April 13, 1978: The Reggie Bar Game

25 cents in 1978 = about $1.13 in 2022 money

April 13, 1978: The New York Yankees hold their home opener at Yankee Stadium, playing the Chicago White Sox. Yankee Fans make amends with Roger Maris, as he and Mickey Mantle raise the previous season's World Championship banner.

Maris, so often mistreated by the home fans because he had not been their choice to break Babe Ruth's single-season home run record, had not appeared at Yankee Stadium since September 25, 1966. Team owner George Steinbrenner had frequently invited him back starting in 1973, telling him that things had changed. Maris thought he would still get booed.

Finally, George asked him, "What would it take to get you to come back?" The Maris family had moved to Gainesville, Florida, and their children were going to a Christian high school. Roger wanted a new baseball field for the school, saying it would cost $25,000. George said, "Done!" and sent the school a check. So Roger came back. Just to be on the safe side, George invited Mickey, too, and they were both cheered.

Knuckleballer Wilbur Wood started for the White Sox, and he gave up a walk to Willie Randolph and a single to Mickey Rivers. He struck Thurman Munson out. Up next was Reggie Jackson, making his 1st plate appearance at Yankee Stadium since Game 6 of the previous year's World Series, when he hit 3 home runs to help the Yankees clinch the title.

Sometime before coming to the Yankees, Reggie had said, "If I played in New York, they'd name a candy bar after me." He had a point: The Curtiss Candy Company had named a bar the Baby Ruth. To avoid paying Babe Ruth royalties on his name, they came up with a ridiculous reason of why it was named for someone else, and it held up in court. But Ruth was, from 1926 until 1977, the only player to hit 3 home runs in a World Series game. The Oh Henry! bar wasn't named for Henry Aaron, either.

Anyway, after his 1977 Game 6 performance matched Ruth's 1926 (and 1928) World Series performance, the Reggie Bar became a certainty. Before the Yankees' 1978 home opener, each of the 44,667 fans coming in got a free one. It wasn't a "bar": It was, more or less, round, with peanuts dipped in caramel and covered in chocolate. It was marketed by Standard Brands, which was owned by Curtiss, which made sense.

Anyway, the game was decided in the 1st inning. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Reggie crushed a Wood knuckler to right field for a 3-0 lead.

By the time Reggie finished rounding the bases, the fans were throwing the Reggie Bars onto the field, the orange wrappers clashing with the green grass. In the dugout, Reggie and manager Billy Martin, so often at odds, were caught on camera laughing at the spectacle together. In the other dugout, Bob Lemon, the Hall of Fame former pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, now managing the White Sox, said, "People are starving all over the world, and there's a billion calories on the field."

The 3-0 lead would be all Ron Guidry would need, going the distance for his 1st win of the season, leading to perhaps the greatest season any pitcher has ever had. The Yankees won the game, 4-2. Between the pageantry of Opening Day, the appearance of Mantle, the return of Maris, the raising of the banner, the Reggie homer, the Reggie bars, and the win, this might have been the best day in Yankee history.

But for a while, this would be the highlight of the Yankees' season. Reggie and Billy would soon be at odds again, and Billy would be fired by Yankee owner George Steinbrenner. By that point, Lemon had been fired as White Sox manager, and Steinbrenner, who grew up in Cleveland as a fan of Lemon and the Indians, hired Lemon to manage the Yankees. It worked: The Yankees won the World Series again. And a lot more Reggie Bars were sold.

Eventually, Jackson and Steinbrenner had a falling-out, and when Jackson's contract ran out, Steinbrenner refused to offer him a new one. He would later admit that it was his biggest mistake as team owner. Curtiss stopped selling Reggie Bars in 1982. They briefly brought them back in 1993, when Reggie was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. (UPDATE: They brought them back in 2023.)

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April 13, 1978 was a Thursday. These 4 other MLB games were played that day:

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-6 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Rick Auerbach singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 13th inning. Pete Rose went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Johnny Bench went 2-for-5 with a walk. Joe Morgan went 1-for-5 with a walk. For the Giants, Willie McCovey appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Eric Rasmussen outpitched Bert Blyleven. Lou Brock went 1-for-4 with a stolen base. Willie Stargell did not play for the Pirates.

* The California Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 1-0 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Joe Rudi won the game with a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning. Dave LaRoche was the winning pitcher, after Nolan Ryan pitched 10 innings of shutout ball, striking out 12. Rod Carew had a rare 0-for-5 game.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners, 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Gary Alexander won it with a home run in the bottom of the 9th.

The NBA was between the end of its regular season and the start of its Playoffs. This was also true of the World Hockey Association. As for the NHL, there were 4 games played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs:

* The New York Rangers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3 at Madison Square Garden. Don Murdoch scored the winning goal, 1:37 into overtime. He was a part of a forward line known as "The Mafia Line": Don Murdoch and Don Maloney, centered by Phil Esposito, "The Godfather."

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Colorado Rockies, 3-1 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. This was the only one of the franchise's 6 seasons in Denver that the Rockies made the Playoffs, before moving in 1982 to become the New Jersey Devils.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Atlanta Flames, 3-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-0 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

Also, Carles Puyol, who captained Spain to the 2010 World Cup, and FC Barcelona to the 2009 and 2011 UEFA Champions League titles, was born on this day.