April 2nd in 1980s Baseball.

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Hall of Famer Don Sutton was born OTD in 1945. He pitched in the bigs for 23 seasons and won at least 10 games in 21 of them.

Maury Wills was the starting shortstop in his MLB debut and Alfredo Griffin was the starting SS in his final appearance.

Happy ’80s Birthday to Reggie Smith, who could absolutely rake and had mad facial hair game.

From 1968 through 1976, his average season was .292 with 22 homers, 85 RBI, 10 stolen bases, and only 66 strikeouts.

Happy ’80s Birthday to Pete Incaviglia, who slugged 206 career homers and spent exactly zero days in the minor leagues.

Inky was drafted by the Expos out of Oklahoma State, held out and was dealt to the Rangers in November of 1985.

Happy ’80s Birthday to Billy Sample, who singled on the first pitch he ever saw in the big leagues.

Happy ’80s Birthday to Al Nipper, who spent seven years in the bigs and won 46 games over seven seasons.

Happy ’80s Birthday to Hector Cruz, who spent 9 years in the big leagues and finished 3rd in the 1976 N.L. Rookie of the Year balloting behind Butch Metzger and Pat Zachry.

Happy ’80s Birthday to Mike Howard, who spent parts of three years with the Mets in the early ’80s.

Happy ’80s Birthday to Tom Barrett, who played 54 big league games in parts of three seasons and later coached in the minor leagues. He’s Marty’s brother.

4/2/82

The White Sox trade Wayne Nordhagen to the Blue Jays for Aurelio Rodriguez.

4/2/85

The Mets trade minor leaguer Mark Davis and Jose Oquendo to the Cardinals for minor leaguer John Young and Angel Salazar.

Over the next 12 seasons in St. Louis, Oquendo plays every position on the field, including pitcher.

4/2/89

The Phillies sign Dwayne Murphy, who had been released by Detroit the previous week.

Murphy finishes his fine career in Philadelphia and retires.

4/2/82

The A’s are playing the Padres in one of the final Spring Training games of the year and the Padres are the home team, which means there is no D.H.

This pisses off Billy Martin, so he sends Steve McCatty up to the plate with a 15-inch toy bat in protest. Umpires make McCatty use a regular bat and the Padres win the game 6-2.

Big Days

4/2/84
It’s the first game at Riverfront Stadium with new lower fences and the move proves to be exciting. Prior to the season, the Reds dropped the fences from twelve feet high to eight and the result is two home runs from the Reds that would have been off the wall in previous seasons as well as Mets OF Darryl Strawberry reaching over the wall to rob Eddie Milner of his 2nd homer of the day.

The Reds win the game 8-1.

Transactions

4/2/81

The Expos release Fred Norman and his career is over. The diminutive lefty pitches in the big leagues for 16 years, winning 100 games and two rings with the Reds.