Sept. 28, 1977 – Yankees 10, Indians 0
- Sal Maiorana
- Sep 28, 2017
- 2 min read
NEW YORK – Say what you want about the volatility of Billy Martin, but there was no one who could ever question his love for the Yankees, and his devotion to the franchise.
“It feels lovely,” he said with a smile after the Yankees clinched a tie for the AL East division crown. “Not for personal reasons like everybody thinks because I don’t think I won a personal battle (with George Steinbrenner or Reggie Jackson or anyone else). But because the Yankees won. It’s good for baseball. The Yankees have to be good for baseball to survive. I’m a very proud and happy Yankee and if we win tomorrow, it’ll be the happiest win ever.”
Ever since they went on their remarkable run where between Aug. 7 and Sept. 4 they won 24 of 27 games, it was inevitable that the Yankees were going to win the AL East. It wasn’t quite settled, but after blowing out the Indians at Yankee Stadium, and learning that somehow, the expansion Blue Jays defeated the Red Sox at Fenway, it was all but over.
“Now you can never use that story that I never won two in a row; you can junk that one,” said Martin.
After all that had happened in this 1977 season, no one could blame Martin for enjoying the moment. On at least two occasions it looked like he was going to be fired, yet he survived, and ultimately got the Yankees playing the way they should have been playing from the start.
“Sometimes a team doesn’t put it together that quick,” he said. “They’re molded together now. They’re part of each other. They’re a full team.”
This one was over quickly. Jackson ripped a grand slam during a five-run first inning, and the Yankees continued to pile on throughout the night. Thurman Munson had three hits including a home run, Graig Nettles hit his team-leading 37th homer, and Mickey Rivers also homered and scored three runs. Meanwhile, Don Gullett and Ken Clay blanked the Indians on five hits and five walks.
“We’ve got a piece of the pennant, but we’ve got to come back to work tomorrow,” said Jackson, who hit a grand slam in the first inning to get the Yankees rolling on their way to an easy victory. “We can relax a little; we’re almost there, but almost doesn’t count in baseball.”
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