Although I didn't arrive home until 9:30 p.m. Tuesday night, I did manage to keep my eyes open long enough to watch the remainder of the All-Star Game.
As the game moved into extra innings, it reminded me of my first-ever trip to Yankee Stadium...
August 22, 1976. I was 7.
On what I remember as an extremely hot Sunday afternoon, the Yankees hosted the California Angels in the finale of a three-game series. The Angels were well-mired in the second division of the AL West and boasted a starting lineup full of players who weren't even household names in their own home: Dave Chalk, Terry Humphrey, Bob Jones and Tolia Soliata, just to name a few.
The Yankees, meanwhile, featured Lou Piniella, Thurman Munson, Chris Chambliss, Graig Nettles and Willie Randolph not to mention starting pitcher and future Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter and were on their way to winning the AL East.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. It was Bat Day. And we're not talking "Yankee Bat Day, brought to you 7-Eleven", some prefabricated piece of recycled pulp the stadium workers hand to you on your way out of the stadium. I mean the 34-inch, 32-ounce, Mickey Rivers model that found its way into my hands as I passed through the turnstiles on my way to box seats about 10-15 rows behind the third-base dugout. I held onto the bat well into my teens until I finally snapped it around the trunk of a tree in the park behind my house simply because I wanted to see what it felt like to get jammed.
If only I'd been patient enough to wait until I started playing pro ball, I'd still have it.
Future memories not withstanding, the game turned into a real snoozer as Catfish Hunter didn't make it out of the 7th inning (a rare occurrence at the time) and left to at least 50,000 boos with the Yankees losing 4-0.
With the help of the Toyota Bullpen Car, out stepped some reliever I'd never heard of named Ron Guidry. Little did my 7-year-old mind realize I was watching a guy who two years later would go 25-3 and win the Cy Young. But this was the Guidry of '76.
So after unceremoniously allowing the two baserunners he inherited from Hunter to score to make it 6-0, he served up another pair of runs in the 8th. By the time the Yankees came to bat in the bottom of the ninth they were trailing 8-0 and most of the fans had left.
But not us. Well, I should say, not me. While my parents were all for heading home, I was steadfast in my desire to watch the entire game. Deep down, I must have known a rally was in the works.
Angel pitcher Frank Tanana had owned the Yankees for eight innings, giving up just two hits. But in the ninth he finally ran out of steam. Miraculously, New York scored eight runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game, the final two coming on a home run by Roy White. Somewhere in the deep recesses of the New York Times library there is a front page picture of White stomping on home plate as the fans cheered. Well in the background you can see me, shirtless, holding my Mickey Rivers bat high in the air in celebration. (It should be noted that Tanana won 19 games in '76. Had he or his bullpen been able to hold an 8-run lead, he would have been a 20-game winner for the first and only time in his career.)
When the game moved into extra innings the Yankees brought Sparky Lyle into pitch, a man I’d coach with some twenty-plus years later. In the 11th, however, the Angels pushed three runs across the plate and held on to win 11-8.
Over the years, I had a chance to attend a number of games at The House That Ruth Built, including the opening game of the '81 Series, but I will always remember my first trip to the Bronx as the most exciting.
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1 comment:
That's a great story. And you can recall it in such detail. There are very few games, if any, that I can recall in that level of detail. Even the ones I played in.
You didn't mention when you got to play at Yankee Stadium in HS for that All Star game thing. With Augie.
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