Reggie Jackson, "Mr. October," as he had off Al Hrabosky, "the Mad Hungarian," to clinch Game 1 of the series, hit a home run in the 2nd inning. But Brett homered again in the 3rd, to make it 2-1 Royals. With 1 out in the bottom of the 4th, Thurman Munson doubled. Reggie singled him home to tie it. Lou Piniella grounded to short, and Freddie Patek threw it away, allowing Reggie to score and Piniella to make it to 3rd. It was 3-2 Yankees.
Graig Nettles then flew to left. Clint Hurdle caught it, Piniella tagged up to try to score, and Hurdle made a perfect throw to nail him at the plate. Ron Luciano, the most demonstrative umpire of all time, pumped his fist to call Piniella "Out! Out! Out!" The inning was over.
"Sweet Lou" had a fit, with what a pro-Yankee writer called a "Wild Man of Borneo" act. I was 8 years old at the time, and already a huge Yankee fan, and I was sure the Yankees were robbed. Seeing the play again many years later, I saw that Lou was out by a mile.
And then Brett led off the top of the 5th with his 3rd home run of the game. Catfish, who had overcome a shoulder injury to be vital for the Yankees down the stretch, pitched 6 innings. Other than Brett's homers, he had allowed no runs on 4 hits, so it wasn't like he was pitching badly. He just got beat 3 times.
Reggie had hit 3 in Game 6 of the previous year's World Series, and Babe Ruth had hit 3 homers in a World Series game twice. This was only the 4th time anybody had hit 3 in any postseason game, and nobody had ever done 4. (Through the 2021 season, that's still true.) Yankee fans were worried that this would be it.
Reggie drove Roy White home with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 6th, to retake the lead, 4-3. Manager Bob Lemon, himself a Hall of Fame pitcher, brought Rich "Goose" Gossage in to relieve Catfish in the 7th. In the top of the 8th, he gave up a double to Amos Otis, gave up an RBI single to Darrell Porter, struck Pete LaCock out, gave up a single to Hurdle, and gave up an RBI groundout to Al Cowens, before getting Patek to ground out to end it, but it was 5-4 Royals.
With 1 out in the bottom of the 8th, White singled. Munson stepped up against Royals reliever Doug Bird. Munson was, and remains, the only Yankee to win the American League's Rookie of the Year award and its Most Valuable Player award, in 1970 and 1976 respectively. He was named the Yankees' Captain in 1976. From 1975 to 1977, he had 3 straights seasons of at least a .300 batting average and 100 runs batted in. But he had battled injuries, to his shoulders and his knees. Statistically, 1978 was a down year for him.
(Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio all debuted before the Rookie of the Year award did, in 1947. Mickey Mantle did not have an exceptional rookie season. Derek Jeter won the Rookie of the Year in 1996, but was cheated out of at least 2 and possibly 3 MVP awards.) (UPDATE: Aaron Judge was named ROY in 2017 and MVP in 2022, '24 and '25.)
Munson crushed a pitch, 470 feet to left-center field. Appropriately, it went into Monument Park. On ABC, broadcasting along with Keith Jackson and the still-active pitcher Tom Seaver, Howard Cosell, who admired Munson, laughed: "Ho-ho! The damaged man!" The Goose finished it off in the 9th, and the Yankees won, 6-5.
This is what I love most about Munson: At the moment when the Yankees most needed him to hit a home run, the banged-up Captain hit the longest home run of his career.
At this point, the only players honored in Monument Park were the big 4: Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle – along with owner Jacob Ruppert, general manager Ed Barrow, managers Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel, and the plaque honoring the Mass delivered by Pope Paul VI.
The next Plaque to be dedicated would be the one for the Mass delivered by Pope John Paul II, but the next one for a Yankee would be, sadly, for Munson himself.
The next Plaque to be dedicated would be the one for the Mass delivered by Pope John Paul II, but the next one for a Yankee would be, sadly, for Munson himself.
Since Brett, 3 homers in an LCS game has been done in the American League by Adam Kennedy, of the team then known as the Anaheim Angels, against the Minnesota Twins, in Game 5 in 2002; and in the National League by Kiké Hernández, of the Los Angeles Dodgers, against the Chicago Cubs, in Game 5 in 2017.
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October 6, 1978 was a Friday. Football was in midweek. It was a little early for the NBA, NHL and World Hockey Association seasons to start. So the only other score on this historic day was in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.
The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 9-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Steve Carlton not only outpitched Don Sutton -- a fellow member of the Hall of Fame and the 300 Win and 3,000 Strikeout Clubs -- but hit a home run in his own cause. Greg Luzinski also homered for the Phils, Steve Garvey for the Dodgers. But this would be the only game the Phils would win in this series, as the Dodgers clinched the next day. The Yankees beat the Dodgers in the World Series.
Also on this day, on CBS, the Wonder Woman TV series airs the episode "The Deadly Sting." Agent Diana Prince (Lynda Carter) investigates the manipulation of college football players into throwing their games. Footage of Notre Dame games against Texas and USC was used. Among the guest stars are former Los Angeles Rams stars Roman Gabriel and Deacon Jones, former TV Tarzan Ron Ely, and, as a player before he became a Coach, Craig T. Nelson.
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