Spirit of '76: Remembering Yankees' return to World Series on Chris Chambliss' home run against the Royals
In this October 1976 file photo, New York Yankees' Chris Chambliss is besieged by fans after his ninth-inning solo home run against the Kansas City Royals in Game of the American League championship series at Yankee Stadium in New York. Credit: AP
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bucky Dent. Tino Martinez. Aaron Boone. Derek Jeter.
The subject is memorable Yankees postseason home runs.
Add one name to the list who is often overlooked: Chris Chambliss.
It was the mild-mannered Chambliss who hit a leadoff, walk-off ninth-inning home run at Yankee Stadium in Game 5 of the 1976 ALCS to send the Yankees to their first World Series since 1964.
The opponent: The Kansas City Royals.
As the Yankees prepared on Tuesday for their first playoff game in Kansas City since 1980, fans of the great Yankees teams of the late 1970s remember when the Bronx Bombers played the Royals in the ALCS three years in a row, from 1976-’78.
The Yankees won each time. Kansas City finally got its revenge in the 1980 ALCS.
On Wednesday, the teams will meet again for Game 3 of the ALDS at Kauffman Stadium with the best-of-five series tied at one game apiece.
The Yankees have their historic rivalry with the Red Sox. The Houston Astros have been a major thorn in the Yankees’ sides in recent times. The Mets are right across town.
But for a five-year period, there was no hotter rivalry in baseball than the Yankees and the Royals.
Royals legend George Brett recently told Forbes, “I will never, ever like the Yankees.” He used the word “hatred” in an interview with MLB.com.
Chambliss, who played for the Yankees from 1974-’79, again for one at-bat in 1988, and was later a coach with the club, wouldn’t go that far.
“It was competition,” Chambliss, 75, told Newsday on Monday from his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. “The thing with the Red Sox was pretty heavy. To me, with the Royals, it was just competition. They were a great team and they played well.
“I can understand George’s sentiments after those years. It was frustrating, I’m sure. They wanted to win. You play to win. I don’t like to use any adjectives. It was just competition. Whoever’s on the field, we were out there to win. That’s what it’s all about.”
The lasting image from that Chambliss home run, off Mark Littell, is the dangerous journey the 6-1, 195-pound first baseman took around the bases as fans swarmed Yankee Stadium after the ball disappeared over the right-centerfield wall.
Chambliss had to try to run through a growing mob of fans from the time he reached second base. Multiple fans reached out to steal his helmet as a few outmanned police officers tried to pull them off.
Finally, Chambliss and the rest of the Yankees sprinted as best they could into the first-base dugout, knocking down fans along the way. Chambliss came out hours later and stepped on where home plate had been.
Someone had stolen it.
Chambliss humbly calls the home run “a proud, proud moment from my career. When I look back on my career, ’76 was my very best year, statistically and everything. The whole season was just so special and then hitting the home run kind of capped it off. My memory is really that whole season.”
Chambliss hit .293 with 17 home runs and 96 RBIs and earned his only All-Star Game appearance. He finished fifth in the AL MVP voting, an award won by Yankees catcher Thurman Munson. Of the top seven finishers that season, three were Yankees (Mickey Rivers was third) and three were Royals (Brett, Hal McRae and Amos Otis).
That was also the year the original Yankee Stadium reopened after a long reconstruction. The Yankees played at Shea Stadium in 1974-75.
The Yankees were swept in the 1976 World Series by Cincinnati, but beat the Dodgers in the next two Fall Classics after again getting past Kansas City.
In the 1977 ALCS, McRae steamrolled Willie Randolph practically into leftfield on a hard slide into second base in Game 2. In Game 5, Brett and Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles exchanged punches after a hard slide and shove by Brett and a kick by Nettles.
In those days, the Yankees went to Kansas City as the favorites, the big-market team from New York against the small-market team from Kansas City.
Not much has changed in that regard. Kauffman Stadium is still there, even though it, too, has been overhauled over the years.
“It was a great time,” Chambliss said. “That was a beautiful stadium. It still is. The atmosphere was great. The stands were full, just like in New York. It was just fun to be a part of. It was exciting.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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