Pickoffs, arguments, and an ending no one saw coming made this night unforgettable.
Asked if it was the weirdest game he had ever seen, Hank Aaron answered simply, “uh huh.” On August 17, 1976, the Brewers stunned the A’s with a two-run, bottom-of-the-ninth single off Rollie Fingers to win 4–3, but the path there was… unusual. Milwaukee picked off three Oakland runners—Bert Campaneris once and Billy North twice—while an eighth-inning standoff ended with Billy Williams called out on strikes while standing six feet from the plate. By the final out, even baseball’s greatest hitters were shaking their heads.
🕵️ Inside Today’s Original Newspaper Coverage:
How long it had been see three AL pickoffs had happened in one game
How Billy Williams struck out without entering the box
Why Oakland’s baserunning completely unraveled
A three photo sequence of a play at the plate with Gene Tenace and George Scott
The original newspaper coverage of this moment is just below.
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