May 27, 1977 – Yankees 8, White Sox 6

NEW YORK – What a crazy night at the big ballpark in the Bronx. The White Sox completely eviscerated Catfish Hunter and it not only looked like this game was unwinnable for New York, the bigger concern was that it sure looked like ol’ Catfish was finished as a reliable major-league starting pitcher.

Hunter faced nine batters, six reached base (five hits and a walk) and five scored before Billy Martin pulled him in favor of Dick Tidrow. However, in the bottom of the second, the battling Yankees erupted for five runs to tie the game, and they tacked on three more runs later as Tidrow kept the White Sox at bay to pull out an unlikely victory.

“I felt better tonight than I had since I got hurt,” said Hunter, ignoring the fact that this was his shortest outing since 1970. “I was just getting the ball in the wrong place.”

That, of course, had become a trend in 1977. Injured on opening day when he took a line drive off his left foot, Hunter had been unable to get on track since coming off the disabled list after a month off. In his four starts in May, Hunter gave up 16 earned runs and 26 hits in the span of just 17.2 innings. If not for the big Yankee rally, he would have lost his fourth straight start. As it was, his ERA for the month was 8.18 and he gave up only one less home run (5) than he had strikeouts (6).

But on this night, his teammates had his back. Tidrow was front and center in the hero’s role as he quieted the White Sox during a seven-inning appearance during which he faced 28 batters and gave up six hits, two walks, and a single run. Now that’s long relief pitching at his finest. And then Sparky Lyle took over in the ninth and set Chicago down in order.

Meanwhile, the offense woke up after a slumbering doubleheader against the Rangers the day before. In the third, embattled Reggie Jackson led off with a home run, and then Mickey Rivers contributed an RBI single, Thurman Munson had a two-run triple, and Chris Chambliss an RBI single that tied the score at 5-5.

New York went ahead in the fifth when Chambliss doubled and scored on an RBI single by Jackson, and in the sixth, Munson hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly and Chambliss tacked on an RBI single to make it 8-5.

Jackson’s performance was impressive given the week he was having, and he addressed those difficulties afterward.

Here's a link to the original Sport magazine story, reprinted by Deadspin. It's a pretty fascinating read, and includes an addendum from Ward.

“I’ve had a lot of undue pressure on me, I guess, from the junk that went down with Sport magazine,” Jackson said. “I trusted a guy in spring training which was three months ago, and said some of the things and didn’t say half of the others. He went ahead and printed the things I said off the record. Things I didn’t say he added to them.”

In the Sports Illustrated cover article from a couple weeks ago, Jackson reminded reporters that he had complimented Munson for being supportive, and then, “This comes out, written three months ago, and makes me look like a damn fool.”

Here’s the thing. Jackson said what he said, on the record or off. Berate Ward if he indeed broke the sanctity of a subject speaking off the record as Jackson claimed, but Jackson was still at fault and he didn’t seem to understand that. We are 40 years removed from this incident, and Ward has never once backed down on his claim that everything Jackson spewed was on the record.

Sorry, I’m a journalist, and I have to side with Ward on this one. I have no inside knowledge of what went down, but in all the reading I have done on the topic, it seems to me that Reggie was just being Reggie that day at the Banana Boat Bar in Fort Lauderdale, which is to say a sports writer’s dream. I’ve interviewed professional athletes my entire career, and never once can I remember a time when an athlete caught in a situation similar to this who has just admitted that, yes, I said those things.

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