June 30, 1977 – Yankees 11, Blue Jays 5
- Sal Maiorana
- Jun 30, 2017
- 3 min read
TORONTO – Cliff Johnson is remembered by Yankee fans for primarily two things: His unique nickname, “Heathcliff,” and for breaking star reliever Goose Gossage’s thumb in a clubhouse fight during the 1979 season which knocked Gossage out for two months, hampering the Yankees’ chances of winning four straight AL pennants. Not necessarily in that order.
They most likely don’t recall what happened in this game at Exhibition Stadium, his first big moment as a Yankee since being acquired in a trade deadline deal from Houston two weeks earlier.
Johnson, serving as the DH, crashed three home runs, two coming in the eighth inning when the Yankees erupted for eight runs to blow open the game and enable New York to split the four-game series with the plucky Blue Jays.
Johnson became just the 17th player in major-league history to hit two home runs in the same inning, the first American Leaguer to do it since Pete Reichardt for the Angels in 1966, and the first Yankee since Joe Pepitone in 1962. In Yankee lore, only 11 men had ever hit at least three homers in one game and it happened on just 17 occasions, the last by Bobby Murcer in 1973.
“It doesn’t mean anything if you can’t come back the next night and help the ballclub,” Johnson said nonchalantly.
Johnson couldn’t help the Astros on a consistent basis because he wasn’t a full-time starting catcher, he really wasn’t adept at any other position, and there’s no DH in the NL. Thus, coming to the AL made sense, and for the Yankees, the fit was perfect.
Billy Martin had been lobbying to carry three catchers on the roster, and when Gabe Paul finally allowed it, aging Elrod Hendricks was the man. Sadly, he wasn’t much of an offensive upgrade over weak-hitting backup Fran Healy. Johnson gave the Yankees far better depth and with Johnson providing 12 homers, 31 RBI, and a .405 on-base percentage over the rest of the 1977 regular season, Martin was able to give Munson some rest without sacrificing too much run-producing ability.
Johnson hit solo homers in the fourth and eighth, and then his second homer in the eighth - a two-run blast which had been preceded by a three-run homer by Munson - was particularly dramatic. Reliever Jerry Johnson, who had been Johnson’s teammate in Houston, brushed him back with his first pitch, and Johnson got up and glared out at Johnson with his hands spread in a “what was that for” posture. Two pitches later, Johnson launched a moonshot that was estimated to have traveled more than 450 feet.
When Johnson crossed home plate, he said to catcher Alan Ashby, “Don’t ever knock me down because I like it like that.” When asked about the incident, Heathcliff said, “I hadn’t done anything, but I was kind of expecting it so I wasn’t surprised. I charged the mound one time this year, but you’re not going to see that out of me. I’m generally a fun-full type person.”
Well, except for that time in the clubhouse when he and Gossage were ribbing each other and things turned ugly. Johnson was asked about the incident in 2010 by the New York Daily News, shortly after his name was erased from the record book. Until that year when Matt Stairs passed him, he held the all-time major-league mark for most pinch-hit home runs with 20.
“Controversy sells,” Johnson said. “People sometimes ask about it, but it’s something I don’t elaborate on. In my career, I did some wonderful things. I’d rather expound on the pleasant. I consider Goose a good friend and obviously we made up and I would never want to reopen old wounds by talking about it a bunch. It was a distasteful thing to me, because anyone who knew me knew I was not what you’d call a pugilist. I found Goose to be a great guy. He reminded me of a big ole country boy, but very intense. If you played with him, you loved him, but you sure as hell didn’t want to face him.”
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