Sept. 24 – Rained out in Toronto, and the Yankees lose ground

TORONTO – The umpires waited three hours, but they had no choice but to call off the afternoon game in Toronto, meaning the teams would have to play a Sunday doubleheader.

Meanwhile, both the Red Sox and Orioles won their games, each gaining a half-game on the idle Yankees, though Billy Martin didn’t seem too concerned about it.

“We’ve just got to win our games,” he said. “The loss column is the name of the game right now.” To that end, the Yankees had three fewer losses (59) than both Baltimore and Boston.

Martin shared with reporters a comical back and forth he had with Toronto manager Roy Hartsfield during the delay. Nine days earlier, Baltimore manager Earl Weaver pulled his team off the field in a game in Toronto when he protested the Blue Jays’ refusal to take a tarpaulin off the bullpen mound – which was on the field in foul territory – because he felt it posed a danger to his fielders. Ultimately, the Orioles forfeited the game.

It seemed ludicrous that Weaver would do this because, after all, it was raining throughout the game and the bullpen mound would have been a mess. Not to mention the fact the Orioles were in the heat of a pennant race. At the time of the incident, they were trailing 4-0 in the fifth, and had they come back to win that game – quite possible against the expansion Blue Jays - they’d only be two games behind the Yankees in the loss column at this point.

“I called Hartsfield and told him if you really want to get even with Weaver, forfeit the game,” Martin said. “But he wouldn’t do it.”

Said Hartsfield: “I couldn’t hardly do that. I told Billy if I had done that, he would’ve had to buy the cocktails because I know I would’ve been fired.”

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