Mike's Memories

My two favorite Yankee Stadium memories are from the 1978 ALCS against the hated Royals. Hard to imagine now how good a team they were back then. 3rd baseman George Brett, Outfielders Hal McRae, Amos Otis (ex Met), Al Cowens & Willie Wilson, catchers Darrel Porter & Buck Martinez, 1st baseman John Mayberry, 2nd baseman Frank White, shortstop Freddie Patek, a young Clint Hurdle. Pitchers Paul Splittorf, Al Hrabosky (The Mad Hungrian), Dennis Leonard. One all time great and a lot of very good players

It was quite a rivalry back then, probably even bigger than the one with the Red Sox. The Yanks played and beat the Royals in 3 consecutive ALSC's from 1976-1978. The Royals got their revenge in 1980, beating the Yankees in the ALCS and costing Yankee manager Dick Howser his job, though he was hired a third of the way through the 1981 season by the same K.C. Royals.

The third game of the 78 ALCS was the first post season game at Yankee Stadium in that series. In those days, the LCS was a 5 game affair like the division series today. They would play the first two games in the park of the team with the worse record of the two teams and games 3,4 & 5 in the park of the team with the better record. The Yankees had split the two at KC And Guidry had not pitched. He started the playoff game against Boston that year, the Bucky bleeping Dent Game. He would not start till game 4. I took off the afternoon from work and met a now dead friend, Mitchell Katz at the ball park. We sat in the first row in right field which were considered box seats.

Catfish Hunter, who had a resurgence in the second half of the season, after being plagued by injuries for a year and a half and went 12-6 that year, started for the Yanks. The Royals sent Paul Splittorf a starter who was always tough on the Yankees to the mound.

The game started with a solo short from Brett who was batting leadoff. The Yanks got one back in the bottom of the second. But the next time Brett came up, he hit another solo shot to give the Royals a 2-1 lead. The Yanks put two on the board in the bottom of the 4th to take a 3-2 lead. But sure enough, in the top of the 5th, Brett hit a third solo shot to tie it up again. The Yanks scored one more in the bottom of the sixth to take a 4-3 lead. In the top of the eight, Gossage was pitching, still a one run lead and was touched up for two runs, giving the Royals a 5-4 lead after 7 1/2 innings. In the bottom of the eight with Roy White on base, Whitey Herzog, the Royals manager, took out the lefty Splittorf and replaced him with righty Doug Bird to face Thurman Munson. Munson hit the ball over the left center wall which was 460' in those days to give the Yanks a 6-5 lead, which was the final. I never saw a ball hit that far or felt the stadium shake so much. It was scary.

The game was a see-saw affair with the Yanks coming out ahead. The most exciting game I have ever been to.

My other Yankee Stadium memory was already mentioned by JS of Winter Springs, Fl, the Lou Pinella moment. That was game 4 of the same series.

Thanks to baseball-reference.com for jogging my memories

Mike
Yonkers, NY