April 20, 1977 - Yankees 7, Blue Jays 5
- Sal Maiorana
- Apr 20, 2017
- 2 min read
NEW YORK - Whether it’s apocryphal or not, it’s still a part of Yankee lore. With the Yankees mired in a brutal batting slump and riding a five-game losing streak, an exasperated Billy Martin resorted to an old trick of his: He picked his batting order blindly out of a hat.
Some have questioned whether it really happened, but why mess with a good story, right? Especially when it was reported that none other than Reggie Jackson was the man Martin tabbed to pull the names out of Martin’s hat.
Five years earlier when he was managing the Tigers, his club had lost 10 of 14 games to fall out of first place in the AL East. Martin threw the names of his starting players into a hat, and picked them out one by one. Slugging first baseman Norm Cash’s name came out first, so he batted lead-off, and weak-hitting shortstop Eddie Brinkman was picked fourth, so he batted cleanup. Naturally, Brinkman delivered a game-winning RBI double off Cleveland’s Gaylord Perry, and the Tigers went on to win the division, edging the Boston Red Sox. “It served the purpose,” Martin said after that game. “It was supposed to relax the guys, and it worked.”
Clearly, the Yankees needed some loosening up, too. So, Martin took off his cap and did it again. The order on this night came out like this:
2B Willie Randolph, C Thurman Munson, RF Reggie Jackson, 3B Graig Nettles, CF Mickey Rivers, LF Roy White, DH Carlos May, 1B Chris Chambliss, SS Bucky Dent.
Actually, it wasn’t all that bad of an order; the only players truly out of place were Rivers and Chambliss. That’s why some have debated whether Martin truly did this.
Today’s analytics people would have screamed bloody murder, but this unscientific lineup banged out 14 hits as the Yankees snapped their losing streak.
“You know we’re going to win one sooner or later,” said Jackson. “We looked like we’re supposed to look.”
After falling behind 2-0 in the first, New York answered with three in the bottom half as Jackson had a two-run single and Chambliss an RBI single. Randolph hit a solo homer in the second, and that was enough for Don Gullett who earned his first American League victory with relief help from Sparky Lyle.
“All I’ve got to say is that Chambliss is one of the best No. 8 hitters I’ve ever seen,” Martin said. “Beyond that I don’t know anything. We got the thing we were looking for, hits. Once we get that, we’ll be all right.”
Chambliss’ reply: “It doesn’t make any difference to me batting eighth. The same guys are still hitting ahead of me and the pitchers are pitching me the same way.”
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