Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Damn Yankees

Page 292

first base umpire had, almost unnoticed, called time out just before an apparent game winning grand slam by Don Money. The Yankees held on to win that game and quickly moved into first place. Steinbrenner had returned to the helm of the Yankees when Kuhn shortened his suspension during spring training, but did not interfere with Martin's managing, content to sit back and watch as the Yankees continued to win.

The Yankees won the AL East by 11 games over Baltimore, securing their first postseason appearance since 1964. In the 1976 American League Championship Series, they played Kansas City.

Aggressive base running, especially by speedster Mickey Rivers who when on base had the opponents paying attention to him rather than concentrating on the rest of the game, plus bench jockeying that may have caused Royals third baseman George Brett to make two crucial errors, helped New York win Game One. But

Kansas City won two of the next three. Martin's choice of Ed Figueroa to pitch the decisive Game Five at Yankee Stadium was controversial as Figueroa had not pitched well late in the season and had lost Game Two, but he was in good form and helped the Yankees to a 6–3 lead in the eighth inning when Brett tied the game with a three run home run. Martin did not let the home run faze him, and had a verbal exchange with the next batter, John Mayberry, which helped wake the Yankees up from their