In 2017 ALCS Game 4 on October 17 in Yankee Stadium, Sonny Gray matched zeroes with Lance McCullers, Jr. through five, but a leadoff walk and catcher’s interference in the sixth led to three Astros runs, and Carlos Beltran doubled off Chad Green in the seventh to make it 4-0. But then Aaron Judge’s home run started a two-run rally in the bottom half, then his double and one off the bat of Gary Sanchez propelled the four-run rally in the eighth that brought home the 6-4 victory. Didi Gregorius tripled and singled in the two rallies as well.
It looked like anything but the sweep it would become when the Yanks were down in the seventh inning of World Series Game One vs. the San Diego Padres on October 17, 1998. But Chuck Knoblauch hit a three-run homer to tie it, and Tino Martinez drilled a grand slam. The Yanks won the game, 9-6 behind David Wells, beating Kevin Brown, who would serve in Pinstripes six years later, though not happily.
Brian Doyle collected another three hits as did Series MVP Bucky Dent, and the Yanks won the 1978 Classic on October 17 by taking their fourth straight game over the Dodgers, this one by a 7-2 score.
I can’t improve on Michael Kay’s call when he invited Yankee fans to “take a ride on the subway” on October 17, 2000, as David Justice‘s three-run bomb to the upper deck in right was the crippling blow in a 9-7 ALCS-clinching win over the Seattle Mariners. It set up a Yankees vs. Mets confrontation in a Subway Series.
October 17, 1964, had a soap opera feeling in the Bronx, as the Bombers fired Manager Yogi Berra after the seven-game loss to the Cardinals in the World Series. A subplot developed, as St. Louis skipper Johnny Keane resigned his position, only to be hired by the Yankees.
On October 17, 1929, the Yankees named former hurler Bob Shawkey to manage the 1930 club following the death of Miller Huggins just weeks before. While the third-place finish Shawkey achieved in his only year piloting the Bombers was not horrible, he is dwarfed in Yankee lore by 11-year manager Huggins before him and the 16-year Joe McCarthy regime that followed.
On the ledger of October 17 Yankee deaths is righthander Jack Powell (1944), who won 31, lost 32, and saved one game for the 1904-1905 Highlanders in 84 games (68 starts). Joining Powell in this respect is super fan Freddy Schuman, “Freddy Sez,” (2010), who delighted the home fanbase for years with his tricolored rooting signs, big spoon and pan, which he invited one and all to strike while rooting the team on.
Lefty hitting power hope (for a time) Dan Pasqua (1961), who smacked 42 homers and garnered 112 rbi’s in Pinstripes from 1985 through 1987, is the first of two birthdays we’ll mention. Third baseman Red Rolfe (1908) spent his entire major league career with the Yanks between 1931 and 1942, delivering 69 homers and 497 rbi’s. Rolfe played on six Yankee World Series teams; they won five. In 1939, he was first in the league in hits, runs, and doubles, and sixth in batting at .329.
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