July 28, 1977 – Yankees 14, Orioles 2
- Sal Maiorana
- Jul 28, 2017
- 3 min read
NEW YORK – Thurman Munson was actually civil to the media. It took a blowout victory over Baltimore, and a big day for him personally as he pounded out three hits including the 100th home run of his career, but he sat at his locker and not only wasn’t he the same old churlish Munson, he was downright illuminating.
“People have been laughing at us,” said Munson, a bottle of champagne courtesy of George Steinbrenner on ice nearby commemorating his milestone home run. “Everyone’s been laughing at us, and I don’t like it. Winning shuts everybody up. Winning leads to money. When baseball players make money, they shut up, and they don’t care what’s happening in the manager’s office. If you’re not winning, then pride becomes involved and people start talking about a lot of different things. But we’ve got the talent here, people with pride, people who want to win.”
All season, Munson had been caught in the vortex of controversy, most of it centered on the addition of Reggie Jackson to the team. Even though both men had said their relationship was fine, Jackson’s contract had pissed off Munson because the reigning American League MVP and captain of the team was no longer the highest-paid Yankee; Jackson’s showboat nature and constant dealings with the press pushed Munson’s buttons to no end; and then there was the whole Sport magazine flap where Jackson had proclaimed himself as “the straw that stirs the drink” and that Munson could only “stir it bad.”
However, things had simmered on that front, replaced by the burning hot imbroglio surrounding the George Steinbrenner/Billy Martin dynamic. Munson had grown tired of it, and he let that be known.
“As long as there are no more setbacks, we’ll do nicely. By setbacks, I mean with Martin and Steinbrenner,” Munson said. “This is a big game. But do we win this one for Billy, George, or the team? I haven’t quite got that straight yet which comes first. Baseball’s 90 percent psychological and if you believe you can do it, you will. But all that mess with the manager and the owner can take the players away from the main business, which is baseball. When a manager gets seven rules thrown at him, people laugh. The Yankee uniform stands for more than that.”
The Yankees used to stand for American League dominance, and on this day, the Yankees looked like the Bronx Bombers of old. They pounded Rudy May, Scott McGregor and Tippy Martinez – all former Yankees – for 14 runs on 15 hits while also drawing nine walks. In addition to Munson, Chris Chambliss was on base all five times with three hits, two walks, and three RBI, while Graig Nettles and Roy White each homered and combined for five hits and six RBI. In all, the Yankees had 30 at-bats with men on base, 13 of those with a runner on third, as they returned to 10 games over .500 in their 100th game of the season.
“The way we did it today is what’s significant,” Munson said. “Momentum means the most thing to me in sports. It can turn a mediocre team into a good team by giving it confidence and the proper attitude.”
This being the Yankees, you didn’t think a day would go by without at least a little tempest, did you? Jackson was scratched from the lineup, allegedly because of a sore left elbow caused when he bumped into Mickey Rivers in the outfield the night before. That wasn’t exactly true. Not only had Jackson actually bumped his right elbow, the reason Martin started Lou Piniella in right is that Jackson had historically had little success against the lefty May.
When he was questioned about it, Jackson said tongue in cheek, “Everybody knows that when you get hit in the right elbow, it’s the left one that hurts.”
And with that, the Yankees boarded a plane bound for the West Coast where they faced a long trip that included three games each against the A’s, the Angels and the Mariners.
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