SOTD: Battling Backstop Bats In The Post-Season

Anyone else watch Game 5 of the 1976 ALCS on YES tonight? I think I was just as nervous watching it this evening as I was when I watched it as a 13-year old back when it was actually played.

It was a lot of fun to view this one again. And, I learned something too.

Those Yankees-Royals post-season games from 1976-78 were something special. Tense, hard-nosed, old-school baseball at its best. I’d like to see a boxed DVD set of just those 14 games - but, I doubt they would sell that well in Kansas City. You’d probably have to throw in the three games from the 1980 ALCS as well to make it fair to Royals fans.

September 10, 2007 | Filed Under Stat Of The Day Blog

Comments

4 Responses to “SOTD: Battling Backstop Bats In The Post-Season”

Jen on September 10th, 2007 11:44 pm

I had no clue that Reggie did commentary for that game (and I would assume that series?).
Pete on September 11th, 2007 8:21 am

Loved the big sideburns on Ueck in the post-game interviews.

I also never realized, from those parting shots from ABC, how many people were actually on the field. Looked like the entire contents of the stadium had been dumped out onto the infield!

I wonder if this was the game that made MLB rethink it’s security policy. Heh.
Pete on September 11th, 2007 8:22 am

Make that “its”
Steve Lombardi on September 11th, 2007 9:49 am

Pete - I want to say it was around 1979-1980 that MLB started with dogs, horses, etc., to keep the fans off the field.

Since the Yankees won in L.A. in 1977, with less fans to charge the field, it probably was the 1976 ALCS that made baseball think of the need for a plan.

~~~I had no clue that Reggie did commentary for that game~~~

I forgot that too. By, Reggie and Seaver used to do a lot for ABC and NBC back then. I was surprised at how many nice things Reggie said about Munson during the game. Just a tad different than what he had to say to SPORT a few months later…..