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Happy ’80s Birthday to John “Duke” Wathan, who caught 120 games in 1982 and also stole 36 bases. I’m guessing we won’t see a catcher steal 30+ bags for a while.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Lary Sorensen, who was an All-Star in 1978 with the Brewers and won 93 games in the big leagues.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Charlie Leibrandt, who threw 173 innings and won 10 games as a Reds rookie in 1980.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Tony LaRussa, who won 2,664 games and three World Series titles with the Cardinals, A’s and White Sox
Happy ’80s Birthday to Billy Hatcher, who won a World Series with the Reds in 1990 and is one of the nicest dudes you’ll meet.
Steve Olin was born OTD in 1965. He made his debut with Cleveland in 1989 and was developing into a top relief pitcher when he was killed in a boating accident in spring training in 1993 along with Tim Crews.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Mark McLemore, who made his debut in 1986 with the Angels and spent 19 years in the bigs with seven teams. He appeared in the postseason five times and scored 105 runs with the Rangers in 1999.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Bruce Ruffin, who made his debut with the Phillies in 1986 and became an original member of the Rockies in 1993.
He won 60 games over 12 big-league seasons.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Tony Ferreira, who appeared in two games for the 1985 Royals.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Dennis Cook, who made his debut in 1988 with the Giants and pitched for 15 seasons, winning a career-high 10 games out of the pen for the Mets in 1999.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Chris James, who made his debut with the Phillies in 1986 and hit 17 homers as a rookie in 1987. Chris spent ten years in the bigs and is the brother of former NFL running back Craig James.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Mike Sharperson, who made his debut with the Blue Jays in 1987 before being traded to the Dodgers for Juan Guzman. That worked out well for Mike as he won a ring the following year.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Joe Boever, who made his debut with the Cardinals in 1985 and pitched in the bigs for 12 years working exclusively out of the bullpen. He recorded a career-high 21 saves for Atlanta in 1989 and led the N.L. in appearances in 1992 with 81 for the Astros.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Dennis Littlejohn, who spent three years with the Giants between 1978 and 1980. He also played for the U.S. National team.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Dave Schuler, who appeared in 18 games for the Angels and Braves between 1979 and 1985 and later served as a minor league pitching coach.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Ed Halicki, who threw a no-hitter for the Giants in 1975, a one-hitter in 1978, and pitched until 1980 before also appearing in the senior league.
Happy ‘80s Birthday to Glenn Adams, who was the #4 overall pick in the 1968 draft and spent eight years in the bigs. His final season was with Toronto in 1982.
10/4/80
Facing a doubleheader on the penultimate day of the season, the Orioles turn to Mike Boddicker to make his MLB debut in game two against Cleveland. It doesn’t go well, but Boddicker wins 16 games and finishes 3rd in the A.L. ROY race in 1983, and wins 20 in 1984.
10/4/80
Roger Holt goes 1-for-4 in his big-league debut for the Yankees.
He goes 0-for-2 the following day and never plays another game in the major leagues.
10/4/81
Tom Wieghaus goes 0-for-1 in his big-league debut for the Expos. He plays in a single game in 1983 and six in 1984 with the Astros.
Big Days
10/4/80
Michael Jack Schmidt hits the biggest homer in Phillies history.
Please watch this on a loop
10/4/80
Steve Garvey’s 4th inning homer off Nolan Ryan gives the Dodgers a 3-2 win over the Astros and keeps them alive in the N.L. West race.
10/4/80
The Yankees clinch their fourth AL East title in five seasons when they beat Detroit, 5 – 2, in the first game of a doubleheader.
Reggie Jackson hits his 41st homer of the season to tie Ben Oglivie for the A.L. home run crown.
10/4/81
Carney Lansford wins the only batting title of his career. He finishes with a .336 batting average.
The man could just hit.
10/4/82
A federal judge blocks TBS from airing the Braves/Cardinals playoff series, saying it would be a breach of the contract signed by MLB and ABC.
10/4/83
Michael Jack Schmidt’s 1st inning solo homer off Jerry Reuss proves all the offense the Phillies need to take a 1-0 lead over the Dodgers in the 1983 NLCS. Steve Carlton and AL Holland combine to shut out L.A.
10/4/84
Kevin McReynolds goes 2-for-3 with a homer and three RBI as the Padres beat the Cubs in Game Three of the NLCS.
10/4/85
The Blue Jays are one out away from clinching their first postseason bid when Butch Wynegar’s homer ties the game in the top of the 9th inning. The Yankees score again on a rare Lloyd Moseby error to win the game 4-3 and stay alive in the A.L. East hunt.
10/4/85
Bob Forsch allows just two runs over eight innings and Todd Worrell closes it out in the 9th to give the Cardinals a 4-2 win over the Cubs. The win clinches at least a tie for the N.L. East division title.
10/4/85
George Brett’s fourth homer in the past five days helps the Royals beat the A’s 4-2. The win clinches at least a tie for the A.L. West division title.
10/4/86
Greg Gagne goes 3-for-4 with two inside-the-park homers in a 7-3 Twins win over the White Sox. He becomes just the second player since 1930 to turn the trick.
10/4/86
Tony Perez hits his 379th homer to tie Orlando Cepeda as the all-time leader among Latin-American players.
10/4/86
The Red Sox announce that Tom Seaver will not pitch in the A.L.C.S. due to a knee injury. The injury keeps him out of the World Series as well and deprives fans of seeing him pitch against the Mets.
10/4/86
John Cangelosi steals his 50th base to aet an American League rookie record, eclipsing the mark set by Rollie Zeider of the 1910 White Sox.
10/4/86
Dave Righetti records saves in both ends of a Yankees doubleheader sweep over the Red Sox to set the major league record for most saves in a season with 46.
10/4/87
Reggie Jackson plays his final game.
10/4/87
The Tigers complete a three-game sweep of the Blue Jays to win the A.L. East division crown. Detroit picks up five and a half games on Toronto in the final 8 games to win the title
10/4/87
Roger Clemens throws a 2-hitter to beat the Brewers 4-0 and record his 20th win of the season.
In 1986 and 1987, Clemens went 44-13.
10/4/87
Charlie Hough makes his 40th start of the season and gets the loss against the Mariners. No one has started that many games since and I don’t see it happening any time soon.
10/4/88
Gary Carter’s 9th inning double allows Kevin McReynolds to truck Mike Scioscia and score the winning run as the Mets take a 1-0 lead in the 1988 NLCS.
10/4/89
Will Clark goes 4-for-4 with two homers and 6 RBI as the Giants beat the Cubs in Game 1 of the NLCS. What a duel between Thrill and Mark Grace. That was fun to watch.
10/4/89
Dave Parker’s first career postseason dinger helps give the A’s a two games to none series lead in the 1989 ALCS over the Blue Jays.
Fights
10/4/81
Paul Householder trucks Larry Owen and the Reds and Braves empty the benches. The Reds could be forgiven for having the best record in baseball and missing the playoffs.
Managerial Changes
10/4/81
The Padres fire manager Jerry Coleman. He returns to the booth for 1981, with Frank Howard taking over the managerial duties.
10/4/81
The Mets fire manager Joe Torre and his entire coaching staff. Torre moves on to Atlanta in 1982 and wins a division title.
10/4/83
The Reds fire manager Russ Nixon and replace him with Vern Rapp. Rapp is fired in August and replaced by Pete Rose.
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