May 9, 1977 - Mike Torrez

Mike Torrez faced a total of 13,179 batters in the regular season during his 18-year Major League Baseball career. But there is only one that anyone ever truly remembers, and quite frankly, four decades after the fact, Torrez is OK with that.

“Hey, it keeps me in the press and on TV,” he joked to the New York Daily News a few years ago.

Yes, for as long as they play baseball, that singular at-bat will always have a shelf life. And sadly for Torrez, the result can never be changed. He left a pitch out over the plate, and one of the most unlikely home run hitters, Bucky Dent, deposited it over the Green Monster at Fenway Park for a three-run go-ahead dinger in the special one-game playoff to decide the 1978 American League East title.

The Yankees eventually held on for a 5-4 victory over the Red Sox, who Torrez had joined as a free agent that year after spending most of 1977 helping the Yankees win their first World Series since 1962.

“I thought it was just a fly ball, but it carried,” said Torrez. “Anywhere else that’s an out, but there’s nothing really to be ashamed of. (Boston fans) crucified me. Every time I’d warm up, they’d boo me. They were mad, but they were short-minded. I had to be tough-skinned, take the good with the bad.”

Torrez won 185 big-league games which remains the most ever by a pitcher of Mexican descent. He pitched for seven different teams, but he made it to the postseason just once, that 1977 season with the Yankees. He lost once and had a no-decision in the AL Championship Series victory over Kansas City, then pitched complete-game victories in Game 3 and Game 6 of the World Series against Los Angeles. Torrez caught the Series-ending pop-up off the bat of Lee Lacy, touching off a raucous celebration at Yankee Stadium.

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