Aug. 16, 1964 - The 43,382 customers at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium and a national television audience saw Jerry Adair trapped off third base in the Orioles’ half of the seventh inning in what may turn out to be the most pivotal play of the season. Yankee manager Yogi Berra missed it. For him, it was like looking at the game through a tunnel, which was precisely what he was doing.
The Yankees beat the Orioles, 3-1, today, and Berra came out of it smiling even though he didn’t know whether he’d be fined. But tempers were worn a little thin with the Orioles leading, 1-0, and Baltimore pitcher Milt Pappas indicating that one run might just be enough. So, Berra was banished for arguing on an insignificant call at first base with one out in the sixth.
Charge of the Yanks was assigned to coach Jim Hegan, who shouted an excited play-by-play to the manager, who was standing in the runway between the clubhouse and the dugout and sneaking an occasional forbidden peek at the field.
It was in the runway that Berra stood when Sam Bowens lost a line drive off the bat of Elston Howard (left) in the lights for the two Yankee runs in the top of the seventh. And it was there — or thereabouts — Berra stood when Adair, the tying run, was the second out in the bottom of the seventh.
Adair had led off with a ground rule double, the fourth hit off Mel Stottlemyre (right), and was just safe at third ahead of Bobby Richardson’s throw on Bob Johnson’s grounder to second. Then Earl Robinson couldn’t check his swing and hit a fly ball to medium left field.
Hector Lopez caught the ball, took two steps, and threw home as Adair tagged up and broke toward the plate. Adair ran 30 feet down the line and tried to scramble back to third as Clete Boyer cut off Lopez’s throw.
“Hegan yelled, ‘It’s a fly ball to Lopez,’” Berra recounted. “Then he said, ‘They got him.’”
Lopez thought Adair had been bluffing, trying to draw a poor throw. “A bullet,” Lopez said, flexing his right arm like Charles Atlas. “My best throw all year.”
But Adair hadn’t been bluffing. “I was going all the way,” Adair said. “I stopped myself. I was about on a line with Boyer when he caught the ball. I don’t even know how I saw him. Oh — I just fouled up, that’s all.”
Boyer took steps after Adair, then flipped to shortstop Phil Linz, who made the tag. Even with Lopez’s good throw, Adair would have had a good chance to score. “I’m glad he didn’t go all the way,” Linz said.
That would have made the score 2-2, and Johnson would have been on second with one out. But Adair didn’t score, and nobody else did for the O’s, whose lead might have been 4½ games rather than 2½ over the Yanks.
Stottlemyre, in his second major-league start, pitched his second good game. He even was cool enough about it to have slept too late to make the bus to the ballpark. Al Downing got the final out.
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