May 3, 1977 - Yankees 8, Angels 1

NEW YORK – Mike Torrez finally took the mound at Yankee Stadium, five days after he’d been acquired in a trade from Oakland, and the wait was certainly worth it for the Yankees.

Torrez, who has spent the previous few days at his home in Montreal where his wife had been dealing with complications following the delivery of the couple’s first child, allowed one hit and no earned runs in five innings, then, after developing a blister, he gave way to Dick Tidrow who pitched the final four without yielding a run.

Meanwhile, the Yankees scored a touchdown and added an extra point in the fourth inning, a seven-run explosion highlighted by Bucky Dent’s grand slam and Reggie Jackson’s two-run shot.

“On paper, the talent is very nice,” Torrez said of his new team, “but you still have to win between the white lines.”

Torrez then proved how you do that. He retired the first 10 men he faced and didn’t allow a hit until Bruce Bochte’s single in the fifth. Bochte wound up on second when Paul Blair misplayed the hit in center field, and one out later scored on a wild pitch which meant the run was unearned.

The next night, the Yankees and Angels were rained out, so with a free evening on their hands, I wonder how many players sat down and watched the historic nationally-televised interview British journalist David Frost conducted with former President Richard Nixon.

It was the first time Nixon had publicly apologized to the American people for his actions during the Watergate scandal which led him to be impeached 999 days earlier in August 1974. Yet despite damning evidence to the contrary, Nixon still did not believe that he had tried to obstruct justice.

“I didn’t intend a cover-up,” Nixon said during the hour-long interview, though he admitted that he did not think his secret White House recordings would ever be revealed. It was those tapes that ultimately brought him down. “Let me say, if I intended the cover-up, believe me, I would have done it.”

The interview sessions, conducted about a month earlier at Nixon’s home in San Clemente, California, were the most-watched political interviews in history.

Here is a short clip from the sit-down:

I was only 15 at the time. I'll admit I really didn't give a crap; I was too interested in playing sports, watching sports, and writing about sports to know what was happening in the world. But as someone who now treasures history, the Frost/Nixon interview was fascinating to go back and watch.

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