The Baseball Digest Archive

October 1976

The Bronx Zoo era Yankees were one of the most star-laden teams of any era. Reggie Jackson’s arrival was a year away, but even without him many of the key players were in place as of 1976. Two of the lesser known, yet still vital, players on that team were featured in this issue. Cover subject Mickey Rivers was the leadoff hitter and prolific base stealer who made the whole thing go. And Ed Figueroa, who arrived in New York along with Rivers in a trade for Bobby Bonds, was accurately described as the team’s anonymous star. He led the club in victories in ‘76.

1976 was of course also the year of Mark Fidrych. I was so glad to have been a young fan to truly appreciate how magical that year was. In addition to being one of the game’s great characters, he also seemed to be a real decent guy. It’s sad that his career flamed out as quickly as it did; it’s tragic that he died so young. Those of us of a certain age will never forget The Bird.

Time for old man shakes fist at cloud with the article stating that today’s center fielders pale in comparison to their predecessors. Actually, the article isn’t that far off base. The 1976 crop of center fielders were fine players. One page had a photo spread of Cesar Cedeno, Paul Blair, and Amos Otis. The other page showed Joe DiMaggio, Tris Speaker, and Willie Mays. It’s not exactly a controversial statement to say that the trio of past stars was significantly better.

Ewell Blackwell is a player whose name has faded as fewer and fewer people who have actually seen him pitch can perpetuate his fame. He was a hard throwing right hander whose distinctive sidearm motion, which kept the ball hidden much longer than it would have had he used a more standard motion, earned him the nickname The Whip. When he was broadcasting Mets games Ralph Kiner helped keep Blackwell’s name alive; Kiner frequently mentioned how difficult it was to hit against him.

This was an interesting piece, a feature on the rare players who threw left yet batted right. It’s unusual because in many ways it’s advantageous for a batter to hit lefty. Since there are more right handed pitchers, batting left handed gives a hitter the platoon advantage more often. Plus, a leftie is a couple of steps closer to first base so he might be able to leg out a few more infield hits from that side. Yet there have still been a small handful of left handed throwers that chose to hit righty. The article is accompanied with a photo of one of those players - Cleon Jones. I’ve mentioned in the past that he was my favorite Mets player when I was a kid. But… this is 1976, when he ended his career with the White Sox, so that’s the uniform he was wearing in the photo. BTW, a few years after this issue came out the greatest right handed hitting/left handed throwing player of them all would begin his career. That would be Rickey Henderson.

Finally, there is an article which focused on the lost art of bench jockeying. It discussed the ways the likes of Leo Durocher or Gene Mauch would get under the opponent’s skin. This quote from then Phillies manager Danny Ozark leaves a strong implication. “The language has cleaned up, the racial stuff isn’t used.” Lord, I can only imagine some of the vile stuff that used to come out of dugouts. (To be clear, there is no indication that either Durocher or Mauch were screaming racial slurs. But clearly many dugout hecklers did.)

Reviewing Olympic Sports

Cycling BMX Freestyle - There is little rhyme or reason to my personal feelings when it comes to X-Games type sports. There are some that I really like, others that don’t do it for me. In this case I’m impressed by the guts that the riders in BMX freestyle have. To do all those assorted tricks and somersaults while riding a bike is quite a feat. But when I watch this I think “wow, that’s impressive” rather than “this is exciting, I need to see more of this.” For me, freestyle BMX is a B-.

Cycling BMX Racing - This on the other hand is one of my favorite events. If you’ve been reading you know by now that I love the inherent excitement of a race. A BMX course ups that excitement. The riders race on a short course with steep curves and a handful of jumps in a race that lasts just over 30 seconds. Leads are rarely safe. A trailing biker could hit a curve at just the right angle and slingshot past the leader. In addition, 8 racers on that tight course result in mayhem. It’s common for a competitor to find oneself in the wrong place at the wrong time and get caught in a pileup that’s not their fault. BMX races never fail to provide thrills.

This Space For Rent

MLB announced a deal with German apparel company Strauss in which their logo will appear on all batting helmets during the postseason as well as for all minor league teams through 2027. Um, yay? I get it, the days when uniforms were sacrosanct are long gone, and the league will search for revenue any way it can. That battle is lost, it’s pointless to say that any new instance of smacking a corporate logo somewhere is a bridge too far. I still hate this. That logo is intrusive and distracting. I am not planning on leaving a positive Yelp review for these helmets.

The Winner & Still Champion

The final race of the 2024 IndyCar season took place yesterday in Nashville. As far as attention in the US goes, IndyCar lags far behind NASCAR & Formula One, which is a disappointment to me. I can remember when it was the clear #1. Not only was Mario Andretti the best known racer among casual sports fans, those same fans who only had peripheral awareness of motorsports were at least somewhat familiar with names such as A.J. Foyt or the Unser brothers. Now? It gives me no pleasure to say that the average sports fan might not be able to name a single active driver. Quick quiz - who won this year’s Indy 500? (It was Josef Newgarden.) Fox Sports will take over the TV contract next year; time will tell if they will be able to increase awareness.

Going into the final race Alex Palou had a sizable but not insurmountable lead for the title. Will Power had a fighting chance at seizing the cup with a great finish, but the drama ended almost immediately. After around a dozen laps he had to pull into the pits under a green flag and fell several laps behind the leaders. Why? Not for a mechanical reason. For all of the expensive parts in those machines he was done in by the simplest thing imaginable. His seat belt was in need of repair. That, of all things, is what cost him a shot at the title. Now, he has won the championship twice, but still. It’s as if the racing gods decided - OK, you’ve got a cool name. That’s enough.

That made the race anticlimactic. Palou has now won his second consecutive Cup title, and third in his last four years. Still only 27 years old, he has a shot to put together an historic career. There are occasional rumors popping up that he may have Formula 1 wanderlust, but let’s hope he sticks with IndyCar.

50 Years Ago - Airport 1975

Yes, it was titled Airport 1975 but it was actually released in October 1974. That proves that it was ahead of its time. This shared many of the characteristics with the other big budget disaster movies of the era. Heavy on melodrama, populated with an all-star cast which included Hollywood stars of yesteryear happy to find work. Myrna Loy! Dana Andrews! Gloria Swanson portrayed a character so similar to her real life self that I’m pretty sure they didn’t even bother to write dialogue for her; they simply told her to react the way she would were she actually on a plane in jeopardy. Her character was even named Gloria Swanson.

Unlike the majority of disaster flicks that were one-shot deals, Airport became a franchise and naturally each succeeding film in the series grew increasingly preposterous. The one constant character was George Kennedy’s airline executive, who you just knew had to wake up every morning thinking to himself “this had better not be another one of THOSE days.” This time it was personal, his wife and son were among the passengers.

As for the actual disaster; the crisis occurred when the pilot of a small private plane suffers a heart attack, causing him to collide with a passenger jet, tearing a hole in the cockpit, killing most of the crew and incapacitating the pilot. (Efrem Zimbalist Jr!) He was able to engage autopilot, but that still left it up to the lead flight attendant (Karen Black!) to man the controls. How to safely land the plane??? (Yes, that is Erik Estrada that you see in the below clip.)

Parts of that description sound a lot like Airplane!, but the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker team actually borrowed the plot from a 1950’s film called Zero Hour. They did mine other disaster movies in their film for laughs. Like this one. Among the passengers in Airport 1975 were a nun (Helen Reddy!) who had an acoustic guitar and sang a song to help comfort a young girl (Linda Blair!) who was en route to receive an organ transplant. Apologies for the excessive use of exclamation points when discussing the cast, but I can’t help it. Look at who else is in this cast. Norman Fell! Sid Caesar! Larry Storch! Jerry Stiller!

Ah, but I’m forgetting someone else important, as well as the most absurd scene in the movie. There’s only one man who can land this plane - enter Charlton Heston! The movie actually has a chopper transport him to the plane, attach him to a harness, have him enter through the hole in the cockpit, and he is now on board to take over the controls. Needless to say he is in full Chuck Heston mode, chewing the scenery with an unmatched fury. It is glorious.

Yeah, I saw this one in the theater. As stupid as the movie was, it was a fun experience to watch it on a big screen (and in 1974 my local theater had not yet downsized to a multiplex so it was a BIG screen) plus I was 8 years old. It’s not as if I could judge what was a good movie and what was schlock. There would still be two more Airport movies in the years ahead. The dumbest was yet to come.

Closing Laughs

I’ve successfully landed the plane today, please remain in your seats until we have reached the terminal. See everyone again on Wednesday and have a great week.