Live JABS: Pregame show

Let’s set the scene:

At Boston’s Fenway Park, it’s a beautiful Oct 2, 1978. The day before, the Yankees blew a chance to clinch their third successive American League East title, losing 9-2 to Cleveland while the Red Sox were spanking the second-year Blue Jays 5-0. And so a division race that had the Sox up by 14 1/2 games on July 19 – by Sept. 16, the Yankees were ahead by 3 1/2 – ended with both teams on 99-63 records.

Meantime, I’m barely keeping still in my roachtrap bachelor apartment in the Annex, having taken the afternoon off classes. The 10-inch black and white TV set -- a Zenith, I think -- was on a chipped coffee table, next to the only article of furniture worth anything – a stereo receiver, turntable and two enormous speakers – and above two red milk cartons filled with LPs (like this and this).

The only other thing I can otherwise remember watching off that set was Ali taking back his title against Leon Spinks, and Howard Cosell babbling a Bob Dylan lyric at the end of it. … But on this day, the Cooper scorebook is open to Game No. 8 (the first in the book, on July 21/78, has the A’s beating the Jays 7-2 at Exhibition Stadium, Steve Renko over Balor Moore, Willie Horton homering for Oakland), just as it is now, nearly 27 years later. At 2:30 p.m., the ABC broadcast (and Howard, I guess, although that memory has thankfully been scrubbed, Cosell never doing baseball very well) came on.

What follows here is a re-telling using that scorecard, long buried in a box – I'll be posting a PDF file of it as we move along, and links to some of the principals. And although I’ve done a bit of research, I’ve purposely avoided revisiting accounts of this game, relying instead on the memories these two sheets of paper bring out. To mangle a Yogism, 90 per cent of memory is half wrong, and the scorecard has one rather large gap/question that comes up later. It might even be a little off in places, but again, I hope you tell me if/when that happens, and send along any memories, links, comments or whatever as we tell a familiar story in a different way.

So it’s Ron Guidry (24-3) against well-travelled Mike Torrez (18-12). It’s history.

Ladies and gentlemen, your starting lineups:

NY Yankees (99-63)

Mickey Rivers, cf

Thurman Munson, c

Lou Piniella, rf

Reggie Jackson, dh

Graig Nettles, 3b

Chris Chambliss, 1b

Frank White, lf

Brian Doyle, 2b

Bucky Dent, ss

Boston (99-63)

Rick Burleson, ss

Jerry Remy, 2b

Jim Rice, rf

Carl Yastrzemski, lf

Carlton Fisk, c

Fred Lynn, cf

Butch Hobson, dh

George Scott, 1b

Jack Brohamer, 3b

On a sunny day in Boston, as it was in Toronto, we’re ready for the end of a pennant race that Boston manager Don Zimmer called “the damndest thing I have ever witnessed in all my years in baseball.” And it was/is -- even though that Pedro Martinez moment probably came close, not to mention the comeback.

Comments

[Uhclem]

Good to have you serving as my offsite memory...No memory of that phone call, though I remember having the best seats I've ever had (3rd row behind home plate) to watch Yaz hit the winning home run in the last game of the dream season.

And it can't have been BART: it's the T in Boston...