THIS DAY IN SP78 HISTORY
May 24, 1982

My plan to abandon the replay of the entire 1978 season, after just 51 games were in the books, and instead play a Reds-only 162-game schedule was scrapped after three games when the Reds dropped their second decision in a row to the Giants, a 2-0 loss at our house on Palacio Place in Rancho Bernardo, California…one of only four games to be played in 1982. Terry Whitfield’s 2-run home run in the ninth off Bill Bonham was the game-winner; the Reds could muster only six hits off winning pitcher Bob Knepper, who evened his record at 1-1 with the victory. One more Reds game would be played before the ’78 season was resumed on April 10th, exactly where I’d left off over a year earlier.  (Game #53,  4/13/78)

Yankees Victorious After Martin Departure

On a day when manager Billy Martin announced his resignation from the New York Yankees, interim manager Dick Howser and his stunned squad responded with a 3-run ninth inning against the Royals—capped by a 2-run double by clutch-hitting Chris Chambliss—to propel first-place New York to a come-from-behind 6-5 win in the first game of a two-game set at Kansas City.

In a meeting of last year’s AL championship series participants, the Royals struck first when Freddie Patek opened the third with a solid single off Catfish Hunter; he stole second, then scored ahead of Tom Poquette’s first home run of the season, a low line drive that barely cleared the wall in right field, spotting the Royals to an early 2-0 lead.

The Yankees scrambled back in the fifth, touching KC starter Rich Gale for three runs when, with two out, leadoff batter Willie Randolph walked, then advanced when Piniella sent a bloop single over Frank White’s reach into right-center field, putting runners at the corners for Chambliss. The Yankees first baseman had hit 17 home runs in each of his previous two seasons, but was well under his usual numbers this year, with just four to his credit thus far; he promptly drilled  Gale’s 3-1 offering past the flag pole in right for his 5th to give the home club a 3-2 advantage.

The see-saw battle continued into the seventh, when the Royals scored two more off Hunter—the first when Willie Wilson doubled home Patek, the second when Poquette followed suit and doubled home Wilson—to re-take the lead and send the unfortunate Hunter packing. George Brett then greeted new pitcher Paul Lindblad with yet another two-bagger, KC’s third in a row, driving Poquette home without a throw and upping the Royals’ lead to 5-3. The next batter, Amos Otis, walked, and that was all for Lindblad, who was replaced by Jim Beattie; he enticed Hal McRae to foul-out to catcher Thurman Munson to end the frame.

The stage was then set for Chambliss’ heroics in the ninth. With rookie Bill Paschall on the mound for Kansas City, designated hitter Jim Spencer coaxed a walk from the right-hander with one out, as did Randolph moments later; with two on, Lou Piniella ripped a line-drive double past a diving Brett at third, scoring Spencer and sending Randolph to third. And on a night where a total of eight doubles had already been hit by both teams, Chambliss added a ninth, a long drive to the right field gap that one-hopped the wall and sent both the tying and go-ahead runs racing across the plate.

After Reggie Jackson lined into a double play to end the inning, Howser called for relief ace Rich Gossage from the bullpen, who proceeded to mow down Pete LaCock, Wilson, and hot-hitting Poquette with strikeouts to end the game, each caught looking at third-strike fastballs that they probably never saw. For Gossage, it was his 15th save on the year, helping Beattie to his fifth win.

The Yankees have scheduled a press conference for tomorrow to  announce who will be named as the team’s new field manager.

Click here if you’d like to make comments and see a full summary of the game.

Two AL Contenders Make Roster Changes

With August fast approaching, and their squads still in the thick of their respective American League divisional races, the Oakland A’s and Detroit Tigers both made transactions today to bolster their offense and provide backup for their defense, each sending a pitcher to their minor league club in exchange for a hot-hitting fielder.

The A’s, carrying a formidable PB-7 relief corps made up of Elias Sosa, Dave Heaverlo, and Bob Lacey, sent underachieving right-hander Mike Norris to their AAA affiliate in Vancouver, calling up Steve Staggs, a 27-year-old infielder who was hitting .310 in 33 games for the Canadians, to fill his spot on the roster. Staggs, predominantly a second baseman, will join Rob Picciolo as the team’s primary reserves at second, shortstop, and third base.

In the East, the Tigers were in definite need of a power-hitting outfielder; with team HR and RBI leader Steve Kemp out with an injury, the Detroit lineup was left with veteran Mickey Stanley to back up their remaining outfield trio, and his playing time recently had been spent subbing at first base for the oft-injured Jason Thompson. With that in mind, the Tigers chose to send rookie pitcher Dave Tobik—0-1 with a 6.28 ERA after five relief appearances—back to the Evansville Triplets in favor of outfielder Dave Stegman, a slugger with 14 home runs and 67 RBI to his credit midway through the American Association season.

Both players will report to their respective clubs on July 26th; Staggs will meet the A’s in Chicago in time for their game against the White Sox, while Stegman will make the quick trip from Evansville to Detroit to join the team for their short homestand versus the Orioles at Tiger Stadium.

Jays Clip M’s on Mayberry Sac Fly in 10th

For the Seattle Mariners and manager Darrell Johnson, tonight’s game was an opportunity to prove to their 1977 expansion cohorts, the Toronto Blue Jays, who was the most-improved of the two: the Mariners currently held the better won-lost record, had an 8-0 advantage in head-to-head meetings in 1978, and could boast a 16-game winning streak from earlier this season. But they’d recently fallen on hard times, and were eager to not only get back on track and make a run for the AL West lead, but to keep their perfect record against the Blue Jays intact. “It’s about pride,” said Johnson before the game, “and we’re out to show people we’re not the same team we were last year.”

Neither, apparently, were the Blue Jays, who clawed back from a 4-3 deficit to tie the game in the seventh, then scored the game-winner on a sacrifice fly from first baseman John Mayberry in the tenth, good for a thrilling 5-4 win in front of a jubilant Junior Jays Night crowd at chilly Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

Toronto had built an early 2-0 lead on RBI singles by Roy Howell and Bob Bailor, but the Mariners bounced back to even the score when team home run leader Leon Roberts clubbed his 22nd, a two-run shot with nobody out in the fourth. The two squads then engaged in a see-saw scoring battle over the ensuing three innings: the Jays took a 3-2 advantage on a solo HR from Al Woods, a run-scoring double from M’s catcher Bill Plummer re-tied the game, and after Roberts struck again with an RBI double in the seventh, Toronto came back in the bottom of the frame when Howell’s triple to the gap was misplayed by Ruppert Jones at the wall, allowing Howell to circumnavigate the basepaths, knotting the game once more, this time at 4-4.

Oddly enough, M’s manager Johnson appeared to be intoxicated at times throughout the game, and at one point almost sent Bruce Bochte to the plate instead of Lee Stanton, which nearly resulted in an automatic out for the Mariners. Now, he suddenly called for the removal of Abbott and summoned Shane Rawley from the bullpen to pitch the eighth. Toronto manager Roy Hartsfield had already made a pitching change an inning earlier, replacing starter Balor Moore with Don Kirkwood, a four-year veteran who was playing his first season in a Jays uniform, and his last in the major leagues. Both relievers pitched a pair of uneventful shutout innings, and the game went into extra frames still deadlocked 4-4.

Joe Coleman was now on the mound for the Jays, and threw a perfect tenth; Rawley opened the bottom of the inning by striking out Luis Gomez, but it would be the last out he’d secure for the night; Woods followed with a sharp single to right, advanced to second on a pinch-single by Otto Velez, then moved to third when Rawley plunked Bailor with an inside pitch. With the bases now loaded and still only one out, Johnson made his way the mound, dismissed Rawley, and waved Enrique Romo in from the bullpen to face clean-up batter John Mayberry.

Romo, a right-hander who currently held the team lead in saves with seven, watched the left-hand-hitting Mayberry drive his first offering 347 feet to the warning track in right-center, where Roberts made the running catch at the base of the wall. However, Roberts could do nothing else as Woods tagged and easily trotted home from third with the game-winning run, snapping Toronto’s eight-game losing streak against their Pacific Northwest rivals and sending the cheering Jays partisans home on a high note.

The loss was a dispiriting one for the Mariners, who were riding a wave of enthusiasm after their 3-game winning streak of the previous week, and tonight were hoping to gain ground on the fourth-place A’s. For the Jays, the victory improved their record to 40-56, and they became the first cellar-dwelling team in the majors this season to reach the 40-win mark. The teams will continue their short 2-game set tomorrow at 7:30.

Click here if you’d like to make comments and see a full summary of the game.

Logo Spotlight: Detroit Tigers

Beginning with their first season in the American League in 1901, the Tigers used several primary logos before settling on this one in 1961, the same year Briggs Stadium was re-christened Tiger Stadium. The logo depicts a roaring tiger encircled by a blue ring, with the organization name printed within; the navy blue and orange colors could be found on Tiger uniforms and caps throughout their existence, and in 1978  orange could be found in the ‘D’ of their road caps as well. This logo remained the team’s primary for 33 years, when the design was changed to a full-bodied tiger crawling through an Old English ‘D’ for the 1994 season.

Caldwell Earns 16th with 4-0 Win over Chisox

The question on everyone’s minds prior to last night’s AL match-up between Milwaukee and Chicago at Comiskey Park was a simple one: would the 15-4 Mike Caldwell cruise to victory as expected over the 3-13 Ken Kravec, or would the Sox southpaw turn the tables on the powerhouse Brewers and surprise naysayers with a blindside win? Unfortunately for the South Side faithful, there would be no upset in the making, as Caldwell fired a 7-hit shutout at the Chisox for an impressive 4-0 decision.

For Caldwell, it was his sixteenth win of the season, leading both the AL and NL in that category, and solidified his position alongside New York pitching machine Ron Guidry and Texas ace Jon Matlack as the league’s most dominating pitchers. So far this month, Caldwell has delivered three shutouts, and has allowed just one run in his four starts; with Monday night’s performance, his ERA for the year has dropped to a stellar 1.31.

“I don’t know what it is,” Caldwell told Brewers radio affiliate WTMJ after the game. “Everything’s just falling into place this season.”

And fell into place it did against the White Sox last night, as Caldwell pitched effortlessly throughout most of his nine-inning stint, finally allowing his first baserunner after three perfect innings when Bob Molinaro connected for a solid single in the fourth. Caldwell ran into trouble only twice after that, when Chet Lemon opened the fifth with a double, and when singles from Greg Pryor and Eric Soderholm put two runners on base with only one out in the ninth. Fortunately, Larry Hisle’s pinpoint throw to home nailed Lemon trying to score from second on a base hit, extinguishing that potential rally, and Caldwell helped his own cause in the final frame when he fielded a comebacker from Lemon and initiated a 1-6-3 double play, ending the game.

The Brewers wasted no time in establishing a lead, scoring in the first inning when Sixto Lezcano connected for his 15th HR of the year, a solo shot with two out. Milwaukee would make it a 2-0 game in the fifth on an RBI single from Paul Molitor, and would add another tally two innings later when Molitor, on a steal attempt of second, sprinted home after catcher Bill Nahorodny’s throw sailed into the gap in right-center field.

Forgotten in the wake of Caldwell’s performance was Sox pitcher Kravec, who despite his abysmal won-lost totals pitched a masterful game, allowing just two earned runs over seven innings pitched and never allowing the Brewers to put the game out of reach. After tiring in the eighth and loading the bases on a single and two walks, he surrendered the mound to reliever Lerrin LaGrow, who worked out of the jam and preserved the Sox comeback hopes. However, one inning later LaGrow coughed up Milwaukee’s final run, serving up a fat curve to ninth batter Gorman Thomas, who deposited the pitch just short of the ornate scoreboard in center for his 17th round-tripper of the year and the final nail in the White Sox coffin.

With the victory, the second place Brewers advanced a half-game closer to the AL East-leading Yankees, while the Sox dropped even further into the AL West basement, 26½ games behind the front-running Rangers. The two teams will continue their short 2-game series Tuesday night in Chicago.

Click here if you’d like to make comments and see a full summary of the game.