One of the umpires puts George Brett in a choke hold at home plate
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George Brett's two-out ninth inning homer against the Yankees in New York put the Royals ahead 5-4. However, the round-tripper was disallowed after manager Billy Martin asked rookie umpire Tim McClelland to inspect the bat. The men in blue ruled that the third baseman used too much pine tar on his bat, and called him out. An announcer said later that "Brett became the first player in history to hit a game-losing home run.
Brett charged from the dugout in a fury and had to be restrained by his teammates and manager Dick Howswer. Gaylord Perry, afraid that the AL would want to inspect the bat, handed it to the Royals batboy who was then chased into the clubhouse by Yankee Stadium security.
American League president Lee McPhail did overrule the decision, but made four ejections.
1) Brett would be ejected for his outburst, 2 & 3) Howser and coach Rocky Colavito were ejected for arguing with the umpires, and 4) Perry was ejected for trying to get rid of the evidence.
The game was finally resumed on August 18th, under many protests by the Yankees. Before the first pitch was even thrown, the Yankee pitcher threw over to first, challenging that Brett hadn't touched first base after his homer. When the ump denied the call, the ball was thrown over to second, where the Yankees claimed that Brett hadn't touched THAT base either. Umpire Dave Phillips once again denied the call, and Billy Martin came onto the field to protest. Phillips calmly pulled out a notarized affidavit signed by all four umpires from July 24 indicating that Brett had touched every base.
At this point Martin gave up and allowed the game to continue. The Royals won 5-4 after Hal McRae struck out,
and Dan Quisenberry shut the Yankees down 1-2-3.
Exactly sixteen years and one day later, George was inducted into the Hall of Fame along with Nolan Ryan, Robin Yount, Nestor Chylak, Orlando Cepeda, Frank Selee and 'Smokey' Joe Williams.
And almost 12 years after THAT, George signed a baseball for Connor Chase at 3&2 in Lenexa. Mr. Brett, you're a good man!
