Bucky Dent's Day at Fenway Park

Who Is Bucky Dent?

Bucky Dent was born Russell Earl O'Dey on November 15, 1951 in Savannah, Georgia and was destined to enjoy his fifteen minutes of national baseball fame in historic Fenway Park.

A shortstop, Dent became a New York Yankee by way of the Chicago White Sox in 1977. In 1975, Dent achieved a .981 fielding average and selection to the American League All Star team when he played 157 games for the White Sox.

For the Yankees in 1978, Dent played in 123 games, collected 92 hits from 379 at bats, 11 doubles, one triple, and five home runs, with 40 runs batted in. He struck out 24 times and batted .243.

The Red Sox in 1978

The Boston Red Sox finished the 1978 regular season in Fenway Park in sensational fashion, drilling the Toronoto Blue Jays 11-0 on September 29, 5-1 on September 30, and 5-0 on October 1. They needed every victory to stay in contention for the pennant championship. And they needed the Yankees to lose once to force a one-game play-off with them in Fenway for the AL East title.

All eyes in Fenway Park October 1 flicked to and from the scoreboard that winked out scores from New York City as the Red Sox were winning their final game against Toronto.

Thunderous cheering and stomping shot skyward when the Yankees-Indians score flashed as final, 9-2 Indians.

We rushed down to the ticket office and purchased seats for the play-off game amidst a packed, jubilant crowd, and returned to our hotel room to book one more day's stay.

Dent's Fenway Park Home Run

For six innings in the play-off game, the sun shone brightly in Fenway Park. Mike Torrez had the Yankees at bay 2-0 against New York's finest, Ron Guidry, 24-3 that year. Torrez's support came from a home run by Yaz (Carl Yastrzemski) and a double and run-scoring single by Rick Burleson and The Crusher, Jim Rice, respectively.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Yankees Chris Chambliss and Roy White nicked Torrez for singles. Torrez fought back as Fenway rocked, imploring him to hold the Big Apple's batsmen. He did, retiring the next two.

Dent stepped to the plate. Torrez soon had the Yankee shortstop in the hole, 0-2. Then came the unscripted dramatics.

Dent required attention from the Yankee trainer after fouling a pitched ball off his foot and cracking his bat.

Did the delay affect Torrez? No one knows. We only know for certain that Dent clobbered the next pitch into the netting above the left field Green Monster, and the Yankees cheered themselves to a 3-2 lead.

Fenway turned into a funeral parlor. The silence was deathly. In the middle of it and the next inning, the Yankees built a 5-2 advantage Boston couldn't overcome.

The Red Sox faded from pennant contention from that game until 1986.

The Yankees clipped the Kansas City Royals for the 1978 pennant and whipped the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

Dent went on to give New York two All Star seasons in 1980 and 1981, during which he hit a total of 12 home runs, none as colorful as the one in Fenway Park October 2, 1978.

/Resources: "Red Sox Journal", by John Snyder, 2006, Easton Press, Norwalk, Connecticut; "The Baseball Encyclopedia", edited by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette, 2005, Easton Press, Norwalk, Connecticut; author's attendance at Fenway Park October 1 and 2, 1978/