October 18, 1977: Reggie! Reggie! Reggie!

October 18, 1977: Number 44 made the New York Yankees Number 1 again.

The man that Sports Illustrated, in 1974, called a "Superduperstar" on its cover while he was playing for the Oakland Athletics becomes a legend in New York. He becomes "Mister October."

Reggie Jackson hits 3 home runs, the last a tremendous blast into the center field bleachers at the original Yankee Stadium, blacked out as a hitter's background, and Mike Torrez goes the distance. The Yankees beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-4 at the original Yankee Stadium, and win Game 6 to take their 21st World Series -- but their 1st in 15 years.

I only saw the 1st 2 of Reggie's home runs. I was about to turn 8, and my parents figured the game was in the bag, and that I didn't need to stay up past 11 to see the last out, especially on a school night. (It was a Tuesday -- don't bet me. And you know what? The game ended at 10:53, so I didn't have to stay up past 11!) So I missed Reggie's mammoth 3rd blast. I have seen the clip a few times since. (Ya think, DiNozzo?)

As he had jokingly predicted, a candy bar was named after him. I loved the Reggie Bar. Oddly enough, it was peanuts and caramel, surrounded by chocolate -- pretty much the same combination as the Baby Ruth bar, which, as we now know, was named after the Bambino, the 1st man to hit 3 homers in a World Series game. That feat has since been matched by Albert Pujols (not a big surprise) and Pablo Sandoval (a very big surprise).

Because of what he was able to do, and where, and when, Reginald Martinez Jackson remains my favorite athlete of all time. Yeah, he's flawed -- so are we all, and so what?

Willie Randolph was the last active player for the 1977 and 1978 World Champion Yankees, playing in the major leagues until 1992.

*

October 18, 1977 was a Tuesday. It was midweek, so no football games were played. There were 5 games played on this opening night of the NBA season:

* The New York Knicks beat the Kansas City Kings, 120-113 at Madison Square Garden. Earl "the Pearl" Monroe led the Knickerbockers with 27 points.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Detroit Pistons, 110-93 at Cobo Hall in Detroit.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 91-88 the Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio. Artis Gilmore scored 34 points for the Bulls.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 117-112 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was injured, and only played 2 minutes against his former team. That enabled the Bucks to win behind 26 points from Brian Winters.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Golden State Warriors, 100-83 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

There were 2 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders played the Los Angeles Kings to a 0-0 tie at the Nassau Coliseum. For this one night, Glenn "Chico" Resch was as good as Billy Smith, good enough to be the equal of another Hall-of-Famer, the Kings' Rogie Vachon.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

And there were 2 games played in the World Hockey Association:

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 5-1 at the Colisee de Quebec.

* The New England Whalers and the Indianapolis Racers played to a 2-2 tie at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. 

October 14, 1977: Anita Bryant Gets "Canceled" With a Pie

October 14, 1977: Gay activist Thom Higgins responds to singer Anita Bryant's anti-gay legislative campaign by hitting her in the face with a pie during a press conference in Des Moines, Iowa. At first, she maintained her composure, and joked, using a slur on gay men, "At least it's a fruit pie." She soon broke down in tears.

Gay people had run a boycott of her most famous endorsement, of Florida orange juice. The growers soon realized they were losing money, and dropped her as a spokesperson. Jokes about her had become part of Johnny Carson's monologue on The Tonight Show and questions on Match Game.

Bryant as a young singer

Although she had peaked as a decidedly non-rock singer in the early 1960s, she was still fairly popular until her "Save Our Children" campaign. But after this, her career was ruined. Her marriage soon broke up. Eventually, the only town where she could get hired was Branson, Missouri, the place known as "the Redneck Vegas." She is still alive, age 82, an early victim of "cancel culture." Higgins died in 1994, from complications of AIDS.

The most recent picture of her I could find, dated 2011

(UPDATE: Anita Bryant died on December 16, 2024, at the age of 84. It had been 3 years since her granddaughter, Sarah Green, had come out as gay and announced she was marrying a woman.)

Also on this day, Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby dies at age 74, of a heart attack following a round of golf at a country club in Alcobendas, Spain, a suburb of Madrid. How good a golfer the legendary singer and actor known as "Der Bingle" was is open to debate, but he did sponsor the Bing Crosby Open tournament.

Golf isn't a real sport? I agree. Okay, then: From 1946 until his death, he was a part-owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, while his frequent movie costar and golfing buddy Bob Hope was a part-owner of the next-closest big-league team, the Cleveland Indians. Fortunately for them, the 2 teams are in different leagues, so the nasty Pittsburgh-Cleveland football rivalry did not spill over into baseball. (In fact, 2013 marked the 1st time both the Pirates and the Indians ever made the postseason in the same year.)

*

October 14, 1977 was a Friday. The New York Yankees won Game 3 of the World Series, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Mike Torrez went the distance for the win, and Mickey Rivers collected 3 hits, 2 of them doubles.

Football was in midweek. The NBA season began 4 days later. There were 2 NHL games. The New York Islanders and the Los Angeles Kings played to a tie, 0-0 at the Nassau Coliseum. And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

And there were 2 games in the World Hockey Association. The Quebec Nordiques beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 5-1 at the Colisée de Québec. And the New England Whalers and the Indianapolis Racers played to a 2-2 tie at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

October 2, 1978: The Bucky Dent Game

October 2, 1978. I like to call it the Boston Tie Party. Boston Red Sox fans call it something else.

On July 20, the Sox led the American League Eastern Division by 9 1/2 games. The New York Yankees were 14 games back. But it wasn't over: The Yankees changed managers, allowing Billy Martin to claim a resignation and hiring Bob Lemon, and went on a tear.

On September 10, they completed a 4-game sweep of the Red Sox at Fenway Park, to tie them for 1st place. Outscoring them 42-9 over the 4 games, it became known as the Boston Massacre. By September 16, after taking 2 more games at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees were 3 1/2 games up.

But it wasn't over then, either: The Sox won the finale of that series, and 12 of their last 14, including their last 8 straight, and both teams ended with 99-63 records. A one-game Playoff would be necessary to decide the AL East title, won by the Sox in 1975 and the Yankees in 1976 and 1977.

So at the conclusion of play on October 1st, Lemon had a big decision to make. He had been in such a situation before, although as a piece of the decision, rather than as the decider: In 1948, he was a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, and they had to go to Fenway Park and play the Red Sox in a one-game playoff for the Pennant.

Lou Boudreau, who was their manager, and also their shortstop, asked the players who they would pitch. To a man, they all said that whoever he chose would be fine with them. Given the dimensions of Fenway Park, Boudreau knew that picking a fastball pitcher like Bob Feller might be a bad idea. Lemon's out pitch was a slider, but he was only in his 3rd year as a full-time pitcher, so the possibility of his hanging a slider and having it sent over the Green Monster in left field made Boudreau back off.

So Boudreau went with a knuckleballer, Gene Bearden, who pitched well despite not much rest. Boudreau himself hit 2 home runs. The Indians won, stayed in Boston to begin the World Series against the Braves (this was the closest baseball would ever come to an all-Boston World Series), and won the Series in 6 games.

Thirty years later, Lemon really only had one choice: Ron Guidry, a lefthander with a 98-mile-per-hour fastball and a devastating slider. He stood at 24-3, with a 1.71 ERA. And the man known as "Louisiana Lightning" said, "Skip, give me the ball." And Lemon knew that he would be ready, even though he was only on 3 days rest.

Leaving Yankee Stadium on October 1, Guidry ran into the Yankees' owner, George Steinbrenner. George told Ron he was nervous. Ron said, "Boss, what are you so worried about?" And George whined about having to go up to Fenway and how strong the Red Sox were. Ron said, "Don't worry, Boss. I got this." George would later say that calmed him down a lot.

Red Sox manager Don Zimmer chose Mike Torrez as his starting pitcher. The year before, Torrez had been a Yankee, and went the distance in winning Games 3 and 6 of the World Series. But his contract ran out, and Steinbrenner, in the process of replacing Gabe Paul as general manager with Al Rosen, didn't make a move to re-sign Torrez.

So Torrez signed with the Red Sox, and went 16-12. Red Sox fans loved Luis Tiant and Bill Lee, but the truth was, that season, Torrez won more games than any Sox pitcher except Dennis Eckersley. (Lee had been terrible down the stretch, Tiant had pitched the day before, and Eckersley, who wouldn't be converted into one of the greatest relievers in the game's history, wasn't rested enough, either.)

In hindsight, lots of Red Sox fans bemoaned the selection of Torrez. But, at the time, many saw it as a good sign. Guidry had lost only 3 games all season long, and all 3 times, it was to an opposing pitcher named Mike: Caldwell of the Milwaukee Brewers, Flanagan of the Baltimore Orioles, and Willis of the Toronto Blue Jays. The problem with this theory was, all 3 of those were lefthanded, like Guidry. Torrez was righthanded.

Some Sox fans took comfort in the fact that Guidry was lefthanded, and Fenway was great for righthanded hitters, with its 37-foot-high left field wall, nicknamed the Green Monster, with a foul pole listed at just 315 feet from home plate. They would later relabel it as 310. Some people suspect that it may even be closer than that: A World War II bomber pilot, who studied reconnaissance photos, looked at an aerial shot, made some measurements, and said it was 304 feet. Some people have suggested it's even as close as 290. And it wasn't just the pole: That wall turned pop flies into home runs, and fly outs into singles and doubles.

Except Guidry had already pitched a 2-hit shutout there in Game 3 of the Massacre series. And Ron Guidry was not going to be intimidated. Not by Carl Yastrzemski, nor by Jim Rice, nor Carlton Fisk, or any of the other Sox hitters.

But neither would Torrez be intimidated by the Yankee hitters. After all, he knew them well.

*

These were the starting lineups. For the Yankees:

17 CF Mickey Rivers
15 C Thurman Munson
14 RF Lou Piniella
44 DH Reggie Jackson
9 3B Graig Nettles
10 1B Chris Chambliss
6 LF Roy White
25 2B Brian Doyle
20 SS Bucky Dent

Only Rivers and Dent were in their usual places in the order. The usual 2nd baseman, Number 30, Willie Randolph, was injured, and would miss the entire postseason if the Yankees made it. He usually batted 2nd. So Munson was moved up from 3rd to 2nd.

Piniella, usually either the left fielder or the designated hitter, was moved up from 5th to 3rd. Jackson was put in the DH slot, not because Lemon had little confidence in his fielding, the way Martin did, but because Reggie had injured his thumb attempting a catch off the wall a few days earlier, and it still hurt to put a glove on. This would prove to be a critical change later on, one of the few examples ever of a well-timed injury. It didn't stop him from hitting, though.

Nettles was moved up from 6th to 5th; Chambliss from 7th to 6th; and White from 8th, where he was frequently the DH, to 7th.

For the Red Sox:

7 SS Rick Burleson
2 2B Jerry Remy
14 RF Jim Rice
8 LF Carl Yastrzemski
27 C Carlton Fisk
19 CF Fred Lynn
4 DH Butch Hobson
5 1B George Scott
3 3B Jack Brohamer

Differences from the usual: Rice was moved from left field to right, filling in for the injured Dwight Evans; Yaz, at this point in his career, was the usual DH or 1st baseman, but moved back to his old position to fill in for the moved Rice; Hobson was usually the 3rd baseman and the 9th hitter, but an injured elbow took him out of the field; the slumping Scott was dropped from 7th to 8th; and Brohamer was an emergency backup, leading to Hobson being moved from 9th to 7th.

(Because of the bone chips in his elbow, Clell Lavern Hobson Jr., who once had good enough of an arm to be a backup quarterback for Bear Bryant at the University of Alabama, made 43 errors in 1978. No player has had as many in a season since.)

The starting pitchers were Ron Guidry for New York, Mike Torrez for Boston. The umpires were Don Denkinger behind home plate, Jim Evans at 1st base, Al Clark at 2nd, and Steve Palermo at 3rd. All good ones, regardless of what St. Louis fans would eventually think of Denkinger.

Game-time temperature was 68 degrees. No rain was forecast. Paid attendance was 32,925, and there may have been another 2,000 or so freebies inside Fenway. Getting tickets was a crapshoot, with or without scalpers, but face value for box seats was $5.75 -- about $25.78 in 2022 money.

Fenway Park, sometime between 1976 (new scoreboards)

and 1987 (before the club seating went up)

The game began at 2:30 PM, and I didn't get to see the start of it, because Bowne-Munro let out at 2:35. By the time I got home, it was already 1-0 Red Sox. Here's what I missed:

Top of the 1st: Torrez walked Rivers. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. And the last thing Torrez wanted to do was put Mick the Quick on 1st to start the game. Sure enough, Rivers stole 2nd. But Torrez struck Munson out, and got Piniella to ground to 3rd and Reggie to fly to left.

Bottom of the 1st: Guidry struck Burleson out, got Remy to fly to left, and struck Rice out. Top of the 2nd: Torrez got Nettles to pop to short, got Chambliss to pop to 1st, and struck White out.

Ron Guidry, in the bottom of the 1st

Bottom of the 2nd: Yaz led off with a home run, curling it around the right-field pole that would later be named for Johnny Pesky. The Fenway crowd went bananas over their 39-year-old Captain, the hero of the 1967 "Impossible Dream" Pennant, coming through again. But Guidry settled down, and got Fisk to fly to left, Lynn to fly to center, and Hobson to ground to 3rd. Still: Red Sox 1, Yankees 0.

Yaz shakes hands with Lynn, as Fisk looks on

Top of the 3rd: Torrez got Doyle to pop to 2nd and Dent to fly to right. Rivers hit a double to right, but Torrez Struck Munson out. Bottom of the 3rd: Scott doubled to center. Smelling blood, Zimmer had Brohamer bunt Scott over to 3rd. A fly ball would make it 2-0 Sox. But Guidry got Burleson to gound to 3rd, and the chubby Scott did not dare test Nettles, who threw Burleson out. Then Remy flew to left, ending the threat.

Top of the 4th, which is probably where the game was when I got home: Piniella, who seemed to be the biggest Red Sox killer of all, led off with a grounder to deep short, and Burleson couldn't quite throw him out. Despite Reggie's line, "Lou Piniella runs like a dump truck," Sweet Lou had an infield single. But it was in vain: Reggie flew to right, Nettles popped to short, and Chambliss grounded to short. Bottom of the 4th: Guidry got Rice to ground to short, struck Yaz out, and got Fisk to fly to center.

Top of the 5th: Torrez worked out of another leadoff walk situation, this time by White, but getting Doyle to ground to 2nd, Dent to pop to short, and Rivers to ground to 3rd, where Brohamer tagged out White, who was running because there were 2 outs. Bottom of the 5th: Lynn grounded back to Guidry, Hobson beat out a grounder to 3rd, and Guidry struck Scott out and got Brohamer to fly to left. Still 1-0 Red Sox.

Top of the 6th: Torrez struck Munson out, got Piniella to fly to center, and got Reggie to ground to 2nd. Bottom of the 6th: Burleson led off with a double. Remy bunted him over to 3rd. This time, it worked: Rice singled to center, bringing Burleson home. Yaz grounded to 1st. Fisk was intentionally walked. Lynn flew to right. End of 6: Red Sox 2, Yankees 0. Sox fans were getting very confident.

Think about it: Today, Torrez's manager would probably have told him he'd pitched a great game, and let the bullpen handle it from here. Although, to be fair, Sox fans generally don't blame Torrez for what happened next. They blame manager Don Zimmer, who left Torrez in.

Torrez got Nettles to fly to right, but allowed singles to Chambliss and White. Lemon, knowing he's short of players in the middle infield, rolled the dice, and sent Jim Spencer, a lefthanded power hitter and normally a 1st baseman, to pinch-hit for Doyle. Spencer flew to left. Two out.

And then up came shortstop Russell Earl "Bucky" Dent. Let's be clear about something: Bucky Dent was not some stiff who lucked into, as CBS' college basketball broadcasts would say, "one shining moment." He was a very good fielder. He was an occasional clutch hitter for contact. And he was a very good bunter. What he was not was a power hitter: He came into that game with only 4 home runs on the season. There was a reason he was 9th in the batting order every day, but there was also a reason he was in the batting order every day.

He took ball one. He fouled the next pitch off his foot for strike one. Yankee trainer Gene Monahan came out to tend to his injury.

This being an injury time-out, the pitcher was allowed to make as many warmup throws as he could fit in, until the injured player was ready to continue. Torrez chose to make none.

Rivers, the on-deck batter, noticed that Bucky's bat was broken. He took one of his own, given to him by White, and told the batboy, "Give this bat to Bucky. It has a home run in it."

It's worth noting that the wind had shifted: Where it had been blowing from left field to right, thus aiding Yaz's homer, it was now blowing the other way. With the building of the larger press box and club seats in 1988, the wind currents were changed, and what happened next might not have happened had it been in place 10 years earlier.

It was around 4:30 in the afternoon. I can't find a reference to an exact time, and I certainly wasn't looking at the clock back then. That would be a habit of mine later, and I can tell you that the 1996 World Series win was clinched at 10:53 PM, and Aaron Boone hit his home run at 12:16 AM. (And the New Jersey Devils won their 1st Stanley Cup at 11:09 PM on June 24, 1995. Don't bet me.)

Bucky got back into the box. Torrez delivered. Bucky swung. As Yankee broadcaster Bill White said on WPIX-Channel 11: "Deep to left, Yastrzemski will… not get it! It's a home run! A three-run home run for Bucky Dent, and now, the Yankees lead it by a score of 3-2!"

The ball landed in the netting atop the Green Monster, put up to protect businesses across Lansdowne Street (now Ted Williams Way) from home run balls. The netting is no longer there, replaced by the Green Monster Seats. I don't know where the netting or the ball are today. I hope the Baseball Hall of Fame has both of them.

White, Chambliss, Dent. Except for the Yankee Fan in the middle,

everybody else in this photo looks like they just lost their best friend.

Rattled, Torrez walked Rivers, and then Zimmer pulled him for Bob Stanley. Mick the Quick stole 2nd. Munson doubled him home, before Stanley finally ended the rally by getting Piniella to fly to right. Yankees 4, Red Sox 2.

Bottom of the 7th. Fred Stanley, known as "Chicken" because he's so skinny, and normally a shortstop, goes out to 2nd base. Guidry struck Hobson out, but Scott singled to right. Zimmer sent Bob Bailey up to pinch-hit for Brohamer.

Recognizing that Guidry was exhausted, Lemon took him out, and replaced him with Rich "Goose" Gossage. It seemed a little early for it, but there was no tomorrow until April if this game was lost. Gossage struck Bailey out, and got Burleson to ground to short.

Top of the 8th: Frank Duffy was sent in at 3rd to replace Brohamer. Reggie reminded everyone that he was Mr. October, and crushed a Stanley pitch to dead center field, almost hitting a TV camera set up in the corner of the Fenway bleachers, where that stand met the Green Monster. Zimmer removed Stanley and put in Andy Hassler, a lefthander who usually pitched very well against the Yankees. Hassler struck Nettles out, and got both Chambliss and White to ground to 2nd.

Still, it was 5-2 Yankees, and it seemed like the Red Sox season was ending not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Not so fast: Remy, who'd been a pain in the neck to the Yankees all season, opened the bottom of the 8th with a double to right. Rice flew to right. Yaz singled to center, scoring Remy. 5-3. Fisk singled to center. Lynn singled to right, scoring Yaz. 5-4.

The Goose was in trouble. But Lemon stuck with him, trusting him the way Billy Martin didn't. The Goose got Hobson to fly to right, and struck Scott out.

Top of the 9th: Hassler still pitching for Boston. Stanley grounded to 2nd. Dent struck out. Lemon sent Paul Blair, once the best defensive center fielder in baseball while with the Baltimore Orioles, but now mainly a defensive replacement in right field for Reggie (but not today, as Reggie was the DH -- which turned out to be crucial), to pinch-hit for Rivers, because Rivers and Hassler were both lefties and Blair was righthanded. Blair singled to left. Zimmer removed Hassler, and brought in Dick Drago. Earlier in the season, Drago had purposely beaned Munson. This time, he gets Munson to ground to short, producing an inning-ending force play at 2nd.

Bottom of the 9th. One of the tensest innings in each team's history. Lemon put Blair in center, and moved Gary Thomasson to left field in place of White. Zimmer sent Evans, still dealing with post-concussion symptoms from a beaning weeks earlier, up to pinch-hit for the weak Duffy. It doesn't work, as he flies to left. Two outs to go. But the Sox refuse to go quietly. Burleson draws a walk.

The next play summed up the entire season for these teams. Remy hit a fly ball to right. Had the 1988 press box and club seating been in place in 1978, that section of right field would have been shaded, and Piniella -- in right field because of Reggie's decline as a fielder -- would have caught the ball easily. But it wasn't, and Lou lost the ball in the Sun. As Bill White said on Channel 11, "Piniella... can't see the ball!"

The crowd sensed this, and roared their approval. Lou had no choice but to stick his arms out, and hope that the ball either bounced off his body or one of his arms, or, if he was lucky, landed in his outstretched left-hand glove like a hockey goaltender.

And that's almost exactly what happened: It landed right in front of him, he realized it would go to his left, and he lunged, caught it on the next hop, turned, and threw it back to the infield.

Burleson was watching him, and might have been the one guy in Fenway Park who didn't realize that Lou couldn't see the ball in the Sun. He had to hold up between 1st and 2nd, for fear of being doubled off 1st to end the game. Because of his hesitation, he only got to 2nd, not to 3rd. This turned out to be critical, because Rice flew to right, where Piniella again lost the ball for a moment, but caught it, and a tagging Burleson could only go from 2nd to 3rd, not from 3rd to score a tying run.

The batter was Carl Yastrzemski, against Rich Gossage. Here was Yaz, one of the best fastball hitters of all time, against the Goose, one of the fastest pitchers who ever lived, but not yet renowned as a big-game pitcher.

If you were a Red Sox fan at the time, this was the guy you wanted up -- never mind that he had made the last out of the 1975 World Series, with the tying run on base and serving as the potential winning run. If you were a Yankee Fan, this was the last guy you wanted to see, and your confidence in the Goose was not as high as it would soon become.

The Goose threw one low and in. Ball 1. Then he threw one right over the plate, figuring Yaz wouldn't take it, but might swing and miss. Yaz didn't miss...

Yaz hit 452 home runs in his career. This was not one of them.

...but he did get jammed by the Goose's fastball, and popped it up by the 3rd base foul line. Nettles got under it, and caught it for the final out.

Nettles and Gossage

For the Yankees: 5 runs, 8 hits, no errors, and 6 men left on base. For the Red Sox: 4 runs, 11 hits, no errors, 9 men left on base. The winning pitcher: Ron Guidry, 25-3. The save: Rich Gossage, his 27th -- on his way to becoming the 1st man ever to get the final out of a Division clincher, a Pennant clincher, and a World Series clincher all in one season. The losing pitcher: Mike Torrez, 16-13.

The attendance was 32,925, with a TV audience -- on WPIX-Channel 11, WSBK-Channel 38 in Boston, and nationally on ABC (WABC-Channel 7 in New York and WCVB-Channel 5 in Boston) -- of over 20 million, despite it being a weekday afternoon.

And the time of the game, as later Yankee broadcaster Michael Kay would say, a manageable 2 hours and 52 minutes, meaning it lasted from 2:30 to 5:22 in the afternoon.

*

The difference between this Sox loss to the Yankees and the one 25 years later is stark. When Nettles caught Yaz's popup for the final out, the Sox, as can be seen on the videotape, sort of slink back into their dugout, looking as if they were thinking, "If we couldn't do it this time, we'll never be able to do it." And, sure enough, the next time they got close, in 1986, only 8 years later, only 3 players were left from '77 and '78: Rice, Evans and Stanley. And only Rice and Evans were still there from the '75 World Series.

They had won 196 games in 2 seasons -- just as they had won 192 in 1948 and 1949 -- and, as in that 1940s instance, they hadn't even made baseball's official postseason, partly because they'd lost a one-game playoff at home.

On July 20, the Sox led the American League Eastern Division by 9 1/2 games. The Yankees were 14 games back. This time, the Sox finished with 99 wins, and they didn't even make the Playoffs. The Yankees? They went on to win their 22nd World Championship, all since the Sox won their last, 60 years earlier.

That night, Billy Joel, a Yankee Fan born in The Bronx and raised on Long Island, played the Boston Garden, home of the NBA's Celtics and the NHL's Bruins. I wonder if he played "New York State of Mind." I wonder if he played "Miami 2017," a dark fantasy about the destruction of New York. I wonder if the Bostonians cheered. I wonder if they booed the line about an aircraft carrier picking the Yankees up for free.

"Ah, but sooner or later, you sleep in your own space.

Either way, it's okay: You wake up with yourself."

It was also on October 2, 1978 that Tim Allen -- later to star in the TV sitcoms Home Improvement and Last Man Standing, and in the Santa Clause films and in the Toy Story films as the voice of Buzz Lightyear -- was arrested at the airport in his hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan, for possession of over 1.4 pounds of cocaine.

To avoid spending the rest of his life in prison he decided to plead guilty, and provide all the names he had of dealers in the area. In exchange, he was sentenced 3 to 7 years. He was paroled after serving less than 2 1/2 years.

To this day, even after their team has finally cheated its way to 4 World Series wins, October 2, 1978 still bothers Sox fans. Let it.

As for Bucky, he is approaching his 71st birthday, and still runs his baseball school in Delray Beach, Florida. He lives in Lake Worth. His wife Marianne died in 2015. They had 4 children, including daughter Caitlin, who played softball at North Carolina State University and coached it at Hofstra University; and son Cody, who played baseball at the University of Florida.

A recent photo of Bucky at Fenway

Russell Earl O'Dey. That was his birth name. Legally, he is Russell Earl Dent. Professionally, he is Bucky Dent. Red Sox fans call him "Bucky Fucking Dent." Sometimes written as "Bucky Bleeping Dent" or "Bucky F. Dent." It's been suggested that his name sounds like a profanity: As comedian and Cambridge, Massachusetts native Lenny Clarke would say, "You buckydent bastard!"

Check it out. A Boston newspaper (I can't seem to track down which one, it might have been one in the suburbs) had the headline, "Destiny 5, Red Sox 4."

You fools, don't you know DESTINY ends with NY?

In 1981, baseball historian John Thorn published Baseball's 10 Greatest Games. He included this game as, at the time, the most recent of them. In 2010, the MLB Network listed this game at 11th on their list of MLB's 20 Greatest Games -- limited in scope, due to the availability of surviving videotape, to 1975 onward. Due to the timing -- 1975 to 1980 -- along with the Bucky Dent Game, it was 1 of 2 games to make both lists.

UPDATE: The Red Sox have a team Hall of Fame. From their 1977 and 1978 near-misses, they have inducted: left fielder Carl Yastrzemski, catcher Carlton Fisk, 1st baseman George Scott, 2nd baseman Jerry Remy, shortstop Rick Burleson, left fielder Jim Rice, center fielder Fred Lynn, right fielder Dwight Evans; pitchers Luis Tiant, Bill Lee, Bob Stanley and Dennis Eckersley; owner Jean Yawkey, manager Don Zimmer, executive Haywood Sullivan, farm system director Ben Mondor, scout George Digby, executives Edward Kenney and Dick Bresciani, groundskeeper Joe Mooney, guest relations director Al Green, broadcasters Ken Coleman and Ned Martin, and longtime vendor Arthur D'Angelo.

*

October 2, 1978 was a Monday. This was the only baseball game played that day. It was too early in the year for the NBA and NHL seasons to begin. There was 1 NFL game, on ABC Monday Night Football: The Washington Redskins beat their arch-rivals, the Dallas Cowboys, by the unusual score of 9-5. Mark Moseley kicked 3 field goals for Washington. For Dallas, Rafael Septién kicked 1, and Randy White scored a safety when he sacked Joe Theismann in the end zone in the 4th quarter.

September 8, 1978: The Boston Massacre, Game 2

Carl Yastrzemski

September 8, 1978: The injury bug had hit the Boston Red Sox' pitching staff as well, as unheralded Jim Wright started at Fenway Park. But the New York Yankees' starter didn't seem to be much better: Rookie Jim Beattie. But Sox fans were calm: Surely, the Yankees couldn't unleash another 15-3 beating like they did the next before.

Close enough: The Yankees scored 2 runs in the 1st inning, and 6 in the 2nd. Wright was chased in the 2nd, and Tom Burgmeier was brought in to pitch. He gave up a home run to Reggie Jackson -- incredibly, the only home run the Yankees hit in this series, in which they instead singled and doubled the Sox to death.

This was the 1970s. It wasn't yet considered permissible to say the word "sucks" in public. "Stinks" was the preferred term. Yet, whenever Mr. October came to the plate, the Fenway bleachers rang out with a chant of "Reggie sucks!" Eventually, the Bleachers at Yankee Stadium would resound, countering the Fenway chant of "Yankees suck!" by delivering "Boston sucks!" And considerably cringier chants than that.

As with the night before, a Yankee hitter, in this case Mickey Rivers, got 3 hits before Butch Hobson, the Sox' 9th-place hitter, could make his 1st plate appearance. This time, Mick the Quick also did so before the 8th hitter, George Scott, could do it.

Ordinarily quite the power hitter, Scott was in the middle of a slump that would eventually reach 0-for-36. When asked about it after the game, he said, "Some of these guys are choking, man." And the word "choke" became forever associated with the Red Sox. Even the events of October 2004 couldn't remove them, as the events of September 2011 would prove.

(Scott batted .233 in 1978. Take out the 0-for-36, and it would have been .255.)

In contrast, Beattie cruised, pitching what turned out to be the best game of his life, allowing 2 runs, both unearned, and only needed Ron Davis to get the last out.

Yankees 13, Red Sox 2. The Yankees were now 2 games out, after being down 14 on July 20. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4.

*

September 8, 1978 was a Friday. These other Major League Baseball games were played that night:

* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. In support of Tom Hausman, Willie Montañez went 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs, giving him 7 in the last 2 days.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 4-2 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Rodney Scott doubled home the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Philadelphia Phillies swept a doubleheader from the St. Louis Cardinals at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, 1-0 and 2-1. Dick Ruthven pitched a 3-hit shutout in the opener. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-3 in the opener, but 2-for-3 with a walk in the nightcap, in support of Jim Kaat.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-5 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-4 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Eddie Murray went 1-for-4.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Dave Winfield went 1-for-4. Pete Rose went 1-for-4. Johnny Bench went 2-for-3 with a walk.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 3-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-0 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Robin Yount went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Paul Molitor went 0-for-4, but did draw a walk. Rod Carew, uncharacteristically, went 1-for-4.

* The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-0 at the Astrodome in Houston. Ken Forsch pitched a 2-hit shutout.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the California Angels, 9-7 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). George Brett didn't drive in any of those 9 runs, going 0-for-4. Lyman Bostock hit a home run for the Angels. Just 16 days later, he was dead.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 11-4 at the Oakland Coliseum.

September 7, 1978: The Boston Massacre, Game 1

September 7, 1978: The New York Yankees go into Fenway Park on this Thursday night for a 4-game series against the Boston Red Sox, who lead them by 4 games in the American League Eastern Division -- having led them by 14 games on July 20. This 1st game was a makeup of the rainout of July 4.

It is generally agreed at the time that, to really make it a race, the Yankees will have to win 3 out of 4. Sox fans are confident their boys can take 3 out of 4 and finish the hated Yankees off.

But, just as the Yankees had been riddled with injuries in June and July, their bench barely keeping their heads above water, now, it was Boston's turn to see if they could overcome injuries. Carlton Fisk was catching with bad ribs. Butch Hobson was playing 3rd base with bone chips in his elbow, leading the former rocket-armed University of Alabama quarterback to made an alarming 43 errors before he finally got benched.

1st baseman George Scott, known as Boomer for his usual heavy hitting, was playing with a bad finger. 2nd baseman Jerry Remy, a particular pain in the neck in games with the Yankees earlier in the season, was out with a hand injury.

And right fielder Dwight Evans had been beaned, and was having what we would now call post-concussion syndrome. This forced the moving of the Sox' Most Valuable Player candidate, Jim Rice from left field to right field, and the team's greatest legend among active players, Carl Yastrzemski, away from the 1st base-designated hitter platoon he'd been in with Scott, and back to his former position of left field. And he was wearing a back brace.

The Yankees' biggest star at the time, Reggie Jackson, said:

It's hard to explain, but, somehow, we all seemed to believe we would win up there. Sure, we had our work cut out for us, and we knew it wouldn't be easy. But there was something in the air which made everyone even more confident.

On the 2nd play of the game, Hobson made a throwing error. This led to the Yankees scoring 2 runs in the 1st inning, 3 in the 2nd, 2 in the 3rd, and 5 in the 4th, knocking out Mike Torrez, who'd signed with the Sox in the off-season, after being one of the Yankees' own heroes in the previous year's World Championship season.

Yankee catcher Thurman Munson collected 3 singles and an RBI, and 2nd baseman Willie Randolph reached base 3 times, all before Hobson, the 9th and last man in the Sox batting order, even came to bat for the 1st time.

In spite of a 12-0 lead going into the bottom of the 4th, manager Bob Lemon, himself a Hall of Fame pitcher, took Catfish Hunter out, due to a pulled groin muscle. Ken Clay relieved, and got the win despite giving up a home run to Fisk. Yankees 15, Red Sox 3. The Yankees are now 3 games back.

Reggie had an RBI single in the 1st. Yaz hit a triple off Catfish.

What the heck, it's only one game, right? In the words of Nathan Salant, in a book he wrote after the season, put it, imagining what a Sox fan would think, "After all, 15-3 losses were made to be laughed at. It couldn't happen again... "

*

September 7, 1978 was a Thursday. These other games were played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Mets beat the Montreal Expos, 9-4 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Joel Youngblood and Willie Montañez hit home runs, in support of Nino Espinosa. Montañez had 4 RBIs. Gary Carter, with the Expos at the time, went 0-for-3.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-5 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-4 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Robin Yount went 2-for-5 for the Brewers.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Diego Padres, 6-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Ken Griffey Sr. all hit home runs for the Reds. For the Padres, Dave Winfield went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-3 with 2 walks.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Yes, both Chicago teams were at home on the same day, and both lost.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Neither the Cardinals' Lou Brock nor the Pirates' Willie Stargell played in this game.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 3-2 at the Astrodome.

* The California Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 7-6 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* Not scheduled to play that day: The Baltimore Orioles, the Cleveland Indians, the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Royals, the Minnesota Twins, the Oakland Athletics.