Now for a Long, Hot Winter

The Yankees win--but may still lose a few

On the final play, he broke swiftly to his left. Fifteen yards into his run, he cut to his right, danced a couple of quick fakes to elude two tacklers, elbowed another out of his way and, under a full head of steam now, bowled over his last hefty pursuer. "That," said an admiring opponent, "is one of the best broken-field runs I've ever seen." OJ. Simpson passing the 10,000-yd. mark in rushing? No, Reggie Jackson ending the baseball season with a mad dash through victory-crazed fans to the safety of the New York Yankee dugout and clubhouse.

For the first time in a long, troubled season, the clubhouse was friendly territory for Reggie, who in a single, glowing evening of play justified the $2.9 million that Yankee Owner George Steinbrenner paid on the free-agent market to get him. In one of the most remarkable performances in baseball history, Jackson blasted three consecutive home runs in the sixth and final game of the World Series, burying the Los Angeles Dodgers, tying Babe Ruth's record for the most home runs in a single World Series game and setting a new record for the number of home runs (five) hit during a series. In the process, he found a groove probably unequaled by any major league hitter ever: the last four times he swung his bat in the series, he hit home runs.

Jackson's pyrotechnics were the fitting climax to a series--and a season--of explosive unrest in Yankeeland. Even in the glow of victory, half a dozen Yankees want to be traded to other clubs during the offseason. Some of them underscored their discontent by skipping the team's victorious Broadway ticker-tape parade the day following the series.

A selection of exultant (and not so exultant) post-series observations by the World Champions:

Manager Billy Martin on the phone call from General Manager Gabe Paul summoning him to the front office hours before the final game: "I didn't know what he wanted. I wondered who had jumped the club now." (The beleaguered manager--who until that moment thought he might be fired--was given a bonus and told he would return to the club next year.)

Benched Outfielder Roy White, on why he departed from the clubhouse before the champagne was uncorked: "I'm not part of the win, so why should I be part of the celebration?"

Owner Steinbrenner on future trades: "I'm not going to touch this team. How can you touch a club like this? We're just going to try to get them all back together and do it again."

Outfielder Lou Piniella on the fractious season: "I'm happy it's over. I don't think this club can take another year, another two weeks, an-other week of all this. You don't have to be one big happy family to concentrate on playing ball. But if everything isn't going to be tranquil, next year we'll be a good fourth-place club."

Reggie Jackson, after receiving the series' Most Valuable Player award from Sport magazine, which early in the season printed quotes by Reggie that resulted in a season-long feud between him and Catcher Thurman Munson: "I don't think that the award is ironic at all. They [Sport] deserve to have to kiss my butt."

Catcher Munson on his request to be traded to Cleveland next season: "I don't want to answer questions about that. I'm trying to have fun."

Jackson, who had battled (and once nearly come to blows) with Billy Martin during the season--with his arm around Martin after the final game victory: "I'll tell you, nobody better catch Billy Martin and me in a bar together and try to give us some crap. We'll be hell together, won't we?"

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