October 4, 2022: Aaron Judge Hits His 62nd Home Run of the Season

October 4, 2022: First batter of the game between the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers: Aaron Judge. Pitcher: Jesus Tinoco. On a 1-1 count, Judge drilled a ball deep into the left-field stands at Globe Life Park in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas, 391 feet.

It was his 62nd home run of the season, surpassing Roger Maris, the most that any American League player -- the most that any player has ever hit without evidence of cheating -- in a single season in the 152-season history of Major League Baseball.

As for the rest of the game: Giancarlo Stanton, who hit 59 with the Miami Marlins in 2017, hit a home run in the 5th inning, but that was all that the Yankees were going to get. Gerrit Cole started for them, and pitched 6 innings, striking out 9, setting a new Yankee single-season record of 257 strikeouts, breaking the 1978 record of 248 set by Ron Guidry. But he didn't get the run support he needed. After the Stanton homer, the Yankees got only 2 baserunners, both walks. The Rangers won, 3-2.

It was the 2nd game of a doubleheader, forced by the postponement of the 1st week of the regular season due to the MLB lockout. The Yankees won the 1st game, 5-4.

There was 1 game left to play in the regular season, and Judge was given the day off, so he finished the season with 62 home runs. He also led the AL with 131 RBIs, and batted .311, which was nearly enough to win the AL batting title and thus the Triple Crown.

Judge, who grew up in Linden, California, less than 100 miles from San Francisco, and grew up as a San Francisco Giants fan, told an interviewer that the 73 home runs hit by Barry Bonds in 2001, recognized as the official MLB record in spite of his proven cheating, should still be considered the real record.

He is the only person who could look better instead of worse by saying that. Everybody else saying that Bonds holds "the real record" is saying 1 of 2 things:

A. "I don't believe that Bonds cheated." Which makes them dumb. Or:

B. "I know that Bonds cheated, but I don't care." Which makes them rotten.

And don't tell me that throwing out Bonds' record means you have to throw out all pre-1947, pre-Integration records. That's not the same thing at all. As evil as it was, it was the owners doing it. It wasn't the players choosing to take an unfair advantage. Babe Ruth's 60 in 1927 was legitimate. Roger Maris' 61 in 1961 was legitimate. Aaron Judge's 62 in 2022 is legitimate. The totals exceeding those by Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are bogus.

Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, Aaron Judge. All Yankees. All right fielders.

UPDATE: The difference was, when Ruth hit 60 in 1927, the Yankees won the World Series; when Maris hit 61 in 1961, the Yankees won the World Series; when Judge hit 62 in 2022, the Yankees were knocked out of the Playoffs in the American League Division Series. The 1927 and 1961 editions of the Yankees are considered finalists for the title of greatest team of all time. The 2022 edition is considered a failure, in spite of Judge's feat.

*

October 4, 2022 was a Tuesday. These other games were played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Mets swept a doubleheader from the Washington Nationals at Citi Field, 8-0 and 4-2. In the opener, Taijuan Walker (4 1/3rd innings), Stephen Nogosek (2 2/3rds, winning pitcher) and Tylor Megill (2) combined on a 9-hit shutout, striking out 17 and walking none. The nightcap was the Mets' 100th win of the season, the 4th time they had reached that milestone.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 6-0 at Fenway Park in Boston, in a game shortened to 5 innings due to rain, a remnant of Hurricane Ian that had devastated Florida and also soaked the Carolinas a few days earlier.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Miami Marlins, 2-1 at LoanDepot Park in Miami.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-7 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Juan Yepez singled home the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Cleveland Guardians beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-3 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-2 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 8-3 at Guaranteed Rate Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 3-0 at American Family Field in Milwaukee. Eric Lauer (6 innings) and 2 relievers combined on a 1-hit shutout.

* The Houston Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-0 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston. Justin Verlander and 2 relievers pitched 8 innings of no-hit ball, before Will Smith allowed 3 hits in the 9th. Combined, the Astro pitchers struck out 16 and walked 2.

* The San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-2 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Los Angeles Angels, 2-1 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the RingCentral Coliseum). Ryan Tepera walked Shea Langeliers with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th inning, giving the A's the win.

* And the Seattle Mariners swept a doubleheader from the Detroit Tigers, 7-6 and 9-6 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. Abraham Toro won the 1st game with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th.

* And the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays were rained out at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

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 9, 1978: The Boston Massacre, Game 3

September 9, 1978: Despite the New York Yankees having closed to within 2 games of the Boston Red Sox with 15-3 and 13-2 wins, Sox fans weren't shaken up yet. They were up for this Saturday NBC Game of the Week. They were excited about the pitching matchup between the two leading winners in the American League that season, Ron Guidry (who came into the game with a record of 20-2) and Dennis Eckersley (16-6). As Nathan Salant put it in his book This Date In New York Yankees History:

The talk in Boston was that all the Sox had to do was win the next two, and the Yankees would have wasted all those runs and hits for nothing. Besides, today the "Eck" was on the mound, 3-0 against the Yankees in 1978. Sure, Guidry was tough, but he was a lefthander about to get his first start in Fenway, with that nice, close leftfield wall. And, the Sox were due to wake up with the bats, weren't they?

Well, for the 1st 3 innings, the game lived up to its billing: No runs. Then came the top of the 4th, and that might have been the decisive inning of the entire season, the one that showed the Sox and their fans that the 1st 2 games of the series were no fluke, and that there was no longer any reason for the Yankees to be afraid of the Sox, not even of their ace.

Thurman Munson led off with a single. Then Reggie Jackson flew to left, and Carl Yastrzemski threw back to the infield, and doubled Munson off. It seemed as though the threat was over.

It wasn't. Chris Chambliss doubled. With 1st base open and 2 outs, Sox manager Don Zimmer ordered that Graig Nettles be intentionally walked. As Salant put it, "That made no sense, because the next batter was the Red Sox killer himself, Lou Piniella." Sweet Lou had already proven himself a big clutch hitter in the previous season, against the Sox in September, the Kansas City Royals in the American League Championship Series, and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

Now, he delivered the sequel. He took advantage of that big space in Fenway's right field, and of Jim Rice's lead feet and his inexperience out there. (Rice was the usual left fielder, while the aging Yaz and George Scott had platooned between 1st base and designated hitter. But, here, he was subbing for the injured Dwight Evans). Piniella smacked one that Rice could only hold to a double, scoring Chambliss.

With 1st base again open, Roy White was intentionally walked. As Salant put it, "A good move because White is second to Piniella as a Sox-smasher." And because the next man up was the Yankees' good-fielding, but barely-slap-hitting shortstop, Russell Earl "Bucky" Dent. Surely, he wouldn't cause trouble at Fenway Park. Little did they know...

Dent singled to left, scoring Nettles and Piniella, making it 3-0 New York. Given the emotional impact that this game had, this might have been the Yankees' most important hit of the season, never mind Dent's most important RBI hit of the season at Fenway Park. And Dent got to 2nd on an error. Mickey Rivers singled home White and Dent. 5-0. With Willie Randolph up, Eckersley threw a wild pitch that advanced the runners. Randolph drew a walk. The Yankees had batted around. Munson singled Rivers home.

Finally, Zimmer took Eckersley out of the game. One of the best starters in baseball at the time -- he had gone 14-13, including a no-hitter, for an awful Cleveland Indians team the year before, but had to be traded, for reasons that I won't get into here -- he had already developed a drinking problem that would nearly ruin him. Eventually, he would be turned into one of the best relief pitchers ever, finishing a Hall of Fame career with 197 wins and 390 saves. But now, he had to be removed.

Zimmer brought the lefthanded Tom Burgmeier in, to face the lefty Reggie, and, if he got on base, the lefty Chambliss. A good reliever who would make the All-Star Team in 1980, here he was betrayed by the injury to catcher Carlton Fisk, who allowed a passed ball that scored Randolph. That might have rattled him, because he walked Reggie. But he settled down, and got Chambliss to fly to center.

This inning was the Red Sox' season in a nutshell: Seemingly getting into and out of trouble, and then, after there were already 2 outs, came 7 runs, on 5 hits, 3 walks (not counting the last, to Reggie), an error, a wild pitch, and a passed ball.

Meanwhile, Guidry cruised, pitching as well as he had all year. He allowed 2 singles in the 1st 3 at-bats of the game, to Rick Burleson and Rice, and then allowed no hits and just 4 walks the rest of the way.

Yankees 7, Red Sox 0. The Yankees were now only 1 game back.

Reggie Jackson and Carl Yastrzemski both went 0-for-4, although Reggie did draw a walk.

This game inspired 2 legendary quotes, for both of which I was unable to find a source. Supposedly, a sportswriter wrote, "This was the first time that a first-place team had been eliminated from a pennant race."

And, supposedly, someone stood up in a Boston bar, and said, "They killed our grandfathers, they killed our fathers, and now, the sons of bitches are coming for us." Meaning the Yankees had taken the heart of the 1910s Red Sox champions for their own 1920s champions, they'd broken New England hearts in the 1949 AL Pennant race, and now, it was their own generation's turn.

The series ended up being given the name given to the shooting of 5 locals by British troops in downtown Boston on March 5, 1770: "The Boston Massacre."

*

September 9, 1978 was a Saturday. Basketball star Shane Battier was born.

These other games were played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-1 at Shea Stadium. Kevin Kobel went the distance for the win. The Pirates' lone run came on a solo home run by Willie Stargell.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 6-3 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Garry Maddox and Richie Hebner hit home runs. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-3, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-4 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-0 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Scott McGregor pitched a 3-hit shutout. Eddie Murray and Ken Singleton hit home runs.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-3 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Johnny Bench went 1-for-3 with 2 RBIs.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Chicago White Sox, 9-6 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-0 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Diego Padres, 10-4 at the Astrodome in Houston. Dave Winfield went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The California Angels swept a doubleheader from the Kansas City Royals at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim), 3-2 and 4-2. George Brett went 2-for-8 with an RBI over the 2 games.

* And the Oakland Athletics and the Texas Rangers were rained out at the Oakland Coliseum. It would be made up as part of a doubleheader the next day.

Being a Saturday, there were college football games played. Among them:

* Number 3 Penn State beat Rutgers, 26-10 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.

* Number 4 Oklahoma beat Stanford, 35-29 at the old Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, California.

* Missouri upset Number 5 Notre Dame, 3-0 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

* Number 9 USC beat Texas Tech, 17-9 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Number 10 Nebraska beat the University of California, 36-26 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.

* Number 12 UCLA beat Number 11 Washington, 10-7 at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

* The University of Illinois and their arch-rivals, Northwestern University, played to a 0-0 tie at a rain-soaked Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois.

* In another arch-rivalry game, Southern Methodist beat Texas Christian, 45-14 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

* Number 1 Alabama and Number 2 Arkansas did not play that week.

Also, in English soccer, Arsenal lost to defending Football League Champions Nottingham Forest, 2-1 at the City Ground in Nottingham.

June 17, 1978: Ron Guidry Inspires Standing On Two Strikes

June 17, 1978: The New York Yankees defeat the California Angels, 4-0 at Yankee Stadium. Ron Guidry advances to 11-0 on the season, allowing just 4 hits and 2 walks, and strikes out 18 batters. At the time, this was a record for a lefthanded pitcher in the American League. It remains a team record for strikeouts in a game, on the way to 248 strikeouts, which remains the Yankee record for a season.

Lest you think this was easy: The Angels' lineup included Bobby Grich, Joe Rudi, Don Baylor and Brian Downing, All-Stars and good hitters all. And Guidry did this while wearing long sleeves in mid-June. He usually wore short sleeves, except in October.

This game began the tradition of fans standing and clapping on 2 strikes, in anticipation of a strikeout. Met fans will tell you it began in 1984 with Dwight Gooden, but, as usual, they don’t know what they’re talking about. (They did, however, invent the "K-Korner" at that time.)

The Yankee runs were scored on an RBI single by newly-acquired Gary Thomasson in the 1st inning, and, in the 3rd, a single by Thurman Munson, a triple by Thomasson, a single by Reggie Jackson, a wild pitch, and a single by Graig Nettles.

The Yankee Stadium scoreboard operator put the words "LOUISIANA LIGHTNING" on the scoreboard, giving Guidry a nickname he would have thereafter, though he said he didn't like it. He preferred a home State-themed nickname he already had: "Gator."

In contrast, the opposing starter, Paul Hartzell, didn't get out of the 3rd inning.

He would finish the season at 25-3, with a 1.74 ERA, starting and winning a game in both the American League Championship Series and the World Series. He rightly received the AL's Cy Young Award, but was denied the AL's Most Valuable Player award.

In 1992, pitching for the Seattle Mariners, Randy Johnson tied Guidry's record for most strikeouts by a lefthanded pitcher in the American League. Twice in 1997, he broke the record, raising it to 19. In 2001, with the Arizona Diamondbacks of the National League, he became the 1st lefty in either League to fan 20 in a game.

(UPDATE: In 2022, Gerrit Cole raised the Yankees' single-season strikeout record to 257.)

*

June 17, 1978 was a Saturday. Football, basketball and hockey were out of season. The World Cup was in progress in Argentina, but no games were scheduled.

These other games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-4 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Pat Zachry outpitched Bob Knepper. Lee Mazzilli went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs. Willie McCovey did not play.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 5-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski singled Rick Burleson home in the bottom of the 9th to win the game.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-4 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Ken Singleton hit a home run, and Eddie Murray went 1-for-4.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-3 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Willie Stargell did not play.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Sal Bando, a Cleveland native, hit a home run in the top of the 12th inning. Gorman Thomas also hit a home run. Robin Yount went 0-for-6. Paul Molitor went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-5 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. The Cards led 5-2, but the Reds scored a run in the 7th inning, 2 in the 8th, and in the bottom of the 9th, Joe Morgan singled Pete Rose home with the winning run.

Rose went 2-for-4, Morgan went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs, and Johnny Bench did not play. Keith Hernandez hit a home run for the Cardinals. Lou Brock appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Claudell Washington went 3-for-5. George Brett went 1-for-4.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Butch Wynegar hit a home run, and Rod Carew went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 13-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Bobby Bonds and Richie Zisk hit home runs.

* The Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-4 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-0 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Bob Owchinko pitched a 7-hit shutout, while Jim Lonborg, 11 years past his Cy Young Award season and nearing the end of the line, didn't get out of the 5th inning. Dave Winfield went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-4.

* And the Montreal Expos beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

April 19, 1979: The Fight That Sidetracked a Yankee Dynasty

Cliff Johnson

April 19, 1979: The New York Yankees have a fight in their locker room. It's not the only thing that derails their bid for a 4th straight American League Pennant and a 3rd straight World Series win, but it is a big reason why they didn't even come close to the Playoffs that season.

Cliff Johnson was a catcher from San Antonio, and when the Houston Astros arrived while he was in high school, they became the closest thing he'd ever had to a home team in Major League Baseball. They drafted him in 1966, and he made his major league debut with them in 1972.

At the trading deadline in 1977, the Yankees sent Mike Fischlin, Randy Niemann, and a player to be named later (who, after the season, turned out to be Dave Bergman) to the Astros to get him. This turned out to be a very good trade, as he became a backup to Thurman Munson, and provided some pop as a righthanded pinch-hitter and designated hitter, batting a career-high .297, hitting a career-high (but eventually matched) 22 home runs, and had 54 RBIs.

Johnson did not hit as well in 1978, and when Munson got hurt again, Mike Heath seemed to become the Yankees' catcher of the future. Although Johnson had been a key figure in the 1977 postseason, especially in the AL Championship Series, he only had 3 at-bats in the 1978 postseason, even if the AL East Playoff against the Boston Red Sox is included.

Going into the Yankees' game of April 19, 1979, he had played only 5 games, going 4-for-16 with no homers and just 1 RBI. He was looking more and more like trade bait. He did not play in that night's 6-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium, in which Jim Palmer outpitched newly-acquired veteran Luis Tiant and rookie Paul Mirabella.

Doug DeCinces hit a home run for the O's, and Eddie Murray went 1-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Mickey Rivers and Chris Chambliss each had 2 hits, but the rest of the Yankees combined only had 4. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-3. And with Munson aching, and Heath having been part of the trade that sent Sparky Lyle to the Texas Rangers to get Mirabella and Dave Righetti, manager Bob Lemon trusted the catching start to rookie Jerry Narron, not the veteran Johnson.

After the game, Reggie did something he probably came to regret. He started kidding Johnson about his inability to hit reliever Rich "Goose" Gossage. While Johnson was showering, Gossage insisted to Jackson that he struck out Johnson all the time when he used to face him, and that he was terrible at the plate: "He either homers or strikes out." He had previously given Johnson the nickname "Breeze," in reference to how his big swing kept Gossage cool on the pitcher’s mound in hot weather.

When Jackson relayed this information to Johnson upon his return to the locker room, all the players assembled, egged on by Jackson, started laughing at him, and, in unison, loudly called him "Breeze" with some waving their arms and hands before doubling over. This infuriated Johnson, and a fight started between he and Gossage.

Johnson won the fight. Gossage tore ligaments in his right thumb, his pitching hand, and missed 3 months of the season, not returning until July 12. Suddenly, having traded Lyle, the 1977 AL Cy Young Award winner, instead of 2 great closers, now, the Yankees had no closer at all.

Ron Guidry, the 1978 AL Cy Young winner, offered to go to the bullpen. Lemon tried it twice, and Guidry ended up with a win and a save. But the man who'd put together the best pitching season in Yankee history the year before was too good to keep out of the rotation. Guidry made only 11 more relief appearances over the rest of his career.

Newly-acquired pitcher Tommy John called Gossage's completely unnecessary injury "a demoralizing blow to the team." The Yankees were 7-5 at the time, so it's not like they were doing great. During his absence, they went 41-35, not appreciably better. But 7 of those losses were what would now be called "walkoffs," and 10 others were by 1 run. If, in those 17 games, the Yankees had simply gone 1 game over .500, 9-8, they would have stayed in the AL East race for most of the season.

Also during that absence, on June 15, 2 years to the day after they got Johnson, they got rid of him, sending him to the Cleveland Indians for pitcher Don Hood, which not only served to be "addition by subtraction" -- Johnson really wasn't doing anything for them -- but also gave them a closer until the Goose returned.

But there had already been a cloud over the season. Just a few weeks after the previous season's World Series, Jerry Lemon, the manager's son, had been killed in a car crash. Bob's mind simply wasn't on baseball in 1979.

Team owner George Steinbrenner's original plan, the previous July, was that he would remove Billy Martin as manager, let Bob be the manager for the rest of 1978 and all of 1979, then, for 1980, make Bob the general manager, and bring Billy back as field manager. But, on June 18, George met with Bob, and it was agreed that Bob would remain in the Yankee organization, but not as manager. George liked to say, "I never really fired anybody," and he had a point: Pretty much anybody he fired, as manager, coach, GM, whatever, he usually offered another job in the organization. And Billy was brought back early.

Aside from Reggie, who never got along with Billy, everybody seemed to think it was the right thing to do. But there were no issues between the for the rest of the season. The team responded to Billy: From his return until August 1, they went 24-17. Although they were 14 games behind the Orioles in the AL East, they had been the sane number behind the Boston Red Sox on the previous season's July 20, and had come all the way back. Maybe, just maybe, they could do it again.

But on August 2, Munson was killed in a plane crash. Now, Narron was the only catcher on the major league roster, and he was batting .188. Suddenly, Cliff Johnson was no longer surplus to requirements, but he was also no longer there. And he was batting .287 at the time.

The Yankees went just 31-27 the rest of the way, finishing in 4th place, 13 1/2 games behind the O's. It was the only season between 1976 and 1981 that the Yankees didn't win the AL East.

The change of scenery did Johnson some good: The rest of the '79 season, he batted .271 for the Indians, hitting 18 home runs with 61 RBIs. After splitting 1980 between the Indians and the Chicago Cubs, he returned to the American League, spending 1981 and '82 with the Oakland Athletics, 1983 and '84 with the Toronto Blue Jays, most of '85 with the Texas Rangers, and the rest of '85 and all of '86 back with the Jays. He always seemed to hit well against the Yankees.

He retired after the '86 season, with a .258 batting average and 196 home runs, including 20 pinch-hit home runs, a record that stood until 2010, broken by Matt Stairs. In spite of the way he left the Yankees, he attended several Old-Timers Days at Yankee Stadium.

*

April 19, 1979 was a Thursday. Actress Kate Hudson, daughter of actors Goldie Hawn and Oliver Hudson, was born.

Football was out of season. The NBA, the NHL and the WHA were all into their Playoffs, but no games were scheduled for this day. But these 5 other Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastzremski went 2-for-3 with a walk. For the Brewers, Cecil Cooper hit a home run, Robin Yount went 0-for-3 with a walk, and Paul Molitor went 1-for-4.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 2-0 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Tom Seaver pitched a 2-hit shutout, outpitching Phil Niekro. Johnny Bench did not play for the Reds in this game.

* The Chicago Cubs beat their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Lou Brock went 2-for-4 with a stolen base and an RBI.

* The California Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-4 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Rod Carew went 1-for-4 with a walk for the Angels against the team he left in the previous off-season.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 14-10 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Yes, that's a baseball game, not a football game. Vida Blue outpitched Mickey Lolich. Marc Hill (who homered) and Terry Whitfield each had 4 RBIs for the Giants. Dave Winfield went 2-for-5.

April 13, 1978: The Reggie Bar Game

25 cents in 1978 = about $1.13 in 2022 money

April 13, 1978: The New York Yankees hold their home opener at Yankee Stadium, playing the Chicago White Sox. Yankee Fans make amends with Roger Maris, as he and Mickey Mantle raise the previous season's World Championship banner.

Maris, so often mistreated by the home fans because he had not been their choice to break Babe Ruth's single-season home run record, had not appeared at Yankee Stadium since September 25, 1966. Team owner George Steinbrenner had frequently invited him back starting in 1973, telling him that things had changed. Maris thought he would still get booed.

Finally, George asked him, "What would it take to get you to come back?" The Maris family had moved to Gainesville, Florida, and their children were going to a Christian high school. Roger wanted a new baseball field for the school, saying it would cost $25,000. George said, "Done!" and sent the school a check. So Roger came back. Just to be on the safe side, George invited Mickey, too, and they were both cheered.

Knuckleballer Wilbur Wood started for the White Sox, and he gave up a walk to Willie Randolph and a single to Mickey Rivers. He struck Thurman Munson out. Up next was Reggie Jackson, making his 1st plate appearance at Yankee Stadium since Game 6 of the previous year's World Series, when he hit 3 home runs to help the Yankees clinch the title.

Sometime before coming to the Yankees, Reggie had said, "If I played in New York, they'd name a candy bar after me." He had a point: The Curtiss Candy Company had named a bar the Baby Ruth. To avoid paying Babe Ruth royalties on his name, they came up with a ridiculous reason of why it was named for someone else, and it held up in court. But Ruth was, from 1926 until 1977, the only player to hit 3 home runs in a World Series game. The Oh Henry! bar wasn't named for Henry Aaron, either.

Anyway, after his 1977 Game 6 performance matched Ruth's 1926 (and 1928) World Series performance, the Reggie Bar became a certainty. Before the Yankees' 1978 home opener, each of the 44,667 fans coming in got a free one. It wasn't a "bar": It was, more or less, round, with peanuts dipped in caramel and covered in chocolate. It was marketed by Standard Brands, which was owned by Curtiss, which made sense.

Anyway, the game was decided in the 1st inning. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Reggie crushed a Wood knuckler to right field for a 3-0 lead.

By the time Reggie finished rounding the bases, the fans were throwing the Reggie Bars onto the field, the orange wrappers clashing with the green grass. In the dugout, Reggie and manager Billy Martin, so often at odds, were caught on camera laughing at the spectacle together. In the other dugout, Bob Lemon, the Hall of Fame former pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, now managing the White Sox, said, "People are starving all over the world, and there's a billion calories on the field."

The 3-0 lead would be all Ron Guidry would need, going the distance for his 1st win of the season, leading to perhaps the greatest season any pitcher has ever had. The Yankees won the game, 4-2. Between the pageantry of Opening Day, the appearance of Mantle, the return of Maris, the raising of the banner, the Reggie homer, the Reggie bars, and the win, this might have been the best day in Yankee history.

But for a while, this would be the highlight of the Yankees' season. Reggie and Billy would soon be at odds again, and Billy would be fired by Yankee owner George Steinbrenner. By that point, Lemon had been fired as White Sox manager, and Steinbrenner, who grew up in Cleveland as a fan of Lemon and the Indians, hired Lemon to manage the Yankees. It worked: The Yankees won the World Series again. And a lot more Reggie Bars were sold.

Eventually, Jackson and Steinbrenner had a falling-out, and when Jackson's contract ran out, Steinbrenner refused to offer him a new one. He would later admit that it was his biggest mistake as team owner. Curtiss stopped selling Reggie Bars in 1982. They briefly brought them back in 1993, when Reggie was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. (UPDATE: They brought them back in 2023.)

*

April 13, 1978 was a Thursday. These 4 other MLB games were played that day:

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-6 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Rick Auerbach singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 13th inning. Pete Rose went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Johnny Bench went 2-for-5 with a walk. Joe Morgan went 1-for-5 with a walk. For the Giants, Willie McCovey appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Eric Rasmussen outpitched Bert Blyleven. Lou Brock went 1-for-4 with a stolen base. Willie Stargell did not play for the Pirates.

* The California Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 1-0 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Joe Rudi won the game with a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning. Dave LaRoche was the winning pitcher, after Nolan Ryan pitched 10 innings of shutout ball, striking out 12. Rod Carew had a rare 0-for-5 game.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners, 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Gary Alexander won it with a home run in the bottom of the 9th.

The NBA was between the end of its regular season and the start of its Playoffs. This was also true of the World Hockey Association. As for the NHL, there were 4 games played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs:

* The New York Rangers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3 at Madison Square Garden. Don Murdoch scored the winning goal, 1:37 into overtime. He was a part of a forward line known as "The Mafia Line": Don Murdoch and Don Maloney, centered by Phil Esposito, "The Godfather."

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Colorado Rockies, 3-1 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. This was the only one of the franchise's 6 seasons in Denver that the Rockies made the Playoffs, before moving in 1982 to become the New Jersey Devils.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Atlanta Flames, 3-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-0 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

Also, Carles Puyol, who captained Spain to the 2010 World Cup, and FC Barcelona to the 2009 and 2011 UEFA Champions League titles, was born on this day.