The mother of all such moments will always remain what happened on October 2, 1978 "When I hit the ball," Bucky Dent recalled, "I knew that I had hit it high enough to hit the wall. But there were shadows on the net behind the wall and I didn't see the ball land there. I didn't know I had hit a homer until I saw the umpire at first signaling home run with his hand. I couldn't believe it."
Neither could the Red Sox. Don Zimmer, then Boston's skipper, changed the Yankee shortstop's name to "Bucky F_____g Dent." Red Sox fans had even more salty phrases.
Dent stepped in. Just hoping to make contact, the 5'-9" Yankee peered out at Torrez, the 6'-5" Red Sox pitcher. The two were locked in, locked up.
Dent fouled the second pitch off his foot. The count was one and one. There was a brief delay as the Yankees trainer tended to Dent. Mickey Rivers, the on-deck-batter, pointed out that there was a crack in the handsome infielder's bat. Dent borrowed a bat from Rivers.
All set, Dent swung at the next pitch; the ball cleared the infield heading out to the left field wall. The wind and destiny moved the ball higher to its date with the Green Monster.
"Deep to left!" Bill White, Yankees broadcaster shouted, "Yastrzemski will not get it!" Yaz backed up. He had been in this position before. But he knew it was hopeless. The ball sailed into the 23-foot net above the Green Monster, the 37-foot wall in left field. Three run home run!
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"The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you."
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