August 3, 1977 – Angels 5, Yankees 3
- Sal Maiorana
- Aug 3, 2017
- 3 min read
ANAHEIM – Thurman Munson had now gone without shaving for six days, and thus, the newest brouhaha in the controversy capitol of the baseball world was about to start bubbling.
Because of the Yankees policy of no beards or hair grown below the collar - 40 years later, young mop-topped Clint Frazier learned all about this - Munson was now essentially in violation of George Steinbrenner’s mandate. With the Boss back East and not on the trip, it wasn’t such a big deal. That is, until Munson was asked about it by reporters.
“I like beards,” Munson said with a wise-guy smile, knowing every word he was about to say would cut at Steinbrenner, the man who had the nerve to give Reggie Jackson a contract more monetarily rewarding than his own. “Isn’t that (being told to shave) against the Constitution? Isn’t that against the employment act or something? I’ll blame it on the writers. Writers have beards. You catch cold in Cleveland. We’re going to Cleveland Labor Day.”
Below the surface, the reference to Cleveland was a warning flare. Like Jackson, and to a large degree because of Jackson, Munson was now miserable in New York and he wanted to be traded, preferably to Cleveland where he’d be closer to his family in Canton, Ohio.
Gone were all the good feelings from 1976 when the Yankees ended their American League pennant drought. The embarrassing sweep in the World Series by the Big Red Machine started the trouble, and then the free agent signing of Jackson shortly thereafter literally exploded a bomb in the Yankee clubhouse. The dynamic of the 1977 team was toxic, Jackson’s presence to the point of poisonous as far as Munson, and certainly Billy Martin, were concerned.
But the issues weren’t all Jackson’s doing. Munson, the respected captain of the team, had become a whiner and now it was clear he wanted out, though he denied it in public. Being called out by Steinbrenner in Detroit back in June on the day that everyone – including Martin – thought the manager was going to be fired, was the final indignation for Munson, or though it seemed, and his disdain for the owner and the way he ran the team was unmistakable.
“I’m not asking for anything,” he said when asked about the rumors of his wish for a trade to Cleveland.
In the rubber game of the series with California, Nolan Ryan struck out only three Yankees in seven innings, but he still outdueled Ron Guidry for his AL-leading 15th victory of the season. Jackson’s RBI single had given New York a 1-0 lead in the first, but the Angels came up with three in the second off Guidry, capped by Terry Humphrey’s two-run single.
The Yankees were within 3-2 in the eighth, but Jackson left runners on second and third when he grounded out to second against lefty reliever Dave LaRoche, Jerry Remy making a sparkling play to rob Jackson of a hit. “I had a good swing. I didn’t feel cheated,” Jackson said. The Angels put it away when Bobby Bonds cranked a two-run inside-the-park homer off Guidry in the bottom half.
With no more games to play against the Orioles, and only five left in September against the Red Sox, the Yankees were going to have to win series if they hoped to stay in the race, and move past both clubs in the AL East. Thus, losing two of three to the sub-.500 Angels wasn’t ideal.
“We didn’t stub our toes,” Martin said. “We had two real well-pitched games thrown against us (by Ryan and Ken Brett). Our toes aren’t stubbed a bit. We’re in a race.”
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