Notes about today's (10-2) POTD

[Yankee4Life]

Like I posted in today's POTD, it is the anniversary of Bucky Dent's dramatic three run home run in the one game playoff for the 1978 American League East title that was played in Boston.

I am going to try to give you a little background on what went on that day and what I was doing. It is a day that has not faded from my memory. It's one of those days that you remember where you were when Bucky Dent stepped to the plate in the seventh inning in Fenway Park.

It was a school day and I usually took a bus home, and I did the same thing that day. My mother met me at the bus stop because she knew I was going to be running home and maybe not watching where I was going. It's a good thing because maybe I would have done just that. It didn't take long to get home but it seemed as if she was driving two miles an hour.

In the New York Metropolitan area, this game was televised on WPIX TV channel 11, the home of the Yankees before they went to MSG and then after that, to YES. I did not see the WPIX telecast of the game because I do not live in New York. I live in Upstate New York and I, along with the rest of the country got to view this game on ABC TV with Howard Cosell and Keith Jackson doing the play by play. Think about that for a second. The Yankees were allowed to broadcast this playoff game even though it was being shown on National TV. That's something that does not happen these days with FOX holding all the cards.

In the early innings, this game just flew by. And that's because of a couple of things. The Red Sox took a early 2 - 0 lead on Ron Guidry, who was not at his sharpest. And Mike Torrez was strong as he was nursing a one hit shutout through six innings. And I was getting nervous. And I remember watching this game, there was no outside interruptions. The phone only rang once, and it was in between innings from an aunt who was calling my house to ask my mother how I was holding up and if I was still breathing. Little did I know I was a Yankee4Life in training back then. But that was it. No one else called. At the end of the sixth inning, I got up and walked around the house because it was getting to me. I remember glancing out the window at my house and looking outside. No one was out. No cars were driving by. Nothing.

The seventh inning is something that I'll never forget. I know I said this before, but to witness what happened was something else. And when Dent did hit that homerun, there was no way anyone thought it was over. I was happy that the Yankees finally had a lead. I can still recall how it happened:

Graig Nettles hit a fly to right for the first out, but then Chris Chambliss hit an opposite field single that I thought for a second Jim Rice would catch. Roy White singled to center, a line drive single that sent Chambliss to second. Brian Doyle was pinch hit for by Jim Spencer, and that was important in the outcome of the game, but I didn't know this until Dent came up and I read about it the next day. Spencer flew out to Jim Rice for the second out. Torrez was almost out of the inning!

Now, here is why it was important that Spencer came in the game at that time. Willie Randolph was hurt and did not play. Brian Doyle was playing second base. The only other utility infielder was Fred Stanley, and he was going in to play second in the seventh inning. Bucky Dent, all .243 batting average of his, had to go up and hit in the seventh inning for the Yankees because they had no one to pinch hit for him!

Of course, we all know what Dent did. He homered over the wall and the Yankees took a 3-2 lead. (Another thing about baseball rules back then, this home run by Dent was the game winning RBI, even though Jackson homered in the 8th. Rules back then stated that the hit that gave your team the lead that you never lost was the GWRBI.) But then Mickey Rivers walked and that knocked out Torrez. Bob Stanley, in his only good year in the major leagues, came in to pitch. Stanley was a tall, lumbering right hander and Mickey Rivers stole second base easy on him. Thurman Munson then hit a double to center field to score Rivers as the Yankees took a 4-2 lead. In the eighth, Reggie Jackson hit a homerun for a 5-2 Yankee lead.

Now, here was when the game slowed down for me. All the Yankees needed was six more outs and each one of them it seemed was harder to get then the previous one. Rich Gossage, the Yankee ace in the bullpen, came in to relieve Guidry in the seventh inning. In those days, closers did not just pitch one inning and that was that. Gossage pitched the rest of the game.

The Sox got to Gossage in the 8th for two runs and in the bottom of the ninth, it was 5-4, Yankees on the good side. We all know that Carl Yastrzemski made the final out on a pop up to Nettles at third, but the Sox made it too interesting with runners on 1st and 2nd before Yaz got up. Luckily, Yaz got under the pitch and the rest was history.

Many people got all over Mike Torrez for this game, and I never felt it was justified. Torrez, in 1977, was a member of the Yankees. (The Yanks acquired him in an April trade from Oakland) Torrez won 14 games for the Yankees and was a key figure in the game five win against the Royals at Kansas City. (Back then, the ALCS was best out of five.) How key was he? He came in relief of Ron Guidry and pitched 5 1/3 innings of shutout ball and gave the Yankees time to get back in it. And Torrez was the winning pitcher in game six of the World Series against the Dodgers as the Yankees won their first world title since 1962. In the off season, Torrez took Mrs. Yawkey's money and signed with Boston. His 16 wins that year kept them in the hunt all year long. He just never got win number 17.

Here's some photos of that day:

This picture is taken from a newspaper that someone saved from that day.

Mike Torrez. He deserved better

[krawhitham]

Speaking of Bucky ******* Dent, the Reds need to fire Narron and promote Bucky

[AstroEric]

Watch the game on MLB.com