June 18,1977 – Red Sox 10, Yankees 4

BOSTON – It was 9 o'clock in the evening, rain was pouring down outside the downtown Boston hotel that was serving as the Yankees' weekend home base, and Reggie Jackson was in his room sipping white wine with teammate Mike Torrez and commiserating about what was surely the worst day of his baseball life.

There was a knock on the door, and when Jackson answered, there were three New York City sports writers seeking a few moments of Jackson's time. Jackson, a supreme egomaniac who never saw a notebook, tape recorder or microphone he didn't like, could have skipped this media request. He could have told the writers to go away, that his mood was gloomier than the weather and he had nothing to say. But he did have something to say, and it occurred to him that if he didn't speak his piece, Billy Martin would get the last word in the morning papers. That would be unacceptable.

So Jackson welcomed the writers into his room and for the next hour shared his side of the rhubarb that had occurred earlier that afternoon at Fenway Park when he and Martin nearly came to blows in the Yankee dugout. "The man took a position today to show me up on national television, and everyone could see that," Jackson said.

Yes, everyone could see it. A sellout crowd of 34,602 at the voluble Beantown band box, but more importantly the millions more who were tuned in to NBC's Game of the Week broadcast which included Yankee owner George Steinbrenner.

The scene - Martin trying to fight his way through the clutches of Yankee coaches Elston Howard and Dick Howser so he could take a swing at Jackson - lives forever because it defined this Yankee team. They were more dysfunctional than the Sopranos, but it didn't matter because their talent, their guile, and their will to win enabled them to rise above the constant clashing of egos and internal bickering.

"I think Billy and Reggie were under tremendous tension," said pitcher Mike Torrez who, like Catfish Hunter the night before, was pummeled early and often by the Red Sox. "It was only a matter of time before one or the other would explode. That was it."

Thanks to a three-run homer in the first by Carl Yastrzemski, and two solo shots by Bernie Carbo, the Red Sox were up 7-3 in the bottom of the sixth and they were looking for more. Fred Lynn singled to right, and then Jim Rice hit a blooper toward Jackson in right field. Jackson was playing deep and didn’t give it his all trying to catch the ball, and the hustling Rice turned it into a double.

"I'm playing Rice deep in right-center," Jackson explained. "He checks his swing and hits the ball and I'm looking for Willie (Randolph) who was playing deep in the hole to make the play. I charged the ball the way I thought I could play it best. If Martin feels I didn't hustle, I'm sorry for him. You know in this game the manager is always right, and I'm just a player."

This was the best video I could find online, the incident part of an ESPN feature on famous dugout fights.

Martin strolled out to replace Torrez with Sparky Lyle, and upon his return to the dugout he instructed Paul Blair to replace Jackson in right. Jackson was stunned to see Blair coming toward him, and when he arrived Jackson asked him what he was doing. When Blair told him, the look on Jackson's face was priceless, and when he reached the dugout he immediately confronted Martin with his arms spread wide in an "Are you kidding" posture.

Martin wasn't kidding.

"I ask only one thing of my players - hustle," Martin said afterward. "It doesn't take any ability to hustle. When they don't hustle, I don't accept that. When a player shows the club up, I show him up."

Jackson never intended to fight Martin, but once he spread his arms, Martin went beserk. He tried to punch Jackson, and only the efforts of his coaches prevented a debacle. Even after Jackson went back to the clubhouse Martin still tried to chase him before he finally calmed down. And it was all captured by the omnipresent NBC cameras.

Lou Piniella followed Jackson into the clubhouse and Jackson, at his wit's end, asked Sweet Lou, "What should I do? This guy obviously doesn't like me. He wants to embarrass me. He wants to fight me. Should I stay here after the game and fight him here in the clubhouse? I can't stand it. He embarrassed me on national television. He humiliated me."

Piniella told Jackson to shower and leave, which Jackson did, and he did not talk until the reporters showed up at his door later that night.

"It makes me cry the way they treat me on this team," he said. "The Yankee pinstripes are Ruth and Gehrig and DiMaggio and Mantle. I'm just a black man to them who doesn't know how to be subservient. I'm a big black man with an IQ of 160 making $700,000 a year and they treat me like dirt. They've never had anyone on their team like me before. I love (Steinbrenner). He treats me like I'm somebody. The rest of them treat me like dirt. I’m 31 years old and 215 pounds. I wasn’t going to right him.”

Martin refused to accept blame for the incident, and did not feel any remorse for how it played out on TV. “I don’t run my team for television. I’m not going to wait until next week to say something just because it’s on TV. Is this the worst incident I have ever had with a player in public? Yes. It’s the only one. Words were said that I didn’t like. We won without him (last year), didn’t we? All he has to do is what I ask every player to do - hustle. This (damage) can be repaired. I don’t see why not. I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”

From across the field, the Red Sox certainly got a kick out of it all. “That was the worst scene that I have ever seen in baseball,” said George Scott. “But once it started, man, I wanted to see it finish. Reggie would have choked the little . . .”

“Reggie’s lucky,” said one unidentified Red Sox player. “Martin would have gotten in the first punch, then 10 people would have jumped between them and Martin would have said, ‘I won another fight.’”

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