Happy ’80s Birthday to Bruce Bocthe, who hit .297 for the Mariners in 1982 with 12 homers and 70 RBI and sat out the 1983 season to protest excessive greed in professional sports. I don’t think it worked.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Jody, Jody Davis, King of Wrigley Field
Happy ’80s Birthday to Jeff Reed, who spent 17 years catching in the big leagues and won a World Series with the Reds in 1990.
He’s currently a high school coach in Tennessee
Happy ’80s Birthday to Greg Gagne, who once hit two inside-the-park homers in the same game.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Donnie Hill, who spent nine years in the bigs and played for four of the seven teams in the A.L. West. He also pitched an inning in a 20-7 blowout loss to Milwaukee back when that kind of thing didn’t happen twice a week.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Wil Tejada, who appeared in 18 games for the Expos in 1986 and 1988 and later managed in the minor leagues.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Gary Thurman, who was a 1983 first-round draft pick of the Royals and spent nine years in the bigs. He later became a minor league manager.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Dave Otto, who spent eight years in the bigs with four teams and later became a broadcaster for the Cubs.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Sammy Sosa!
11/12/86
The Mets trade Ron Gardenhire to the Twins for a PTBNL. Minnesota sent Donnie Iasparro (minors) to New York to complete the trade.
Gardy never appears in the bigs again as a player but he spent 16 years as a manager in the big leagues.
11/12/87
The White Sox trade Richard Dotson and Scott Nielsen to the Yankees for Dan Pasqua, Steve Rosenberg, and Mark Salas. Pasqua spends seven years in Chicago and retires after 1994, while Dotson wins 12 games for the Yankees in 1988.
11/12/80
Baltimore’s Steve Stone wins the A.L. Cy Young Award. Stone goes 25-7 with a 3.23 E.R.A. in a career year to edge out Oakland’s Mike Norris, who finished the season at 22-9, 2.53.
11/12/81
Billy Martin wins A.L. Manager of the Year for the second year in a row.
11/12/81
The Expos strip the interim tag from Jim Fanning’s title and name him manager for 1982. Fanning took over the team in September after Dick Williams was fired.
11/12/86
Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox wins the 1986 American League Cy Young Award unanimously, joining Denny McLain (1968) as the only pitchers to do so. Clemens finished with a 24-4 record with 238 strikeouts and a 2.48 ERA.
11/12/86
The Mets meet with Ronald Reagan at the White House, who proclaims them The Pride of America.
11/12/87
Ken Griffey is named the Skoal Pinch Hitter of the Year. All he did was hit .611 (11-for-18) coming off the bench.
11/12/83
The Reds purchase Bob Owchinko from the Pirates.
Owchinko goes 3-5 in his lone season in Cincinnati.
11/12/84
The Brewers purchase Brad Lesley from the Reds. Lesley had been on loan to the Brewers and finished the season in Triple-A.
11/12/85
The Yankees release Don Cooper. He spends two more years in the minor leagues and later becomes a pitching coach.
11/12/86
The Dodgers release Bill Russell and his career is over.
He spends 18 years with L.A. as a player and later becomes the manager.
11/12/87
The Astros release Davey Lopes and his career is over. He spends 16 years in the bigs as a player and turns to coaching. Lifer.
11/12/80
Don Zimmer is named manager of the Rangers. That didn’t work out for anyone because Eddie Chiles was a maniac.
11/12/82
Joe Altobelli replaces Earl Weaver as Orioles manager. He wins a World Series 11 months later.
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