June 10, 1977 - Yankees 4, Twins 1
- Sal Maiorana
- Jun 10, 2017
- 3 min read
NEW YORK – Back in spring training, Ron Guidry had struggled with his velocity, and there was a question of whether he would come north to New York, or come north to triple-A Syracuse. “I never thought he wouldn’t make it,” Billy Martin said. “He has a great arm. I knew there would be a place for him, although I wasn’t sure exactly where.”
When Catfish Hunter and Don Gullett experienced early-season injury problems, Martin found the place. Guidry was slotted into the rotation, and it was clear now that he wasn’t coming out.
Coming off back-to-back losses where he gave up a combined 10 earned runs on 14 hits and seven walks in 11.1 innings, Guidry was superb against the Twins. He pitched into the ninth inning, and his only blemish was perfectly understandable – Rod Carew, the best hitter in baseball, lashed an RBI single in the first inning to score Lyman Bostock who had singled and stolen second.
After that, Guidry was close to untouchable until the ninth when he allowed a single and a walk, prompting Martin to go to Sparky Lyle to close it out, which he did on his third pitch by inducing Jerry Terrell to ground into a game-ending double play.
Guidry’s emergence certainly saved a little face for general manager Gabe Paul who, in 1976, was confronted with the prospect of including Guidry in a massive 10-player trade with Baltimore, but declined. In the end, the Orioles settled for Tippy Martinez to complete the deal that saw Martinez, Rick Dempsey, Rudy May, Scott McGregor and Dave Pagan go to Baltimore in exchange for Doyle Alexander, Jimmy Freeman, Elrod Hendricks, Ken Holtzman and Grant Jackson.
When you examine the swap, the Orioles were hands down winners as Martinez, McGregor and Dempsey went on to become solid players, while no one the Yankees acquired did much of anything. Imagine if Guidry had been part of the deal? Guidry had electric stuff, and Paul knew it.
The Ramones performing at CBGB's.
“That’s why it was baffling that he had such a bad spring,” Paul said. “Your eyes tell you Guidry can throw, and the reports tell you he’s a great prospect, and other clubs tell you he’s in great demand. How could so many people be wrong?”
They weren’t, and in 1977 Guidry began a journey in pinstripes that would ultimately end with his No. 49 being retired out in Monument Park.
Guidry’s performance made a moot point out of the fact that the Yankees were shorthanded for this game. Paul Blair started in center field because Mickey Rivers suffered a leg injury in the game the previous day in Milwaukee. Jimmy Wynn started in left because Roy White also suffered a leg injury in Milwaukee. And Fran Healy started at catcher with Thurman Munson still sidelined.
Willie Randolph delivered the key hit in support of Guidry, a two-run double to the gap in left-center in the fourth after Healy and Bucky Dent had rapped back-to-back two-out singles off Twins starter Geoff Zahn.
In the fifth, Reggie Jackson doubled and scored on a single by Chris Chambliss, and then Chambliss eventually scored from third with a steal of home. Well, it was scored that way because White – so much for getting a full day of rest – missed the ball on a suicide bunt attempt, but so did catcher Butch Wynegar, and Chambliss was able to just beat relief pitcher Ron Schueler to the plate.
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