Sept. 14, 1977 – Yankees 2, Red Sox 0
- Sal Maiorana
- Sep 14, 2017
- 4 min read
NEW YORK – This might have been the night when Reggie Jackson finally, officially, emotionally, became a member of the New York Yankees.
Dogged all season by controversy, much of it his own doing, Jackson had moped and pouted about practically everything, from the treatment he had received from his teammates, to his place in the batting order. The only thing he was happy about was the $3 million George Steinbrenner had agreed to pay him.
But at the end of a remarkably well-played, pressure-packed, scoreless game in the blazing hot pennant chase against New York’s bitter rival, it was Jackson in the bottom of the ninth inning who sent 54,365 fans into a state of delirium with a titanic two-run, walk-off homer. Welcome to Broadway, big guy.
“I’m not Joe DiMaggio, I’m not Mickey Mantle, I’m not Lou Gehrig,” Jackson said, reeling off the names of past Yankee heroes. “I never will be. The thing that stands out in my mind is that I went for the most money and got the money and landed here in New York. So, I have to perform, and I’m glad the people got something back.”
Incredibly, the home run almost didn’t happen, and you won’t believe why. Thurman Munson had started the ninth with a single off Boston starter Reggie Cleveland, who had battled Ed Figueroa threw eight scoreless innings in one of the most impressive pennant-race pitchers’ duel you’ll see. Jackson, second on the team with 25 home runs, and a man who would fly into the Hall of Fame 16 years later with a career total of 563, was asked by Billy Martin to bunt.
That’s right, Jackson’s arch nemesis, who he’d nearly come to blows with in Boston two months earlier, who he’d verbally sparred with all season, wanted the power hitter to lay down a bunt so Munson could get to second.
“The bunt was on, then off, then on, then off,” Martin explained. “I was hoping then that the pitcher would lay one in there and he might rip one.”
It was inconceivable, even in an era when the bunt was a key part of baseball strategy, to have Jackson attempt one. In his 21-year career, Jackson successfully laid down 13 sacrifice bunts. Only one of those came after 1972, that in 1984 when he was with the Angels.
Thankfully for the Yankees, Jackson did not succeed in sacrificing, and was able to swing away and win the game. “It was a bunt situation, so I wasn’t troubled by that,” Jackson said, surely biting his tongue. “I was only troubled that I don’t know the signs that well.”
He squared to bunt the first pitch and took a ball, then swung and missed. He squared to bunt and took another ball, then swung and missed again. He ran the count to 3-2, and then he connected on a pitch that was low and away, sending a moon shot deep over the right-center field wall.
“It should have been ball four,” Cleveland lamented. “Low and outside where I wanted it to be, looking for maybe a ground ball.”
It never touched the ground, and one wonders if Jackson’s feet ever touched the ground after he stood at home plate, pumped both fists in the air as he admired the flight, then ran around the bases as the stadium exploded in glee.
“The night before I met George in P.J. Clarke’s and he told me I’d win the next game with a home run,” Jackson said. “He also picked up my tab, so that’s another $30 in the package. I hit the ball on the screws, and I knew it was gone.”
Quite a capper to a magnificent game that saw both teams threaten to score several times, but all of the rallies dying due to great pitching and great defense. Jim Rice tripled in the second and was stranded by a pair of Figueroa strikeouts. In the third, Boston had two men on, but Bucky Dent helped prevent trouble with a sparkling play at short. The Yankees had two men on in the third, only to see 38-year-old Carl Yastrzemski make a diving catch in left field to rob Munson of a RBI hit.
In the fourth, all the Red Sox could do was shake their heads. Carlton Fisk, as he had the night before, hit another mammoth drive to left-center, and as happened on that occasion, Mickey Rivers tracked it down. The next batter, George Scott, drove a ball to the fence in right only to be robbed by Jackson with a leaping catch. And Butch Hobson hit a looping pop behind second which was caught over the shoulder by Willie Randolph.
Then in the fifth, the Red Sox could only cry. They loaded the bases with no outs, only to see Fred Lynn ground into a home-to-first double play, and Yaz line one right at Figueroa who knocked it down and threw him out at first.
Jackson did more damage control in the seventh when he made a diving catch on a ball hit by Bernie Carbo that would have resulted in a run.
“I’m not graceful,” Jackson said with a laugh. “I make ‘em look so hard. I’m not an all-around superstar player. I know I have super-strength and that’s really where it ends for me. That may have been the best pressure game I ever played in, the best game I was ever part of. No mistakes by anybody.”
Well, except one by Reggie Cleveland.
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