It's power hitting DH-C-1B Cliff Johsnon. Yes, he was quite versitile. The
power hitting Johnson was traded to the Yankees on June 15, 1977 for Mike
Fischlin, Randy Niemann and a player to be named later who turned out to be Dave
Bergman. Cliff was a solid bench player for the Yanks, slugging 20 HR in
160 games in two years. Cliff's finest moment came in the 1977 ALCS when
he started 4 of the 5 games at DH and responded with a .400 average and slugged
a game-tying solo HR in the 5th inning of Game Two to put the Yankees on the
board. The Royals tied the game in the top of the sixth, but Cliff's RBI
double in the bottom of the frame put them up 3-2 and sparked a three-run inning
in a game the Yanks would win 6-2.
His lowest moment came in
April 1979 when a post-game clubhouse fight with Rich
Gossage ended with a torn ligament and lost season for
the Goose. Johnson would fare worse...being
shipped to Cleveland on June 15th in return for Don
Hood.
According to an article
from the
Daily News website:
Goose said he was ticked
off over the Yanks losing that day. He angrily threw his
socks across the room and grazed Johnson’s shoulder with
the throw. Reggie Jackson, who happened to be walking by
at that moment, asked Johnson how the catcher hit
Gossage in the National League.
Gossage
responded, "I said, 'He couldn't hit what he couldn't
see.' I didn't mean it as a knock against Cliff; I was
just talking about my velocity. So I get up to use the
bathroom, and when I'm standing at the urinal, I realize
Cliff is over my shoulder, telling me, 'You think you
can back that [bleep] up?'
In a 1986 interview,
Johnson said the fight “began as kidding. I wasn't out
to hurt him. I like to have as much fun as anyone. But I
have an enormous amount of pride and Goose got into a
sensitive area. It was too much."
According to
Gossage, he realized then that Johnson wasn’t kidding
around. “Next thing I know he hits me with an open hand
across the neck. Bam. So I elbow him right in the chest,
and then nailed him with a punch that knocks him right
into one of the stalls.”
An unnamed Yankee teammate
told the Daily News at the time of the fight that “At
first it looked like they didn’t want to fight. But
there were a lot of guys around.”
Gossage went on
to recount, "At that point guys are rushing in, breaking
it up, so I stopped hitting him. But I'm shouting at
Cliff, 'you worthless piece of [bleep].' So now he
tackles me in the shower. I lose my balance and as I'm
falling back into the wall, I tear my thumb. Completely
tore it up. That was it for my season."
Here are what other visitors guessed:
Cliff Johsnon - 640
Oscar Gamble - 114
Elston Howard - 43
Roy White - 20
Don Baylor - 19
Reggie Jackson - 19
Chris Chambliss - 17
Dave Winfield - 16
Horace Clarke - 10
Ken Griffey Sr. - 10
Bob Watson - 9
Paul Blair - 8
Carlos May - 7
Jesse Barfield - 4
Hector Lopez - 4
Bobby Bonds - 3
Elliot Maddox - 3
Luis Tiant - 3
Cecil Fielder - 2
Rickey Henderson - 2
Willie Randolph - 2
Bill Robinson - 2
Claudell Washington - 2
Bobby Brown - 1
Brian Doyle - 1
Dock Ellis - 1
Charlie Hayes - 1
Elrod Hendricks - 1
Cliff Mapes - 1
Bobby Meacham - 1
Thurman Munson - 1
Mickey Rivers - 1
Darryl Strawberry - 1
Marcus Thames - 1
Gary Ward - 1
Terry Whitfield - 1
