 After the Yankees ' loss to the Reds , owner George Steinbrenner committed to sign marquee free agent Reggie Jackson to help win a championship . The Yankees , Red Sox , and Baltimore Orioles would keep leap frogging each other the entire year during the division race . The Yankees would win the division for the second year in a row , while the Orioles and Red Sox finished tied for second , 2 1 ⁄ 2 games behind the Yankees . Jackson 's entry onto the Yankees initially had caused a lot of friction on them . In the middle game of what would prove to be a three @-@ game series sweep by the Red Sox at Fenway Park , Yankees manager Billy Martin pulled Reggie Jackson off the field in mid @-@ inning for failing to hustle on a ball hit to the outfield . The extremely angry and highly animated Martin had to be restrained by coaches Yogi Berra and Elston Howard from getting into a fistfight with Jackson in the dugout during the nationally @-@ televised Saturday afternoon game . Eventually , emotions calmed down for the season and the Yankees came together to recapture the pennant and defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1977 World Series , their first since 1962 . 
