Willie Horton has two homers, including his 9th career grand slam, to pace Seattle to an 8 – 4 win over Detroit. Champ Summers has a pair of homers for the Tigers.
In a Hollywood Stars vs. the Media game played at Dodger Stadium, Robin Williams, the star of the hit television show, Mork and Mindy, in which he plays an alien, runs the bases backwards. The comedian explains circling the bags clockwise is very common on the Planet Ork, his character’s home in the universe.
1978 – Local Houstonians replace striking umpires during a 7-5 victory over Pittsburgh. Murray Strey, a superintendent for Entex, rings up Dave Parker on strikes with the bases loaded in the ninth to kill the last Pirate chance. Parker later admits the last pitch could have been a strike. The union umps are back the next day.
Major League umpires stage a one-day strike in defiance of their contract, in order to gain recognition for their union as their bargaining agent with Major League Baseball. Semipro and amateur umps are pressed into service until a restraining order forces the strikers to return. The umpires will walk out again at the beginning of the 1979 season.
With four amateur umpires officiating, Ron Guidry posts his 18th win, beating the A’s, 7 – 1. Reggie Jackson’s home run drives in his 1,001st career RBI. The win keeps the Yankees 7 1/2 games behind the Red Sox.
At Toronto, the Blue Jays beat the Minnesota Twins, 7 – 3, with two amateur umpires and two coaches officiating: Toronto coach Don Leppert and Twins coach Jerry Zimmerman umpire. Since 1910, this is just the 5th time this century, and the first time since 1941, that active players or coaches have umpired.
Dennis Eckersley (15-5) shuts out the Angels, 6 – 0, on four hits to run his Fenway Park record to 8-0. Jim Rice belts his 32nd homer, off former teammate Don Aase, one of three hits he garners.
1977 – The Twins blow a 4 – 2 lead over the Yankees when Mickey Rivers hits a 2-run single in the 7th inning and Reggie Jackson drives home a run in the next inning.
1976 – The Yankees edge the Twins, 5 – 4, in a 19-inning marathon. Grant Jackson is the winner over Pete Redfern.
1975 – Astro Cliff Johnson hits a home run in the top of the 11th for his 6th in 6 consecutive games, pushing his team to a 4 – 3 lead. Unfortunately, the game is called due to rain in the bottom half of the inning, and the score reverts to what it was in the 10th, thus erasing Johnson’s home run. It deprives Johnson of becoming only the second National League player to hit six home runs in six consecutive games.
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