Showed it to my kids a whole bunch of times when they were young. I'm not one of those guys who'll watch it over and over again, but just by chance, watching TV and seeing clips of it, I've probably seen it 100 times. I don't pull it up on YouTube, I don't do that. How many times have you seen the video of that day and what do you take from it when you do see it? Seriously, what would you rather be remembered for? Hitting a home run off Goose Gossage in the ninth inning to win a ballgame, or being the guy with hemorrhoids in the World Series? But then, July 24, 1983, came around and then I was the pine tar guy. And it seemed like everywhere I went after that, getting loose before your at-bat, all the idiots that would be sitting by the on-deck circle would make jokes. I felt a really bad pain inside me, basically, and it turned out I had internal and external hemorrhoids. All of a sudden, after beating the Yankees, I didn't feel good. 400 and obviously a lot of stress, and we finally beat the Yankees in the '80 playoffs. Nineteen-eighty was the summer that I almost hit. And then we met on a golf course and played golf, and now we're best buds. I never said one word to Goose Gossage playing against him, playing with him and All-Star Games - never said one word. And I'm forever known as the "pine tar guy." Goose and I have had a lot of laughs over that ever since he got in the Hall of Fame. We were playing the team that I despise the most, the New York Yankees, and they despise me. July 24, 1983, I remember distinctly I was in the Bronx and it was a Sunday day game. How would you complete a sentence that starts with 'July 24, 1983?' Here are excerpts from that conversation, which has been edited for clarity and length. Now in his 31st season as the Royals' vice president of baseball operations, Brett was a first-ballot Hall of Fame electee in 1999.īrett, 70, in Cooperstown for the annual induction weekend, spoke Friday about the pine tar episode, his unforgettable tirade and how the bat ended up in the museum here that displays his and Gossage's Hall of Fame plaques. 390 batting average in 1980 remains the second highest (behind Tony Gwynn's. He was an All-Star for 13 consecutive seasons, won the AL Most Valuable Player Award in 1980 and was a World Series champion and Gold Glove winner in 1985. That offseason, Major League Baseball changed the rule, memorializing the explosive events as a unique chapter in the sport's history.īrett, who played for the Royals during his entire MLB career from 1973 to 1993, is the only man to win batting titles in three decades. The Royals won 5-4 without Brett, as MacPhail had retroactively ejected Brett for his outburst. 18 in the Bronx, it took 12 minutes for the Royals and Yankees to replay the end of the game from the moment of controversy, in front of about 1,200 fans (nearly 34,000 had attended July 24). MacPhail said that although the umpires' interpretation of Rule 1.10 (b) was "technically defensible," it was "not in accord with the intent or spirit of the rules." The rulebook provision was meant to avoid dirtying too many baseballs, not to affect the outcome of a play or game. Four days after Brett had circled the bases, MacPhail upheld Kansas City's protest, overturned the on-field decision, reinstated the homer, negated the Yankees' 4-3 win and ordered the game replayed from the moment of the controversy. It was delivered to the office of American League president Lee MacPhail. pitcher Gaylord Perry had taken it from McClelland. Security confiscated the bat from the Royals after K.C. The chaotic scene, vivid for the ages, painted a new perception of Brett and altered the annals of baseball. New York manager Billy Martin immediately challenged the homer on the grounds that the pine tar on Brett's bat covered more than the allowable 18 inches.Īfter the umpires huddled and measured the bat's pine tar against the 17-inch width of home plate, rookie ump Tim McClelland invalidated Brett's blast, pointed the bat at the Royals' dugout and called Brett out, unleashing the ire of the Royals' third baseman, who stormed back onto the field. On July 24, 1983, with two outs in the ninth inning and his visiting Kansas City Royals trailing, Brett hit a two-run home run off fellow future Hall of Famer Rich "Goose" Gossage, vaulting the Royals into a 5-4 lead. Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett is his jovial self, laughing and smiling while reflecting on his rage 40 years ago today in the infamous yet celebrated Pine Tar Game against the New York Yankees. MLB, Kansas City Royals, New York YankeesĬOOPERSTOWN, N.Y. Hall of Famer George Brett on Pine Tar Game, 40 years later You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser
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