September 2, 1981:  Eddie Miller steals win for Braves, spoiling Ryne Sandberg’s major-league debut

The 1981 season marked Eddie Miller’s first extended stay in the major leagues. The 24-year-old Atlanta Braves outfielder was finally getting an opportunity to secure a position on the team, after a brief trial with Texas and three seasons of shuffling between Atlanta and the minors. With Claudell Washington and Dale Murphy manning right field and center field, Miller1 was competing with rookies Rufino Linares and Brett Butler for playing time in left.

Upon Butler’s August 20 promotion from Triple A, Braves manager Bobby Cox began starting him regularly, limiting opportunities for Linares and Miller. “My thoughts?” said Miller. “I have to accept it.”2 Cox, in his fourth year at the helm in Atlanta, was searching for the right mix of players to lift the Braves out of the bottom half of the standings.

On September 2 Atlanta was wrapping up a three-game home series with the defending World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies. While chasing another title in the strike-abridged season,3 Philadelphia also had an eye on the future, taking advantage of September roster expansion to bring up a few prospects – one of them a promising infielder named Ryne Sandberg.

A 20th-round selection in the June 1978 amateur draft, Sandberg had quickly advanced through the Phillies’ minor-league system with solid results.4 The scouting reports on Sandberg were improving and the Phillies wanted to see if he had a future in the Philadelphia infield. Former Phillies shortstop and minor-league instructor Granny Hamner’s final report about Sandberg noted, “A definite major-league prospect, but I don’t think he’s a shortstop.”5

Both Miller and Sandberg were on the bench at the beginning of the Wednesday evening contest in Atlanta, witnessed by 6,232 fans. Matched up on the mound were two young right-handers. Tommy Boggs, 25, the top draft pick of the Texas Rangers in 1974, was acquired by Atlanta in the same trade that landed Miller in December 1977.6 Boggs won 12 games for Atlanta in 1980, but entered the September 2 contest with a rough 3-10 record. Dickie Noles, 24, was making his second start of the season for Philadelphia after an August recall from the minors.

Boggs pitched in and out of trouble early but the Phillies managed to score only once. In the first, Bake McBride singled to left and stole second. After former Brave Gary Matthews7 struck out, Mike Schmidt – headed for his second consecutive National League MVP Award – reached on an infield single as McBride took third. Manny Trillo flied out to right, stranding both runners.

In the second, shortstop Luis Aguayo was hit by a pitch, stole second, and moved to third on Bob Boone’s grounder to short. Noles helped himself by punching a single to left, driving in Aguayo to put Philadelphia up 1-0. It was his only RBI of the season, and one of 11 over an 11-season career.

The Braves had baserunners in the first, when Bob Horner reached on Aguayo’s error, and the second when Murphy singled and moved up on a balk, but Noles kept Atlanta off the board until the third. Butler, who had stolen 149 bases in three minor-league seasons, singled to right with one out and advanced to second on a balk. Washington’s deep fly moved Butler to third and he scored on Horner’s single to left.

In the third through the seventh, Philadelphia continued to put runners on base but could not push another run across against Boggs. Their best opportunities occurred in the middle innings. Pete Rose singled with one out in the fifth but catcher Bruce Benedict threw him out trying to steal second. McBride doubled but was stranded when Matthews flied to right. With two out in the sixth, the Phillies loaded the bases on two singles and a walk but Noles struck out.

Atlanta mustered only two baserunners off Noles in the next three innings, and the score remained 1-1 heading to the bottom of the seventh. Noles issued a one-out walk to Rafael Ramírez, and Cox, sensing an opportunity, sent in Miller to run for Ramírez and Biff Pocoroba to hit for Boggs. Miller stole second and Pocoroba walked.

Phillies manager Dallas Green made the call to the bullpen, summoning veteran left-hander Sparky Lyle to face the top of the Braves order. Noles exited after an impressive 6 1/3 innings of three-hit, one-run baseball. “He pitched good and he pitched tough,” said Green after the game. “I was very pleased with the way he pitched.”8

Linares, pinch-hitting for Butler, grounded to short. Larry Whisenton, running for Pocoroba, was forced at second, but Miller advanced to third and Linares was safe at first. Washington flied out to right as Lyle escaped the jam. 

Both teams made changes heading to the eighth. For Atlanta, Rick Camp relieved Boggs and Miller remained in the game to play left field. Philadelphia called on Warren Brusstar to pitch, and Larry Bowa entered to play shortstop as Aguayo moved to second. Neither team scored and the game headed to the ninth.

For the Phillies, pinch-hitter Del Unser led off the top of the ninth with a single to right. Rookie Bob Dernier, who was added to the September roster with Sandberg, ran for Unser.9 Boone hit a soft grounder to the mound and Dernier was forced at second. Sandberg entered to run for the slow-footed Boone.

Bowa, slotted as the ninth-place hitter after Green’s double switch, stroked a single to right and Sandberg sprinted to third. Rose followed with a sharp single to center – his third consecutive single10 – and the rookie dashed home to score the go-ahead run in his major-league debut, 16 days from his 22nd birthday.

Brusstar returned for the ninth to preserve the 2-1 lead. Leadoff hitter Glenn Hubbard found a pitch he liked and lined a triple to the right-center-field gap. Hubbard held his ground on Benedict’s shallow fly to center and Miller stepped in to bat. He lined the first pitch into center field for a single to tie the score, 2-2.11

With seldom-used backup shortstop Luis Gómez at the plate,12 Miller took off and easily stole second. “I had to get in position to score,” Miller said.13 Then he set off for third and beat the throw by inches with a sprawling head-first dive.14

Gómez walked and Green made another double switch, inserting Tug McGraw to pitch and George Vukovich to play right field.

Pinch-hitter Jerry Royster lofted a shallow fly to right which Vukovich snared close to the foul line. “I sure wasn’t going to let it drop fair. So, I just tried to throw him out,” Vukovich said.15 Miller, tagging up, sprinted for home. He slid safely under the tag to score the winning run in walk-off fashion.

Miller finished the season with Atlanta, then was traded to the Detroit Tigers the next spring. Over the next three years, he played appeared in just 27 more major-league games before finishing his playing career in the Mexican League.

Sandberg played in 12 more games with the Phillies, mostly as a pinch-runner or defensive replacement. After the season, Philadelphia dealt him to the Chicago Cubs – a move that changed his career.

“At the time, the trade was good for me. I never got an indication that I was in the Phils’ plans,” Sandberg later opined.16 He achieved eminence in Chicago, won numerous awards throughout his tenure with the Cubs, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005.

Acknowledgments 

This article was fact-checked by Thomas Merrick and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Ryne Sandberg, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for information including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL198109020.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1981/B09020ATL1981.htm

Notes

1 Miller was the third of three major leaguers named Eddie Miller. The most notable played shortstop for National League teams from 1936 to 1950 (except for one season at second base).

2 George Cunningham, “Miller-Led Braves Run Past Phillies 3-2,” Atlanta Constitution, September 3, 1981: D-1.

3 Philadelphia had already clinched a postseason spot by virtue of winning the NL East Division title in the first half of the split season.

4 Sandberg had hit .293 with 23 steals at Triple-A Oklahoma City in 1981, after a .310 season at Double-A Reading in 1980.

5 Richie Ashburn, “Here’s How Phils Evaluated Sandberg,” Philadelphia Daily News, November 15, 1984: 99.

6 Atlanta also received Adrian Devine from Texas in the four-team trade that also involved the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets.

7 Matthews was playing his first season with Philadelphia after performing with Atlanta the previous four.

8 Jayson Stark, “Phils Lose on Foul Sacrifice Fly,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 3, 1981: D1.

9 Dernier had appeared in eight games as a late-season call-up in 1980.

10 Rose led the NL with 140 hits.

11 Stark, “Phils Lose on Foul Sacrifice Fly.”

12 Gomez replaced Ramírez at shortstop in the eighth.

13 Associated Press, “Garber Beats Phillies,” Lancaster (Pennsylvania) New Era, September 3, 1981: 49.

14 Tim Tucker, “Braves’ Ed Miller Shows Off,” Atlanta Journal, September 2, 1981: 1C.

15 Stark, “Phils Lose on Foul Sacrifice Fly.”

16 Mark Wicker, “A Most Valuable Gift,” Philadelphia Daily News, September 14, 1984: 128.