Sunday Morning Coffee — October 27, 2024 — Putting A Dent Into The Dodgers

I went to Game 2 of the World Series last night.  It was never really my intention but when higher authorities talk, you listen.

I went because my wife told me to go.

I went because former World Series MVP Bucky Dent said it’s the Yankees and the Dodgers, it’s Judge and Ohtani, and if you have a chance don’t miss it.

I went because the local chapter of my SKI Club, unbeknownst to the members, sponsored the trip.

I went because the Series was virtually in our Vegas backyard, all 250 miles of it.

I’m a Yankees fan.  Not the live-and-die type like when we were kids, but still a lot more than casual. Heck, as a kid I was partial to the Pirates because my dad was, and I thought that was the way it was supposed to be.  I hated the Yankees for the first twenty-some-odd years of my life.

Then the 1970s happened and late Yankees catcher Thurman Munson became a regular guest for dinner at the greyhound racetrack I managed during spring training. It was  just south of Fort Lauderdale, where the Yankees practiced.  On occasion he would bring other players with him. My pre-Yankee hatred grew into passion. I switched to pinstripes and have now been a fan for over half a century.

So when the Yankees beat Cleveland a week ago to win the American League pennant Andi asked me,  “When was the last time the Yankees were in the World Series?”  2009 was the answer.  “Are you going to go to a World Series game?” she questioned.  “I don’t think so,” was my answer.  She didn’t hesitate—“I want you to.” And then hit me with a line that I’m still not sure what she meant, “You don’t know if you’ll ever get a chance to see the Yankees in the World Series again, so I do want you to go.”

Hmm.  Not thinking she is real up to speed on the Yankees scouting department and developmental strategies, I have to think that comment was a reflection on my advancing age.

When the Dodgers beat the Mets two days later and the World Series was scheduled to start in Los Angeles, some 250 miles or a forty-five minute Southwest flight away, I called son Jason who lives in LA and told him to standby for Saturday night’s game. In the meantime I booked flights and a hotel room. I didn’t have game tickets yet but as long as you have a credit card and SKI Club membership, you can always find a couple on the resale market.

In baseball lore Yankees vs. Dodgers is as legendary as you can get.  It’s baseball fantasy. This is the 12th World Series match-up between the two franchises and the first since 1981, which doesn’t sound that long ago until you realize it’s been 43 years. In 1981 Ronald Reagan was ten months into Jimmy Carter’s old seat; gas prices spiked to $1.35 a gallon, over double what it was three years earlier before the Iranian oil crisis; Dallas topped the television ratings; Raiders Of The Lost Ark was a movie box office hit; Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, who died last Tuesday, was the National League Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award winner. He pitched LA to a six- game World Series win over the Yankees in ‘81.  But that was yesterday, and yesterday’s gone.

The Yankees and Dodgers played three times in the Series during the late 70s and early 80s— 1977, 1978 and 1981.  All were intense and a television spectacle.  Even though the Dodgers won the first two games this year on Friday and Saturday, it ain’t over.  If history repeats itself from 1978 and ‘81, the team that won the first two proceeded to lose four straight. Let’s hope.

A year before the first of the three Yankees-Dodgers classic World Series in the 70s and 80s,  the Yankees were swept in four straight by the Reds in 1976.. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner didn’t like it one bit. He knew to get over the championship hump he needed a power hitter and a shortstop. A few months after the Reds fiasco George signed Reggie Jackson to a then unheard of five-year, $3.5 million contract.  It took Steinbrenner a little while longer to find his shortstop, but right before the ‘77 season started he swung a deal with the White Sox acquiring Bucky Dent for Oscar Gamble and LaMarr Hoyt.  Dent signed a three-year, $600,000 contract to come to New York.

Dent as a Yankee and latter days undoubtedly with his favorite piece of literature.

I first met Bucky in 2013 at a Yankees Fantasy Camp.  Our friendship developed over the years, and he was kind enough to write the foreword for my second book, Big League Dream, in 2017.  Today Dent, 72, lives in Bradenton, Florida, with wife Angie. You won’t encounter a finer gentleman.

“I will never forget 1977,” he told me over the phone last week. “George didn’t like getting beat in 1976. The Yankees were really talented and Reggie and I were supposed to be the patches that would take the team to a World Series championship.”

Dent continued, “There was a bunch of pressure, but New York was crazy that year with Son of Sam and the city blackout in July.  Plus everything that was going on with our team: Reggie and Billy Martin feuding and Reggie and Munson allegedly not getting along and all the other distractions.  There was so much going on away from the field, but I’ll tell you this, once we stepped between the lines and played ball it was all about winning. We had guys who hated to lose.” The Yankees beat the Dodgers in six games.  Jackson with three home runs in Game 6 and a .450 batting average for the Series was the MVP. Steinbrenner’s investment paid immediate dividends and there was more to come.

Dent was 25 years old in 1977.  The imprint that World Series left on him will never be forgotten. “It was a classic,” he said and continued. “It used to be New York and Brooklyn but now it was East vs. West and not only the fan bases and the rivalry between the cities , but the players were incredibly stoked.  Remember in those days the American League and National League didn’t play interleague games during the regular season so the only time we saw each other was either in the All-Star Game or the World Series.  The first time I was ever at Dodger Stadium was for Game 3 of that World Series. I’ll never forget walking out of the dugout for the first time.  It was really special.  I still get goose bumps when I think about Reggie’s three-home run game; it was bang, bang, bang and Yankee Stadium was electric. I can still feel it.”

Speaking of special, 1978 was that very type of season for Dent. His home run in a one-game winner-take-all-playoff against the Red Sox is now legendary, leading the team on a path that included another meeting with the Dodgers in the World Series. And despite losing the first two they went on to win in six. 

1978 was the most watched World Series of all-time with an average of 44 million turning in for each game.  All those viewers aside, what very few recall is the MVP of that Series was a light-hitting shortstop from South Florida with the given name of Russell Earl Dent.

“That year everyone remembers the Boston playoff game and my home run; almost nobody remembers what I did in the World Series,” Dent, a three-time All-Star and two time world champion, recalled.  His World Series numbers included ten hits, seven RBI and a batting average of .417.  “With the playoff win over the Red Sox, beating Kansas City in the ALCS and being MVP of a world championship team you just can’t describe how great that was.  I still think about it almost every day.”

What did he get for the MVP award? “They gave me a white Mustang, but I sold it back to the dealership for a BMW,” Dent laughed.

He missed the 1981 World Series, the last time the Yankees and Dodgers faced each other before now.  He tore a ligament in his right ring finger in August and was sidelined ceding the position to a long forgotten back-up, Larry Milbourne.  The Yankees lost in six.

Bucky will be on hand for Game 3 in Yankee Stadium on Monday night. 

“I wouldn’t miss it. All I can tell you is if you have a chance to go to a game, you shouldn’t miss it either,” he lectured me.

So, with my wife’s encouragement, flight and hotel reservations in tow and a Yankees-Dodgers match-up the only thing I needed was game tickets. They were pricey on the secondary market, not for the feint of wallet, but the mission was accomplished Friday morning.

They were purchased with funds from my SKI Club membership. SKI Club —Spending Kid’s Inheritance.  Even though Saturday night’s final score didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped, I loved being there. Thanks to Jason and Scott for making that contribution from their SKI Club fund that they knew nothing about. Until now.