The 1977 New York Yankees Yearbook,
with the Chambliss home run on the cover
October 14, 1976: For the 1st time in 12 years, the Yankees are in Major League Baseball's postseason. For the 1st time ever, a Kansas City team is. The Yankees lead the Royals in the deciding Game 5, 6-3, in the top of the 8th inning. But George Brett slams a long home run off Grant Jackson to tie it.
The game goes to the bottom of the 9th, and a few fans had thrown garbage onto the field, delaying action. Mark Littell, the Royals' closer at the time, had to restart his warmup pitches, and it may have unsettled him just a little bit.
Leading off the inning was Yankee 1st baseman Chris Chambliss. He was a good player, very good with the glove, and had a little power. But he was not a big-time slugger like Graig Nettles, the Yankees' 3rd baseman, who led the American League in homers that year with 32; or Reggie Jackson, the newly-minted free agent, who had starred with the Oakland Athletics, and was moonlighting in the ABC booth with Keith Jackson and Howard Cosell.
The scoreboard showed that the time was 11:43 PM. Littell threw one pitch. Just one pitch. Phil Rizzuto, who once wore the Number 10 now worn by Chambliss, had the call on WPIX, Channel 11:
He hits one deep to right-center! That ball is… outta here! The Yankees win the Pennant! Holy cow, Chris Chambliss on one swing!
And the Yankees win the American League Pennant. Unbelievable, what a finish, as dramatic a finish as you'd ever wanna see! With all that delay, we told you, Littell had to be a little upset. And, holy cow, Chambliss hits one over the fence, he is being mobbed by the fans, and this field will never be the same, but the Yankees have won it in the bottom of the 9th, 7-6!
And on the scoreboard, they're placing, "We're Number 1!" And I wanna tell you, the safest place to be is up here in the booth!
The man known as "The Scooter" wasn't kidding: The fans jumped over the fences and came pouring onto the field by the thousands. This had happened in many a ballpark celebration, and I'm sure some of them had seen their fathers or older brothers do it in 1969 when the Mets did all 3 of their clinchings (Division, Pennant and World Series) at home at Shea Stadium. The Mets had also clinched the Pennant at home in 1973.
I'm sure there were a few "Yankee fans" running onto the field that night in '76 who had been "Met fans" in '69 and '73. Maybe some were now running onto their 2nd New York ballfield. Maybe it was the 3rd, 4th, 5th or… 3 in '69, 2 in '73… 6th time performing what English soccer fans would call a "pitch invasion."
Chambliss threw his arms into the air before reaching 1st base. As soon as he turned for 2nd, a fan ran over and pulled the base out. Who says you can't steal 1st base? The New York Police Department and Yankee Stadium's orange-capped, orange-blazered ushers, that's who. But there was little they could do at this point, as they were hopelessly outnumbered.
So was Chambliss. He touched 2nd, but was then tripped up. He later said his big fear was falling and being trampled by fans. By the time he got to the 3rd base area, the base was gone. He did the best he could, ran by home plate, and, remembering his training as a high school football player, threw a couple of blocks, and got into the dugout.
On Channel 7, doing the game for ABC, this is what happened: Reggie noticed that, as cold as it was, Chambliss had the top button of his jersey undone, something that would likely have gotten him fined today. Of course, Reggie did that a lot, too, once he came to the Yankees and was no longer wearing a pullover jersey, like he had in Oakland and in his one, just-concluded season with the Baltimore Orioles.
Reggie: Chambliss is so hot right now, he's got his top button undone. He’s in heat!
Keith: Mark Littell delivers, there’s a high drive, deep to right-center field…
Howard, interrupting: That’s gone!
Keith: It could be, it is… gone!
Howard: Chris Chambliss has won the American League Pennant for the New York Yankees! A thrilling, dramatic game with overtones of that great sixth game in the World Series last year, and the seventh game, too! (Etc., etc., etc., in that oft-imitated Cosellian way.)
The scoreboard – ignoring for the moment that there was still a World Series to play – flashed, "WE'RE #1" for a minute, and then, "N.Y. YANKEES 1976 AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONS."
When they got into the locker room, the big question was asked: "Did you touch home plate?" Of course, Chambliss didn't touch home plate! He didn't see home plate! There wasn't a home plate left to see!
Leading off the inning was Yankee 1st baseman Chris Chambliss. He was a good player, very good with the glove, and had a little power. But he was not a big-time slugger like Graig Nettles, the Yankees' 3rd baseman, who led the American League in homers that year with 32; or Reggie Jackson, the newly-minted free agent, who had starred with the Oakland Athletics, and was moonlighting in the ABC booth with Keith Jackson and Howard Cosell.
The scoreboard showed that the time was 11:43 PM. Littell threw one pitch. Just one pitch. Phil Rizzuto, who once wore the Number 10 now worn by Chambliss, had the call on WPIX, Channel 11:
He hits one deep to right-center! That ball is… outta here! The Yankees win the Pennant! Holy cow, Chris Chambliss on one swing!
And the Yankees win the American League Pennant. Unbelievable, what a finish, as dramatic a finish as you'd ever wanna see! With all that delay, we told you, Littell had to be a little upset. And, holy cow, Chambliss hits one over the fence, he is being mobbed by the fans, and this field will never be the same, but the Yankees have won it in the bottom of the 9th, 7-6!
And on the scoreboard, they're placing, "We're Number 1!" And I wanna tell you, the safest place to be is up here in the booth!
The man known as "The Scooter" wasn't kidding: The fans jumped over the fences and came pouring onto the field by the thousands. This had happened in many a ballpark celebration, and I'm sure some of them had seen their fathers or older brothers do it in 1969 when the Mets did all 3 of their clinchings (Division, Pennant and World Series) at home at Shea Stadium. The Mets had also clinched the Pennant at home in 1973.
I'm sure there were a few "Yankee fans" running onto the field that night in '76 who had been "Met fans" in '69 and '73. Maybe some were now running onto their 2nd New York ballfield. Maybe it was the 3rd, 4th, 5th or… 3 in '69, 2 in '73… 6th time performing what English soccer fans would call a "pitch invasion."
Chambliss threw his arms into the air before reaching 1st base. As soon as he turned for 2nd, a fan ran over and pulled the base out. Who says you can't steal 1st base? The New York Police Department and Yankee Stadium's orange-capped, orange-blazered ushers, that's who. But there was little they could do at this point, as they were hopelessly outnumbered.
So was Chambliss. He touched 2nd, but was then tripped up. He later said his big fear was falling and being trampled by fans. By the time he got to the 3rd base area, the base was gone. He did the best he could, ran by home plate, and, remembering his training as a high school football player, threw a couple of blocks, and got into the dugout.
On Channel 7, doing the game for ABC, this is what happened: Reggie noticed that, as cold as it was, Chambliss had the top button of his jersey undone, something that would likely have gotten him fined today. Of course, Reggie did that a lot, too, once he came to the Yankees and was no longer wearing a pullover jersey, like he had in Oakland and in his one, just-concluded season with the Baltimore Orioles.
Reggie: Chambliss is so hot right now, he's got his top button undone. He’s in heat!
Keith: Mark Littell delivers, there’s a high drive, deep to right-center field…
Howard, interrupting: That’s gone!
Keith: It could be, it is… gone!
Howard: Chris Chambliss has won the American League Pennant for the New York Yankees! A thrilling, dramatic game with overtones of that great sixth game in the World Series last year, and the seventh game, too! (Etc., etc., etc., in that oft-imitated Cosellian way.)
The scoreboard – ignoring for the moment that there was still a World Series to play – flashed, "WE'RE #1" for a minute, and then, "N.Y. YANKEES 1976 AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONS."
(In case you're wondering, the home plate that was used at the old Yankee Stadium before the renovation that began in 1973 was given to Claire Ruth, the Babe's widow. Eleanor Gehrig got 1st base. So the plate that was stolen that night in '76 was valuable, but it wasn't the same priceless artifact. Most teams, when they move to a new ballpark, tend to take the plate from the old one with them, and the Yankees did that in 2008-09, but not in 1973-76.)
Fortunately, Lee MacPhail, President of the AL and a former general manager of the Yankees (and son of former Yankee part-owner Larry MacPhail), was at the game, and the ruling for him to make was easy: Since the ball left the field of play, and no one was on base for Chambliss to pass, which would have nullified one or more bases, the home run stood, and the Yankees remained 7-6 victors.
Just to be sure, Chambliss, the umpires, and a couple of cops cleared a path through the fans, walked him over to the locations of 3rd base and home plate, and he stepped on the spots where they were supposed to be, and all was official.
Fortunately, Lee MacPhail, President of the AL and a former general manager of the Yankees (and son of former Yankee part-owner Larry MacPhail), was at the game, and the ruling for him to make was easy: Since the ball left the field of play, and no one was on base for Chambliss to pass, which would have nullified one or more bases, the home run stood, and the Yankees remained 7-6 victors.
Just to be sure, Chambliss, the umpires, and a couple of cops cleared a path through the fans, walked him over to the locations of 3rd base and home plate, and he stepped on the spots where they were supposed to be, and all was official.
Carlo Gambino, then the most powerful boss in American organized crime, was a big Yankee fan. But he was too ill to attend, so he watched the game on television at his home in Massapequa, Long Island. The next morning, with the TV still on Channel 7, he was found in his chair, dead of a heart attack at age 74.
Major League Baseball's League Championship Series were a best-3-out-of-5 from their institution in 1969 until 1984. Since 1985, they have been a best-4-out-of-7. Chambliss was the first player to win an LCS with a home run. Through the 2021 season, it has also been done by Aaron Boone of the 2003 Yankees, Magglio Ordóñez of the 2006 Detroit Tigers, Travis Ishikawa of the 2014 San Francisco Giants, and José Altuve of the 2019 Houston Astros (against the Yankees).
This, of course, does not include the best-2-out-of-3 Playoff won by Bobby Thomson of the 1951 New York Giants. Nor does it include home runs in the top of the last inning (9th or later) that turned out to be Pennant-winners: Jack Clark of the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals and Tony Fernández of the 1997 Cleveland Indians. Nor does it include the home runs that won games earlier in an LCS. Nor does it include the home runs that ended World Series: Bill Mazeroski of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates and Joe Carter of the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays.
*
October 14, 1976 was a Thursday. The Cincinnati Reds had already wrapped up the NLCS. It was football season, but it was a Thursday, and no NFL games were played. The 1976-77 NBA season wouldn't begin until the following Thursday.
But there was hockey. Only 1 NHL game was played, a rematch of the previous season's Stanley Cup Finals: The Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 7-1 at The Sepctrum in Philadelphia. By an odd coincidence, there was also only 1 NHL game played the day the Yankees lost the 1960 World Series on another epochal walkoff home run, by Bill Mazeroski of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Canadiens won that, too.
There were 2 games played in the World Hockey Association. The Cincinnati Stingers and the Birmingham Bulls played to a 7-7 tie at the Jefferson County Civic Center in Birmingham, Alabama And the Phoenix Roadrunners beat the Minnesota Fighting Saints, 4-3 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.
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