The View From Here . . .
By Bob Morgan, Jr.

In honor of the new 2008 baseball season, I've been reading an excellent book, The Greatest Game: The Yankees, the Red Sox and the Playoff of '78 by Richard Bradley (Free Press, 2008).

Bradley's book, while centering around the epic one-game playoff between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox on October 2, 1978, takes us through the tumultuous 1978 season, from both the Yankees and Red Sox point of view.

The Yankees, even though defending world champions, had a rocky season, with larger than life figures like Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, owner George Steinbrenner and above all, Billy Martin, the fiery manager of the team, clashing with each other. At one point, for example, Jackson was suspended for refusing explicit orders to swing away rather than bunt in a crucial situation. The Yankees, who once fell 14 1/2 games behind the Red Sox, started to rebound after Martin, who had a serious drinking problem, was replaced by the much more low key Bob Lemon.

For their part, the Red Sox were a talented and proud team who suffered numerous significant injuries in the second half of the season. The Sox nevertheless were able to overcome a 3 1/2 game lead by the Yankees in mid September to force a playoff.

The game itself was played on a beautiful crisp day in Boston's Fenway Park. The Yankee's ace pitcher, Ron Guidry, pitching on just three days rest, faced the Red Sox starter Mike Torrez, a Yankee in the previous season, who very much wanted revenge against his former mates. Torrez pitched a little better at the outset, as the Red Sox took a 2-0 lead, which would have been 4-0 but for a tremendous catch by Lou Piniella on a drive hit by Fred Lynn.

So matters stood until the seventh inning when light hitting Yankee short-stop Bucky Dent, after fouling a pitch off his foot, hit a high fly ball off Torrez that barely cleared the Fenway Park wall in left field for a three run homer. The game was not over, though, as both teams scored two more runs. In the ninth, the Yanks were saved when, blinded by the sunlight, Lou Piniella made a lucky stab with his glove and managed to stop a single from getting past him. Even then, the Red Sox still had a chance until future Hall of Famer Carl Yastremski, who had homered earlier in the game, popped out with two out and two on against Yankee closer Goose Gossage.

Bradley does a really good job with his subject. He sets up the context well and had many excellent interviews with the players concerning the game and the rivalry and also provides fascinating details about the individuals involved (Perhaps most poignant was the story of Bucky Dent's attempt to find his father) while providing an insightful pitch by pitch account of the game.

Those of us of a certain age of course remember that day. I was at my office and a bunch of us were gathered around a radio. The call by announcer Frank Messer made it seem like Dent had just hit a fly ball and it almost seemed like a miracle when it became a three run homer. And, truth to tell, I was very happy the Yankees won but I felt a little twinge of sadness for Yastremski, a truly great player, for his failure at such a key moment. In any event, Bradley very much helps recreate that very exciting day 30 years ago.