1977 World Series: Yankees Beat the Dodgers

The 1977 New York Yankees shouldn't have existed as a coherent baseball team. Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin nearly came to blows on national television in June. Jackson had told a magazine writer that he was "the straw that stirs the drink" and that Thurman Munson -- the team captain, the reigning AL MVP, the man the clubhouse actually followed -- "doesn't enter into it." The whole thing was one bad day away from a complete collapse. Instead, it produced one of the most electric October nights in the history of the franchise.

They won 100 games and then won the World Series. Make of that what you will.

A Team That Almost Wasn't

George Steinbrenner signed Jackson that winter without consulting Martin. Five years, reportedly around $3 million. Martin wanted pitching. Steinbrenner wanted a name. Reggie wanted everything -- the attention, the spotlight, the "straw that stirs the drink" identity he'd built in Oakland and carried to New York like a match near gasoline. (The SPORT magazine interview where he said that stuff ran before the season even started. Munson found out from teammates. Great way to begin.)

The explosion came on June 18 at Fenway Park, nationally televised. Jim Rice lofted a fly ball to right field that Jackson allowed to fall in -- a loaf play, plain and simple. Martin sent Paul Blair out to replace him mid-inning. Reggie came back to the dugout and got in Martin's face. Yogi Berra physically stepped between them. The dugout camera caught all of it.

By early August the Yankees were in third place, five games behind the Red Sox.

Then Ron Guidry started winning. Eight straight. Martin moved Jackson permanently to the cleanup spot (a decision that had been obvious for months, but here we are). And over a stretch of 26 games, the Yankees went 23-3. Reggie hit 13 home runs and drove in 49 runs during the run. By late September they'd won the AL East by 2.5 games.

Sparky Lyle won the AL Cy Young Award that year -- the first ever for a relief pitcher in the American League. He went 13-5 with a 2.17 ERA and 26 saves in 72 appearances. Graig Nettles led the team with 37 home runs in the regular season. Jackson hit .286 with 32 home runs and 110 RBI. They were the best team in baseball, on the days they weren't trying to implode.

They beat the Kansas City Royals in five games in the ALCS, coming back from a 2-1 series deficit and closing it out with three runs in the ninth inning of Game 5. Then came Los Angeles.

The Series: Games 1 Through 5

The Dodgers were no slouch. Tommy Lasorda's team had four players hit 30 or more home runs in the regular season -- Steve Garvey (33), Reggie Smith (32), Ron Cey (30), and Dusty Baker (30) -- the first team in Major League Baseball history to do that. They had Burt Hooton, Don Sutton, and Tommy John in their rotation, and they played in front of 55,000 every night at Dodger Stadium.

Game 1 went to the Yankees, 4-3, with Sparky Lyle earning the win in relief. Game 2 flipped back to LA, 6-1, with Catfish Hunter getting knocked around. At that point the series was even and nobody knew what to expect.

Then Mike Torrez happened.

Torrez won Game 3 in Los Angeles with a complete game, 5-3. Just him and his stuff for nine innings against a loaded Dodgers lineup. Guidry took Game 4 on four hits, 4-2, and Lou Piniella made a leaping catch that robbed Ron Cey of a three-run homer to preserve it. The Yankees led the series 3-1 and one win from the title.

The Dodgers refused to go quietly. Don Sutton threw a gem in Game 5 and LA won 10-4 to send it back to New York. Reggie homered off Sutton in that game -- a footnote at the time, but the first link in a chain that was about to go very strange.

October 18, 1977

Yankee Stadium. October. Torrez on the mound, 56,407 in the seats. The Yankees led the series 3-2 and Reggie had been good -- hitting, getting on base, doing his job -- when he stepped into the batter's box against Burt Hooton in the second inning and drew a walk on four straight pitches.

His next four plate appearances went differently.

The fourth inning. Jackson stepped in against Hooton with the score tied -- first pitch, one swing, lower deck in right. The crowd was already starting to understand what they might be seeing. Hooton was pulled.

The fifth inning. Elias Sosa came in. Willie Randolph was on first. First pitch -- a line drive into the first row of the lower deck in right, barely off the ground, hit so hard it looked like a single for half a second before it cleared the wall. Sosa was done.

The eighth inning. Leading off. Charlie Hough -- the knuckleballer -- against Reggie Jackson, who'd hit a home run in his last at-bat in Game 5 and his last three at-bats in this game. Three different pitchers. All three on the first pitch. First pitch from Hough: gone. Deep to center, estimated at 475 feet, into the part of the ballpark where nobody hits the ball. The "REG-GIE! REG-GIE!" chants started before the ball even landed.

ABC broadcaster Keith Jackson was starting to say "High--" when Howard Cosell interrupted him. "Oh, what a blow!" Three swings. Three home runs. Four consecutive home runs across two games, all on first pitches.

Nobody had ever done that. Babe Ruth had hit three home runs in a single World Series game twice. Now Reggie had.

The final was 8-4. Mike Torrez threw his second complete game of the series, finishing what he'd started in Game 3. The Yankees were champions for the first time since 1962, ending a 15-year drought.

Mr. October

The nickname "Mr. October" was cemented that night. Reggie hadn't invented it -- he'd earned it. The full series line reads: .450, 5 home runs, 8 RBI, 10 runs scored, 25 total bases (then-World Series record, since broken by George Springer's 29 in 2017).

Munson was gracious after the series, and nobody talked about "the straw that stirs the drink" anymore. At least not until the next spring.

Billy Martin had nearly gotten himself fired during the series -- he reportedly called both Steinbrenner and Jackson liars in a post-Game 5 outburst that team counsel managed to contain. He made it to July 1978 before the mouth finally outran the leash -- one too many "born liars" at a press conference -- and got himself fired midseason for the first of what would become several exits and returns. (The Martin-Yankees relationship became its own ongoing theater production.)

Mike Torrez, who'd won two World Series games in a span of a week, signed with the Boston Red Sox that winter as a free agent. One year later, he'd be on the mound at Fenway Park when Bucky Dent lifted a fly ball over the Green Monster. He's the only pitcher in history to have won the clinching game of a Yankees World Series AND given up the hit that eliminated the Red Sox in back-to-back Octobers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who won the 1977 World Series?

The New York Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers four games to two in the 1977 World Series. It was the Yankees' 21st championship and their first since 1962 -- ending a 15-year drought. Reggie Jackson won World Series MVP honors after hitting five home runs in the series, including three in the clinching Game 6.

How many home runs did Reggie Jackson hit in the 1977 World Series?

Reggie Jackson hit five home runs in the 1977 World Series, including three in the clinching Game 6 off three different pitchers: Burt Hooton in the 4th inning, Elias Sosa in the 5th inning, and Charlie Hough in the 8th inning. All three Game 6 shots came on the first pitch. He also homered in Game 5 off Don Sutton. His full series line: .450 batting average, 5 home runs, 8 RBI, 10 runs scored, 25 total bases.

Where did Reggie Jackson get the nickname 'Mr. October'?

The nickname was cemented by his performance in the 1977 World Series, particularly Game 6 when he hit three home runs off three different pitchers on three consecutive first pitches. Jackson had already been known as a big-game player from his Oakland Athletics days, but the 1977 performance -- especially the three-homer night at Yankee Stadium -- made "Mr. October" permanent. He embraced it for the rest of his life.

Who pitched for the Yankees in the 1977 World Series?

Mike Torrez was the star of the pitching staff, throwing complete games in both Game 3 (5-3 win in Los Angeles) and the clinching Game 6 (8-4 win). Ron Guidry started and won Game 4 on a four-hitter, 4-2. Sparky Lyle won Game 1 in relief. Catfish Hunter started Game 2 and took the loss.

Why were the 1977 Yankees called the Bronx Zoo?

The nickname came from the constant chaos surrounding the team that year -- the clash between manager Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson, George Steinbrenner's meddling, Reggie's "straw that stirs the drink" magazine quote that alienated his teammates, and a June dugout confrontation between Martin and Jackson that aired on national television. Closer Sparky Lyle co-wrote a book titled The Bronx Zoo in 1979 chronicling the year's events, and the nickname stuck to describe the entire era.