the plane crashing.”
Um, that was a bit harsh. But that’s how strongly some players despised the meddling Steinbrenner, even though he was making most of his players fairly rich men.
As for the game, the Yankees had traffic on the bases as they made seven hits and drew six walks off Milwaukee starter Bill Travers, but they left 11 runners on base and had two others wiped out by double plays as they went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
Dock Ellis – a Martin favorite who Steinbrenner was itching to trade, furthering the sour relationship - made his season debut for New York and pitched all eight innings, but he made two mistakes that cost him. After walking Jim Wohlford to start the third, he gave up a triple to Charlie Moore. And then leading off the sixth, Robin Yount took Ellis deep and that was more than enough for the Brewers.
Thurman Munson, sensing the discord already building in the clubhouse, spoke up before the game, and he said the team was much more cohesive, most prominently Jackson who, to this point, had come off as aloof to most of his teammates.
“We were screaming and yelling, we had a super attitude. Everybody was pulling for everybody. This is the first day that happened. That’s what it takes. All that junk from spring training is cleared away. It’s time to play and we feel good about it.”
Perhaps as a way to try to fit in, Jackson reportedly clipped a picture of a fat man out of the newspaper, taped it to Munson’s locker and signed it, “To George, best wishes, Thurman Munson.” And before the game, on the field, Jackson and Munson were seen having a talk, just the two of them, though neither revealed what they were discussing. Still, it seemed like a good sign.
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