September 3, 1978: A nice Sunday afternoon on Labor Day Weekend at Yankee Stadium. Strange, but I remembered this game as being 4-0 with Catfish Hunter pitching a shutout and then running out of gas in the 9th inning. But it was Jim Beattie starting and going 8 innings, with Sparky Lyle taking over for the 9th, up 4-2 over the Seattle Mariners.
Chris Chambliss had driven in 3 runs with a triple, and Reggie Jackson had gone 2-for-4. Now, they just needed Sparky, the previous season's American League Cy Young Award winner, to get 3 outs.
But Sparky didn't have it, and allowed a single to Bruce Bochte, a single to Dan Meyer, and a double to Bill Stein to make it 4-3, runners on 2nd and 3rd, and nobody out.
And the Boston Red Sox had already won, beating the Oakland Athletics, 11-6 at Fenway Park. Jim Rice had 3 hits, including a home run; while Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Fred Lynn and Rick Burleson each had 2. Rice had 4 RBIs, Fisk 3, Lynn 2.
So the Yankees, having been 14 games behind the Red Sox on July 20, but came into this game 5½ back, needed this one to keep pace.
Manager Bob Lemon brought in Rich Gossage. The Goose faced Tom Paciorek, and struck him out. He faced Bob Robertson and struck him out. He faced Julio Cruz, and struck him out, too. He struck out the side. On WPIX-Channel 11, Phil Rizzuto nearly "Holy Cow"ed himself to an early grave. The Yankees remain 5½ games out in the AL Eastern Division, with 28 to play, including 7 against the Sox.
Gossage had gotten off to a rough start with the Yankees, after being the big free-agent signing of the 1977-78 off-season. Manager Billy Martin didn't trust him, angry that team owner George Steinbrenner had signed him despite having Lyle as the closer. But when Billy was fired, Lemon, who had been a Hall of Fame pitcher, was brought in, and he straightened the team out, including showing Gossage that he trusted him. Things were considerably smoother after that.
Over the next 44 days, Gossage became the 1st pitcher in the still relatively-new Divisional Play Era to get the final out in a Division title clincher, a Pennant clincher, and a World Series clincher. He developed his trademark biker mustache, and a reputation as the most dominant relief pitcher of the next few years.
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September 3, 1978 was a Sunday. Czech hockey player Michal Rozsíval was born.
These other Major League Baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-5. Lee Mazzilli hit 2 home runs.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Wayne Nordhagen hit a 3-run home run in the top of the 9th to win it for the South Siders. Eddie Murray went 0-for-4.
* The California Angels beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-1 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Willie Stargell went 1-for-3.
* This was still the age of Sunday doubleheaders. The Chicago Cubs swept one from the Houston Astros, 3-2 and 4-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-2 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 1-for-4 with 2 RBIs.
* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Texas Rangers, 4-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Robin Yount went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Rookie Paul Molitor went 0-for-5.
* The Minnesota Twins swept a doubleheader from the Cleveland Indians, 12-3 and 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Over the 2 games, Rod Carew went 5-for-7 with a walk.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 10-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Lou Brock did not play. Nor did Johnny Bench. Pete Rose went 2-for-4.
* The San Francisco Giants swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1 and 3-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
* And the Montreal Expos and the San Diego Padres were, oddly, not scheduled.
It was also the opening weekend of the NFL season, and these games were played:
* The New York Jets beat the Miami Dolphins, 33-20 at Shea Stadium.
* The Washington Redskins beat the New England Patriots, 16-14 at Schaefer Stadium (later Sullivan Stadium and Foxboro Stadium) in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.
* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 16-14 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.
* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Houston Oilers, 20-14 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
* The New Orleans Saints beat the Minnesota Vikings, 31-24 at the Superdome in New Orleans.
* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Buffalo Bills, 28-17 at Rich Stadium (now Highmark Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.
* The Cleveland Browns beat the San Francisco 49ers, 24-7 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-23 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.
* The Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions, 13-7 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.
* The Chicago Bears beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 17-10 at Soldier Field in Chicago.
* The Denver Broncos beat the Oakland Raiders, 14-6 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.
* The San Diego Chargers beat the Seattle Seahawks, 24-20 at the Kingdome in Seattle.
* The night before this day -- and, given where each team was at the time, it seems an odd choice for a season-kickoff game -- the New York Giants beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 19-13 at Tampa Stadium.
* And the night after this day, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Baltimore Colts, 38-0 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.
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