October 14, 1976: The Chris Chambliss Game

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!

(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.

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.

August 16, 1977: Elvis Presley Dies

August 16, 1977: Elvis Presley dies at his home, Graceland, on the south side of Memphis, Tennessee. He had a massive heart attack, brought on by years of a rotten diet and massive prescription drug use. The man known as the King of Rock and Roll was only 42 years old.

Graceland Farms was owned by Stephen Toof, who ran a commercial printing firm. He named it for his daughter, Grace. She inherited the property from him in 1894, and after her death, it went to her niece, Ruth Moore. Her husband, Thomas Moore, built a mansion on the site in 1939.

Elvis bought it in 1957, after seeing the house he'd bought for himself and his parents in a nice section of Memphis besieged by fans. The house on the Graceland property was well back of U.S. Route 51, providing protection from the public. The address was 3764 Bellevue Boulevard, in the Whitehaven section of Memphis, and it's actually closer to the Mississippi State Line (4 miles) than it is to downtown (7 miles). In 1972, while Elvis was still alive, the City renamed the road Elvis Presley Boulevard.

Elvis had begun taking amphetamines while serving in the U.S. Army in 1958. This led to sleeping pills to counter the effects, and later diet pills in a vain attempt to control his weight.

He concluded a tour at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis on June 26, and was preparing to fly out of Memphis on August 16, to start a new tour the next night. As rich as he seemed, as it turned out, he needed the money. Elvis had a huge entourage, including family members such as his father; and his manager, "Colonel" Tom Parker, was taking far too much of his earnings.

Divorced from his only wife, formerly Priscilla Beaulieu, he was now dating actress Ginger Alden, who was living with him at Graceland. At the peak of his fame, at a shade over 6 feet, he weighed about 170 pounds. Now, he was more than twice that.

That afternoon, he was in the master bedroom with Ginger, and he told her, "Precious, I'm going to go into the bathroom, and read." A few minutes later, Ginger heard a sound come from the bathroom. Elvis had fallen off the toilet, his various maladies and prescriptions having combined to give him a heart attack. He was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital, and was pronounced dead at 3:30 PM Central Time (4:30 Eastern).

Under Priscilla's leadership, Colonel Parker lost control of Elvis' estate, and it made more money in the 1st 3 years after his death than he made in the 42 years that he was alive. Graceland is not just the most-visited former private home in America: It has become a theme park, with the house and the Meditation Gardens -- final resting place of Elvis and various relatives -- and a hotel on the east side of Elvis Presley Boulevard, and various Elvis-related items on the west side, including restaurants named for his parents: Vernon's Smokehouse and Gladys' Diner. There's also an Elvis-themed Automobile Museum, and "Elvis Presley's Memphis," an exhibit about the city during his lifetime.

*

August 16, 1977 was a Tuesday. Football, basketball and hockey were out of season. There were Major League Baseball games were played on that day, including the New York Yankees playing the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium.

When ESPN made its miniseries about the 1977 Yankees, The Bronx Is Burning, it included this exchange, between Mather Zickel, playing Lou Piniella, and Leonard Robinson, playing Mickey Rivers -- keeping in mind, this was 3 years before John Lennon was shot and killed in New York:

Lou: Presley's dead!

Mickey: Who?

Lou: Elvis Presley! I just heard it on the radio.

Mickey: Somebody shot him?

Lou: No, nobody shot him!

Mickey: Well, what, then? Heart attack? 'Cause, I heard, for a superstar, he had a pretty poor diet.

Lou: No, they're saying, drugs, or something.

Mickey: Well, that just goes to show you.

Lou: Goes to show you what?

Mickey: Well, hell if I know, but it must go to show you something!

And then the Yankees took the field, and played what may have been their craziest game of the year. They led 2-0 after 2 innings, saw the ChiSox tie it in the 4th, took a 4-2 lead in the 5th, saw the ChiSox tie it in the top of the 7th, took a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the 7th, extended it to 9-4 in the 8th, and then the ChiSox exploded for 6 runs in the top of the 9th to make it 10-9. Future Yankee Jim Spencer had hit 2 home runs for the Pale Hose, while Roy White had hit one for the Pinstripes.

Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Thurman Munson led off the bottom of the 9th with a walk. Piniella hadn't started the game, but manager Billy Martin put him in as a pinch-runner for Reggie Jackson, who had gone 1-for-3, and kept him in right field for Reggie. Lou bunted Thurman over. This turned out to be unnecessary, as the next batter, Chris Chambliss, hit a walkoff home run.

The day Elvis died was the day that the Baby Boomers realized that they weren't kids anymore. The day Yankee legend Mickey Mantle died, 18 years later to the week, was the day the Baby Boomers had to accept that they were now old.

As for the other games played that day:

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-1, at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Of the 4 players the Mets had gotten in the Tom Seaver trade on June 15, Steve Henderson and Doug Flynn each had 3 hits, and Pat Zachry went the distance for the win, while Dan Norman did not play. For the Cards, Lou Brock went 0-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Montreal Expos 7-5 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. The Phils scored 5 runs in the top of the 8th to win it. Mike Schmidt went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. George Brett did not play. Butch Hobson hit a home run, and Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Lee May hit a home run for the O's, and Doug DeCinces singled home eventual Rookie of the Year Eddie Murray in the bottom of the 13th inning.

* The Houston Astros beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The California Angels 7 beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-2 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians 7-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Diego Padres 5-1 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. The aforementioned Tom Seaver went the distance for the win, and the Reds got home runs from Pete Rose and Dan Driessen. Rose and Johnny Bench each went 1-for-4.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Bill Robinson hit 2 home runs for the Pirates. Willie Stargell did not play. Gene Clines singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 15th inning.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Milwaukee Brewer,s 11-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

April 26, 1974: The Yankees' Friday Night Massacre

Chris Chambliss

April 26, 1974: The New York Yankees trade 4 pitchers away: Fritz Peterson, Steve Kline, Fred Beene and Tom Buskey. They are sent to the Cleveland Indians. Just 6 months after President Richard Nixon initiated what became known as the Saturday Night Massacre, the New York media calls this the Friday Night Massacre.

The Yankees traded 1/3rd of their pitching staff for 1st baseman Chris Chambliss, the 1971 American League Rookie of the Year, and 2 pitchers that nobody in New York had ever heard of. This trade was very unpopular at the time, both in the clubhouse and in the stands.

The night before, 3 of the pitchers had played in the Yankees' 6-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals at Shea Stadium, where the Yankees were groundsharing with the Mets while Yankee Stadium was being renovated, that season and the next. Kline started, and didn't get out of the 6th inning, which Beene finished. Peterson pitched the last 3 innings, allowing the last run.

In a little over 8 seasons with the Yankees, Peterson had gone 109-106 with a 3.10 ERA, including a 20-win season in 1970. Kline had gone 40-37 and 3.26 in a shade over 4 seasons. Beene was 7-3 with 5 saves and a 1.99 ERA in a little over 2 seasons. Buskey had appeared in only 12 games, all in relief, going 0-2 with 2 saves and a 5.64 ERA. Mainly, it was the trade of Peterson that upset Yankee fans, with whom he was still popular, in spite of his "wife swap" the season before with fellow pitcher Mike Kekich, who was traded soon thereafter.

But it turned out to be a great trade for the Yankees. As one observer wrote, it "broke up the country club." Upshaw never did much for them, but Tidrow became a key pitcher, both starting and relieving, on the team that would win 3 straight Pennants from 1976 to 1978. And Chambliss had both a Gold Glove and a power bat, hitting the home run that clinched the 1976 Pennant. Once the fans poured onto the field at the renovated Yankee Stadium following Chambliss' homer, Peterson had become "Fritz Who?"

Peterson went 14-8 for the Indians in 1975, but pitched only 1 more season and change in the majors, due to a shoulder injury. He would finish his career at 133-131. The other pitchers were not missed.

Heart attacks took the lives of Cecil Upshaw when he was only 52 in 1995, and Tom Buskey when he was only 51 in 1998. Steve Kline died in 2018, Dick Tidrow in 2021. As of April 26, 2022, Chris Chambliss and Fred Beene are still alive. So is Fritz Peterson. However, in 2018, he publicly revealed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and stepped away from public life.

(UPDATE: He died on October 19, 2023, although it wasn't publicly announced for another 6 months, until April 12, 2024.)

*

April 26, 1974 was, as the title suggests, a Friday. Football was out of season. The NBA and the ABA were both between rounds of the Playoffs. The Stanley Cup and WHA Playoffs were underway, but no games were scheduled for either.

But these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The Yankees beat the Texas Rangers, 4-3 at Shea Stadium. Mel Stottlemyre went the distance for his 162nd career win, all in a Yankee uniform. But he would only win 2 more before an injury ended his career on August 16. So, before the season was out, the Yankees were without 5 of the pitchers with whom they started the season.

* The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Tom Seaver pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 6-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Andy Etchebarren brought Don Baylor home with a sacrifice fly to win it in the bottom of the 15th inning. Grant Jackson won the game, in relief of Jim Palmer. Paul Lindblad lost it, in relief of Vida Blue. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-6 with a walk and an RBI. Reggie Jackson went 4-for-7 with 2 home runs and 3 RBIs. Brooks and Reggie shared a birthday, May 18. (Brooks was about to turn 37; Reggie, 28.)

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-3 at Atlanta Stadium. (It was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium the next season.) The Braves scored 8 runs in the 7th inning. Hank Aaron went 2-for-4 with 4 RBIs, but did not hit a home run.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Houston Astros, 4-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the California Angels, 4-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. For the Angels, Frank Robinson went 0-for-2 with 2 walks, and had an RBI when Bob Johnson of the Indians hit him with a pitch with the bases loaded. But the Indians scored 4 runs in the 7th inning to chase Nolan Ryan, and make a winning pitcher out of Tom Timmerman. In his last game as an Indian, Chris Chambliss went 1-for-4 with 3 RBIs.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Al Kaline, in his last season, went 2-for-4.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3. Rod Carew went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Robin Yount went 0-for-4.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Pete Rose went 0-for-5. Johnny Bench went 0-for-4. Lou Brock went 2-for-4, and stole his 12th base of the season, en route to a major league record 118. But the Reds won the game.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-2 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-1 with 2 walks and an RBI on a sacrifice fly.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-2 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Dave Freiselben outpitched Steve Carlton. Dave Winfield hit a home run. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-3.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Montreal Expos, 7-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.