Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The baseball newsletter that loves an underdog story.

One of my favorites is Mike Piazza - he was picked 1,390th overall in the draft, and STILL ended up in Cooperstown.

Let's dive in.

Today's story is about one of the most iconic meltdowns in baseball history, and the crazy aftermath that followed.

On July 24, 1983, the Royals and the Yankees faced off in a game that became an instant classic.

We've all seen this clip at least a million times over the years:

But what's REALLY interesting about this story is how it happened, and everything that took place afterwards.

Just so we're all on the same page, let's recap the incident itself:

The Royals trailed the Yankees 3-4 in the top of the ninth.

With two outs and a runner on, the Yankees brought in Goose Gossage to shut things down.

George Brett promptly took his ass deep into the right field bleachers.

As Brett rounded the bases, Yankees manager Billy Martin approached rookie umpire Tim McClelland and made him aware of rule 1.10(c)

This made Brett’s home run considered an “illegally batted ball” which automatically resulted in an out, and that’s when he lost his shit.

So how the f**k did Billy Martin even know this was a rule?

When the Yankees visited Kansas City weeks before this incident, Graig Nettles, the yankees first baseman at the time, noticed Brett was using a ton of pine tar and it reminded him of an incident that happened 8 years prior.

On July 19,1975 - Thurman Munson was called out in a similar situation using the same rule after hitting a go-ahead RBI against the Twins.

Nettles told Martin about the rule and he waited patiently for the right time to use it.

After the game, the Royals immediately protested the result and few days later Lee MacPhail, AL President at the time, came out and agreed with them.

He ordered the game to resume with the Royals leading 5-4, but there were several ejections:

• George Brett was ejected (of course)

• Coaches Dick Howser and Rocky Colavito were both ejected for arguing with umpires

• Gaylord Perry was ejected for intentionally hiding the bat in the clubhouse so it couldn't be investigated

The yankees responded in the most childish ways possible:

First, they took as long as possible to schedule the game in hopes that it might be forfeited.

Then they tried to charge $2.50 for fans that wanted to attend the last half inning, which triggered law suits against them.

The Bronx Supreme Court ordered an injunction to keep the game from being played until the law suits were settled.

But the American League stepped in and appealed the injunction, which resulted in the ruling being overturned.

The Royals were on their way to New York and didn’t even know if they’d actually be able to play until they arrived on the tarmac in Newark.

Finally, play resumed on August 18 - 25 days after the original incident.

The Yankees started the game by throwing to first and second base to see if the umpires would call out Brett for not touching the bases.

The umpires called him safe of course, and when Billy Martin came out to contest the call, the new umpire crew pulled out a signed affidavit from the original umpire crew that swore George had touched all the bases.

The Yankees went down in order and lost.

Funny enough, the game had no effect on either team, they both missed the playoffs.

RIDICULOUS STATS

BASEBALL TRIVIA

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Carter played pro ball into his late 40s - the man was an absolute gamer.

The stats ain't much to look at, but he made the All-Star team a couple of times and won back-to-back World Series Championships with the Homestead Grays.

If you want to get your mind blown, just look at the Grays roster back in those days - the team was absolutely STACKED.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

If you like this story, check out some of our past favorites:

• The Promo From Hell: Ten cent beer night

• The Never-Ending Game: 882 pitches later

• The Hot Dog Incident: One ballplayer, two hot dogs

• The Anomaly: The improbable career of Bartolo Colón

• The Earthquake: A battle between crosstown rivals gets delayed by a natural disaster