July 27, 1977 – Orioles 6, Yankees 4
- Sal Maiorana
- Jul 27, 2017
- 3 min read
NEW YORK – George Steinbrenner was feeling all warm and fuzzy following the dramatic victory the night before, so prior to the Yankees losing to Baltimore, thereby wiping away the glee and again dropping them three games behind the Orioles, Steinbrenner gave Billy Martin a fresh vote of confidence.
“Barring any really serious breach of Billy Martin’s relationship with Gabe Paul, it is 99 out of 100 percent sure that Martin will be the manager of the Yankees this season, win or lose,” said Steinbrenner. “At this point you can bet he will have his job in October.”
Well, OK then. Good to know, and you can bet Martin appreciated it, though in the deep recesses of his mind – or perhaps the front recesses – he knew Steinbrenner could change his mind faster than a Ron Guidry fastball.
As votes of confidence go, Martin knew this one was tenuous at best, especially when considering the standards by which Steinbrenner and Paul were going to evaluate his performance moving forward. The Boss had revealed his seven commandments when he met with the media a few days earlier, guidelines Martin would have to adhere to in order to remain as Yankee manager.
They were, in no particular order: Is the won-lost record sufficient?; Does he work hard enough?; Is he emotionally equipped to lead men? Is he organized? Is he prepared for each game? Does he understand human nature?; Is he honorable?
“How else do you judge a man by anything but how his team, and the men under him, perform?” Steinbrenner said.
Ever the military man, that Steinbrenner. And New York City was the owner’s battleground, at least backup catcher Fran Healy saw it that way. “An extra dimension is at work here; the extra dimension is New York City,” Healy said. Meaning, if the Yankees made their home in Baltimore, or just about any other big-league city, nobody would be paying attention to all this shit and all would be well for the manager of a team who had just won an AL pennant, plus had his somewhat under-achieving team right in the thick of another race.
But this was New York. This was the Yankees. This was Steinbrenner. This was Martin. Big city, big business, massive egos. It had to be this way.
In the game, Yankee castoff Elliott Maddox came through with the biggest hit, a two-run single that extended Baltimore’s lead to 5-2 during a calamitous eighth inning for New York.
The Yankees had just taken a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh on Dell Alston’s sacrifice fly off Jim Palmer. Catfish Hunter had been superb again, limiting the Orioles to one run on four hits, but then he gave up back-to-back solo homers to Eddie Murray and Lee May to cough up the lead.
Dick Tidrow relieved, and after getting two outs, he collapsed by allowing a walk and a double before Maddox’s single chased both runs home. After another single, Tidrow departed in favor of Sparky Lyle who promptly yielded an RBI single to Ken Singleton, capping the five-run rally.
Maddox had been traded away in January for Paul Blair, and many felt it was because he wasn’t prone to speaking the company line and Martin didn’t appreciate it. So, even though he downplayed the trade, it was no doubt sweet for Maddox to come through in a big spot. “I don’t think of it as beating Billy,” he said. “I can honestly say that. I wasn’t thinking of getting a hit to beat Billy, but getting a hit to contribute to scoring some runs.”
Sure.
The Yankees scored single runs in the eighth and ninth, but it wasn’t enough as Tippy Martinez – the man who had given up the dramatic home run to Cliff Johnson the night before – struck out Chris Chambliss who represented the tying run to end the game.
Comments