April 20, 1977: Hat trick? Yankees’ unconventional lineup spurs win over Blue Jays

After bolstering their pennant-winning roster with high-profile free agents Reggie Jackson and Don Gullett, the New York Yankees skidded into last place in the American League East two weeks into the 1977 season. Manager Billy Martin responded with a revamped batting order, purportedly drawn from a hat, on April 20 against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. The new lineup produced New York’s most robust offensive performance to date in a 7-5 win over the Blue Jays, beginning the Yankees’ climb toward a World Series title and catalyzing second baseman Willie Randolph’s emergence as a top-of-the-lineup hitter.

The 1976 Yankees, in Martin’s first full season at the helm, won the franchise’s first pennant in 12 seasons before falling to the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. During the 1976-77 offseason – baseball’s first under a collective bargaining agreement formalizing free agency – New York added two of the market’s biggest names: right fielder Jackson, who had spent 1976 with the Baltimore Orioles after establishing himself as a superstar with the Oakland A’s; and lefty starter Gullett, Cincinnati’s winning pitcher in Game One of the 1976 World Series, one of 10 postseason starts before his 26th birthday.1

But the Yankees opened 1977 by winning just two of their first 10 games. After New York mustered only one win in six games against the Milwaukee Brewers, who had finished last in the AL East in 1976,2 the expansion Blue Jays won the first two games of their first-ever visit to the Bronx.3 Losers of five in a row, scoring fewer than three runs per game, the Yankees were already 5½ games back in the division.

Various measures – authoritarian, superstitious, and tactical – were employed to jump-start the Yankees. Owner George Steinbrenner called for a voluntary workout on an offday, then a team meeting before the second Toronto loss.4 Martin shaved off his mustache for better luck.5 A mild lineup makeover for April 13’s 5-3 win over the Kansas City Royals, New York’s biggest offensive outburst in its first 10 games, had catcher Thurman Munson – the regular number-three hitter – batting second; Jackson shifted from fifth to third; and left fielder Roy White, generally in the second slot, at sixth.6

Still, the Yankees’ slide persisted. “Everything has gone awry,” observed Newsday. “Nobody is hitting. … The defense is suddenly shabby. A pack of writers wait every day in the [locker room]. The headlines the next morning scream at them.”7

After the second loss to the Blue Jays on April 19, Martin announced that the Yankees would deploy a radically revamped batting order for the next day’s game.8 Newspapers reported that Martin – aided by Jackson and venerable clubhouse man Pete Sheehy – had picked the lineup “out of a hat” as the 8-3 defeat ran its course.9

But Martin’s lineup card for Wednesday afternoon’s game was not completely unfamiliar. As they had a week earlier in Kansas City, Munson and Jackson batted second and third, and White was sixth. With right-hander Steve Hargan pitching for Toronto, designated hitter Carlos May, a lefty who had hit fifth through seventh in earlier games against righties, was seventh.

Shortstop Bucky Dent, acquired from the Chicago White Sox two days before Opening Day,10 batted ninth, just as he had for New York’s first 10 games.

Other Yankees had more unusual roles. Leading off was the 22-year-old Randolph, New York’s regular eighth hitter but an AL All-Star in 1976, his first full major-league season.11 Veteran center fielder Mickey Rivers, the usual leadoff man, shifted to fifth for the first time in his career.

Graig Nettles, the AL’s leading home-run hitter in 1976, was at cleanup instead of his customary sixth or seventh. Eighth was Chris Chambliss, generally fourth or fifth but batting nearly 100 points below his career .283 average.12

Before the Yankees could test out their new order, Toronto went ahead against Gullett, seeking his first win of 1977 after two losses to Milwaukee. A single by former Yankee Otto Vélez – who had four hits and four RBIs in the series’ first two games – drove in Hector Torres, and Bob Bailor scored on Doug Ault’s groundout for a 2-0 Blue Jays’ lead.

Toronto had selected Hargan, a 34-year-old veteran of 205 starts with the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers, in the expansion draft. Against the Yankees, he struggled with control, and New York’s reordered lineup capitalized immediately.13

Randolph started the first with a walk, then took third when Munson – who had observed in 1976 that “[o]n most other clubs [Randolph] would be batting leadoff”14 – sliced a double down the right-field line, his first hit in 15 at-bats. Jackson’s single to center scored both runners, tying the game.

Jackson stole second without a throw, as catcher Alan Ashby failed to handle Hargan’s forkball. A walk to Nettles put runners on first and second with none out. Rivers sacrificed, and the Blue Jays walked White intentionally to load the bases.

One out later, Chambliss singled home Nettles to put the Yankees in front, 3-2. All nine Yankees batted in the first, and it was just New York’s fourth multi-run inning of the season.15

When the Yankees came up in the second, Randolph led off again. He drove Hargan’s full-count pitch deep to the opposite field and into the bleachers behind the 385-foot sign in right for his second career homer.16

May greeted Randolph in the dugout, the Yonkers Herald Stateman reported, “waving a towel at him and giving him the royalty treatment.”17 For the second time in two innings, the Yankees’ new batting order had made a difference.

“I had a full count on [Randolph] and just wanted to throw a strike,” Hargan said. “I didn’t want to walk him with Munson, Jackson, and Nettles coming.”18

“It’ll probably be my one [home run] for the year,” Randolph said.19

New York kept on rolling, as Munson singled and Jackson walked. Toronto manager Roy Hartsfield replaced Hargan with Jerry Johnson.

After Nettles’ fly ball to right moved Munson to third, spotty Toronto defense let in another run. Ault bobbled Rivers’ grounder to first, tried to tag the speedy Rivers, and missed him. Everyone was safe, and Munson scored for a 5-2 lead.

Toronto scored in the third when Ault’s single drove in Torres. But the Yankees clustered singles and productive outs in the fourth and fifth innings against Johnson to build a cushion. Jackson and Nettles started the fourth with singles, and Rivers’ sacrifice fly drove in Jackson. Dent and Randolph singled to put runners at the corners in the fifth; when Toronto settled for a force at second on Munson’s grounder, New York’s advantage was 7-3.

In five innings, Martin’s “hat” lineup had generated seven runs on 10 hits. It was more runs than in any previous game in 1977, and more hits than in all but one game. The first four batters – Randolph, Munson, Jackson, and Nettles – had reached base 10 times in 15 plate appearances, scored six runs, and driven in four.20

Gullett had found his groove in the meantime, holding the Blue Jays hitless from the fourth inning through the seventh.

“I started to get better location on my pitches in the middle innings,” he said. “My mechanics got better, and I was able to move the ball around.”21

Dave McKay’s two-run double in the eighth brought Toronto within 7-5, but Martin called on Sparky Lyle for the final five outs of New York’s slide-snapping win.

“Same lineup tomorrow,” Martin said afterward. “What the heck, I can’t go against the hat, can I?”22

“If [Martin] keeps me leadoff, I’ll be a happy man,” Randolph added.23

A day later, the Randolph-Munson-Jackson-Nettles-Rivers-White-May-Chambliss-Dent parade racked up 13 more hits in an 8-6 win over Toronto, as Chambliss broke out for a homer and five RBIs.24 With some adjustments – swapping May and White’s lineup positions, then substituting Jim Wynn against a lefty – Martin stuck with the “hat” order for six games.

The Yankees won all six, averaging more than eight runs per game.25 It began a surge of 14 wins in 16 games that boosted New York to first in the division.26 As 1977 progressed, six of the Yankees’ nine starters on April 20 started at least 14 games in their “hat-selected” slots,27 and New York won its first World Series since 1962.

No Yankee returned to his “hat” spot more often than Randolph, who hit leadoff in 37 of the next 38 games and 68 times overall in 1977. Whether Randolph’s April 20 assignment came from a random draw, or whether it reflected Martin recognizing a young player’s potential in a new role – accompanied by a pressure-deflecting cover story about a hat28 – it was a watershed in his career.

Randolph had batted eighth in more than 80 percent of his starts before the “hat” game.29 Going forward, he became a table-setter, hitting first or second over 80 percent of the time and batting leadoff most often.30 Randolph finished in the AL’s Top 10 in steals four times and walks eight times and retired in 1992 with a career .373 on-base percentage.

Acknowledgments

SABR member Gary Belleville provided helpful research assistance with Canadian newspaper coverage of this game.

Photo credit: National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes below, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play. He also reviewed game coverage in the Globe and Mail, Newsday, New York Daily News, and Toronto Star newspapers and SABR Baseball BioProject biographies of several individuals involved in this game, especially Charles F. Faber’s Don Gullett biography and Nancy Snell Griffith’s Willie Randolph biography.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA197704200.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1977/B04200NYA1977.htm

Notes

1 Red Foley, “Yankees Land Gullett – Go for Grich: 6-Year Contract Is Worth $1.7M to Cincy Free Agent,” New York Daily News, November 19, 1976: 86; Dick Young, “Jax Agrees to Take Yanks’ $2M,” New York Daily News, November 28, 1976: 132.

2 Bill Verigan, “Brewers Sweep Yanks into Cellar,” New York Daily News, April 18, 1977: 50.

3 Red Foley, “Yanks Fall Again; Cat Lost 21 Days,” New York Daily News, April 19, 1977: 50; Red Foley, “Slumping Yanks Bow to Jays, 8-3,” New York Daily News, April 20, 1977: C22.

4 Bill Pennington, Billy Martin: Baseball’s Flawed Genius (Boston: Mariner, 2016), 247-257. Joe Gergen, “This Club Is Going to Win. An Acorn Doesn’t Make a Fall,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), April 20, 1977: 115.

5 Foley, “Yanks Fall Again; Cat Lost 21 Days”; Red Foley, “Slumping Yanks Bow to Jays, 8-3.”

6 Steve Jacobson, “3 Little Bombers Power the Yankees,” Newsday, April 14, 1977: 182.

7 Dan Lauck, “Words Fail Yankees After 8th Loss,” Newsday, April 20, 1977: 116.

8 Al Mari, “Martin Unveils Hat Trick,” Yonkers (New York) Herald Statesman, April 20, 1977: 39.

9 Mari, “Martin Unveils Hat Trick”; Associated Press, “Martin Takes ’Em from a Hat,” Ithaca (New York) Journal, April 20, 1977: 17.

10 The Yankees had traded outfielder Oscar Gamble, two minor-league pitchers, and cash to the White Sox for Dent on April 5. Bill Nack, “One Minute You’re There and the Next You’re Not,” Newsday, April 7, 1977: 119.

11 Randolph had batted eighth in the Yankees’ first nine games of 1977 before hitting seventh on April 19.

12 After starting the season with one hit in his first 17 at-bats, Chambliss was batting .189 through the Yankees’ first nine games, and Martin benched him on April 19.

13 The Daily News noted that Hargan “was behind virtually every batter.” Red Foley, “Yankees Pull One out of Hat, 7-5: Top Jays to End 5-Slide,” New York Daily News, April 21, 1977: 96.

14 Joe Donnelly, “How the Yankees Raised the Flag,” Newsday, September 27, 1976: 70.

15 In 93 innings at bat before this game, the Yankees had only one three-run inning (April 15 in Milwaukee) and two two-run innings (April 11 in Kansas City and April 16 in Milwaukee).

16 The home run came in Randolph’s 611th career plate appearance. He had also homered off Baltimore’s Jim Palmer on April 13, 1976.

17 Al Mari, “Yanks New Hat Fits Perfectly,” Yonkers Herald Statesman, April 21, 1977: 36.

18 Neil Campbell, “Lyle Snuffs out Jays’ Rally as Yankees End Losing Streak,” Globe and Mail (Toronto), April 21, 1977: 48.

19 Red Foley, “Yankees Pull One out of Hat, 7-5.”

20 At that point, Hartsfield summoned 26-year-old left-hander Mike Willis to appear in his second big-league game. Willis contained the Yankees for three innings, allowing four hits but keeping them scoreless.

21 Foley, “Yankees Pull One out of Hat, 7-5.” Gullett finished April with a 1-2 record and 7.13 ERA. For the rest of the season, he won 13 of 15 decisions and posted a 2.95 ERA. A series of injuries, culminating in rotator cuff surgery in September 1978, ended his major-league career at the age of 27.

22 Foley, “Yankees Pull One out of Hat, 7-5.”

23 Jim Smith, “Yankees Find Solution for a Day: Out-of-the-Hat Batting Order Produces 14 Hits and 7 Runs,” Newsday, April 21, 1977: 192.

24 Phil Pepe, “Chambliss’ 5 RBI Spark Yanks, 8-6,” New York Daily News, April 22, 1977: 72.

25 Phil Pepe, “Yank Streak at 6; Reggie Raps HR,” New York Daily News, April 26, 1977: 48.

26 Bill Verigan, “Yankees Rock Dock, Thump A’s, 10-5,” New York Daily News, May 9, 1977: 40.

27 Randolph batted leadoff 68 times, Munson was second 14 times, Jackson third 21 times, Nettles cleanup seven times, Rivers fifth seven times, White sixth 28 times, May seventh 16 times, Chambliss eighth six times, and Dent ninth 149 times.

28 The Yonkers Herald Statesman offered a note of skepticism on the alleged selection of the Yankees’ April 20 lineup. “The Yanks swear the lineup came from a hat, but it is an amazing coincidence that little Willie [Randolph] has been dying to lead off, and big Reggie [Jackson] itching to hit third.” Mari, “Yanks New Hat Fits Perfectly.” On two other occasions during his managing career, Martin claimed to have selected lineups from a hat: on August 13, 1972, when he managed the Detroit Tigers, and June 23, 1982, with the Oakland A’s. In contrast to the persistence of many elements of the 1977 “hat” lineup, Martin’s 1972 lineup included three players batting in positions for the only time all season and another player who hit in that spot in just one other game. The 1982 lineup had five “one-time” players. Jim Hawkins, “Still Falling … Tigers in 3rd Place,” Detroit Free Press, August 14, 1972: 1D; Kit Stier, “No Runs in Martin’s Hat,” Oakland Tribune, June 24, 1982: F-1.

29 Prior to this game, Randolph had started in 145 major-league games and batted eighth 117 times.

30 From April 20, 1977 through the end of his career, Randolph started 1,967 games. He batted leadoff in 859 of those games and second in 743.