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Happy ’80s Birthday to Bombo Rivera, possessor of one of my all-time favorite baseball names.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Tom Burgmeier, who spent 17 years coming out of major league bullpens and also made some emergency appearances in the outfield. He went into coaching after he retired.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Jim Dorsey, who was drafted by both the Dodgers and the Angels and spent parts of three seasons in the big leagues.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Derek Botelho, who spent parts of two seasons in the big leagues with the Royals and Cubs and then spent more than 20 years as a minor league pitching coach.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Roger LaFrancois, who spent the entire 1982 season with the Red Sox, never went on the DL, and played in just 8 games. It was his only time in the big leagues.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Danny Sheaffer, who spent 7 years in the big leagues with four teams and another 14 as a minor league manager.
8/2/85
With their lead shrinking in the A.L. West, the Angels trade a PTBNL, Mike Brown, and Pat Clements to the Pirates for John Candelaria, George Hendrick, and Al Holland. California sent Bob Kipper to Pittsburgh to complete the trade.
Candelaria goes 7-3 down the stretch, but the Angels finish 2nd to Kansas City in the division.
8/2/82
Desperate for pitching help, the Angels sign Luis Tiant, who had been pitching in Mexico.
8/2/88
The Reds sign Ken Griffey as a free agent.
Griffey was released by Atlanta the previous week. He stays in Cincinnati until 1990 when he’s dealt to Seattle to play with Junior.
8/2/89
The Giants sign Bob Brenly as a free agent. Brenly has been released by Toronto in July and returns to San Francisco to finish his career. He retires after the season.
8/2/83
Matt Williams allows three homers and five runs in five innings in his big league debut. He also gets a win. He appears in 10 games in the majors and wins three games.
8/2/88
Sap Randall goes 0 for 4 in his big league debut for the White Sox. He plays four games in the big leagues and his career is over. He later became the head coach at Grambling.
8/2/88
Bill McGuire goes 0 for 3 in his big league debut for the Mariners. He collects his first hit a few days later and plays in 23 games over two seasons in the major leagues.
Big Days
8/2/81
Bob Gibson and Johnny Mize are inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. With the baseball strike just settled, MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn is booed when he’s introduced to the crowd.
8/2/82
Rickey steals his 100th base of the season in a 6 – 5 win over Seattle. At this point in the season Rickey was hitting .289 with 100 bags, and 92 walks in 105 games.
8/2/85
Pudge records two outs at the plate on one play
5/27/85
Jay Tibbs goes 9 to beat the Dodgers 5-2 at Riverfront Stadium. He began the season with a 4-11 record and was sent down to Triple-A Denver. Once he got called back up he decided to drive from Denver to Cincinnati rather than fly and arrived at 2 pm. Pete wasn’t happy but a CG win cures all ills.
8/2/87
Eric Davis hits an 11th-inning walkoff homer against the Giants to become just the 7th player in major league history to go 30/30.
8/2/87
Joe Magrane allows 11 hits in a complete game win over the Pirates. Magrane somehow manages to hold the Pirates to a single run and drops his E.R.A. to 3.16. He also goes 2-3 at the plate.
8/2/87
Kevin Seitzer goes 6 for 6 with two homers and 7 RBIs, in a 13 – 5 victory over the Red Sox. That’s a nice day.
8/2/87
Bobby Witt ties a major-league record by striking out four consecutive Orioles (Ray Knight, Terry Kennedy, Mike Young and Ken Gerhart) in the 2nd inning of a 5 – 2 win. He finishes the game with 11 strikeouts.
8/2/87
A young pitcher in the Reds organization earns his first big-league win. Cincinnati would trade him to the Royals the following spring. That turned out to be a bad move.
8/2/92
Rollie Fingers, Bill McGowan, Hal Newhouser, and Tom Seaver are inducted into the Hall of Fame.
8/2/97
The Launching Pad is imploded.
Transactions
8/2/82
The Expos purchase Doug Flynn from the Rangers for $40,000.
Freed from a horrible Rangers team, Flynn hits .244 to close out the season in Montreal.
8/2/83
The Royals purchase Eric Rasmussen from the Cardinals. He goes 3-6 for KC in 1983, spends the next four seasons in the minor leagues and retires.
8/2/84
The Angels release Ron Jackson. He catches on with Baltimore to finish the season and his big league career is over. He spends 1985 and part of 1988 in the minor leagues.
8/2/85
The Mariners release Larry Milbourne and his career is over. He finishes with 623 hits over 11 years in the big leagues.
Deaths
We lost The Professor OTD in 2014. Pete Van Wieren called Braves games from 1976 through 2008.
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