Please take a moment to appreciate the sacrifices made by The Greatest Generation
Happy ’80s Birthday to Max Venable, who broke in with the Giants in 1979 and spent 12 years in the big leagues. His son, Will, played in the major leagues, too.
Happy ’80s Birthday to former outfielder Doug Frobel, who spent 5 seasons in the bigs with the Pirates, Expos, and Indians.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Bud Harrelson.
He had more than 1,000 hits and won a Gold Glove, but he’s known for this.
Happy ’80s Birthday to pinch-hitter extraordinaire Merv Rettenmund, who spent 13 years in the big leagues.
Dave Bergman was born OTD in 1953.
He spent 17 years in the big leagues with the Yankees, Astros, Giants, and won a ring with the Tigers.
6/6/83
The Brewers trade Gorman Thomas, Ernie Camacho and Jamie Easterly to the Indians for Rick Manning and Rick Waits.
The deal goes over in Milwaukee like a fart in church.
6/6/80
The Tigers sign Barbaro Garbey as an amateur free agent.
6/6/88
The Dodgers sign Raul Mondesi as an amateur free agent.
6/6/82
A 6-4 lefty from St. Johns makes his big league debut against the Orioles and it doesn’t go well.
Frank Viola allows 3 runs on 6 hits in 4.1 innings. He eventually wins a Cy Young and a World Series MVP, so it’s all good.
6/6/86
Padres manager Steve Boros is ejected before the game begins for handing umpires a videotape of a controversial call from the night before that resulted in the ejection of Steve Garvey.
Big Days
6/6/80
Jerry Remy goes 4 for 4 with 4 RBI as the Red Sox beat the A’s 14-8.
6/6/83
The Twins select Tim Belcher with the top pick in the draft but he doesn’t sign, thus beginning a strange odyssey that has him being picked by the Yankees in the 1984 January draft, being chosen by Oakland a month later as a free agent compensation pick and then being traded to the Dodgers in September of 1987.
6/6/83
The Reds select Rob Dibble, Joe Oliver, and Chris Sabo with their first three picks of the draft.
That worked out pretty well.
Managerial Changes
6/6/88
The Mariners fire Dick Williams and replace him with Jim Snyder.
Williams announced in Spring Training that 1988 would be his last season but a poor record and conflict with players caused Seattle to fire him before the season was over.