The story of how Billy Martin lost his job with the Yankees after a fight with a marshmallow salesman in October of 1979 is well known. But there’s an under-the-radar marshmallow story that’s just as good and perhaps even more volatile. In April of 1980, Martin brought his new team, the Oakland A’s, to Bloomington, MN …
Bob Horner almost never played for the Atlanta Braves and it would have been Ted Turner’s fault. Turner purchased the Atlanta Braves in 1976 and immediately began upsetting the baseball establishment. Early in his tenure, Turner ran afoul of MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn over player tampering charges involving Giants outfielder Gary Matthews. Kuhn summoned the …
On my Facebook page, I like to find stories about guys rather than just post their batting average or home run totals. While doing that, I found a few stories about Bumbry’s service in Vietnam. Bumbry attended Virginia State College on a basketball scholarship and with the war raging in Vietnam he was certain to …
April 13th, 1980 began like just another day. But by the end of the evening, some 17,000 plus baseball fans could rightly tell their kids they witnessed a major league baseball first. The Kansas City Royals led the Detroit Tigers 1-0 in the 7th inning when KC starter Paul Splittorff began to struggle and was …
It seemed like a good idea at the time. At the beginning of 1980, Major League Baseball implemented Rule 1004-a, which established a new batting statistic called Game Winning RBI. A batter would receive credit for a GWRBI if they recorded ”the r.b.i. that gives a club the lead it never relinquishes.” Introduced during the …
I SUCKED at baseball when I was a kid. I was among the t-ball elite of Oxford, Ohio back in 1977. But once the ball started moving, I began to experience tremendous difficulty at the plate. At the time, there was still room for all-glove, no-hit infielders in the big leagues, but being an all-glove, no-hit …
The complete game is an anachronism in baseball today. But in 1980 it was an important part of the game and a source of pride for the pitchers who threw them. As the Pittsburgh Pirates began defense of their 1979 World Series championship, manager Chuck Tanner indicated he wanted to see more complete games out …
On April 1st, 1980, members of the Major League Baseball Players Association voted to walk out of the final week of spring training. The move was a warning shot intended to get the attention of the team owners who were longing for the good old days before free agency. Some teams stayed at their spring …
Joe Morgan and J.R. Richard’s (not so ) Secret Mission Read More »
967-1. That was the vote. On April 1st, 1980, players across the major leagues voted on whether or not to strike that season. Of the 968 votes cast, there was but one dissenter. As spring training wound down, one issue loomed above all others: The threat of a players’ strike. Ever since Peter Seitz’s ruling …
