July 14, 1977 – Yankees 6, Brewers 3
- Sal Maiorana
- Jul 14, 2017
- 2 min read
MILWAUKEE – The utter chaos enveloping New York City, where the power would not be restored until around the time the Yankees began their game in Milwaukee, wasn’t enough to dissuade George Steinbrenner from ripping into his slumping ballclub.
Steinbrenner had flown up from Tampa to watch the team in person, and the message he delivered following the loss the night before was pretty clear: He was paying big money to several of these Yankees, and he had grown sick and tired of their recent performance.
“Our guys have to stop making excuses,” he said. “They’re the ones who have to go out there and produce. The principal owner can’t do it, the general manager can’t do it, the manager can do just certain things. The ones who have to do it are the guys on the ballfield. And if they don’t do it, they’ve got nobody to blame but themselves. I see a team like Baltimore up there with us, and there’s no way that should be. We’re not playing together as a team.”
The subject of the allegation of his tampering with the lineup was broached, and his response was, “I’m tired of these players saying I’m putting pressure on Martin. He hasn’t had one iota of pressure from me about the lineup. The people laying down on him are the pitchers, the catchers, the infielders, and the outfielders. Especially the pitchers. The pitching is horrendous. It stinks.”
Steinbrenner was often prone to bombast, but he was right about that. The Yankees were pitching terribly as they had allowed 32 runs in the first six games of this road trip. But Ed Figueroa and Sparky Lyle restored some order by limiting the Brewers to three runs, and the Yankees took the rubber game of the series, giving them their 50th win of the season against 39 losses.
Steinbrenner left Milwaukee to attend a ship christening in Duluth, Minn., so he missed Reggie Jackson hitting two home runs and George Zeber chipping in a two-run shot during a four-run seventh inning that broke a 1-1 tie. And after Figueroa gave up two runs in the bottom half of the seventh, Lyle came in and stranded a runner at third by inducing Robin Yount to pop out. From there, Lyle blanked the Brewers over the final two innings.
When asked about Steinbrenner’s comments about the pitching, Figueroa took exception. “I don’t think it’s fair. That guy, I don’t know. We’ve got a good pitching staff, we’ve got good relievers. A bad first half doesn’t mean we stink. We can come back in the second half and be good. Then maybe he will be sorry about all that junk he is saying about us. It’s bad when the owner talks about the pitching staff like that.”
Jackson’s two home runs doubled his output since June 8, and he was in a chipper mood afterward as he steered clear of Steinbrenner’s outburst. “This club played good baseball today,” Jackson said. “Smart baseball. We were moving the runners over. If this club plays like this, nobody can catch us.”
Interesting choice of words, given that the Yankees were 1.5 games behind the Red Sox at the time.
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