Because Everybody Loves An Embarrassing Yankee Loss (1979 Hostess Amos Otis)

On this day in 1978, Amos Otis was involved in a moment in Yankees history that I wish I could say I remember.

Here’s the scene:  In Royals Stadium that Friday, Ed Figueroa was pitching well for the Yankees, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits, and going into the 9th inning with a 3-2 lead.  Figueroa g0t Hal McRae and Al Cowens to pop out, but with two outs he walked catcher Darrell Porter and then went 2-0 on Amos Otis.  Billy Martin decided he’d seen enough, and brought in closer Goose Gossage.

Gossage’s first pitch to Otis was hit to right-center field, and centerfielder Paul Blair seemed to catch it for the final out, but…

…and this is the part I like…

…he collided with rightfielder Reggie Jackson, the ball and Blair’s glove went flying and a shaken Paul Blair wasn’t able to get to the ball before Otis came all the way around with a walk-off  inside-the-park home run!

Royals Win!  Thuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh Royals win!!!!

Coincidentally, the Yankees are in Kansas City this weekend.  Maybe something similar will happen today and the Royals can avoid the sweep.

Incidentally, there are sources on the web which say the collision was between Jackson and Mickey Rivers, but Blair had pinch-run for Rivers in the 7th.  I wonder if there were extenuating circumstances, because I can’t imagine why you’d need to pinch-run for “Mick The Quick”.

1974 Week: The “Puzzle” On The Back Of The All-Star Cards

The fronts of the 1974 All-Star Cards look like this:

…and I intentionally picked out this card with no Hall-Of-Famers as the one which is probably least represented in the blogosphere…

The All-Star Catchers card has the box score for the game on the back, but the other 8 cards have a piece of a puzzle which shows Bobby Bonds, the MVP of he 1973 All-Star Game.  I thought it’d be fun to put the whole thing together, so here you go…

It’d be interesting to see an uncut sheet which had this on the back.  Unfortunately, most images of uncut sheets feature the front, not the back.

Topps had put these “puzzles” on the backs of cards before, but I think this may be the last instance of such a thing;  I don’t remember anything like this from a later set.