1978 American League East tie-breaker game
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1978 American League East tie-breaker game
| Date | October 2, 1978 |
|---|---|
| Location | Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts |
| Teams | New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox |
| Attendance | 32,925 |
| Umpires | Don Denkinger (HP), Jim Evans (1B), Al Clark (2B), Steve Palermo (3B) |
The 1978 American League East tie-breaker game was played between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts on October 2, 1978.
Both the Yankees and Red Sox finished the 1978 season tied for first place in the American League East with identical 99–63 records, necessitating an additional one-game playoff. The Red Sox were the home team by virtue of a coin toss. The playoff was counted as a regular-season game for statistical purposes.
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Contents
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Background
Main articles: 1978 New York Yankees season and 1978 Boston Red Sox season
The one-game playoff marked the final chapter of a dramatic AL East race that the Red Sox had once led by 10 games (the Milwaukee Brewers were in second place at the time, while the Yankees were in third).[1] The Yankees, beset by injuries in the first half, had fallen to fourth place in the division.[2] They had fired their combustible manager Billy Martin,[3] but trailed Boston by 14 games by mid-July.[4] However, New York finished the season on a 39–14 run, including a four-game sweep of Boston in Fenway Park in early September.[5][6] The Yankees outscored the Red Sox by a composite score of 42–9, and the series was dubbed "The Boston Massacre" by the sports press.[5][6] By the end of the four games, the two teams were tied for first place.[7] The Yankees took the AL East lead three days later, and did not lose it until the final Sunday of the season.[7] Holding a one-game lead with seven games to play, New York finished on a 6–1 run.[7] However, Boston was a perfect 7–0, enabling them to tie the Yankees at season's end.[7] After New York lost to the Cleveland Indians on October 1,[8] the Fenway Park video screen flashed the happy news: "THANK YOU RICK WAITS, GAME TOMORROW."[9][10]
Bucky Dent's home run
The playoff game is famous for Yankee shortstop Bucky Dent's unlikely three-run home run in the top of the seventh inning. Trailing 2–0 in the seventh on the strength of a homer by Carl Yastrzemski and an RBI single by Jim Rice, the Yankees had been held to two hits through six innings. With one out in the seventh inning, Chris Chambliss and Roy White both singled, and pinch hitter Jim Spencer flied out.[11] Dent then hit a fly ball that cleared the Green Monster wall in left field to give the Yankees a 3–2 lead.[12][13] Described as a "shocking blast" by the Sporting News, the home run silenced the Fenway Park crowd. For the light-hitting Dent, it was just his fifth home run of the 1978 season.[14] It sealed Dent's reputation among Yankee fans, while inspiring the permanent nickname "Bucky Fucking Dent" [sic] in New England.[15][16] However, New England got a sense of retribution in 1990 when Fenway Park became the place where Dent got two words yelled at him while manager of the Yankees: "YOU'RE FIRED!"[17]
Later in the game
Red Sox pitcher Mike Torrez then walked Mickey Rivers, and was removed from the game. Reliever Bob Stanley came in, and after Rivers stole second Thurman Munson drove him in with an RBI double. In the eighth inning, a home run by Reggie Jackson made the score 5–2 in favor of the Yankees. The Red Sox cut New York's lead to just one run in the bottom of the eighth against closer Rich Gossage on RBI singles by Fred Lynn and Yastrzemski. But the Yankees would hold off the Red Sox, thanks in part to a heads-up defensive play by right fielder Lou Piniella with one out in the bottom of the ninth. With a Boston base runner (Rick Burleson) on first, Piniella was blinded by the late afternoon sun and could not see a line drive hit by Jerry Remy, but he assumed a nonchalant stance and pretended to field the play normally. When the baseball bounced in front of him, Piniella was able to spear it. Crucially, his ploy had only held Burleson's advance to second base instead of third. When eventual 1978 American League Most Valuable Player Jim Rice followed with a deep fly to the outfield, Burleson could only move up to third base instead of scoring the tying run.
Batting with two out and two men on, Carl Yastrzemski, who had driven in two of Boston's four runs, popped out to third baseman Graig Nettles in foul territory for the game's final out, and New York won the game, 5–4. Ron Guidry improved his record to 25-3, while Torrez took the loss. Ironically, Torrez had been a starter on the 1977 World champion Yankees and had won the Series-clinching game before signing with Boston as a free agent after the season.
Line score
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York Yankees | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Boston Red Sox | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Ron Guidry (25–3) LP: Mike Torrez (16–13) Sv: Rich Gossage (27) Home runs: NYY: Bucky Dent (5), Reggie Jackson (27) BOS: Carl Yastrzemski (17) |
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Starting lineups
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Aftermath
Yankees
For the third straight year, the Yankees went on to face the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS. The Yankees won the best-of-five series for their third consecutive pennant. New York defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series to win their second championship in a row, and 22nd overall.
Red Sox
The loss was seen as a manifestation of the Curse of the Bambino, long thought to be the reason behind all things bad that ever happened to the Red Sox.[19]
In 1990, the Yankees fired Bucky Dent as their manager at Fenway Park, giving Red Sox fans a sense of payback.[17] However, Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe compared the firing of Dent to "Phyllis George getting arrested in Atlantic City," and "Neil Armstrong tearing his Achilles' doing the moonwalk."[20] He said that the "firing was only special because of where it happened...it's the first time a Yankee manager—who was also a Red Sox demon—was purged on the ancient Indian burial grounds of the Back Bay."[20] He also criticized Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner for firing Dent in Boston.[20]
References
- Inline citations
- ^ Shaughnessy 1990, p. 136
- ^ Chass, Murray (July 17, 1978). "Yankees Fall to Fourth". The New York Times: p. C4.
- ^ United Press International (July 25, 1978). "Bob Lemon is new manager". The Globe and Mail: p. P31. "Tempestuous Billy Martin...resigned as manager of the New York Yankees yesterday...Martin's demise followed the latest in a series of battles with Yankees' principal owner George Steinbrenner and star outfielder Reggie Jackson."
- ^ Frommer & Frommer 2004, p. 38
- ^ a b Shaughnessy 1990, p. 138
- ^ a b Frommer & Frommer 2004, pp. 175–177
- ^ a b c d Frommer & Frommer 2004, pp. 47–48
- ^ "Indian ambush stalls yankee drive toward title". The Globe and Mail: p. S2. October 2, 1978.
- ^ Frommer & Frommer 2004, p. 48
- ^ Goldberg, Jeff (October 1, 2003). "Waits' Big Day Gave Sox Chance". The Hartford Courant: p. C3.
- ^ Shaughnessy 1990, p. 144
- ^ Frommer & Frommer 2004, p. 178
- ^ Patton, Paul (October 3, 1978). "Yankee power KIs Bosox hopes". The Globe and Mail: p. P37.
- ^ Shaughnessy 1990, p. 146
- ^ Shaughnessy 2005, pp. 16–17
- ^ The New York Times & The Boston Globe 2004, p. 6
- ^ a b Cafardo, Nick (June 7, 1990). "Dent Dumped by Yankees". The Boston Globe: p. 37.
- ^ a b "Oct 2, 1978, Yankees at Red Sox Box Score and Play by Play". Baseball-reference.com. October 2, 1978. Archived from the original on 12 April 2009. http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS197810020.shtml. Retrieved 1 March 2009.
- ^ Shaughnessy 2005, pp. 7–8
- ^ a b c Shaughnessy, Dan (June 7, 1990). "His Back Was Against the Wall". The Boston Globe: p. 37.
- Bibliography
- Frommer, Harvey; Frommer, Frederic J. (2004). Red Sox vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry. Sports Publishing, LLC. ISBN 1-58261-767-8.
- Shaughnessy, Dan (1990). The Curse of the Bambino. New York: Dutton. ISBN 0-525-24887-0.
- Shaughnessy, Dan (2005). Reversing the Curse. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-618-51748-0.
- The New York Times; The Boston Globe (2004). The rivals: the Boston Red Sox vs. the New York Yankees: an inside history (1st ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-33616-0.
Further reading
- Schwartz (2000). A Day of Light and Shadows. Pleasantville, NY: Akadine Press. ISBN 1-58579-011-7.
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