Billy Martin won what would be his only World Series title as a manager after guiding the Yankees to a second straight pennant.
Shortstop Bucky Dent was picked up from the Chicago White Sox for outfielder Oscar Gamble, pitcher LaMarr Hoyt, and $200,000.
[citation needed] The Yankees tied it in their half of the sixth inning when Willie Randolph hit a home run off Don Sutton.
[14] The Dodgers tied it at 3–3 in the ninth inning Dusty Baker led off with a single and was almost picked off first when pinch-hitter Manny Mota failed on a bunt attempt.
Mota flied out, but Steve Yeager walked and pinch-hitter Lee Lacy drove Baker home with a single.
Burt Hooton pitched a five-hit complete game, allowing only run one in the fourth on Reggie Jackson's ground ball double play after Willie Randolph and Thurman Munson led off the inning with back-to-back singles.
During the game, ABC cut to a helicopter camera for an overhead view of Yankee Stadium and the surrounding neighborhood, catching the fire.
Before the game, a moment of silence was held in memory of entertainer and former Pittsburgh Pirates co-owner Bing Crosby, who died earlier that day.
Before the game, Linda Ronstadt sang the national anthem, standing alone in center field wearing jeans and a Dodgers warmup jacket.
The Dodgers almost tied the game in the fourth when Ron Cey sent a drive to deep left that Lou Piniella leaped up and caught.
[13] After two infield ground outs by Davey Lopes and Bill Russell, Steve Garvey put the Dodgers on the board with a two-run triple down the right field line off Mike Torrez, scoring Reggie Smith and Ron Cey; both runs were unearned after shortstop Bucky Dent booted Smith's ground ball and Cey walked.
After Lopes and Russell grounded out again in the top of the third, Smith put Los Angeles up 3–2 with his third homer of the Series, pounding a 1–1 pitch well into the right center seats.
Cey lined an infield hit to third, knocked down by Graig Nettles, but Garvey flew to center to end the threat.
On the next pitch, Jackson turned on a fastball and put into the right field seats for a one-run Yankees' lead, which chased Hooton.
[17] With Elias Sosa pitching, Chambliss lifted a high fly to shallow left between Russell and Baker that fell for a double, then went to third on Nettles' ground out to second.
After a throw to first to keep Randolph close, Jackson connected on the first pitch off Sosa, a screaming low line drive into the right field seats to make the score 7–3.
[17] Los Angeles manager Tommy Lasorda brought in lefthander Doug Rau to face Chambliss, who grounded out to Garvey at first.
", and drove the first Charlie Hough knuckleball he saw 475 feet (145 m) into the center field "batter's eye" (empty blackened bleachers) for an 8–3 lead; he became the first to hit three home runs in a World Series game in 49 years, since Babe Ruth (in 1926 and 1928).
The last eight pitches delivered to Jackson in the Series were all productive for the Yankees—the four-pitch walk in the second inning allowed him to score on the Chambliss homer.
As was customary at the time, the competing teams' local flagship stations (WPIX in New York and KTTV in Los Angeles) were allowed to air a simulcast of ABC's national broadcast.
It was also the first time that the participating teams' local announcers were not featured during game play on the network telecast, though the Yankees' Bill White and the Dodgers' Ross Porter did pre-game TV features, and White handled the post-game celebration in the Yankee clubhouse after they won the title.
[17] Ironically, the Dodgers had had two chances to obtain Jackson: a possible trade with Oakland A's in 1975, and an offer of more money than the Yankees during the 1976 off-season.
[20][21] Twenty-four years later a similar nickname would be given to another Yankee, shortstop Derek Jeter, after a walk-off home run in Game 4 of the 2001 World Series.
Los Angeles became the first metropolitan area to host a World Series and a Super Bowl in the same calendar year.