ON THE 27th anniversary of his home run that preserved The Curse of the Bambino, Bucky Dent will be playing golf . . . in New Hampshire.
“That’s Red Sox Country, so I’m gonna go up there and badger ’em,” Dent said yesterday from Boynton Beach, Fla., and chuckled devilishly.
Oct. 2, 1978, a date that will forever live in infamy all across New England. It was the day the man they call Bucky Bleepin’ Dent smashed the three-run homer off Mike Torrez that decided the one-game playoff for the pennant at shell-shocked Fenway Park.
For Dent, 54 in November, it never gets old talking about his moment in the sun, and memories of that day come rushing back to him as if it were yesterday.
“Red Sox fans say, ‘You ruined my life with that one swing,’ ” Dent said. “Yankee fans just say, ‘You made my day.’ “
It was a beautiful autumn day when the hated rivals, at the end of a summer of calamitous ebbs and flows, brawled for it all, the way they will again this weekend in Beantown. “There was electricity in the air; you could feel it,” Dent recalled. “It was a crystal-clear, beautiful day. It was kind of just a perfect setting for a game.”
Ace Ron Guidry, pitching on guts and fumes, kept the Yankees close. Down 2-0 in the seventh now, following singles by Chris Chambliss and Roy White, Dent zeroed in on Torrez in the on-deck circle as Jim Spencer, pinch-hitting for Brian Doyle, flied out. In his first two at-bats, Torrez had thrown him fastballs up and in, and Dent had just missed them, and popped up both times.
“I was gonna try to hit it hard someplace,” Dent said.
He did . . . off his left foot. “I had a blood clot in my leg in spring training, and I didn’t wear my guard that day,” Dent said.
The pain was obvious as Dent hobbled around and trainer Gene Monahan rushed to attend to him. Dent was worried that the blood would rush down to his ankle as it normally would and cause it to swell, but he experienced only soreness. “He just sprayed it with that cold stuff,” Dent said.
The delay wound up hurting Torrez, who played catch with shortstop Rick Burleson and lost his concentration, even more.
“Right,” Dent said. “He didn’t throw a warmup pitch.”
Then fate interceded. “Hey homey,” Mickey Rivers called out. “You’re using the wrong bat. That one’s cracked.” So Rivers gave his bat – they swear in Boston it was corked – to the Yankee batboy, who sprinted to the plate and handed it to Dent. The count was 1-1. Torrez didn’t get his fastball in enough. It headed straight for the Green Monster. “I hit it on a line,” Dent said. “There was kind of a shadow on the wall. I didn’t know if it was high enough to get out. When I turned first base, I saw the umpire signal it was a home run.” And what was Dent thinking? “Hey, we’re ahead 3-2!”
Fenway was thinking the same damn thing. “When I turned third base,” Dent said, “I noticed how quiet the crowd was. You could hear the Yankee fans.”
The season came down to Goose Gossage vs. Carl Yastrzemski, runners on the corners, two outs, bottom of the ninth, 5-4 Yankees. “Ohmigod, here it is,” Dent thought to himself. “The whole season right here.”
Gossage threw one of his screaming fastballs, and Yaz popped it up to Graig Nettles, straddling the third-base foul line. “My chain had broke and it was running down my arm,” Dent said. “I waited ’til he caught it, then I started looking on the ground for my St. Christopher’s medal. It had fallen down in my pants.”
Dent’s daughter Stacy, 30, will be at Yankees-Red Sox tomorrow with her husband. “I told them just to blend in,” Dent said, and laughed.
Dent, manager of the Columbus Clippers, threw out the first pitch of Game 7 of the ALCS last year. “I never thought I’d live to see the day they would beat the Yankees,” he said.
Dent, asked who would be the Bucky Dent of a one-game Yankees-Red Sox playoff this season, said: “Oh boy. Who’s gonna be me? It’s gotta be a B though. Boone, Bucky, Buckner, Babe . . . maybe Bernie. Or Bubba [Crosby].”
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TALE OF THE TAPE
TEAM BATTING
Yanks — Red Sox
94-65 Record 93-66
.276 Team BA .281
.450 Team SLG .454
.806 Team OPS .811
225 HR 192
1522 Hits 1557
835 RBI 845
874 Runs 891
632 Walks 635
968 Strikeouts 1022
254 2B 337
16 3B 21
83 Steals 41
2483 Total Bases 2512
TEAM PITCHING
Yanks — Red Sox
4.49 Team ERA 4.75
1.36 Team WHIP 1.39
963 Strikeouts 938
445 Walks 435
.269 BA Against .276
157 HR Against 160
46 Saves 37
6.17 K/9 6.02
95.7 P/GS 99.9
INDIVIDUAL BATTING LEADERS (minimum 200 at-bats)
Yanks — Red Sox
Jeter 643 AB Damon 615
Rodriguez .320 BA Damon .317
Rodriguez .608 SLG Ortiz .605
Rodriguez 1.029 OPS Ortiz .999
Rodriguez 47 HR Ortiz 47
Jeter 198 Hits Damon 195
Rodriguez 129 RBI Ortiz 146
Rodriguez 121 Runs Ortiz 117
Giambi 107 Walks Ortiz 98
Rodriguez 138 Strikeouts Ortiz 122
Matsui 43 2B Ortiz 39
Jeter 5 3B Damon 6
Womack 27 Steals Damon 15
Rodriguez 361 Total Bases Ortiz 359
INDIVIDUAL PITCHING LEADERS
Yanks — Red Sox
Johnson 16 Wins Wakefield 16
Rivera 43 Saves Foulke 15
#Chacon 2.76 *ERA Wakefield 3.96
Johnson 1.13 *WHIP Wakefield 1.23
Johnson 203 Strikeouts Wakefield 150
Mussina 47 Walks Wakefield/Clement 68
#Chacon .218 *BA Against Wakefield .243
Johnson 30 HR Against Wakefield 32
Johnson 218.1 IP Wakefield 220.1
Johnson 4 CG Wakefield 3
Johnson 8.37 *K/9 Schilling 8.66
#Chacon 106.3 *P/GS Schilling 106.9
* – starters only
# – Chacon’s ERA, BAA & P/GS since joining Yankees (overall season ERA is 3.40; P/GS is 101.5; BAA with
Rockies was .260)
SLG: Slugging percentage; OPS: On-base plus slugging percentage; WHIP: Walks plus hits per inning pitched; K/9: Strikeouts per 9 innings; P/GS: Pitches per start
***
Fightin’ words
Graig Nettles on the May 20, 1976 Yankee-Red Sox brawl, when he fought Bill Lee:
“It started with a collision at home plate with [Lou] Piniella and [Carlton] Fisk and they came up fighting. The year before we’d had a fight in Boston and Bill Lee said the Yankees fought like Times Square hookers. I just wanted to let him know we had some tough hookers in Times Square. He was in on the pile and I saw him taking swings at people. I threw him on the ground [and dislocated his shoulder] and he told me he’d get me next time. I said, ‘Let’s not wait till next time, let’s do it now.’ So I popped him in the eye a couple of times. I remember some of their players coming up to me the next day congratulating me so they wouldn’t have to put up with that guy. “I don’t think the dislike is there between the players [today] like it was when I played.”
