Happy Birthday to an underrated pitcher and big days from three Hall of Famers highlight Today in 1980s Baseball

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Happy ’80s Birthday to Steve Braun, who played fifteen seasons in the major leagues and ended his career as one of the more successful pinch hitters in history.

He finished with 113 pinch-hits

Happy ’80s Birthday to Dennis Leonard, who led the big leagues in starts three times and won 20 for the Royals in 1977, ’78, and ’80. Dude was a workhorse.

Happy ’80s Birthday to Ricky Nelson, who played parts of four seasons with the Mariners and was teammates with Alvin Davis with Seattle and at Arizona St.

Happy ’80s Birthday to Orestes Destrade, who spent parts of four seasons in the big leagues and also put up big numbers in Japan.

He’s currently doing TV for the Rays.

Big Days

5/8/81

For the 2nd straight game, Tom Paciorek hits a walk-off homer to beat the Yankees. He gets Ron Davis on May 8th and Rudy May on May 7th.

5/8/81

Michael Jack Schmidt goes 4 for 5 with two homers and 5 RBI in an 11-7 Phillies win over the Padres.

5/8/82

Dusty Baker goes 5 for 6 with 2 homers and 5 RBI in a 10-8 Dodgers win over the Expos.

5/8/83

Darryl Strawberry collects his first major league hit, an RBI single off Reds reliever Ben Hayes to score Danny Heep, in a 10 – 5 win.

Straw opened the season in Tidewater and hit .333 in 16 games before being called up.

5/8/84

Kirby Puckett goes 4-5 in big league debut, which is impressive.

What’s even more amazing is how he got to the big leagues in the first place.

5/8/84

The White Sox and Brewers hook up for the beginning of a 25 inning marathon at Comiskey Park. The game is suspended in the 18th inning and resumed the next day with the Sox winning in the bottom of the 25th on a Harold Baines homer.