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Happy ’80s (and ’60s and ’70s) Birthday to Gaylord Perry, who was teammates with both Don Larsen and Buddy Biancalana.
Happy ’80s Birthday to John Pacella. His hat fell off after almost every pitch.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Don Collins, who made his debut in 1977 with Atlanta and appeared in four games for Cleveland in 1980.
Happy ’80s Birthday to John Christensen, who made his debut with the Mets in 1984 and collected 66 hits over parts of four seasons with New York, Seattle, and Minnesota.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Todd Fischer, who appeared in nine games for the 1986 Angels.
Happy ’80s Birthday to Ron Shelton, minor league teammate of Don Baylor and writer/director of Bull Durham.
9/15/85
The Yankees trade for Joe Niekro, reuniting the Niekro brothers for the first time since 1974.
9/15/87
The Angels trade John Candelaria to the Mets for Shane Young and Jeff Richardson. Candelaria goes 2-0 for the Mets down the stretch after getting torched for 5 runs in an inning and a third in his first start.
9/15/80
Fernando Valenzuela gives up two unearned runs against the Braves in his big-league debut.
He would not allow an earned run until April 14th, 1982 en route to winning the Rookie of the Year Award and the Cy Young.
9/15/81
John Shelby makes his big-league debut as a pinch-runner and scores a run against Cleveland.
He spends eleven years in the bigs and wins rings with the 1983 Orioles and the 1988 Dodgers.
9/15/87
Al Leiter goes six innings against the Brewers and gets the win in his big-league debut.
He pitches for 19 years, throws a no-hitter, makes two All-Star teams, and wins two rings (1993, 1997)
9/15/87
Jack McDowell throws seven shutout innings against Minnesota to get the win in his big-league debut.
He pitches for twelve years and wins the Cy Young award in 1993.
9/15/87
John Burkett gives up three runs on two homers against the Padres in his big-league debut.
He returns to the bigs in 1990 and goes 61-34 over the next four seasons and pitches until 2003.
9/15/88
Randy Johnson allows two runs over six innings against Pittsburgh to get the win in his big-league debut.
He would harness his control issues and develop into one of the most dominant pitchers of his generation.
9/15/80
Marty Brennaman has a “quite heated” 35-minute meeting with Reds team President Dick Wagner. Brennaman was under fire for his criticism of the team and Wagner. When asked if he thought he would be fired, Brennaman responded, “I’d say it’s a very good chance.”
Wagner is fired in 1983 and Brennaman retired from the Reds booth in 2019, a member of the Hall of Fame.
Big Days
9/15/80
Al Oliver records the 2,000th hit of his career. He retires after the 1985 season with 2,743.
9/15/82
Jeff Burroughs homers and dives in six but the Blue Jays beat Oakland 21-11 in the second game of a doubleheader.
9/15/85
Cesar Cedeno goes 5-for-5 with a homer and 4 RBI in a 5-1 Cardinals win over the Cubs. The five-hit day raises Cedeno’s batting average to an even .500 since coming to St. Louis from Cincinnati at the end of August.
9/15/87
The Reds bang out 21 hits, including 7 homers, in a 21-6 win over Atlanta. Dave Parker goes 5-for-5 with two homers and eight RBI.
9/15/87
Keith Hernandez records his 2,000th hit. He would finish his career with 2,182.
9/15/87
Boston rookie Todd Benzinger goes 3-for-4 with a grand slam and 7 RBI in a game against Detroit. It caps a seven-game stretch in which he hits .625 with 4 homers and 13 RBI.
9/15/88
Nursing a bad shoulder, Dave Concepcion enters the Reds/Astros game as a defensive replacement at first base. He has surgery the following day and never plays another big-league game.
9/15/89
Ramon Martinez throws a shutout and strikes out 12 in a 5-0 Dodgers win over the Braves.
9/15/89
Melido Perez allows just one run on two hits and strikes out 12 in a 3-1 White Sox win over the Angels.
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