Categories: October

October 2nd

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Former Dodger great and Mariners manager Maury Wills was born OTD in 1932.

He passed away in 2022.

Happy ‘80s Birthday to Greg Pryor, who spent ten years in the bigs and won a ring with the 1985 Royals.

Happy ‘80s Birthday to Ernie Riles, who finished 3rd in the 1985 A.L. Rookie of the Year race. Ernie played in the bigs for nine years and won an N.L. West title with the Giants in 1989.

Happy ‘80s Birthday to Kevin Kobel, who spent parts of six seasons in the bigs with the Brewers and Mets.

 

Happy ‘80s Birthday to Jeff Doyle, who was a 6th-round pick in 1976 and played 13 games for the 1983 Cardinals.

Happy ‘80s Birthday to Andre Robertson, who spent five years in the bigs with the Yankees from 1981 through 1985.

Happy ‘80s Birthday to Dave Beard, who pitched in the bigs for seven seasons, making his debut with Oakland in 1980s. He finished up with the Tigers in 1989 and won 19 games while recording 30 saves.

Happy ‘80s Birthday to Randy Byers, who played 21 games for the Padres in 1987 and 1988.

10/2/84

The Brewers trade Rich Buonantony, Ron Koenigsfeld, and Jim Koontz to the Cardinals for Jim Adduci and Paul Householder.

10/2/86

The White Sox signed Marc Hill as a free agent.

10/2/82

Scott Garrrelts makes his big-league debut in a mop-up role against the Dodgers and allows three runs over two innings while striking out four.

He spends 10 years in the bigs and wins 69 games while recording 48 saves, including winning a career-high 14 games for the Giants in 1989.

Big Days

10/2/80

Reggie and Oscar Gamble hit back-to-back homers and the Yankees clinch at least a tie for the A.L. East crown with a 3-2 win over Detroit.

10/2/81

Schmitty hits a two-out walk off three-run dinger to beat the Cubs 9-7. It’s his 30th of the strike-shortened season.

10/2/82

It’s Ray Kroc night in San Diego and everyone got one of these hats. I want one.

10/2/82

The Astros beat the Reds 4-2. It is Cincinnati’s 100th loss of the season, the first time in franchise history that they have reached the century mark.

10/2/82

Fred Lynn’s two-run homer puts the Angels up to stay and they clinch the A.L. West title. They would lose to the Brewers in the A.L.C.S. in five games.

10/2/82

The Dodgers hammer the Giants 15-2 to eliminate them from the postseason. The Giants would get some measure of revenge the following day when Joe Morgan’s homer knocks the Dodgers out of the postseason and gives the Braves the N.L. West title.

10/2/82

The Orioles hammer the Brewers 11-3 to set up a winner take all Game 162 on the final day of the season for the A.L. East title. John Lowenstein and Rick Dempsey each collect three this in the game.

10/2/83

Yaz plays the final game of his HOF career.

10/2/83

On the final day of the season, Tim Raines goes 2-8 with a walk, 4 stolen bases, and two runs scored. The bags give him 90, good enough to lead the N.L. for the 3rd straight season and the two runs scored run his total to 133, which leads the major leagues.

10/2/83

Ron Kittle becomes the first White Sox rookie to reach the 100 RBI mark since Zeke Bonura in 1934. He would win Rookie of the Year honors.

10/2/83

Tug McGraw removes himself from the Phillies playoff roster, feeling the team would be stronger without him.

10/2/84

Jack Morris allows just one run and gets homers from Larry Herndon, Alan Trammell, and Lance Parrish as the Tigers beat the Royals 8-1 in Game 1 of the 1984 ALCS.

10/2/84

Rick Sutcliffe throws a shutout and homers in a 13-0 Cubs win over the Padres in Game 1 of the NLCS. The game is played with substitute umpires as the regular umpires were on strike.

10/2/85

Darrell Evans hits his major league-leading 40th home run of the season and becomes the first player to have a 40-homer season in each league. He hit 41 homers for the Braves in 1973.

10/2/85

The Galbreath family and Warner Communications sell the Pirates to the Pittsburgh Associates, a local consortium committed to keeping the team in Pittsburgh.

New Orleans and Portland had been making attractive offers to entice the Bucs to move. 

10/2/85

Dwight Gooden beats the Cardinals 5-2 and strikes out ten to earn his 24th victory of the season against just 4 losses. He leads the N.L. in wins, CGs (16), IP (276.2), and strikeouts (268) and wins the Cy Young.

10/2/85

Bud Black throws a three-hit shutout against the Angels and moves the Royals into a first-place tie with California. The Royals eventually win the division, and the World Series.

10/2/86

Dwight Gooden strikes out seven in an 8-2 win over the Pirates and becomes the first pitcher to strike out 200 batters in each of his first three seasons.

10/2/86

Mike Scott strikes out eight in a 2-1 win over the Giants and becomes just the third National League pitcher to fan 300 batters in one season. He also nearly matches Johnny Vander Meer’s feat of throwing consecutive no-hitters. He takes a no-no into the 7th before it is broken up by Will Clark.

10/2/86

Don Mattingly sets a Yankees record when he records his 232nd hit of the season, breaking the 1927 mark set by Earle Combs. He finishes the year with a league-leading 238 hits.

10/2/87

An epic pitcher’s duel at Fenway Park as Milwaukee’s Teddy Higuera and Boston’s Jeff Sellers each go 11 innings. Boston’s Spike Owen takes Higuera deep for a walk off homer in the 12th to win it.

10/2/87

The Tigers beat Toronto 4-3 behind trade-deadline acquisition Doyle Alexander to move into a first-place tie with the Jays. The Tigers would win the division but fall to the Twins in the A.L.C.S.

10/2/88

The Braves and Orioles both lose, which gives Baltimore the #1 pick in the 1989 draft. They use it to select LSU pitcher Ben McDonald.

Transactions

10/2/86

The Royals select Jim Eisenreich off waivers from the Twins.

Eisenreich has not played in the bigs since 1984 after battling Tourette Syndrome. He resurrects his career and plays until 1998.

Injuries

10/2/80

Graig Nettles returns to the Yankees lineup after missing much of the season with hepatitis.

Managerial Changes

10/2/83

The Mets fire manager Frank Howard. Howard took over for George Bamberger, who was let go earlier in the year. Davey Johnson takes over in 1984 and turns things around.

10/2/83

The Brewers fire Harvey Kuenn. He is replaced by Rene Lachemann for 1984.

10/2/83

Cubs manager Charlie Fox says he will not return to the dugout in 1984 and will, instead, head to the front office. The rumor mill has Jim Fregosi taking over for the Cubs in 1984, but the job goes to Jim Frey, who leads the Cubs to a division title.

10/2/84

The Braves name Eddie Haas as their new manager. He takes over for Joe Torre and is fired in August when the team is 50-71.

10/2/88

The Astros fire Hal Lanier and his entire coaching staff. Art Howe takes over the club in 1989.

Deaths

We lost Pat Kelly OTD in 2005.

We lost Gibby OTD in 2020

We lost Ron Perranoski OTD in 2020

We lost Chuck Hartenstein OTD in 2021

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