August 31,1977 – Yankees 5, Mariners 4
- Sal Maiorana
- Aug 31, 2017
- 3 min read
NEW YORK – Another day, another walk-off win for the Yankees. This time it was Graig Nettles who launched a game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth to defuse the pesky Mariners and complete a quick two-game sweep of the series.
It was the Yankees’ 21st victory in their last 24 games, and completed a homestand that saw New York go 7-1 and extend its lead in the AL East from two games to four with a month to go.
During this scorching-hot 24-game stretch, Nettles had played in 21 games – he missed three with a knee problem – and he had hit nine home runs and batted .390 while scoring 24 runs. With 34 home runs, he had now established a new career high, two more than he hit in 1976 when he led the American League.
“I think I’m a better player than ever,” said Nettles, who also homered in the third inning. “But you can’t convince the owner of that. He thinks you break down when you hit 34.”
Nettles wasn’t talking about his 34 home runs, he was talking about his age. He was in the middle of what would be the best offensive season of his career, but because he was 32, George Steinbrenner was balking at giving Nettles a long-term contract because his mid-30s were approaching and he believed Nettles would begin to decline.
It was no secret that Nettles had been irritated all season, chiefly because of the big free agent deals Steinbrenner had given Reggie Jackson and Don Gullett, and that contributed to the ever-present tension inside the Yankee clubhouse.
Nettles had signed a three-year, $385,000 deal in 1976, but given what he’d done at the plate in 1976 and ’77, he felt he was deserving of an extension which would significantly raise his salary. Steinbrenner disagreed. “I don’t think I deserve just a token raise; it isn’t right,” Nettles said.
Another look back at the time in 1977, here's the opening of a show that debuted that year on ABC, Fantasy Island.
In hindsight, Steinbrenner was proven correct. Nettles had another big year in 1978 and helped the Yankees to a second straight World Series title, but he did go into decline from that point on. In 1978 he hit 27 homers, drove in 93 runs, batted a career-best .276, and won his second Gold Glove. However, over the final 10 years of his career, he never approached those numbers. His high point for home runs was 20 (three times), for RBI it was 75 (1983, his last season with the Yankees), for average it was .266 (1983), and he did not win a third Gold Glove.
Nettles got the Yankees going in the first with a RBI single, and he hit a solo homer in the third. Seattle went ahead in the sixth with three runs on four hits off Mike Torrez. Chris Chambliss, who during the 24-game Yankee turnaround had eight home runs and 27 RBI, ripped a go-ahead two-run homer in the sixth, only to see Sparky Lyle blow a save for the second night in a row when he gave up a sacrifice fly to Ruppert Jones in the eighth. That set the stage for Nettles’ heroics in the ninth.
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