September 25, 1973: Yankees lose DH in eighth inning, game in 13th

“Once a Designated Hitter assumes a defensive position this move shall terminate the Designated Hitter role for the remainder of the game.” — 1973 American League regulations, Section 2.71

On September 25, 1973, New York Yankees manager Ralph Houk managed himself out of a designated hitter. In so doing, he might have managed himself into a loss.

Houk used a pinch-runner for DH Ron Blomberg in the eighth inning of a close game, then moved Blomberg’s replacement, Celerino Sánchez, to shortstop. Because of those moves, New York lost its designated hitter, and the pitcher’s spot batted twice in extra innings. Yankees relief pitcher Lindy McDaniel struck out both times, and the Milwaukee Brewers solved him for the winning run in the 13th inning.

The 1973 season was the American League’s first with the DH. It’s not clear from news accounts whether Houk cost himself the use of a DH by mistake, or whether he knew what he was doing and took a calculated gamble on winning the game.2 Either way, his moves didn’t pan out – adding another defeat to a disappointing season that ended with Houk’s resignation.3

By late September, the Baltimore Orioles had run away with the American League East Division lead, and the Yankees and Brewers were playing out the string. New York occupied fourth place with a 77-79 record, 16½ games behind; Del Crandall’s Milwaukee team sat in fifth place at 72-83, 21 games out.

The Brewers, in their fifth season of existence, had enjoyed a period of early success, holding first place as late as June 19. Their ranks included second baseman Pedro Garcia, the AL’s doubles leader and the eventual second-place finisher in Rookie of the Year voting.4

The Yankees had held a share of first as late as August 2 before entering a fast fade; they went 9-18 in August, including a 3-14 record on the road. To make the Yankees’ struggles doubly frustrating, the crosstown Mets got hot in September and claimed the up-for-grabs National League East Division title. As the Yankees played a meaningless game for a scant crowd in Milwaukee, the first-place Mets were celebrating Willie Mays Night before 53,603 “riotously noisy” fans at Shea Stadium and picking up a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Expos for good measure.5

The September 25 game in Milwaukee kicked off a three-game series between the Yankees and Brewers.6 The Brewers won 10 of their 18 games against the Yankees that season, including seven of nine played at County Stadium.

Lefty Fritz Peterson started for the Yankees, bringing an 8-15 record and a 3.99 ERA into the game. He’d started once against the Brewers in 1973, and it hadn’t gone well. In the first game of a July 29 doubleheader, Peterson went the distance, absorbing a 13-hit, seven-run assault as Milwaukee won 7-2. (Peterson’s most notable action of 1973 took place off the field and in the preseason, when he and teammate Mike Kekich went public with their plan to swap wives and children.7)

Righty Bill Champion took the mound for the Brewers. In his first season with Milwaukee after coming over from the Philadelphia Phillies, he was 5-8 with a 3.90 ERA, dividing his time between starting and relieving.8 He’d pitched three times against the Yankees and earned wins in two of those games – the first in relief on July 28, the second as a starter on September 9.

Just 4,292 fans, the Brewers’ second smallest home crowd of 1973,9 turned out to watch the Tuesday-night matchup. The home team wasted two singles and a Yankee error in the bottom of the first, as George Scott bounced into an inning-ending double play. Similarly, two Brewer singles in the third inning were followed by a double-play grounder by Garcia. The Yankees collected three singles in the first four innings, including one by Blomberg, but did nothing with them.

Milwaukee claimed the game’s first lead in the fourth inning, starting with singles by Dave May and Scott. Don Money’s single to center field scored May, and Money took second on an error by center fielder Bobby Murcer. One out later, Peterson intentionally walked Charlie Moore – playing only his sixth big-league game – to get to Wilbur Howard, who was playing his 10th. Howard grounded into a force play at second, scoring Scott, to give the Brewers a 2-0 lead.

The Yankees continued to threaten but not score. They collected a single in the fifth, two singles – including another by Blomberg – in the sixth, and a double and a walk in the seventh. In the last of these rallies, Mike Hegan made it to third base with two out, only to have Roy White fly to Howard in right field.

Ed Sprague relieved Champion in the eighth, and the Yankees finally broke through. With two outs, Blomberg collected his third single of the night. Blomberg had been a solid offensive contributor for the Yankees,10 entering the game hitting .329. But he suffered from chronic leg muscle pulls that had prevented him from playing the field since July.11

No doubt with this in mind, Houk sent Sánchez to run for him. The Yankees had called up the 29-year-old veteran of the Mexican and US minor leagues in June 1972 to fill a vacancy at third base. But the team’s acquisition of Graig Nettles that November made Sánchez surplus to requirements. He appeared in just 34 games in 1973 – only two after September 25 – and returned to Mexico thereafter. Sánchez hadn’t played since September 15 and hadn’t had a plate appearance since September 12.

Nettles, Sánchez’s replacement, singled him to second base. Another rookie September call-up, Otto Velez, drove in Sánchez with a double to make the score 2-1. Sprague intentionally walked Hegan and got Jim Ray Hart, pinch-hitting for replacement shortstop Hal Lanier, to ground to first, ending the inning.12 Sánchez stayed in the game at shortstop, as pitcher Peterson, by rule, entered the batting order.

This strategy paid short-term dividends in the top of the ninth. With Sprague still on the mound, Horace Clarke drew a leadoff walk and White singled him to second. A groundout by Thurman Munson moved the runners ahead a base, and Sprague intentionally walked Murcer to bring Sánchez to the plate. Sánchez delivered, hitting a sacrifice fly to left fielder John Briggs that brought Clarke home with the tying run. Another intentional walk reloaded the bases before Velez lined back to Sprague to end the rally.

Scott led off the bottom half with a double, spurring Houk to summon McDaniel from the Yankees’ bullpen. It was the reliever’s 907th major-league appearance, moving him ahead of Cy Young into second place on the all-time list.13 McDaniel, whose big-league tenure had begun at age 19 in 1955, immediately showed the skills that made him one of the top relievers of his generation. On his first pitch, Money popped up a bunt attempt; McDaniel caught it on the fly and threw to Sánchez to catch Scott off base for a double play.14 Joe Lahoud, hitting for DH Bobby Mitchell, grounded to first to send the game into extra innings.

With rookie Eduardo Rodriguez on the mound for Milwaukee,15 things quieted down through the 12th inning. The Yankees wasted two singles, the Brewers one. McDaniel, the first Yankees pitcher to bat since the introduction of the DH, struck out in the 10th.16

McDaniel also struck out to lead off the 13th, after which the visitors mounted a rally. Clarke singled to left field; White singled to center, moving Clarke to third. Munson struck out and Rodriguez gave Murcer still another intentional walk, bringing Sánchez to the plate. This time he couldn’t deliver, flying to right for the third out. Crandall explained his strategy later: “[Murcer] is one of the better hitters in the league. … Besides, Sánchez hasn’t been playing much, so we thought we could get him out.”17

McDaniel ran into trouble in the bottom half, and Sánchez was again in the middle of the action. Howard led off with a single and Tim Johnson bunted him to second. The New York infield shifted to the right as lefty-swinging Briggs came to the plate, expecting him to pull the ball.18

Briggs grounded to Sánchez near second base, and Howard took off for third. Instead of getting the out at first, Sánchez threw to Nettles at third. Nettles had been playing off the bag as part of the Yankees’ shift and didn’t appear to be expecting a throw; he bobbled the ball and both runners were safe.19 Garcia’s line-drive single to left scored Howard and gave the Brewers a 3-2 victory. Rodriguez earned the win, bringing his record to 9-6, while McDaniel took the loss to fall to 12-5.20

As a side note, the game was one of the last in the 25-season career of second-base umpire Jim Honochick. Honochick retired after the season, having worked 3,815 regular-season games, six World Series, and four All-Star Games.

Acknowledgments

This story was fact-checked by Gary Belleville and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author thanks Gary Belleville and Rachel Wells, reference librarian at the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Giamatti Research Center, for research assistance.

Sources and photo credit

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for general player, team and season data and the box scores for this game:

www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIL/MIL197309250.shtml

www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1973/B09250MIL1973.htm

Image of 1973 Topps card #46 downloaded from the Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 American League Regulations, 1973, Section 2.7 (page 18).

2 Houk is not quoted in the next day’s game coverage in New York and Milwaukee media outlets, nor in the Associated Press game roundup. The combination of an extra-inning game and a different time zone might have forced New York reporters to file stories before getting the chance to interview him. Or Houk – who was five days away from resigning as Yankees manager – might simply not have wanted to talk about it.

3 Jim Ogle, “Houk’s High Hopes Dashed, So He Quits as Yanks’ Pilot,” The Sporting News, October 13, 1973: 16.

4 Baltimore Orioles outfielder Al Bumbry won.

5 Joseph Durso, “Mets Win, 2-1, Lead by Game and Half as Phils’ Carlton Thwarts Pirates, 2-1,” and Sam Goldaper, “Baseball Says Farewell to Willie Mays and Era,” both New York Times, September 26, 1973: 29. The officially listed attendance was 43,805, but news accounts of the game listed attendance at greater than 53,000.

6 After the Milwaukee series, the Yankees returned to New York for a three-game series with the Detroit Tigers – the final baseball games played at the original Yankee Stadium before it closed for renovations spanning the 1974 and 1975 seasons.

7 “2 Yank Pitchers Trade Wives” (photo and caption), New York Daily News, March 6, 1973: 1; Phil Pepe, “Two Yankee Pitchers Trade Wives & Kids,” New York Daily News, March 6, 1973: 3.

8 Of Champion’s 37 appearances, 11 were starts.

9 The Brewers drew 4,005 fans on May 8 against the Texas Rangers. Like September 25, it was a Tuesday night game.

10 He was also well-liked by fans: Blomberg received a portable color TV after being voted “most popular Yankee” by a group of young fans. Jim Ogle, “Velez’ Line Drives Giving Yankees Early Line to ’74,” The Sporting News, September 29, 1973: 10.

11 Jim Ogle, “Yanks Ponder Blomberg’s ’74 Role,” The Sporting News, October 20, 1973: 22.

12 Lanier had entered the game in the seventh inning after Duke Sims pinch-hit for the Yankees’ starting shortstop, Fred Stanley.

13 Michael Strauss, “Brewers Top Yanks in 13th, 3-2,” New York Times, September 26, 1973: 29. At the time, McDaniel trailed only Hoyt Wilhelm, who had retired the previous season with 1,070 games pitched. McDaniel ended his 21-season career in 1975 with 987 appearances.

14 Strauss.

15 Rodriguez entered the game after Hegan singled off Sprague to begin the 10th inning.

16 Strauss. In a 21-season career, McDaniel hit .148 with 3 homers and 17 RBIs in 378 at-bats. Fritz Peterson, who was still on the mound when Houk gave up his DH, was only marginally better at the plate, hitting .159 in 515 lifetime at-bats.

17 Mike O’Brien (Associated Press), “Brewers Tip Yankees in 13th, 3-2,” Eau Claire (Wisconsin) Leader-Telegram, September 26, 1973: 3B.

18 Lou Chapman, “Brewers Win in 13th over Yanks,” Milwaukee Journal, September 26, 1973: 16.

19 O’Brien and Chapman. “I don’t think Nettles was expecting the play,” Howard said after the game. “It looked like he was caught off guard.”

20 McDaniel was the only Yankee pitcher to bat in 1973, according to a Stathead search conducted in March 2023: https://stathead.com/tiny/8SpEm.