This week, SI will release 14 Back, Jon Hock’s stirring documentary about the Yankees’ furious comeback from that deficit to the Red Sox in the standings late in the summer of 1978. To sign up for SI TV, click here.
First, a caveat: There is no good comparison for the 1978 American League pennant race, because there’s never been anything quite like the 1978 American League pennant race. The fact that any team, in any fashion, could manage to come out on top after being 14 games back as late as midsummer is remarkable enough; the fact that it was these New York Yankees against those Boston Red Sox, with that performance by Bucky Dent?