The craziness and mayhem that occurred with the New York Yankees during the 1977 and 1978 seasons started years earlier when Geroge Steinbrenner bought a team that was on the downside of it’s illustrious history. The end of the 1976 baseball season marked the beginning of one of the happiest and most wackiest times in Yankee history.

The mayhem started during the 1976 post-seaon when the Yankees played the Kansas City Royals for the rights to play in the World Series. Near midnight on October 14, 1976, Chris Chambless hit a home run that would change his life and the identity of the New York Yankees.

In the bottom of 9th inning the fifth game of the American League Championship Series Chris Chambliss came up to bat. He hit the first pitch thrown by Royals reliever Mark Littel just over the right field center fence. The crowed went crazy as thousands of fans rushed on to the field.

Chris Chambliss hit the home run to send the Yankees to the World Series, but he also exercised a decade worth of demons and officially ended the darkest days in Yankee history.

Before Chambliss’ ball landed in the stands, fans spilled onto the field. By the time Chambliss rounded first base, it was already a full-blown riot. A happy riot, but a riot nothing the less.

Chambliss was knocked down near second base. He stormed through the crowd and gave a few fans a couple of elbows just to reach third base. ‘It was almost a panic situation, trying to get away from the fans.” Third base was a mob scene, but Chris was able to plow through the madness and make it into the dugout and into the clubhouse, where his teammates were partying, spraying champagne and exchanging hugs and high fives.

A few minutes after reaching the dugout, Chambliss headed back onto the field with security to touch home plate. He wanted to make sure the Royals did not complain about him not touching it. Chambliss was wearing uniform pants and a baseball undershirt. He put on a jacket, walked down the hallway, while being escorted by two cops. The cops locked hands with Chambliss and walked onto the field, were dozens of fans were still on the diamond, drinking and celebrating the Yankees trip to the World Series.

Chambliss’ homerun rocketed the Yankees into a new era and no one appreciated it more than Roy White. Roy White was a left fielder who had been with the team for 11 years, longer than anyone else on the Yankees current roster. Roy White was a part of the team when the Yankees in dismal last place. “It was one of the happiest moments I’ve ever had as a ballplayer”. White signed with the Yankees in 1971 when he was just seventeen years old. Playing along side of Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford, White just knew he was going to play for a championship and soon. “When you sign with the Yankees, you think, I’m going to be in the World Series every year.”

It didn’t happen quite that way for White and the rest of the Yankees. The Yankees hit rock bottom during White’s rookie year in 1966, finishing last and 26 1/2 games behind first place team.

After the abysmal finish of 1966, the Yankees re-tooled their club. The drafted the hard-hitting Bobby Murcer, who was tauted as the next Mickey Mantle. In 1970, hard-nose catcher Thurmon Munson won the Rookie of the Year Award, and would become one of the the Yankees most recognizable player. Munson also became the club’s first team captain since Lou Gerhig.

Even though the Yankees were on their way to restoring their championship swagger, things would get even crazier. In Munson’s third season, two Yankee left-handed pitchers, Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich decided to trade wives. This did not go well with military style owner George Steinbrenner, who bought the ball club from CBS in 1973 for $8.7 million.

- John A. Roberts

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