1978 Yankees

Fourteen games back on July 19. The manager gone five days later. A clubhouse held together with spite, talent, and duct tape. And yet the 1978 New York Yankees -- a team that spent the first half of the season trying to destroy itself -- mounted the greatest comeback in American League history, won 100 games, and took home their second straight World Series title. If you wrote this as fiction, your editor would tell you to tone it down.

The Meltdown

The Bronx Zoo was already burning by mid-July. Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson had been at each other's throats since '77, and George Steinbrenner kept pouring gasoline from the owner's box. Martin suspended Jackson for five games after Reggie bunted against orders. Steinbrenner publicly sided with Jackson. The team was 14 games behind the Red Sox and sinking fast.

Then Billy lit the match that burned it all down.

On July 23, at the Kansas City airport, Martin told reporters the line that ended his tenure:

One's a born liar, and the other's convicted.

He was talking about Jackson and Steinbrenner -- the latter having been convicted in 1974 for illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon. Reporters noted Martin had tears in his eyes. He knew what he'd just done. The next day, July 24, he was gone. (The official word was "resigned." Sure, Billy. And I "resigned" from my last job too.)

Bob Lemon walked into that mess on July 25 and did something radical -- he told the team to relax. Where Martin managed with a lighter and a grudge, Lemon managed with a shrug. The clubhouse exhaled for the first time all year. The Yankees were still 10.5 games back.

The Comeback

What followed was one of the most dominant stretches any team has ever played. Under Lemon, the Yankees went roughly 48-20 the rest of the way. Boston, meanwhile, started bleeding. The Red Sox lead shrank from 14 to 8 to 4 -- and then the Yankees showed up at Fenway for a four-game series on September 7.

What happened next got its own name.

The "Boston Massacre" was four games of total destruction. The Yankees won 15-3, 13-2, 7-0, and 7-4 -- outscoring Boston 42-9 across the series. Dennis Eckersley got knocked around in Game 1. Catfish Hunter threw a complete game in Game 2. Jim Beattie tossed a shutout in Game 3. The Red Sox came into the series up four games. They left tied for first.

Boston writers coined the name. It stuck because it was accurate.

The Red Sox rallied enough in late September to force a tie at 99-63, which meant one more game. Winner take all. Fenway Park. October 2.

Guidry

Before we get to Bucky, we need to talk about Ron Guidry -- because the 1977 breakout pitcher turned into something otherworldly in 1978. Louisiana Lightning went 25-3 with a 1.74 ERA, threw 16 complete games and 9 shutouts, and struck out 248 hitters in 273.2 innings. He won the AL Cy Young unanimously -- every single first-place vote -- and should've won the MVP too (he finished second to Jim Rice, which still stings).

On June 17, Guidry struck out 18 California Angels at the Stadium, setting the AL record for a left-handed pitcher. By the late innings, fans were standing on every two-strike count, clapping in rhythm. That tradition -- the standing ovation on two strikes -- started right there, with Guidry, on that night.

He was 5'11", 160 pounds. The organization nearly cut him twice. In 1978, he was the best pitcher in baseball, and it wasn't particularly close.

Ed Figueroa quietly won 20 games himself (20-9) -- the first Puerto Rican-born pitcher to reach that mark. Goose Gossage threw 134.1 innings out of the pen with a 2.01 ERA and 27 saves, terrifying every lineup he faced. This pitching staff was historically good, and Guidry was the reason it all worked.

October 2

The one-game playoff at Fenway. 32,925 fans. Guidry on the mound against Mike Torrez, who'd won two games for the Yankees in the '77 World Series before signing with Boston. The baseball gods have a flair for casting.

Boston jumped ahead 2-0 through six innings. Torrez was dealing, and Guidry -- pitching on three days' rest -- didn't have his best stuff. It looked like the comeback was going to die 90 feet from the finish line.

Then the seventh inning.

Chris Chambliss singled. Roy White singled. Two on, two out, and Bucky Dent stepped in -- the number-nine hitter, a glove-first shortstop who'd hit 5 home runs all season. Five. Not since late July.

Dent fouled the second pitch off his foot and hobbled out of the box. While the trainer worked on him, Mickey Rivers noticed Dent's bat was cracked and handed him a new one. Nobody thought much of it.

On the next pitch, Dent swung and lofted a fly ball to left. Carl Yastrzemski turned and watched it. The ball carried -- barely, impossibly -- over the Green Monster and dropped into the net. Three-run homer. Yankees 3, Red Sox 2. The ball traveled maybe 310 feet. At any other park in America, it's a lazy fly out. At Fenway, with that 37-foot wall sitting 310 feet from home plate, Bucky Dent just became a legend.

(Boston fans had a different word for what he became. They called him "Bucky F---ing Dent," and they meant it for the next 40 years.)

Rivers drew a walk. Thurman Munson doubled him home to make it 4-2. Jackson crushed a solo shot in the eighth off Bob Stanley to make it 5-2. Boston fought back to 5-4 in the bottom of the eighth, and in the ninth, Lou Piniella made the play that saved the season -- he lost Jerry Remy's line drive in the sun, bluffed with his glove like he had it, and Rick Burleson held at second instead of advancing to third. When Jim Rice flied out next, Burleson could only tag to third instead of scoring.

That brought Yastrzemski to the plate. Tying run 90 feet away. Gossage threw a fastball. Yaz popped it up. Graig Nettles squeezed it at third. Done.

Yankees 5, Red Sox 4. The greatest comeback in AL history was complete -- and there was still a World Series to play.

The World Series

The Dodgers won Games 1 and 2 in LA (11-5 and 4-3), and for a brief moment it looked like the magic had run out. It hadn't. The Yankees ripped off four straight freakin' wins -- 5-1, 4-2, 12-2, and 7-2 -- to win the series in six games and claim back-to-back titles. Dent, improbably, hit .417 in the Fall Classic and took home World Series MVP honors. The guy with 5 regular-season homers was the best player in October. Baseball is absurd sometimes.

Key Moments

Frequently Asked Questions

How far back were the 1978 Yankees?

The Yankees trailed the Red Sox by 14 games in mid-July 1978 -- the largest deficit ever overcome in American League history at that point. After Billy Martin was fired on July 24 and Bob Lemon took over, the Yankees went roughly 48-20 the rest of the regular season. The comeback peaked with the "Boston Massacre" sweep at Fenway (September 7--10) and culminated in the Bucky Dent playoff game on October 2.

What was Bucky Dent's home run in the 1978 playoff?

In the 7th inning of the one-game AL East playoff at Fenway Park on October 2, 1978, Bucky Dent hit a 3-run homer off Mike Torrez that barely cleared the Green Monster. The ball traveled roughly 310 feet -- a fly out at any other park. It gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead in a game they'd win 5-4. Dent had hit only 5 home runs all regular season. Boston fans called him "Bucky F---ing Dent" for decades afterward.

What was Ron Guidry's record in 1978?

Guidry went 25-3 with a 1.74 ERA, 248 strikeouts, 16 complete games, and 9 shutouts in 273.2 innings. He won the AL Cy Young Award unanimously and finished second in MVP voting. On June 17, he struck out 18 Angels in a single game -- an AL record for left-handed pitchers. It remains the greatest single pitching season in Yankees history.

Who was the 1978 World Series MVP?

Bucky Dent. After his famous playoff homer against Boston, Dent hit .417 (10-for-24) with 7 RBI in the World Series as the Yankees beat the Dodgers in six games. For a shortstop who hit .243 with 5 home runs in the regular season, it was one of the most improbable postseason runs in baseball history.

Fourteen games back in July. Champions in October. The 1978 Yankees shouldn't have won anything -- they should've imploded somewhere around the All-Star break and let Billy Martin drink himself into a broadcasting career. Instead, they produced the greatest pitching season in franchise history, the most famous home run in the rivalry's history, and a comeback that nobody in Boston has ever fully gotten over. Fourteen games back. And they won the whole damn thing.