1977 was the most pivotal year in the history of Steinbrenner’s Yankees.
All the great journalists from around the world wanted to cover the Yankees. We are not talking about baseball beat writers, we are not talking about sportswriters… we are talking about writers who truly understood the concept that the pen was mightier than the sword.
Writers who knew that there was something extraordinary about the cast of characters that George Steinbrenner had assembled.
The great journalist from NBC, Dick Schaap knew that once the flamboyant Reggie Jackson joined the Yankees, all bets were off.
Schaap considered Reggie to be the Muhammad Ali of baseball. Schaap had a very special relationship with Ali and was good friends with Reggie. Schaap also understood the team captain, Thurman Munson. He knew that Thurman was a total team-first kind of guy and he took no prisoners when it came to outside sources ( like Writers) trying to distract from the team. With Thurman, it was strictly about what was best for the team! That non-selfish attitude is probably the reason why Thurman isn’t in the Hall of Fame today.
I had become very friendly with Schaap through my friendship with Reggie. He would actually be one of the first people to tell me that I had to carefully maneuver my friendship with both Reggie and Thurman. He said that things could get difficult between the two of them and at one point I may have to be one of the peace maker’s.
Well everyone knows what happened between the two of them. The world would hear about Reggie saying that he was the straw that stirred the drink to a sports writer. Reggie would later say that he was taken out of context.
In the world of sports and entertainment, people believe what they want to so the 1977 season would become a very difficult and turbulent yet exciting season. Probably the most interesting in Yankees history.
At one point during that spring Schaap would come to Fort Lauderdale (Yanks spring training camp then) to do an exclusive story on what would get to be known as the Bronx Zoo Yankees.
He would bring his young son Jeremy, who would grow up to become one of the great journalists of his time. Schaap noticed that George Steinbrenner had me parading around camp with the Boss’ youngest son Harold ( he would later be known as Hal) Schaap would ask the Boss if it was ok for me to watch over his son since I already had Hal, who was the same age as Jeremy. The Boss had great respect for Schaap and understood that Schaap was one of the most powerful journalists in the world so naturally he said that Ray would do a good job.
At one point I got them both gloves and took them to the outfield during batting practice.
Ironically Reggie was hitting and drove a line drive that was going right at Jeremy’s head. I actually had to make a good catch or the ball would have hit him in the head. I was really pissed off because I told both kids to stay close to me and Jeremy didn’t listen. To this day I still joke with Jeremy about that incident.
The question that people ask to this day is Did Reggie and Thurman ever make up?
Dick Schaap always told me not to be afraid to be creative in helping the Yankees situation get better. He almost had the same mentality as the Boss. The Boss used to tell me to do what I had to do in certain situations and deal with the consequences later. In his own way, that was what Schaap was trying to tell me.
One day the Yankees were in Detroit. After the game, Reggie was the last person to leave the clubhouse. On this occasion when I walked into the trainer’s room assistant trainer Herman Schneider was working on one of Thurman’s knees. Thurman asked me why I was still there. I told him that I was waiting for Reggie. I also told him a little fib. I told him that Reggie wanted to know if Thurman wanted to go to a sports bar with us. Thurman was surprised and said … Reggie asked? I said yes. He thought for a minute and then said ok give me ten minutes.
Then I went to Reggie ( this was like an episode of I Love Lucy) and said the same thing. Like clockwork, Reggie said yes. He was actually looking forward to getting together with Thurman because what people didn’t understand was that they had a deep mutual respect for each other.
I got us a cab and when we got to the place they sat down and had a very deep conversation. It was one of my most memorable and wonderful experiences. After that, they would become friends. Yes, people Reggie and Thurman were friends!!!
Decades later I would watch Reggie on the Bob Costas show (MLB Network) and on the Howard Stearn show (Serius Network) and to hear him tell the story of how he and Thurman would become friends and the fact that he gives me credit makes me feel extremely proud.
Backup catcher Fran Healy was an extremely pivotal person in calming the Reggie scenario, especially when it came to the Reggie Billy fiasco.
To this day I’m forever grateful to Dick Schaap for his support of me and all his great advice.
I was supposed to work with Dick on a couple of wonderful projects unfortunately we would lose him at an early age.
His son Jeremy continues to be one of my very dear friends who has contributed to my upcoming documentary from executive producer Chazz Palminteri with Bill O’Connell and John Sheridan called BATBOY!
