August 6, 1977 – Mariners 9, Yankees 2
- Sal Maiorana
- Aug 6, 2017
- 3 min read
SEATTLE – Lou Piniella’s legendary smokestack blew in the aftermath of this disgraceful performance which was the Yankees fourth loss in four games at the Kingdome, the home of the expansion Mariners.
Piniella had grown tired of all the complaining which had reached ridiculous proportions on the West Coast with Reggie Jackson insinuating he was leaving the club after the year, and Thurman Munson refusing to shave and still bitching about, well, just about everything.
“Why doesn’t everyone speak up now after we’re beat 9-2 by a horseshit ballclub?” fumed Piniella. “Now’s the time! Everybody wants to get traded. I’m tired of seeing everything in the paper; ‘I wanna go here, I wanna go there.’ How come nobody’s saying anything now?”
There was no one to speak up because Piniella was one of only a few players who didn’t blow off the media and hide in the trainers’ room, which was an almost daily occurrence for this team. Accountability was not a hallmark of the 1977 Yankees.
“The clubhouse looks like a deserted street,” said Murray Chass of The New York Times. “Maybe five guys don’t go hide in the players’ lounge. On the road they still use the trainer’s room.”
It reminded Steve Jacobsen of Newsday of the Mickey Mantle/Roger Maris Yankees. “In the ‘60s, Maris and Mantle and maybe a couple of other guys would hide out in the trainer’s room, which was off limits,” Jacobson said. “Then it would be the waiting game, to see if they’d come out before your deadline.”
But this team was worse, and Jacobsen spoke for many regarding the Yankees’ disdain for the media. “They can’t wait to get to another town, talk to other reporters and blame it on the New York press,” he said. “Reggie Jackson used to be a beautiful interview, but now he’s thoroughly uptight. He went on television and said the press was unfair in New York because we were unable to accept the idea of a black man being smarter than we are. Frankly I’m getting a little tired of hearing about his 160 IQ.”
The Yankees were now 4-4 on a road trip against three teams who were below .500 in the AL West standings, and with Boston winning yet again, the Yankees were now five games out, their largest margin since they were 5.5 out on April 19 in the midst of a 2-8 start to the season.
“The thing that disappoints me most is the lack of pride the players have,” said George Steinbrenner, who made this comment to a reporter over the phone from his office in Tampa. “They don’t seem to care if they’re known as the team that choked. I want to apologize to the people of New York City. The players have to stand up and take the blame for choking and not having enough guts and pride to go out and play the way they should. They say they don’t want to be laughed at, but they lose two games to Seattle. Their pride should overcome all the talking and bickering.”
And from general manager Gabe Paul, who released a statement from his office at Yankee Stadium: “One thing I do know is that we are leading the league in loose talking. If we are to win the pennant, we’ve got to stop talking and start playing like we can. All I can say to our players is to stop the bullshit and start concentrating on the game.”
This was a deplorable effort against a bad team that had no business beating the Yankees the way it did. Then again, the Yankees simply never knew what Catfish Hunter was going to give them these days, and he gave them absolutely zilch.
Hunter gave up back-to-back home runs for the fifth time this season, this pair to Bill Stein and Steve Braun that produced four of the five runs Seattle scored in the first inning. Hunter then settled down until the seventh when he gave up a three-run bomb to Leroy Stanton. Sparky Lyle relieved and was greeted by Ruppert Jones’ inside-the-park homer that got over Mickey Rivers’ head and caromed crazily toward right field.
“I just wish we’d start playing baseball,” said Cliff Johnson, who hadn’t been around long enough to find the post-game hiding spots from the media. “The thing is that we’re too good a ballclub. I don’t think anyone is laying down. We just shouldn’t be struggling like this. I don’t know why we are, but whatever it is, I wish it would work itself out.”
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