Happy ’80s Birthday to Ed Figueroa. Yankees fans weren’t too happy when they traded Bobby Bonds to get him but got over it when he won 20.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Willie Mays Aikens, who hit 2 birthday bombs in his first World Series game on this date in 1980.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Al Oliver, who spent 18 years hitting bullets in the big leagues. Dude racked up more than 2,700 hits and is a Hall of Famer in my book.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Kiko Garcia, who spent ten years in the bigs with Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Houston. He also took over at SS for Mark Belanger. Those are big shoes to fill.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Jesus Vega, who played in 81 games for the Twins between 1979 and 1982.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Bill Bathe, who spent parts of three seasons in the bigs with the A’s and Giants and faced a former little league teammate, Dave Leiper, in his first big-league at-bat. He later became a firefighter. His twin brother, Bob, made it to Triple-A but never reached the bigs.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Carl Nichols, who spent parts of six years in the bigs with Baltimore and Houston and another five years playing independent ball. He is also Ray Lankford’s uncle.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Joe Girardi, who spent 15 years in the bigs with four teams and won two rings before becoming a manager.
10/14/80
Bake McBride’s three-run shot off Dennis Leonard highlights a five-run Phillies 3rd inning and gives them a lead they wouldn’t lose in Game 1 of the World Series at The Vet against the Royals.
10/14/81
Tim Raines goes 3-for-5 and Ray Burris throws a shutout as the Expos beat the Dodgers 3-0 to even the NLCS at 1-1.
10/14/81
The Yankees trail the A’s 3-2 heading into the bottom of the 4th before exploding for seven runs. Lou Piniella’s three-run homer caps the scoring and New York wins Game Two of the ALCS 13-3.
10/14/83
Ivan de Jesus’ 7th-inning error allows Benny Ayala to score the go-ahead run and the Orioles beat the Phillies 3-2 in Game Three of the World Series. Phortunately, Phillies Phans have forgotten all about it.
Video is cued to the play.
10/14/84
Gibby takes Goose deep and the Tigers win the World Series.
10/14/85
Go Crazy, folks.
10/14/86
Gary Carter’s 12th-inning walk-off single gives the Mets a 2-1 win in Game 5 of the NLCS.
10/14/86
The Red Sox collect six hits in a 5-run 3rd inning to beat the Angels 10-4 and force a decisive Game Seven of the ALCS.
10/14/87
Jose Oquendo’s three-run shot paces the Cardinals to a 6-0 win over the Giants and into the 1987 World Series.
10/14/89
Stew throws a shutout and gets homers from Dave Parker and Walt Weiss as the A’s beat the Giants 5-0 in Game One of the World Series.
10/14/81
The Dodgers release Jerry Grote and his career is over. He spends 16 years in the bigs and collects 1,092 hits, two All-Star nods, and a ring.
10/14/82
The Chicago Sun Times reports that Billy Martin will leave Oakland to become manager of the Cleveland Indians. Billy ends up back in New York for 1983, while Cleveland names former Yankees third base coach Mike Ferraro as their new skipper.
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