Talk:1978 American League Championship Series

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article was nominated for deletion on 2 March 2006. The result of the discussion was go see for yourself.

fuddlemark (fuddle me!) 01:31, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Replacing this content with stub

Unfortunatly, as I pointed out during the AFD process, this content is not> about the 1978 AL Championship Series. Where this content probably belongs is in an article about the 1978 AL regular season or the New York Yankees, but certainly not in this article. I'm pasting the content below and will replace with a proper stub. No Guru 04:50, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

The Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre is a hyperbolic reference to a four-game sweep by the New York Yankees at Fenway Park against the Red Sox in September of 1978. The four-game sweep allowed the Yankees to forge a first place tie with Boston, after having trailed by as many as 14 1/2 games on July 18th. The two teams would play even till the end necessitating a one-game playoff that was played at Fenway Park on Monday, October 2nd, with the Yankees winning 5-4 and the American League's Eastern Division title. While the games in themselves are memorable, the timeline from the Yankees largest deficit up till the conclusion of the four-game sweep are not nearly as analyzed and serve to put the event in perspective. These various key events and breaks led to the massacre itself.

Reggie Jackson's suspension and Billy Martin's resignation

On July 17th the Yankees lost to the KC Royals 9-7 in 11 innings at Yankee Stadium. The game is memorable because in the 9th inning of a 5-5 tie, after Thurman Munson had singled to lead off, Reggie Jackson purposely defied Billy Martin and his signal to swing away and continued to try to bunt to get the runner over to second. Jackson fouled off a bunt attempt with two strikes and thus struck out. The Yankees did not score and the Royals put up four in the 11th and went on to win 9-7 as the Yanks last hour rally came up short. The loss put the Yanks fourteen games in back of Boston and when Boston won the next day, an off day for the Bombers, the lead reached its apex of 14 1/2. Reggie Jackson was suspended for five days and went home to Oakland. With the season apparently over and morale shot, the Yanks went on a five-game winning streak which coincided with a Boston five-game losing streak. Thus the Boston lead was sliced to 9 1/2 in five days as Reggie's absence seemed to defuse the controversy and allow the team to focus on baseball.

When Jackson returned on Sunday, July 23rd, Martin was incensed that Jackson had held a press conference to discuss his suspension instead of going to work out on the field with the rest of the team, and even more incensed when Jackson did not apologize to him or the team. Jackson stated that he did not think he did anything wrong, that he was playing to win as he always did, and that in the year and one half that Reggie was a Yankee, Martin had never spoken to him. Martin and the rest of the team went to O'Hare Airport in Chicago where they were to board a flight to Kansas City, their next destination. After having a few drinks at an airport bar Martin blurted out to reporters Henry Hecht and Murray Chass, "The two of them (Jackson and Yankee owner George Steinbrenner) deserve each other, one's a born liar and the other is convicted". The latter phrase was an open swipe at Steinbrenner's pleading guilty to making illegal campaign contributions to President Richard Nixon in 1972 and his subsequent two year suspension in 1974. The writer's asked Martin if they could print what he had just said. Martin, clearly enraged and not thinking about the ramifications of such a quote, said yes, that is was on record and they could print it. At that point Chass called Steinbrenner in Tampa to inform him of what Martin had just said. Steinbrenner, incredulous, asked Chass several times if Martin had really said that. When Chass confirmed that he had, Steinbrenner dispatched team President Al Rosen to KC on a fact-finding trip which in reality was also an order to go to KC and fire Martin. When Martin was phoned at the hotel lobby by Rosen asking to come to meet him, Martin hung up on him. He then proceeded to scribble some notes on piece of paper regarding his resignation. Public Relations head Mickey Morabito spotted Martin in the hallway and told him that he would take the notes back to his hotel room and write out the resignation for him. On Monday, July 24th, a crew of writers and and TV men gathered at the Crown Center Plaza Hotel where an emotionally drained Martin, wearing sun glasses and crying openly, read his resignation. He wished the team luck and apologized for his statements.

Ever since the beginning of the season Steinbrenner and the New York press had brought up almost daily Martin's managerial status. While Martin never enjoyed too much job security anywhere he managed, this year's constant controversy and talk about his status was absurd even by Yankee standards. The club had won the pennant in 1976 and the World Series in 1977. On any other team such a standard of excellence makes for secure job status. But Martin's acrimonious relationship with star slugger Reggie Jackson, his love-hate relationship with Steinbrenner, his naturally confrontational personality, and the increased alcohol intake that this high-pressure New York environment brought on put him over the edge. Now at least the team knew for certain he was gone and at the very least the players would not have to answer questions or be subjected to constant commentary, often fueled by Steinbrenner, about Martin's status (Martin was loved and hated equally by his players). The only thing to talk about was baseball. Call this break # 1.

Bob Lemon

Former Cleveland Indians star pitcher Bob Lemon, who just a month earlier had been discharged as manager of the Chicago White Sox, was named as Martin's replacement. He had been a close friend and teammate of Yankee President Al Rosen in the 1950's and was a solid choice. He had also been the Yankee pitching coach in 1976 and was more than familiar with many pitchers and position players. He was Martin's polar opposite; a cheerful man who was easy to play for, did not antagonize the press, the owner, let the players play, and sought to simplify the game. Over the first few weeks with the team he offered reassuring words to star slugger Reggie Jackson, number 2 starter Ed Figueroa, star reliever Goose Gossage, and Captain Thurman Munson. He put a calm over the storm. The Yankees lost their first game after Martin's resignation but then won 7 of 10 to cut the lead to 6 1/2. The Sox came to Yankee Stadium for two games on the 2nd of August and won them both pushing the lead to 8 1/2. The Bombers then went 11-6 over a 17 game span where Boston went 12-6. Boston could not completely pull away as a number of key players, OF Dwight Evans, 3B Butch Hobson, SS Rick Burleson, C Carlton Fisk, outfielder and icon Carl Yastremski and a few others had to deal with nagging injuries. What's more the Red Sox bench was inferior to the Yankee bench as many of their players saw little action and when pressed into duty, were rusty. This became especially glaring after their 12-6 stretch. They went 8-6 in their next 14 games while the bombers went 12-2. While their play had not become poor, it had gone down a notch just at the time the Yanks were turning it up two notches.

In the meantime Lemon was righting the Bronx ship. The players understood the Herculean task ahead of them and its implausibility may have helped them pull it off. Lemon reminded the players at his first team meeting that since they won the WS the year before they must be pretty good. He then said he would stay out of their way and let them play. As this team was already great, it only needed a guide who would watch over them and not be too concerned with putting his stamp on the team. Lemon believed talent eventually would win out. When play concluded on September 6th the Yankees had trimmed Boston's lead to a very manageable four games. The next four games would be in Fenway Park. Few who saw or played in them will ever forget them.

The Newspaper Strike

In mid-August the Yankees received a blessing in disguise. All three of the major New York newspapers went on strike; The New York Times, The Daily News, and The New York Post. This strike would last until after the WS and provided the Yanks with break # 2. Many team members and coaches felt, rightfully so, that the press corps tried to fan the flames and played up controversies, especially player versus player controversies, whenever possible. Asking a player what he thought of another player or whether they thought Martin should be fired or whether they were making enough money compared to other players was standard. This was not surprising considering the volatile personalities that existed in the Bronx at the time; Martin, Jackson, Steinbrenner, CF Mickey Rivers, LHP Sparky Lyle, and Captain Thurman Munson among others. Many of the most volatile players were also the least content, be it with their playing time or their salaries, and were never at a shortage for words, and said as much with their silence as they did with their words on occasion. Nor could the press be blamed for doing their job. But all of sudden, after 5 months of constant controversy and trivial media nonsense, everything quieted down. The amount of press corps surrounding the team was limited to the suburban newspapers and a few other city papers with little significance or circulation. Lemon himself stated that while he was sorry that the writers were out of work, the strike coming when it did was more valuable to the Yankees than picking up a 20-game winner. He said he was able to keep the controversy to a minimum and the disgruntled players relatively content. Going into the September 7-10 weekend series with Boston everything was going irrevocably right.

The Sweep

No series in baseball history has ever reflected more the respective current state of the teams involved. The Sox were stumbling and the Yanks were surging. Yet with all that it was hard to fathom or even predict what would occur that weekend. The Yankees annihilated the Red Sox in a sweep that was as decisive as it was one-sided. The Sox never led at any point in the series. The aggregate score of the four games was 42-9 with the Yanks out-hitting Boston 67-21. The Sox made 12 errors. The Yanks 5. Game 1 was a 15-3 Yankees win. Game 2,13-2. Game 3, 7-0. Game 4, 7-4. During the third game, which was broadcast on NBC Saturday afternoon as its Game of the Week, broadcaster and ex-Yankee Tony Kubek said, "This is the first time I've ever seen a first place team chasing a second place team". The Sox were able to recover from the sweep and eventually made up a 2 1/2 game deficit, winning their final 8. On the final day of the season Boston won as the Yanks lost forcing a tie with the Yanks for the AL East flag. The game was played the next day, Monday, October 2nd at Fenway Park. It came down to the final batter as Goose Gossage got Carl Yastremski to pop up with the tying and winning runs on base. The Bombers won 5-4 and went on to win the pennant and the World Series. The Boston Massacre however had set the tone and in retrospect it was the event that turned the tide irreversibly. The rest of the season was just the exclamation point on what had been a stunning reversal of fortune that saw its peak during four September days in Boston

References

  1. http:\\www.Retrosheet.org
  2. Catfish: My LIfe in Baseball. Mcgraw-Hill by Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Armen Keteyian(April 1, 1988) ISBN: 0070313717
  3. Yankees Century : 100 Years of New York Yankees Baseball. Houghton Mifflin 09/01/02 by Richard A. Johnson and Glenn Stout ISBN: 0618085270
  4. October Men. Reggie Jackson, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and the Yankees` Miraculous Finish in 1978. ISBN: 0151006288. 05/01/2003 Harcourt. By Roger Kahn.