Yankees’ rivalry with Royals was once fiercest of them all

I once wrote a book called “The Emperor and the Idiot,'' about the history of the rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox, for which I interviewed nearly 150 former baseball players, managers, and executives. What struck me most was that almost all of these players had played for teams other than the Yankees and Red Sox. Best of all, they matched all but two other teams.

Yet they all talk about the Sox-Yankees game as passionately, and often with as much anger, as their former high school football heroes talk about their fierce hometown rivals at 40-year reunions. I talked about it.

“It's like a tattoo on your soul,” as the late Tim Wakefield put it. “I know when I pitched for the Pirates, I had strong feelings about the Mets and Cardinals and Braves. But that was different. Red Sox vs. Yankees was on another level.”

But here's the thing: All the interviews with all of these players were as vitriolic as they spilled about each other — believe me, ask Bill Lee about Billy Martin, man's neck. Watch the veins bulge — “Everything turned pale” Compare that to the unforgettable three hours I spent on a muggy Kansas City summer night in 1998. I was sitting in the front row of the luxury box. A few minutes before the first pitch, I turned on the tape recorder.

I said, “So tell me about the Yankees.”

And George Brett talked for three hours straight and I never, not once, ever had to ask another question.

He buried four tapes. Only one of them will survive. But this is probably my favorite. Because after about 90 minutes of warm-ups, and maybe an assist with a cold beer or two, Brett was already thinking, “Man, we respected those guys and they respected us. It's an honor.'' That's because he had left because of that. In the section of the paper that said, “Please tell me how you really feel,'' there was a section that said, “To compete with those people.''

“Who are you kidding?” he said, flushing and slamming his hand on the table in front of him. “We hated them [granddaddy curse of them all]And they hated us. they thought we were a group [second-greatest granddaddy curse of them all]And I don't blame them for that. Those games were about more than baseball. That was something else. It was something different. ”

I often think about that night. It's true that the Yankees and Red Sox are a unique rivalry, but it's also true that Yankees and Royals may have been the fiercest rivalry in baseball's fleeting moments of glory. Probably back when the Giants and Dodgers shared New York. Maybe a particular pocket of Yankees vs. Sox or Cardinals vs. Cubs.

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However, from 1976 to 1980, the Yankees and Royals hated They faced each other in the ALCS four times in five years, and although the Yankees had many star players, Brett was the centerpiece of it all.

Brett: Hit a game-tying, three-run home run in the eighth inning in Game 5 in 1976, then hit an upper-deck blast to clinch the series in Game 3 in 1980.

Brett: Hit three home runs off Catfish Hunter in Game 3 in 1978, and in 1977 got into a scuffle with Graig Nettles at third base after a wild slide in the first inning of Game 5.

Brett said in the summer of 1998. “I'll tell you, there was a moment when I thought someone was going to be seriously injured.”

Hal McRae once threw a body block at Willie Randolph, sending poor Willie halfway to left field to ruin a double play and score the runner. In the next game, Nettles returned the favor to Frank White. And Bret spiked it.

“That was great, dude,” Brett said. “That's wonderful.”

It's different now, that's for sure. The Royals were in witness protection for most of the 30 years after winning the 1985 World Series, and when they faced the Mets in the 2015 Fall Classic, they were packed with gamers and high IQ grinders, hard to hate. It was a possible team. That group was no different than the group playing Saturday night at Yankee Stadium. And so do most Yankees.

Besides, if someone pulled McRae, Nettles, or Brett, they would be kicked out of the game, and possibly the series. That wasn't the case back then. Please rub the stain. Please go back. The uniforms are pretty much the same, but everything else is pretty much the same. Another time. Another game.

“Awesome,” George Brett said.

Vac's Blow

In one extraordinary broadcasting career, Howie Rose would make three signature calls. Matou! Matou! ” “This guy has a chance!” “He did it! He did it!” — sports fans across the region would repeat loudly for decades to come. The next best thing the Mets did Thursday was cheer on Howie as he flew home on the team plane. It's very cool.