June 5, 1977 – Yankees 8, White Sox 6
- Sal Maiorana
- Jun 5, 2017
- 3 min read
CHICAGO – Six years earlier, when he was traipsing through the jungles of Vietnam, George Zeber wasn’t sure what would become of his baseball career, he was just hoping he’d get a chance to continue it.
“That not only impacted on my career, it impacted on me,” Zeber said of his time in Vietnam when interviewed by Maury Allen’s for the book Where Have You Gone. “It was quite a while before I could pick up my life and get my head straight after serving in Vietnam.”
Alas, Zeber made it out of Vietnam, made his way back to baseball, and here he was, at Comiskey Park, making the third start of his major-league career, and hitting his first home run, part of a six-homer barrage, something the Yankees hadn’t done in a game since April 14, 1974.
“You have to admire him,” said Yankee first base coach Bobby Cox, who managed Zeber in the minors, then spent 1977 with the Yankees before starting his long and successful managerial career with the Atlanta Braves in 1978.
The Yankees signed Zeber as a free agent after the 1968 draft and he was considered a decent prospect at a time when the Yankee farm system was starved for talent. But after two middling years, Zeber put baseball on hold to serve his country – one of 111 players recognized by baseball-reference.com as having gone to Vietnam.
He missed the entire 1970 and 1971 seasons, and then his career was derailed again in 1973 when he suffered a serious knee injury playing for triple-A Syracuse.
“It was a severe injury and the rehab took quite a while,” he said. “It wasn’t until 1975 or 1976 that I really could move normally. It never was quite the same. I don’t know if my career would have been longer and better if I didn’t get hurt."
At one point in 1977 KISS was voted America's favorite rock band in a Gallup poll. Here's a clip from 1977 as they sing Doctor Love.
One guy who was always pulling for him was Cox, who managed him at double-A West Haven in 1972, and at Syracuse over the next four years. “George was a great prospect and then after the knee thing, he was just holding on,” said Cox. “A lesser man would have quit. As a manager, you try not to get too close to any player, but there isn’t one player I rooted as hard for as I rooted for George. He has a lot of courage and a good head and a lot of ability. He knows how to play the game and he wants to win.”
In the spring of 1977, Zeber won the Yankees’ James P. Dawson Award as the best player in spring training, and that earned him a spot on the 25-man roster for the first time. With an infield consisting of Graig Nettles, Bucky Dent, and Willie Randolph, Zeber didn’t get much playing time, but he provided insurance at all three positions.
“The best guys in the league are in front of me, that’s the only way I can look at it,” he said. “I imagine I had fantasies when I started out. Not anymore. I don’t even remember what they were, it has been so long. I’ve sort of grown out of it. I’m just trying to get my time in.”
The Yankees scored in each of the first four innings, and all seven runs came via the long ball. Thurman Munson hit a solo shot in the first, Carlos May launched a two-run bomb in the second, Reggie Jackson and Graig Nettles went back-to-back in the third, and Zeber hit a solo shot off reliever Dave Hamilton in the fourth, one of only three home runs he would hit in the big leagues, all coming in 1977. Dent hit the final homer in the ninth, as the White Sox had clawed back to within 7-6.
Martin was moved to talk about the day he hit his first major-league home run. It was Aug. 6, 1950 in Cleveland – 24 days before Zeber was born – and it was a three-run blast off Sam Zoldak that scored Joe DiMaggio and Bobby Brown ahead of him.
“The next day I didn’t play and tomorrow, he won’t play either,” Martin cracked about Zeber, who played this game at second base to give Willie Randolph a rest. “He’s been super. He makes the double play and he knows how to play and he has some pop in his bat.”
Zeber would only play in 25 games in 1977, with 75 plate appearances, a .323 average with three homers and 10 RBI, and that was good enough to earn a World Series ring. He played in only three games in 1978, spent most of the year at triple-A Tacoma, and retired prior to the 1979 season.
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