Reds Managers of the 1980s
A breakdown of the men who managed the Cincinnati Reds in the 1980s
NL West
Two Dingers in an Inning
The 1980s saw four players hit two home runs in one inning.
Here is who turned the trick.
1980s First Round Ratings
I took a look at every team’s first-round picks over the course of the decade and rated the best and worst.
The Day the World Series Stopped
Jon Leonoudakis was in attendance at Game Three of the 1989 World Series with a VHS camcorder and his still camera. He recently released a film on his experience and gives us a preview.
Fernando Holds Out
Suds Series, is scheduled to be released on March 31st. The following is an excerpt from the book detailing Fernando Valenzuela’s holdout in the spring of 1982.
Tom Seaver by the Numbers
Thirteen men threw more than 4,000 innings and finished their careers with an E.R.A. of under 3.00.
Tom Seaver is the only one who threw a pitch after 1930.
Tony Gwynn Facts
Tony Gwynn was one of the greatest hitters to ever play the game. Here are some facts to prove it.
An Open Letter to Reds Fans
After a rough start to the 1982 season, Reds second baseman wrote an open letter to fans of the team
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …
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. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Joe Morgan and J.R. Richard’s (not so ) Secret Mission Read More »
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 …
The Courtship of Nolan Ryan
The Houston Astros had one of the best pitching staffs in the National League in 1979, finishing second in the league with a 3.20 team E.R.A. Joe Niekro won 21 games, Ken Forsch threw the major league’s only no-hitter and 6 foot 8 fireballer James Rodney Richard led league in strikeouts. But new owner John …
Down Goes Lasorda!
On February 17th, 1980 two separate interviews at a local television station turned into an impromptu Los Angeles Dodgers fight night. Dodger Manager Tommy Lasorda, was at KNBC recording an interview when he bumped into Jim Lefebvre. Bad blood existed between the two after Lasorda had fired Lefebvre as hitting and first base …
Joe Morgan Comes Home
After eight seasons in Cincinnati, second-baseman Joe Morgan was looking to prove he could still contribute as he entered his age 36 season. He won back-to-back MVP awards and two World Series with the Reds in 1975 & ‘76 but his offensive numbers fell sharply after that. He hit just .236 in 1978 and .250 …
