May 6, 1977 - Yankees 4, A's 1
- Sal Maiorana
- May 6, 2017
- 3 min read
NEW YORK – If there was one player who deserved to win a World Series championship more than any other on the Yankee roster, it was outfielder Roy White.
In 1977, White was 33 years old and in his 13th season with the Yankees. No player in the history of the franchise had played that many years with the Yankees without winning a championship. Until 1976, no Yankee had ever played for the team longer without an appearance in the World Series.
White came along at a time in Yankee history when the great teams of the early 1960s that won five straight pennants and two World Series had grown old at the same time the farm system had run dry, and that set the course for the misery the franchise endured for the remainder of the 60s and the first half of the 70s.
Originally signed as an amateur free agent in 1961, White made it up to New York for a brief look in 1965 which just happened to be the first season in 40 years that the Yankees finished below .500. Things did not get much better in the years that followed, but starting in 1968, White became one of the Yankees’ most reliable players and he earned the only two All-Star Game invitations of his career in 1969 and 1970.
His old teammate, pitcher Fritz Peterson, could never quite figure out how White was able to produce at the plate. “There is no way this guy will ever hit," Peterson used to say. But a guy who knew a little more about hitting had a different view.
Mickey Mantle, who played three seasons with White before retiring in March 1969, wrote an article for Sport magazine following the 1970 season when White set career highs for homers (22), RBI (94) and average (.296). "People ask me: what happened to all the Yankee stars?” Mantle wrote. “I tell them that Roy White is as good a player as any of the old players we used to have," pointing out that White was a complete hitter in that he could hit for power and average, walked a lot, and he also could steal bases, sacrifice, hit behind the runner, and play the field well.
Here's White talking about the 1976 season, still a happy memory for him even though he made the final out of the World Series as the Reds swept the Yankees:
Yet White was always overlooked. He was quiet and unassuming, and when the Yankees finally started turning the corner in 1974, George Steinbrenner began acquiring players such as Chris Chambliss, Graig Nettles, Lou Piniella, Willie Randolph, Catfish Hunter, Mickey Rivers, Ed Figueroa, Bucky Dent, and Reggie Jackson who would overshadow White, the old pro. “He’s a professional,” former Yankees manager Bill Virdon once said of White. “I don’t say that about a lot people.”
In the winter leading up to the 1977 season, White was expecting a nice bump in pay from Boss George. In 1976 he’d led the American League in runs scored (104) and plate appearances (728), he hit .286 with 29 doubles, 14 homers, 65 RBI, and 31 stolen bases. George low-balled him and offered the same salary he’d been earning - $90,000.
White, who by this point ranked in the top 20 all-time in seven Yankees batting categories, eventually got $100,000, and he said, “I don’t compare myself to Reggie Jackson. I’m not trying to put myself in his price range. I just want what I think I’m worth and I don’t want to base my salary on what somebody else is getting.”
Well, at the conclusion of this night at the stadium, White was batting .306 on the young season compared to Jackson’s .275, and it was White’s three-run homer in the fourth inning off ex-Yankee Doc Medich that delivered the New York victory.
That home run backed a strong outing by Ed Figueroa who pitched nine nearly flawless innings against the weak-hitting A’s, giving up just five singles and no earned runs for his third straight complete-game victory which also lowered his ERA to 1.49.
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