January 3rd
Happy Birthday to Gary Lavelle and the Mets bring back a familiar face on January 3rd in 1980s Baseball
January 2nd
Happy Birthday to Edgar Martinez and Willie Stargell takes home some hardware on January 2nd in 1980s Baseball
That Time I Met Dan Gladden
Note: This is a guest post from Dan Leritz I grew up in Northern Minnesota in a small mining town called Mountain Iron (about an hour from Duluth). I grew up a big Twins fan and attended my first game was in 1982 when I was just 3 years old. For the next 4 years, …
The Incredible Journey of Kirby Puckett
If you weren’t paying attention it would have been pretty easy to miss a key moment in the Minnesota Twins franchise beginning its upswing after years of futility. The date was January 12, 1982, and temperatures in Minneapolis were in the single digits when Major League Baseball held its January draft. A baseball draft during …
6 Amazing Wade Boggs facts
Wade Boggs was one of the most dominant hitters in baseball during the decade of the 1980s. Here are six facts that back that up. On Base Machine From 1983 through 1989, Wade Boggs got on base via hit or walk an average of 314 times per season. 200 Hits Wade Boggs hit .352 in …
16 Ridiculous Nolan Ryan Statistics
How can a man who struck out nearly 900 more batters than anyone else in the history of the game be overrated? When his name is Nolan Ryan. How can a man who walked nearly 1,000 more batters than anyone else in the history of the game be underrated? When his name is Nolan Ryan. …
The Kid from Left Field
Note: Former Padres employee Andy Strasberg posted this story in a Facebook group I’m in. I reached out to him to ask if I could reprint it and he agreed. It’s a great story! The original movie version of “The Kid From Left Field” was made in 1953 and starred Dan Dailey and Anne …
Catch 365
Ethan Bryan plays catch. Every day. He’s played catch in the rain and the snow. He’s played catch on 90-degree days and days when the wind-chill was -15. He’s played catch on a hotel rooftop, by a waterfall, and at the Field of Dreams with his Dad. No matter what. Ethan Bryan plays catch. The …
Missed it By That Much – The Danny Goodwin Story
There were three future Hall-of-Famers picked in the 1971 Major League Baseball draft. Danny Goodwin was selected ahead of all three of them. The 1975 draft featured one future Hall-of-Famer. Danny Goodwin was selected ahead of him, too. Danny Goodwin was a high school superstar; the kind of prospect you build a franchise around. There …
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A conversation with Maz Adams
Maz Adams has been drawing for as long as he can remember. His artistic progression has taken him from drawing Teenage Ninja Turtles in preschool to doing commissioned pieces of his childhood heroes. He currently works at a hospital but spends as much time as possible on his side hustle; creating art. I recently had a …
When Reggie Flirted with Ted Turner
“Reggie Jackson is the ”straw that stirs the drink” on the Yankees now. Unless a serious problem develops in the negotiations of Jackson’s new contract and Reggie feels that George Steinbrenner has adopted Dave Winfield and abandoned him.” -Dave Anderson, New York Times, 12/16/80 When the Yankees signed Dave Winfield, his new teammate Reggie Jackson had a piece …
Bruno’s Shoebox
Conrad Brunner spent 40 years writing about athletes. Now he sells them. One card at a time. Brunner runs a card shop in suburban Indianapolis called Bruno’s Shoebox and, while the name sounds quaint, it’s actually an accurate description of his entire collection. “I have my collection in a shoe box at my house,” Brunner …
Why June 8th, 1980 was the most important day of the 1982 World Series
Nearly every World Series has a turning point; a moment that shifts the balance in favor of one team or another. Be it Dickie Noles flipping George Brett in 1980, Kirk Gibson’s homer off Dennis Eckersley in 1988 or Kirk Gibson’s other homer off Goose Gossage in 1984, there is often one moment that defines …
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Chris Browne: A Baseball Life
George Bell made history in 1988 and Chris Browne was there. He had one of the best seats in the house, but you can’t buy the ticket. The seat was reserved for a select few. These days, Chris Browne is the General Manager of the Kansas City T-Bones, an independent baseball team in the American …
Ballpark Ghosts: Riverfront Stadium
“It’s Here! It’s Real! It’s Grand! -Cincinnati Enquirer, 7/1/70 on the opening of Riverfront Stadium Thirty-two years later, Riverfront Stadium was an eyesore; A reminder of the “cookie cutter” multi-purpose stadium trend of the 1970s. But in between being “Grand” and being “oft-mailgned,” as the Enquirer called it the day after it closed for good …
A Conversation with the man behind Gummy Arts
Baseball Twitter is better because Mike Noren is part of it. Noren is the brains, and the pencils, behind Gummy Arts, a Twitter account and related website that showcases hand-drawn baseball cards and lots of nostalgia. The process began in 2015 when his girlfriend bought him a “doodle a day” calendar and he began doing …
The decade begins
The first Opening Day of the new decade brought baseball fans a brand new statistic and the season highlight in an otherwise horrible season for one pitcher. Here’s how things went down on April 9th, 1980. Reds 9, Braves 0 Filling in for an ill Tom Seaver, Frank Pastore draws the Opening Day start for …
My Kids Are Retired
Disclaimer: This post has nothing to do with the 1980s. It’s also sappy as hell. I sucked as a baseball player. S-U-C-K-E-D. I was a decent player in t-ball, but once the ball began to move, I began to struggle. There was one game where I was up with a man on 3rd and I …
7 Amazing Rickey Henderson Stolen Base Facts
Rickey Henderson was the best leadoff hitter in the history of the game and also one of the most exciting. Here are seven things Rickey did that will likely never be done again. 1: From 1970 through 1989, Rickey stole 283 more bases than anyone in baseball. He didn’t make his debut until 1979. Despite …
The Trade
Ryne Sandberg was expendable in January of 1982. With the benefit of hindsight, the Phillies trade of Sandberg and Larry Bowa to the Cubs for Ivan DeJesus was awful. But a deep dive into what was going on with the Phillies at the time provides a fascinating look at a team desperately trying to hold …
Ballpark Ghosts: Tiger Stadium
Bob Busser shot his first ballpark photographs in 1967 with a brownie camera. Since then he’s been to nearly 800 venues, capturing more than 75,000 images. His work is on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York and I recently got the chance to talk to him about his travels and, …
The Best of 2017 on ’80s Baseball
I started this blog at the beginning of 2016 as a companion to a book I was writing. I’m happy to say the book is finished and should be out at some point in the summer of 2018. I didn’t post on the blog nearly as much as I wanted to this year because I was …
Dream Season: Rickey Henderson
Every player longs for that dream season. The one where they stay healthy and just produce. I’m going to crunch the numbers and create dream seasons for notable 1980s stars. This time I’ll take a look at Rickey Henderson. March/April 1988 By 1988, Rickey was well established as the premier base stealer of the time, …
The Quest for Razor Shines
Note: This is a guest post from Nate Dunlevy My best friend and I just spent dozens of hours and hundreds of dollars to recreate a AAA baseball jersey from 1986 for a player with 81 career major-league at bats. Context may be required. Late 80s Indianapolis was a haven for boys who loved minor-league …
A Conversation with John Giancaspro
It started with Ivan DeJesus. John Giancaspro opened a pack of 1982 Donruss baseball cards, pulled an Ivan DeJesus Diamond King card, and a life-long love of sports art was born. “I was only 12 at the time,” said Giancaspro, “and I thought a painted card was the coolest thing ever. I knew I wanted to do …
Dodgers Astros Showdown
“For you guys who don’t think we can win four in a row, do us a favor. Don’t get dressed.” So read the sign in the Dodgers clubhouse on Friday, October 3rd. L.A trailed the Astros by three games with three remaining in the season. Anything less than a four-game sweep would end their year. …
Larry Bowa: Pride of Philadelphia and Sacramento
NOTE: This is a guest post from Marshall Garvey It’s become something of a cliche to praise a modern player who shows any semblance of hustle as a “throwback”. Should one employ the term, though, Larry Bowa is the ideal litmus. In a year that’s seeing home runs fly at a historic rate (juiced ball …
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A Discussion with Sean Kane
Your average fan uses a baseball glove to, you know, catch baseballs. Sean Kane uses them to create amazing pieces of art. For more than fifteen years, Sean Kane has been creating one-of-a-kind painted glove pieces that have earned him national recognition and a sizable following which includes many of the players he features. It all …
A Discussion with Tim Carroll
Growing up, we learned to take care of our baseball cards because they would be valuable some day. We may even be able to sell them to pay for our kids’ college! Tim Carroll ignored that advice and the result is something wonderful. Carroll cuts up baseball cards and turns them into unique works of art, which …
Dream Season: Wade Boggs
Every player longs for that dream season. The one where they stay healthy and just produce. I’m going to crunch the numbers and create dream seasons for notable 1980s stars. This time I’ll take a look at Wade Boggs. March/April 1983 Boggs hit a cool .349 as a rookie in 1982 and didn’t miss a …
Mark Fidrych Roundtable Discussion Part II
Note: This is the second part of a virtual “roundtable discussion” with baseball authors, and Mark Fidrych specialists, Dan Epstein and Doug Wilson about The Bird, his legacy and the sad end to his career. Read Part I here. The Detroit Tigers sent Fidrych back to AAA during spring training in 1980 and The Bird wasn’t …
Mark Fidrych Roundtable Discussion Part I
Mark Fidrych walked off the mound at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto on October 1st, 1980 after throwing five innings against the Blue Jays. He surrendered five runs (four earned) on seven hits while walking three and striking out three. He also earned his 2nd win of the season. It wasn’t his best performance or his …
(Mark) Clear as Mud
Not many guys can go from getting seriously knocked around in the Appy League to becoming a Major League All-Star in less than five years, but that’s exactly what Mark Clear did. Clear was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 8th round in 1974 and spent his first professional summer with the Pulaski Phillies …
Cecil Cooper and the Forgotten Summer of 1980
Like the character in the movie Airplane!, who picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue, Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Cecil Cooper picked the wrong season to have a career year. Like Jan exclaiming, “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!” on The Brady Bunch, Cooper was well within his rights to exclaim, “Brett, Brett, Brett!” That’s what happens …
Wild One at the Vet
Sometimes mistakes can work in your favor. That was certainly the case for Tommy Lasorda and the L.A. Dodgers when they took on the Phillies at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia on May 4th, 1980. Prior to the game, Dodgers pitcher Don Sutton took the lineup care to home plate and handed it to umpire Paul Pryor. …
Barry Foote Day at Wrigley Field
Weird things happen at Wrigley Field. It’s baseball’s version of a box of chocolate; you never know what you’ll find. Tub slides in urinals, goats being denied admission, Barry Foote driving in eight; it’s a bizarre place. On April 22nd, 1980 the bizarre occurrences began with the weather. Ask anyone who has attended April games …
Brewer Bombers
It took the Milwaukee Brewers all of 11 innings to assert themselves as one of the top offensive teams of the early 1980s. After beating the Boston Red Sox 9-5 on Opening Day of the 1980 season, they treated their fans to an offensive explosion in the second game of the new decade. When Mike Torrez …
The Ultimate Tim Wallach Collector
Tim Wallach had 8,099 career at-bats. Corey Stackhouse has 19,000 Tim Wallach baseball cards and he’s probably headed to the mailbox right now to pick up some more. Stackhouse is the ultimate Tim Wallach fan and no one else is even close. His quest: To own every Tim Wallach baseball card ever made. Not one …
On Dallas Green
“Dallas Green… was tall, blunt, and had a voice like a foghorn.” -Bill Giles Midway through the 1979 season, it became clear that Danny Ozark had lost control of the Philadelphia Phillies and a change was needed. At one point during the season, Ozark confided in Phillies team president Bill Giles, “I can’t control these …
Ellis Valentine: Humanitarian
Fans of ‘80s baseball remember Ellis Valentine. He had an absolute cannon in right field for the Expos and was part of an incredibly talented outfield trio that featured, at various points, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Warren Cromartie, Ron LeFlore and others. Substance problems derailed his career somewhat but I recently ran across this story …
All-’80s Baseball Hoops Team
It’s NCAA Basketball tournament time and that can mean only one thing: Baseball! Not only were the ‘80s a great decade for baseball, you could make a pretty solid hoops team from guys who played baseball in the 1980s. Here’s our team: Point Guard: Tony Gwynn Not only was Tony Gwynn one of the top …
Dream Season: George Brett
Every player longs for that dream season. The one where they stay healthy and just produce. I’m going to crunch the numbers and create dream seasons for notable 1980s stars. Next up is George Brett. March/April 1983 There are quick starts and then there’s the jump George Brett got on the 1983 season. In the …
Dream Season: Mike Schmidt
Every player longs for that dream season. The one where they stay healthy and just produce. I’m going to crunch the numbers and create dream seasons for notable 1980s stars. We’ll start with Mike Schmidt. April 1986 Schmitty had some slow starts, but his final season was not among them. He went 2-4 with a …
Gorman Texas Ranger
“They know when to cheer and they know when to boo. And then know when to drink beer. They do it all the time.” –Gorman Thomas on Brewers fans There are players who will always be associated with certain franchises. Gorman Thomas is one of those players. He spent time in Cleveland and Seattle, but …
Best Baseball Weekend EVER
It was January of 1995 and Mike Schmidt had just been voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I distinctly remember coming home that day and my girlfriend, now wife, could sense I was a bit down. She asked me what was wrong and I told her I had always told myself I would go …
The Best of 2016 on ’80s Baseball
I started this blog 364 days ago. Since then, I’ve published 64 posts, including guest posts, for which I’m very grateful. It’s been a great year and I thought I’d take a look back at the Top 5 posts of 2016 based (unscientifically) on page views. Number 5: George Brett’s amazing 1980 Brett was absolutely ridiculous …
The Day I Worked for My Favorite Baseball Team (Oh, and I Was 13-Years-Old)
Note: The following is a guest post from Matt Sammon. I had always liked sports as a kid, although I was far from athletic, or a kid who needed to play sports 365 days a year. While I played tee ball as a youngster, and later soccer and bowling, I was perfectly content with playing …
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That Time I Wrote George Bamberger
Note: This is a guest post from Christopher Zantow I grew up in Wisconsin as a Milwaukee Brewers fan, but when I first started following the team in the mid-70’s, they were nothing to write home about. I probably started paying attention when Hank Aaron decided to do his two-year farewell tour with the Brewers. …
Baseball Nivrana
I’ve been a collector for my entire life. You never know when you may need a 37-year-old pocket schedule and I don’t want to be unprepared. So I packed up my sons and headed to Chicago for the Fanatics Authentic Sports Spectacular. One of the big draws of shows like this is the autograph pavilion. There …
Joe Morgan’s Mysterious Dodgers Connection
Joe Morgan made a career out of beating the Los Angeles Dodgers. The damage varied from beating L.A. in the regular season to knocking them out of the playoffs. Over a nine year span, Morgan’s teams ended the Dodgers season five times, including two defeats on final day of the season. But one thing many don’t know …
The Remarkable Rookie Year of Mitchell Page
The Pirates bus sat waiting for a trip to Lakeland when someone told Mitchell Page to report to the team office. “I knew I was being traded,” he said of the 1977 Spring Training deal. “I just prayed it wasn’t to a contender. I wanted to go somewhere that would offer me an opportunity to play.” The …
Game Six
You never forget your first time. For me it was October 21st, 1980; the night I had my first championship experience. I was a few months into 8th grade at a small school in Oxford, OH. By small, I mean really small. My graduating class had about 25 people. I was a little anxious about …
That Time I Met Sixto Lezcano
Note: This is a guest post from Christopher Zantow I grew up watching Sixto Lezcano patrol the outfield for the Milwaukee Brewers in the late 1970’s. My Dad started to take me to games at Milwaukee County Stadium in 1978 and liked to sit along the first base line, so we often got to see …
7 Reasons The 1980 Pennant Race Was Fantastic
Four teams, two spots, one weekend. That’s what the 1980 pennant race came down to in the National League. The American League race produced some drama, but the NL pennant race was outstanding and it doesn’t get its due. It had everything, including two divisions that came down to the final weekend. Here are seven …
Missed it By That Much – The Mike Parrott story
Every baseball player has bad years. Both Cy Young and Walter Johnson posted 20-loss seasons. Mike Schmidt hit .196 in his first full year. But few players had a year as miserable as Mike Parrott‘s 1980. Mike Parrott was a first-round draft choice of the Baltimore Orioles in 1973. He worked his way up to …
Rick Langford: Iron Man
Billy Martin strode to the mound at Arlington Stadium to talk to his starter, Rick Langford. “I think it’s time now,” he said. It was September 17th, 1980 and the Oakland A’s were up two in the 9th inning with two outs. But Rusty Staub‘s 2-run homer in the inning was followed by a Bump Wills …
Missed It By That Much – The Drungo Hazewood Story
The runners were tense at the starting line. The 1960 Summer Olympics were about a year away, but there was still a lot at stake in this race. On the line were bragging rights and the opportunity to affect someone’s life forever; someone who would be a big part of their lives forever. “Go!” …
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George Brett and the Amazing Summer of 1980
If you’re going to hit .400, or even have a shot, it helps to put together a summer like George Brett did in 1980. The Royals third baseman got off to a slow start, hitting just .259 in the first month of the season. Brett was just starting to get hot in June when …
Baseball Returns to Buffalo with Real Power
Note: This is a guest post from Greg Lucas After nearly an eight year hiatus, professional baseball returned to Buffalo in 1979. The previous franchise in the AAA International League ran into heavy financial problems and even had to play some home games at nearby Niagara Falls towards the end. But the Buffalo Bisons had …
George Brett: The Pine Tar Game
Note: This is a guest post from Rocco Constantino July 24, 1983 The old baseball cliché is that you see something new at the ballpark every time you go to a game. It could be something as simple as a player recording his first major-league hit or achieving a team record; however, sometimes something so …
Reflections on Riverfront Stadium
I didn’t grow up going to Wrigley Field or Fenway Park. I cut my teeth as a baseball fan at the concrete monolith known as Riverfront Stadium. I attended my first big league game there in 1975 when the Reds hosted the Astros. Over the years there were lots of memories, some shenanigans and a …
Reggie Jackson Cheated Death in 1980… Twice
Reggie Jackson had a pretty good year in 1980. He hit .300 for the only time in his career, led the AL in homers, including the 400th of his Hall of Fame career, finished 2nd in the MVP balloting and led his team to the playoffs. He also almost died. Twice. Nothing Good Happens After …
That Time I Met Robin Yount
Note: This is a guest post from Christopher Zantow I feel fortunate to have grown up in what many consider to be the greatest era of Milwaukee Brewers baseball: 1978-82. My Dad first started taking me to games in 1978 and loved to sit along the first base side of Milwaukee County Stadium in the …
Doug Ault’s Cleveland Laser Show
Early August in a nearly empty stadium with two bad teams going head-to-head isn’t exactly the setting you’d expect for a memorable performance. But Doug Ault provided it anyway. When the Toronto Blue Jays came to Cleveland to face the Indians for a mid-week series on August 4th, 1980, the two teams were a combined …
The 1980s were a Rough Decade for the Yankees
Note: This is a guest post from Eric Kabakoff I first started following baseball in 1985, shortly after that year’s midseason players’ strike. My father was a lifelong Yankees fan who’d grown up watching Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford and their teammates dominate baseball for years, and I settled in to watching games …
Missed it by that Much – The Britt Burns story
“If that kid’s not Rookie of the Year, there’s no such thing,” said White Sox skipper Tony La Russa after Britt Burns made his final start of 1980. “I think (Joe) Charboneau, (Dave) Stapleton and (Damaso) Garcia… had fine rookie years,” he continued. “But there’s no way anyone had a better year than Burns.” Unfortunately …
That Time I Met Johnny Bench (Twice)
If you were a kid in southwestern Ohio in the 1970s and you could eat anywhere you wanted, the answer was clear: Johnny Bench’s Home Plate. Bench owned two restaurants in the Cincinnati area at the time and one of them was near the Northgate Mall, which was about 40 minutes from my house. I …
Missed it by that Much: The Dan Graham Story
If you happened to read the transactions section on December 8th, 1979 you probably would have missed it. The previous day, the Detroit Pistons fired their General Manager, a guy named Dick Vitale. At the winter meetings in Toronto, the Montreal Expos pulled off a big trade for Ron LeFlore, who would lead the N.L. …
That Time I Met The Orioles
It’s tough to be the new kid. Having someone introduce you helps. Having someone introduce you to about half the Baltimore Orioles is another thing entirely. In the summer of 1978, Rich Stanfill and his family moved to Cockeysville, Maryland, a small town whose claim to fame was a quarry that produced some of the marble …
Missed it by that much: The Karl Pagel story
If there was a Futures Game in 1980 he would have been a headliner. Karl Pagel was a can’t miss star. He was a high draft pick of the Chicago Cubs in 1976 and absolutely tore up the minor leagues. He hit .344 in AA in 1977 with 28 homers and 104 RBI and was …
That Time I Met Nolan Ryan
Note: This is a guest post from Scott Ottenweller In the late ’70s my family moved from New York to Columbus, Ohio. The Yankees had finally returned to prominence, winning the World Series in ‘77 and ‘78, I naturally became a Yankee fan. And I still am to this day. I was still relatively young …
And Barfield in Right
NOTE: This is a guest post from Andrew Forbes I recently attended a game with another writer whose task, appointed him by a Canadian newspaper, was to listen to me expounding for nine innings on why baseball was worth one’s attention. It’s something I’d have been happy to do, of course, even if I wasn’t …
The 1980 All-Star Game
There have been 87 All-Star games in major league history. Exactly one of them took place at Dodger Stadium. Watching the game today on YouTube brings you right back to the era, complete with Keith Jackson, Don Drysdale and Howard Cosell in the booth. Love him or hate him, there’s nothing quite like listening to …
That Time I Met Eric Davis
Note: This is a guest post from Nate Dunlevy My love affair with baseball began with the same cliches that every child of the ’80s retells. I don’t know if it was staying up late to watch Bill Buckner make the same error I made a thousand times, or if it was the wood paneling …
Jimmy Piersall Loses It… Again
The summer of 1980 was brutal. A heatwave swept across the southeast which resulted in nearly 150 deaths across seven states. From Alabama to Texas and up to Missouri, people looked for any relief they could find. The search became more difficult when temperatures caused roads to buckle in many states. Wichita Falls reached a record 113 …
That Time I Met George Brett
NOTE: This is a guest post from Tim Harms. Manners matter. More on that in a moment as I share the story of meeting my baseball hero and getting his autograph. My formative years as a baseball fan came in Wichita, Kansas, in the late 1970s. Kansas City is a three-hour drive from Wichita, and …
The weirdest day of the 1980 season
“Is it a full moon or somethin’?” That’s what my mother-in-law says when weird stuff happens. June 20th, 1980 must have featured multiple full moons because some bizarre crap went down. On the field, it began in Boston when the Red Sox hosted the California Angels. The Angels were decimated by injuries but the lineup …
Super Joe Charboneau
Being an Indians fan is hard. REALLY HARD. But in the spring of 1980, there was a glimmer of hope and it came courtesy of an injury to one of their best players. During spring training, first baseman Andre Thornton, who led the team in home runs in 1979 with 26, tore cartilage in his …
Schmidt, Carlton and the 1980 Phillies
The poster hung on the wall of my bedroom in southwest Ohio for years. MVP and CY. Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton. My guys. I was far from unique in worshiping the two future Hall-of-Famers, but to this day the site of this poster still makes me smile. The Phillies were considered underachievers entering …
Schmidt & Brett in 1971
The most important day of the 1980 baseball season may very well have taken place in June of 1971. June 8th was draft day. The Chicago White Sox held the #1 pick and chose a high school catcher named Danny Goodwin from Peoria Central High School. Goodwin was the consensus #1 choice, a 6′-2″ 195 …
It’s Strawberry Season
The Pittsburgh Pirates sent a scout to look at him. He left after a few minutes. Not because he wasn’t impressed, but because he knew his there was no chance the kid would still be available when the Pirates pick rolled around. A Phillies scout called him, “the best prospect I’ve seen in 30 years.” “I’d …
1980’s Longest Hitting Streak
DiMaggio: 56 Other DiMaggio: 34 Landreaux: 31 Wait… what? From 1941 through 1980, the three longest hitting streaks in the American League belonged to Joe DiMaggio (56 in 1941) , Don DiMaggio (34 in 1949) and Ken Landreaux. The two DiMaggio brothers are household names, but Landreaux, not so much. Ken Landreaux was selected by …
Bad Blood at The Vet
“Green’s Phillies Win Brawl Game” read one headline. “Phillies Wrestle First Place Away From Bucs” read another. On May 26th, 1980, the Pittsburgh Pirates came to Veterans Stadium for an NL East showdown. Philadelphia had won four straight to cut Pittsburgh’s lead in the division to just a half game and the four-game series was …
It’s Rainey in Boston
Quick: Name the American League Pitcher of the Month in May 1980. Steve Stone won the Cy Young award, though a legit argument could be made for Oakland’s Mike Norris. But neither of them were pitcher of the month in May. Stone won in June and Norris never won the honor, despite finishing the season with …
Moonlighting – Starring Ozzie Smith
Before there was Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd there was Ozzie Smith. While there may be no truth to the rumor that the hit TV show was based on the exploits of the future Hall-of-Fame shortstop, it is indeed a fact that in the summer of 1980, Ozzie Smith was looking for a second gig. …
Reggie vs. Koosman
Reggie Jackson may have been the straw that stirred the drink, but it took a few years after his arrival in New York for the drink to be served. By 1980, Billy Martin was gone, as was Chris Chambliss, Mickey Rivers and, tragically, Thurman Munson. The Yankees were finally Reggie’s team and Jerry Koosman may …
McCovey’s Last Bomb
Sometimes you witness history and don’t even know it. That was the case for the 18,622 people in attendance for the Giants/Expos game in Montreal on May 3rd, 1980. At the time, Willie McCovey was in the twilight of what would become a Hall of Fame career. McCovey was born on January 10th, 1938 in Mobile …
Billy Martin vs. the Marshmallow Man Part II
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 …
Horner vs. Turner
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 …
Al Bumbry
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 …
Send in the Qs
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 …
The Birth of the Game Winning RBI
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 …
“The Kid” signed for me
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 …
Bert Blyleven Bolts from the Bucs
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 …
Joe Morgan and J.R. Richard’s (not so ) Secret Mission
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 …
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Desperado: The Jerry Terrell Story
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 …
My Top 3 Larry Bowa Moments
I was an outsider. A malcontent. I grew up as a Phillies Phan in Reds Country in the 1970s. Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton were my guys, but I also had an obsession with shortstop Larry Bowa. He was small and feisty and played great defense. In T-Ball, I played shortstop and wore his uniform number …
The greatness of J.R. Richard
In December of 1979, the Houston Astros made Nolan Ryan the first million-dollar man history. Ryan won 324 games, threw 7 no-hitters and would lead his league in strikeouts eleven times en route to amassing more strikeouts than any other pitcher who ever played. But in 1980 he wasn’t even the best pitcher on his …
