Richard, who had posted his finest season to date in 1979, drew the Opening Day assignment vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team against which he had a personal 11-game winning streak.1 The formerly erratic hurler had gained full control over his arsenal and had pitched to an 18-13 record while leading the NL in strikeouts, fewest hits allowed per nine innings (6.8), and ERA (2.71); his newfound control also had made him the NL leader in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 3.19.

A crowd of 33,270 was on hand at the Astrodome to cheer on the home team, and Richard gave the fans something to get rowdy about when he set the Dodgers down in order while striking out two batters in the first inning. What no one in the Dome expected was that Terry Puhl, Houston’s leadoff batter, would kick-start the Astros’ offense with a solo home run off Dodgers starter Burt Hooton. Craig Reynolds then reached first base on an error by shortstop Derrel Thomas but was erased on Cesar Cedeño’s double-play grounder. The score remained 1-0 when Joe Morgan grounded out to end the inning.

Richard returned to the mound for a brief stay in the second inning. His short time atop the hill was due to the fact that he struck out the side –sluggers Steve Garvey, Dusty Baker, and Ron Cey — in order. When the Astros came to bat, it was déjà vu all over again as Jose Cruz tagged Hooton for the second Houston homer of the game and a 2-0 lead. Cruz had led the 1979 Astros in home runs with the underwhelming total of nine, which was fewer than some players hit in a single month. Nonetheless, Houston hitting coach Deacon Jones said, “Jose told me before the game he was going to leave tonight” [meaning that he would hit a ball that left the park].2 When asked about Jones’s claim, Cruz replied, “I was lucky. … I’m not going to hit that many home runs but I knew that one was gone.”3

After an Enos Cabell grounder resulted in the first out, Art Howe smashed a triple down the right-field line and then scored the Astros’ third run on Alan Ashby’s single. Hooton picked Ashby off first base and struck out Richard to prevent further damage, but his day was already over. LA manager Tommy Lasorda later asserted that the early hook was due to Hooton’s lingering arm problems. According to the Dodgers skipper, “[w]e didn’t want to take a chance with it.”4 Hooton, whose teammates had given him the ironic nickname Happy for his stoic demeanor, was decidedly unhappy after the game. He claimed, “I had no aches, no pains,” and added, “I’ve given up three runs that early before and not been taken out. It was a big disappointment.”5

Meanwhile, Richard continued to cruise through the Dodgers lineup and struck out two more batters in the third, although he was to suffer a disappointment of a different kind later in the game. For now, he settled into a pitchers’ duel with Jerry Reuss, who took the hill for the Dodgers when the Astros came to bat in the bottom of the frame. Reuss allowed a walk and a single in his first inning of work, but the Astros were unable to score. After that, both pitchers retired the side in order from the fourth inning through the sixth.

When the Dodgers came to bat in the seventh inning, Richard was in the process of pitching a perfect game. He set down Davey Lopes to make it 19 consecutive outs, but then rookie Rudy Law broke up the perfect game and no-hitter with a clean single to right field. Reggie Smith followed with a double, and Garvey reached first on an error by Cabell at third base. Law scored on the error to spoil Richard’s shutout bid, and Smith advanced to third. Garvey stole second, then Baker hit a sacrifice fly that drove in Smith with the Dodgers’ second run. Richard bore down and made Cey his 12th strikeout victim of the day to end LA’s rally, but it was now a 3-2 game.

Reuss and Richard both retired the side in order once more before relievers finished the game for both teams. Bobby Castillo became the Dodgers’ third pitcher of the game in the bottom of the eighth, and Richard, of all people, greeted him with a leadoff single. After Puhl struck out looking, Reynolds lined into a double play that also resulted in the end of Richard’s day.

Astros fans may have been somewhat disappointed to see bullpen ace Joe Sambito take the mound in the top of the ninth, because Richard had still been going strong in the previous inning. Houston manager Bill Virdon explained, “My decision to take him out was made because he jarred himself slightly going into second base in the eighth and he had thrown more pitches than in any spring game.”6 No one could blame Virdon for wanting to protect his ace, and Sambito finished the game off in style with a 1-2-3 inning to seal the Astros’ victory.

After the game, Richard, who had just defeated the Dodgers for the 12th straight time, downplayed any disappointment at losing his no-hit bid and not being able to finish the triumph. In regard to Law, the hitter who broke up the no-no, Richard said, “I wasn’t upset that a rookie broke it up. He’s a professional ballplayer. You have to respect any major leaguer.”7 Richard had received a standing ovation after the no-hitter was ruined, and he exclaimed, “I loved that ovation: I felt like jumping on top of the Dome.”8

Over the course of the first 19 consecutive batters that Richard had set down, he “recorded 58 strikes and only 19 balls. Four of his pitches were clocked by a radar gun at 98 miles per hour, 11 at 97 mph, 13 at 96 mph and four more at 95 mph.”9 In a classic example of understatement, Garvey, the Dodgers’ perennial All-Star first baseman, said, “He’s not exactly the fellow you’d like to start (the season) against but he gets you sharp in a hurry.”10 Garvey also noted that, in spite of Richard’s early dominance, the Dodgers had almost pulled off a comeback victory, and observed, “To be beaten by home runs by the Astros is something that probably won’t happen often this season.”11

Richard’s 13-K triumph was a grand beginning to a marvelous April in which he won the Pitcher of the Month award. He finished the first half of the season at 10-4 with 115 strikeouts and a 1.96 ERA and was selected as the NL’s starting pitcher for the All-Star Game on July 8. Richard pitched only two innings in the midsummer classic, and he soon began to complain that he felt as though he had a dead arm. His July 14 start against the Atlanta Braves turned out to be his last major-league game. Richard suffered a career-ending stroke while taking part in pregame warm-ups at the Astrodome on July 30.

The Astros went on to win their first NL West title in 1980, but they fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in five games in the NL Championship Series. Many an old-time Astros fan still wonders two things: 1) Would the Astros have made it to the World Series that year if Richard had still been pitching? And 2) Would J.R. Richard have pitched his way into the Hall of Fame if he had stayed healthy?

The answers to those questions will never be known. However, on April 10, 1980, with Richard throwing smoke and Astros batters clouting homers, anything seemed possible.

Sources

The author consulted baseball-reference.com and retrosheet.org for the box score of the game. Unless otherwise indicated, all player statistics were taken from baseball-reference.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU198004100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1980/B04100HOU1980.htm

Notes

1 Mike Littwin, “Dodgers Go Down Swinging in Opener/Richard Beats L.A. 12th Straight Time and Strikes Out 13,” Los Angeles Times, April 11, 1980: 3-1.

2 John Wilson, “Cruz Predicted He’d Hit One Out,” Houston Chronicle, April 11, 1980: 2-4.

3 Wilson.

4 Ed Fowler, “Hooton Not Backing Up Lasorda Tale,” Houston Chronicle, April 11, 1980: 2-4.

5 Fowler.

6 Harry Shattuck, “Richard Almost Perfect in Astros’ 3-2 Victory,” Houston Chronicle, April 11, 1980: 2-1.

7 Littwin, “Richard Defeats Dodgers, 3-2”: Los Angeles Times, April 11, 1980: 3-8 (continuation of “Dodgers Go Down”).

8 Shattuck, “Richard’s Pitching, Astro Homers Subdue Dodgers,” Houston Chronicle, April 11, 1980: 2-4 (continuation of “Richard Almost Perfect”).

9 Shattuck: 2-4.

10 Shattuck: 2-4.

11 Fowler.

If you were to ask this question of a Brewers fan, more often than not you would get an answer of “Opening Day!” along with a facial expression that speaks, “Was that rhetorical?”

For many fans, Opening Day is a holiday; a guaranteed vacation day each year, no matter the weather. It consists of getting to the ballpark hours before the gates open, tailgating with lifelong friends, and swapping stories with the fans huddled in groups beside yours.

In Milwaukee Opening Day means so much more. It means that spring has arrived. It’s time to dust off the charcoal grill and head to the meat market to buy your favorite bratwurst. It’s time to swing by the store to perform the daunting task of picking your favorite beverage, which of course has to be a Miller product.

After the errands are run, it’s time to pick up your buddies and head to the ballpark. Getting there early means getting the perfect parking spot so that latecomers will be jealous of your serene tailgating experience. After unpacking the grill, cooler, lawn chairs, cornhole boards, and various other staples, it’s time to both reflect on the past and look forward to the future. 

Specifically in 1980, Opening Day had a theme: Optimism. The Brewers were starting to compete. Players like Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and Cecil Cooper had the faithful grinning from ear to ear. Thoughts of “This is our year!” rang true in every fan’s mind. If they only knew that in two short years they would be hosting the World Series, their anticipation would have been validated.

After hours of gorging yourself on brats and beer, playing lawn games, swapping stories, and yelling at the kids playing catch a little too close to you, it’s time for the gates to swing open and for you to make the trek through the turnstiles into the park.

County Stadium meant old-school baseball. It was historic, cavernous, and dark. It could be compared with the likes of Tiger Stadium, Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, and Wrigley Field. It could be remembered by its iron pillars, overhang, and obstructed views.

Opening Day 1980 saw a sold-out crowd of 53,313 fans, wearing their favorite coats on a crisp 43-degree spring day, make their way through the dark atrium to find their seats.

It began on a frosty morning in the batting cage. Bambi’s Bombers, as acting manager Buck Rodgers still called them (Bambi — manager George Bamberger — was recovering from a heart attack suffered during spring training), poked three or four balls out of the park while the early-arriving customers, bundled in blankets, stocking caps, and mittens, watched with interest.

“Under normal conditions, the Brewers put two or three dozen balls over the wall during batting practice,” wrote Bud Lea in the Milwaukee Sentinel. “ ‘How do you feel?’ somebody asked Ben Oglivie. ‘It’s cold,’ Oglivie replied, rubbing his hands together to stay warm. ‘But nobody thinks about the weather today. Nobody is worried about getting up for Opening Day.’ The new computerized scoreboard delivered a message from Bamberger, ‘Sit back, enjoy the game and have beer on me.’”1

“About 1:30 p.m., after all the pregame hoopla was over,” wrote Jill Lieber of the Milwaukee Sentinel, “after the last of the 11 white Chevrolet pickup trucks had finished circling the field, the cheerleaders had been introduced, the Marquette University band had played its repertoire, and the Bamberger message had been shown — both teams took the field.”2

For the visiting Boston Red Sox, manager Don Zimmer sent Dennis Eckersley to face Rodgers’ stud, Jim Slaton. The start of the game saw Eckersley sticking his fastball right down the Brewers’ throats, and the Red Sox batters teeing off on Slaton for eight hits and a 3-0 lead after three innings. The runs came on RBI singles by Butch Hobson, Jim Rice, and the 40-year-old veteran and 1967 Triple Crown winner Carl Yastrzemski. Yaz acknowledged that he had a “pretty good opening day.”3

After two outs to start the fourth inning, Oglivie fell behind Eckersley. On a 1-and-2 pitch he hit a shot that right fielder Dwight Evans could only watch land in the bullpen. Feeling life, the Brewers’ batters poured it on. After Gorman Thomas was given a free pass, Sixto Lezcano hit Eckersley’s first pitch into the left-field bleachers to tie the game, 3-3.

Molitor homered in the fifth to give Milwaukee a 4-3 lead. Cooper followed with a double, and that was the end of Eckersley’s day.

“I wasn’t real confident today,” said Eckersley. “I got by flopping my fastball because I knew I didn’t have a good slider. I got them out the first three innings. But once they know you don’t have the good slider they’ll hit it. They (the Brewers) were really aggressive today. They’ve got a good home run hitting team [Milwaukee had 185 in 1979], but that doesn’t mean I can’t best them.”4

Don Money, a four-time All-Star in his eighth season with the Brewers, led off the sixth with a homer, one of his 17 that season, and the Brewers took a 5-3 lead into the ninth.

“The handwriting was on the wall, but the Red Sox weren’t reading it,” wrote Bud Lea of the Milwaukee Sentinel. “Yastrzemski greeted Slaton with a home run to lead off the ninth. After one out, Hobson belted a Slaton fastball into the left-field bleachers.”5  Reggie Cleveland replaced Slaton on the mound and retired the next two batters to end the inning, with the score tied 5-5.  

The Red Sox brought in Dick Drago to replace pitcher Steve Renko, hoping he would take them into extra innings. With two out, Drago loaded the bases on an intentional walk to Oglivie and an unintentional free pass to Thomas. “That is how Lezcano found things when he came to bat. On Drago’s first pitch — a low fastball — Sixto swung mightily and ripped a climbing line drive that landed in the right-field bullpen for a ‘grand salami,’ ” wrote Bud Lea.6 For a moment, nobody probably even cared that a foreign beer was being sold in the Stadium.7

“As he circled the bases with clinched fists raised in a power salute, the thousands of frozen people in County Stadium went bananas,” wrote Tom Flaherty. “It was a jubilant mob scene at home plate, and a scene to be remembered when Sixto came out of the dugout, intently watched the replay on the scoreboard, and then tipped his hat to the fans.”8 The yells and screams and shouts, of “Sixto, Sixto, Sixto” roared on long after Lezcano had popped out of the dugout to take a bow.9

Some fans may still remember Bob Uecker‘s exact words: “Here’s a drive to deep right-center, way back goes Evans, it’s got a chance to go — GONE! Hey, a grand-slam home run for Lezcano, Oh! what a finish here at County Stadium! Can you believe this today? Lezcano with his second home run of the ballgame, a grand slammer here in the bottom of the ninth. And the Brewers have won this game by a score of 9-5.”10

After the game, Brewers manager Rodgers said it best: “You can’t open a season with any better game than that. You’ll have to go a long way to find one any better. It’s been a long winter. The fans got their money’s worth the first day.”11

It was a record-setting day for Sixto. “Coupled with his Opening Day grand slam in 1978, Lezcano was the first player in major-league history to hit two grand slams on Opening Day.”12

After a postgame interview with Lezcano, Jill Leiber of the Milwaukee Sentinel wrote, “This is for Bambi,” said Lezcano after the game, raising a red, white, and blue can. “He told us to have a beer on him, so I’m having it.” Do you usually drink beer, somebody asked the game’s hero. “Yes.” he said. “I drink beer. I’m a human being. But this…” He drew the can nearer his lips, “This is for him,” And he gulped down some of Bambi’s miracle tonic. As did everybody else. “Hey, Mon,” Gorman Thomas yelled to Don Money, who was caught up in a ton of reporters, “Are you gonna get some beer or are you going to run for office?” Money followed Bamberger’s orders and had a beer.13

On the way home, all that fans could hear was Bob Betts’s famous saying, “Please … Drive … Home … Safely.”

This article appears in “From the Braves to the Brewers: Great Games and Exciting History at Milwaukee’s County Stadium” (SABR, 2016), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. To read more stories from this book at the SABR Games Project, click here.

Notes

1 Bud Lea, “A Big Hit, Once They Warmed Up,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 11, 1980.

2 Jill Lieber, “Bambi, in Lights, Turned ’Em On,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 11, 1980.

3 Rel Bochat, “Ol’ Man Yaz Lauds Slaton and Lezcano,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 11, 1980.

4 Bochat.

5 Lea.

6 Ibid.

7 Tom Flaherty, “Brewers’ Grand Opening Is a Real Blast,” Milwaukee Journal, April 11, 1980.

8 Lea.

9 Flaherty.

10 http://millerparkscrapbook.org/content/favorite_county_stadium_moments.asp.

11 Flaherty.

12 http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/mil/history/.

13 Lieber.

Perfect weather lured a crowd of 43,867.2 One mini-controversy was about who would throw out the first pitch. The Cardinals had already lined up future Hall of Famer Lou Brock, who was in his first year of retirement after spending the last 15½ years in left field for the Cardinals. However, it was an election year. A representative of the Carter-Mondale presidential campaign inquired on behalf of Rosalynn Carter, President Jimmy Carter’s wife. Solving the dilemma, Brock said, “I asked her to throw the ball out with me.” One news story commented, “Brock and Rosalynn Carter awkwardly shoveled the same first pitch to (Ted) Simmons.”3

Cardinals manager Ken Boyer chose Pete Vuckovich (15-9, 3.59 ERA in 1979) to take on the 1979 World Series champion Pirates. Pittsburgh manager Chuck Tanner started Bert Blyleven, coming off a complete-game win in Game Three of the NLCS and the winner of World Series Game Five with four shutout innings of relief.

One-out groundball double plays helped both starters in the first inning. Dave Parker hit into a 4-6-3 after Tim Foli was hit by a pitch. In the Cardinals half, Ken Oberkfell walked and Bill Madlock started a 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Hernandez.

Vuckovich set down the Pirates in order in the top of the second, striking out Stargell for the first out.

Bobby Bonds, making his first plate appearance as a Cardinal, drew a walk from Blyleven in the bottom of the second. Bonds had been obtained in a December trade to replace Brock in left field.4 Tom Barnidge of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote, “He became the only visitor to all four bases in the second inning. If the Redbirds hadn’t obtained Bonds in the offseason, they might still be on the field.”5 George Hendrick doubled inside the third-base line, as Bonds circled the bases to score the only run of the day. “I enjoy running the bases. I like to gamble, so I was glad to see (third-base coach Jack) Krol sending me. It was going to take two perfect throws to get me,” said Bonds.6 Meanwhile Hendrick advanced to third on the throw home. Tony Scott bounced back to Blyleven, who tossed to first for the second out. On the throw Hendrick went for home but was tagged out by catcher Ed Ott in a collision at home plate on the throw from Stargell, ending the inning.

Pitching continued to dominate the game through the next three innings. Only one ball left the infield against Vuckovich, a fly ball to center field by John Milner. Vuckovich had allowed no hits, struck out five (Stargell twice), and got eight groundball outs in the first five innings. In the Cardinals fifth, Ken Reitz singled with two outs but Vuckovich struck out to end the inning. With one out in the top of the sixth, Phil Garner singled to break up Vuckovich’s no-hitter. Mike Easler, pinch-hitting for Blyleven, hit into a double play on a one-hopper to second. “If there had been no one on base. I would have let Blyleven bat,” said Tanner.7

Omar Moreno walked to lead off the seventh inning and became the first Pirate to reach third base. He stole second base, and Parker’s fly ball to right advanced him to third. But Stargell grounded back to the pitcher for the third out. Pittsburgh’s Madlock singled in the eighth, but was left stranded at first.

Enrique Romo, who had taken over for Blyleven in the sixth, faced the minimum nine batters in his three innings of work. His only blemish was a single to center field by Reitz with one out in the bottom of the eighth. With Reitz on first, Boyer let Vuckovich bat with the 1-0 lead; He responded by hitting a line drive but shortstop Foli grabbed it and doubled up the slow-footed Reitz off first base. The Cardinals led 1-0 going into a tension-filled ninth.

“For those who call baseball boring, Thursday’s ninth inning should be made required viewing,” wrote the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Rick Hummel.8 The defending World Series champs weren’t going without a fight. Lee Lacy pinch-hit for Romo and singled to center field. Moreno followed with his second walk of the game. Charley Feeney wrote, “The crowd in the ninth appeared to lose their vocal cords when the first two Bucs got on base.”9 Both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Tim Foli was up; his seventh-inning K was the first time he had struck out since 197 plate appearances earlier, on August 18, 1979.10 But Vuckovich struck him out again, the pitcher’s seventh strikeout victim. One out.

With Mark Littell and Don Hood warming up in the bullpen, manager Boyer made a trip to the mound. “I wanted to relax him. I wanted to remind him that there was a big job to be done,” Boyer said later. Vuckovich told his manager: “This is my game. I want it. I’ll get it.”11 Three more pitches and Parker was struck out swinging, as the crowd roared. “The pitches were looking good and then the ball would break away. He kept me off balance,” said Parker. “Then he came in with the high rider.”12 The next batter, co-MVP Stargell, took a breaking pitch for strike one. He then swung at a pitch in the dirt that skipped away from Simmons. “I went to sleep. He was so right there with his slider all day. The ball hit the dirt but I could have blocked it,” said Simmons.13 As the runners edged off second and third,14 Vuckovich threw three straight balls to Stargell, bringing the count to 3-and-2. Vuckovich then threw a nasty breaking pitch; Stargell swung and missed, losing his bat in the process. Strike three, game over. With runners on second and third and nobody out, Vuckovich had buckled down and struck out the side.

Cardinals catcher Simmons summed up the game aptly: “This is the way they play ball in September. There was a whole lot of tension out there.”15

The first battle of dueling MVPs turned into a fizzle. Hernandez was 0-for-3 with three groundouts, one a double play. Stargell went 0-for-4, striking out three times, including that final one to end the game.

Stargell had a hard time staying on the field during the 1980 season. He missed more than a week early in the season after being hit on the hand by a pitch. On July 10 he was placed on the disabled list with a pulled hamstring. A second trip to the DL with a knee injury ended his season. Playing in 67 games, he hit 11 home runs and batted .262. Hernandez had a typical season for him, earning his third Gold Glove Award and a second trip to the All-Star Game. He led the National League in runs scored, hit 16 homers, drove in 99 runs, and batted .321 with a league-leading .408 on-base percentage.

The game took just 1 hour and 51 minutes to complete with the crowd shouting, “Vuke, Vuke, Vuke.”16During his three-hit shutout (nine strikeouts, two walks), Vuckovich “was overwhelming at times.”17 He finished the season 12-9 over 222⅓ innings, with a 3.40 ERA. Blyleven, a future Hall of Famer, took the loss while giving up only two hits, one of them a costly double driving in the only run of the game.

Before heading home for their World Series banner-raising on Monday, the Pirates went on to win the final three games of the series, leaving town a half-game in front of their cross-state rival Phillies.

The Cardinals fell into last place two games back of Pittsburgh. The Pirates remained in first place through the first week of June, falling out of first on June 8 after splitting a doubleheader with the Mets. On that same day Montreal swept a doubleheader against St. Louis and moved into first place. Ruck Hummel wrote, “As the last-place Cardinals fell 12½ games behind, Boyer was fired between games.18 Meanwhile, back in St. Louis, Whitey Herzog was being named manager at a press conference at Grant’s Farm, the home of Cardinals Owner August A. Busch Jr.19

The Pirates, Expos, and Phillies all jockeyed for first place throughout the year, before Pittsburgh faded in September with 10-17 record. They finished in third place, eight games behind the  Phillies, who won the World Series. The Cardinals ended the season 17 games in back of the Phillies.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for box score and player statistics.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN198004100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1980/B04100SLN1980.htm

Notes

1 Stargell and Hernandez appeared in six more games together in 1980. The next time two MVPs from the last season played in the same game was June 8, 2001, when 2000 NL MVP Jeff Kent of the San Francisco Giants and 2000 AL MVP Jason Giambi of the Oakland Athletics played in a game at Oakland’s Network Associates Coliseum.

2 “N.L. Box Scores,” The Sporting News, April 26, 1980: 32.

3 “Redbird Notes,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 11, 1980: 4B.

4 December 7, 1979: Bobby Bonds traded by Cleveland Indians to St. Louis Cardinals for John Denny and Jerry Mumphrey.

5 Tom Barnidge, “Hitting Heroes Are Few; Cards Find One Is Enough,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 11, 1980: 2B.

6 Barnidge.

7 “Notes,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 11, 1980: 11.

8 Rick Hummel, “Vuckovich Relieves Cardinals’ Tension,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 11, 1980: 1B.

9 Charley Feeney, “Vuckovich Steals Show as Bucs Lose Opener,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 11, 1980: 10.

10 In 1979 Tim Foli struck out only 14 times in 532 regular-season at-bats, making him the toughest batter to strike out in the majors. In 42 postseason 1979 at-bats, he didn’t strike out at all.

11 Feeney.

12 Cal Fussman, “‘Vuke’ Gets Early Cy Young Vote,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 11, 1980: 2B.

13 Hummel, “Vuckovich Relieves Cardinals’ Tension”: 4B.

14 baseball-reference.com and retrosheet.org, Both have Vuckovich throwing a wild pitch while

Foli batted in the ninth inning. Both the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the wild pitch was thrown during Stargell’s at-bat.

15 Hummel “Vuckovich Relieves Cardinals’ Tension”: 1B.

16 Hummel “Vuckovich Relieves Cardinals’ Tension”: 1B.

17 Feeney, “Vuckovich Tops Bucs in Opener,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 11, 1980: 11.

18 The Cardinals went through Jack Krol (one game), and Whitey Herzog (73games) before closing out the season with Red Schoendienst as their fourth manager in 1980.

19 Hummel, “Boyer Out – Can Herzog Revive Redbirds?” The Sporting News, June 21, 1980: 10.

Jon Matlack and Ron Guidry faced each other in that 1978 Opening Day contest, and the same two pitchers were back on the mound to open the 1980 season. Matlack had missed the second half of the 1979 season when bone chips in his pitching elbow required surgery.

After the surgery, there were questions about whether Matlack would be able to pitch and for how long. Doctors told the Rangers staff that he shouldn’t be allowed to “throw more than 110 pitches in a single outing, and he was told he would be a seven-inning pitcher.”1

Matlack retired the first two Yankees he faced in the first. Then he allowed two singles before retiring Lou Piniella on a fly ball to right for out three. Matlack retired the next six batters before Bob Watson led off with a single in the fourth. Although Watson reached third on a passed ball and force out, Matlack retired the next two batters, keeping the Yankees from scoring again.

Guidry picked up where he left off in 1979 when he finished with an 18-8 record and a league-leading 2.78 ERA to finish third in the Cy Young Award voting. The Rangers managed to get a runner on base in the second when Buddy Bell’s grounder was bobbled by Graig Nettles. But Guidry retired the next three batters, leaving Bell stranded on second.

The Rangers got their first hit off Guidry in the third inning when Jim Sundberg led off with a single. But Sundberg never advanced as Pepe Frías popped out and Mickey Rivers grounded into a double play.

Guidry continued to shut down the Rangers until the sixth. Sundberg again led off with a single. And once again Guidry retired the side without allowing Sundberg to even get into scoring position.

Meanwhile, Matlack continued to keep the Yankees in check. After Watson’s single, he retired the next 18 Yankees he faced before he was removed. After retiring the side in the ninth, Matlack had thrown 103 pitches.

“After seven innings, I hadn’t thrown many pitches, so we decided I’d go another. That one went about six pitches, I think, so they let me go again,” he said after the game.2

Matlack’s teammates had nothing but praise for him. Bell said, “Everybody was really happy for Jon. He worked so hard rehabilitating. Man, he seemed even better than I’ve ever seen him.”3

Guidry got the Rangers out in order the bottom of the ninth. When he struck out Bump Wills for the third out, he had thrown just 98 pitches. Guidry set down the final 12 batters he faced. And when both starters were sent to the showers, the scoreboard just showed a length of zeros.

“We couldn’t do anything with Guidry,” Bell said. “That’s about par for the way he pitches against us. He’ll pitch better though … and that’s a shame. We’re sorry that we couldn’t get a run off him to win it for Jon.”4

When the Rangers took the field in the 10th, Jim Kern replaced Matlack on the mound. With one out, Kern hit pinch-hitter Oscar Gamble and walked Jim Spencer to put Gamble in scoring position.

Rangers manager Pat Corrales then made a surprising move: He pulled the right-handed Kern, who had been the Rangers’ bullpen ace in 1979 with 29 saves, and called for left-hander Sparky Lyle, a former Yankee, to come to the rescue. “I couldn’t take a chance; that wasn’t the time to be gambling,” Corrales said later.5

Lyle struck out the left-handed Nettles and got Rick Cerone to ground into a force out at third. It was a solid start to the season for Lyle, who struggled in 1979. He had been forced to add a fastball and a curve to his usually dominant slider midway through that season.

“I’m going to be more effective with these three pitches,” he said. Before, when I didn’t have the slider I was in trouble.”6

“Pat called down to the bullpen and let me know he might go to me in a hurry. I just didn’t want Jon to lose this game, not the way he pitched,” Lyle told reporters.7 He retired New York in order in the 11th. Watson led off the Yankees 12th with a bloop single but Lyle bore down and got the next three batters out to keep the score tied.

Tom Underwood replaced Guidry in the bottom of the 10th inning and got the Rangers out in order. With two outs in the 11th, Sundberg got his third hit of the night, a double to center field. Corrales sent Rusty Staub to the plate to pinch hit for Pepe Frías. Staub grounded out to send the game to the 12th.

When the Rangers came to bat in the 12th, Rivers, another ex-Yankee, rapped a groundball down the third-base line. The ball bounced off Nettles’ chest and into left field for a single. Rivers ended up on second when Nettles chased down the ball and made an off-balance throw to second.

“I knew Rivers was running. Anybody else but him and I’ve got enough time to make that play. That’s what happens when you hurry,” Nettles said afterward.8 It was the usually flawless Nettles’ second error of the game.

Wills sacrificed Rivers to third. The Yankee’s new manager, Dick Howser, ordered Underwood to give intentional passes to Al Oliver and Bell in order to set up a force at home or a double play. Then Howser brought in Gossage to face Zisk.

With Zisk expecting to face one of Gossage’s fastballs, he stepped into the batter’s box. “Gossage served up his lethal heat. The ball came in low and away, far away where catcher Rick Cerone was concerned.”9 The ball bounced off Cerone’s glove and rolled to the screen behind home plate. Rivers ran home with the winning run.

Cerone had joined the Yankees in the offseason and had caught Gossage for only one inning in spring training after an eight-day strike by the players canceled 92 exhibition games.

“There’s no room for error in that situation,” Gossage said. “I’m trying for a strikeout, but I wanted to keep the ball down.” Cerone said he should have handled the pitch. “I got my glove on it. I tried to backhand it. It was a tough pitch but I’m a major-league catcher. If I had been a split-second quicker I would have caught it.”10

“Gossage throws awfully hard,” said Howser. “He usually throws the ball up. He’s a strikeout pitcher and we were looking for a strikeout.” The rookie manager was philosophical in defeat, saying, “We’ll win some like that too.”11

Matlack was excited about his return to form. “It was all there tonight. I was all excited and forcing some pitches early, but I got under control pretty quickly. After the second or third inning, I was really putting the ball in the right spot.”12

Asked about Matlack’s performance, Corrales said: “If you had told me that he’d do this when I saw him last November, I would have been very surprised.”13 Although Matlack ended up with a no-decision, it was a personal triumph.

After the game, Guidry told reporters that “Matlack called me and we decided that next year we’re going to pick our games. Either he throws on the first day and me the second or vice-versa.”14

Rangers fans got quite a show as Matlack and Guidry pitched a duel that “will rank up there in the classic department for first games, for midseason or for October, for that matter.”15

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for box-score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other material pertinent to this account.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TEX/TEX198004100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1980/B04100TEX1980.htm

Notes

1 Carter Cromwell, “Rangers Edge Yanks on Wild Pitch, 1-0,” Austin American-Statesman, April 11, 1980: E8.

2 Cromwell.

3 Skip Bayless, “And Matlack Threw ‘It’ for All It Was Worth,” Dallas Morning News, April 11, 1980: 21.

4 Cromwell.

5 Randy Galloway, The Ending Was Wild,” Dallas Morning News, April 11, 1980: 23.

6 Galloway.

7 Bayless.

8 Galloway.

9 Galloway.

10 Murray Chass, “Rangers Edge Yankees in 12th on Wild Pitch by Gossage,” New York Times, April 11, 1980: 17.

11 Chass.

12 Cromwell.

13 Bayless.

14 Chass.

15 Galloway.

Bamberger had suffered a mild heart attack. He was flown to Milwaukee, where a coronary angiogram revealed a blocked artery, and quintuple-bypass surgery was performed. Although the 56-year-old skipper was recovering comfortably, it was evident that the Brewers were going to have to open the season without Bamberger at the helm.

Third-base coach Bob “Buck” Rodgers, a former catcher who had managed in the California Angels’ minor-league system and coached with the Minnesota Twins and San Francisco Giants before joining Bamberger’s staff, was named the team’s interim manager.

Larry Hisle spoke for his teammates when he said, “We wish the best for George. As a team, we have to think about what we have to do. Now we’ll have to go out and play as hard as we can for Buck.”1

The Brewers did just that in the season opener against the Boston Red Sox on April 10, slugging four home runs to overcome a three-run deficit, and then, after Boston tied the game in the top of the ninth, pulling out a thrilling 9-5 victory on a walk-off grand slam by Sixto Lezcano.

After a night off because of bad weather, Rodgers tapped Lary Sorensen to start the second game before 16,962 fans on a cold, raw Saturday afternoon. The 24-year-old right-hander had blossomed in his sophomore season, winning 18 games in 1978 and hurling three innings of one-hit ball in the All-Star Game, before slipping to a 15-14 record in 1979.

Mike Torrez got the start for Boston. The veteran right-hander had forged identical 16-13 seasons for the Red Sox in 1978 and ’79 and had been a 20-game winner with the Orioles back in 1975, but was already destined to be best remembered for serving up Bucky Dent’s game-winning home run that cost the Red Sox the 1978 American League East title.

The hard-hitting Red Sox were led by young superstars Fred Lynn (an AL-best .333 with 39 homers in 1979) and Jim Rice (.325, 39 HR), and veteran sluggers Carl Yastrzemski, still productive in his 20th big-league season, and Tony Perez, signed as a free agent in the offseason. Boston had finished in third place in 1979, just 3½ games behind Milwaukee, but had beaten the Brewers in 8 of 12 matchups.

The Brewers’ lineup boasted future Hall of Famers in Paul Molitor, who’d batted .322 in 1979 and would lead the loop in hitting the first few months of 1980 until injuries dragged him down to .304, and Robin Yount, poised for a breakout .293, 23-home-run campaign. Providing ample support were Cecil Cooper, who overtook Molitor in the batting race until overtaken himself in late July by Kansas City’s George Brett, winding up at .352; Ben Oglivie, on his way to a home-run crown; and all-or-nothing slugger Gorman Thomas, AL leader in home runs in 1979 with 45 and strikeouts with 175. Hisle, who’d been limited to 26 games in 1979 by a torn rotator cuff but averaged .296 with 31 home runs in 1977 and ’78, was penciled in as designated hitter.

While the Red Sox failed to get a hit off Sorensen in the top of the first inning, the Brewers jumped off to a quick start in the bottom of the frame.

Molitor led off with a walk. Cooper grounded to Torrez, who threw past Perez at first, allowing Cooper to reach second and Molitor to advance to third. Hisle, who had been held out of the opener when the weather was deemed too cold and damp for his recovering shoulder, singled, scoring Molitor, and lighting up County Stadium’s new computerized scoreboard with the first run of the game.

Oglivie bounced back to the mound. Torrez, trying for the force at second, made another poor throw to load the bases, Cooper holding at third. A sacrifice fly by Lezcano scored Cooper to give the Brewers a 2-0 lead.

Sorensen dismissed the Sox again in the second, surrendering only a single to Perez.

Jack Brohamer took over at third base for Boston in the bottom of the inning, replacing Butch Hobson, who’d aggravated a hamstring injury.

Yount singled to left and promptly stole second. Buck Martinez worked Torrez for a walk, and Molitor loaded the bases on a bunt single. Then Cooper, stepping into a 2-and-1 delivery from Torrez, launched the ball into the left-center-field bleachers for a grand slam to break the game open and give Milwaukee a 6-0 lead.

That was all for Torrez, as Boston skipper Don Zimmer pulled his staggered starter and brought in Chuck Rainey, coming off a promising 8-5 rookie season.   

The fresh arm hardly mattered. Hisle walked. Oglivie doubled, advancing Hisle to third. After Thomas went down swinging, Lezcano was intentionally passed to load the bases. Then, on a 2-and-1 pitch from Rainey, Money connected for another bases-clearing home run and a 10-0 lead.

On the bench, Sorensen teased Rodgers. “Two grand slams! Boy, Buck, you can really manage!”2

The next batter, Yount, followed with a shot down the right-field line for yet another home run.

In the press box, a Boston scribe captured the ebullience of the Brewers and their fans and the desultory mood of the Red Sox:

“The [Brewers] chant and sing and seem to enjoy themselves. … Organ music is being played in the background. The exploits are being replayed for the civilian populace on a giant propaganda scoreboard. The civilians are screaming for more; waving little blue flags, drinking beer and eating sausages, their national food. … The Brewers just run themselves silly on the base paths. They do not stop. Our men just become colder as they watch it all. Frozen. Silent. Intimidated. A euphoric voice from a large speaker system seems to announce another record with every other base hit. … I am here in the war zone and I am not sure of anything anymore except the fact that the Milwaukee Brewers sure can hit that baseball.”3 

Nine runs in the inning had exploded the score to 11-0, but as Sorensen recalled, “Buck said to treat it like a 1-0 game. That’s pretty hard to do when you look out at that big scoreboard and there are two ones right next to each other up there.”4

Milwaukee struck again in the fifth inning when, after two quick outs, Rainey plunked Oglivie with a pitch and Thomas walked. Lezcano doubled, driving in both runners and pushing the Brewers’ lead to 13-0.

The beleaguered Red Sox finally got on the scoreboard in the sixth inning when Lynn and Yastrzemski singled and Perez brought Lynn home with a base hit.

Bruce Hurst, a 22-year-old left-hander making his major-league debut, took the mound for the Red Sox in the bottom of the inning. Hurst proved no more effective than either Torrez or Rainey.

Yount led off with a walk and, after one out, Molitor reached on a single. Cooper followed with a double, scoring Yount. Hisle fanned, but Oglivie singled, scoring Molitor and Cooper, with Oglivie taking second on Dwight Evans’ throw home. Thomas then belted a two-run homer, the Brewers’ fourth of the afternoon. Going into the seventh inning the Brewers held an 18-1 lead.

At this point, Rodgers elected to pull some of his starters. Ned Yost and Mark Brouhard entered at catcher and first base, respectively, and Jim Gantner spelled Molitor at second. Rodgers sent reliever Bill Castro to the mound, despite Sorensen’s having held the Red Sox to one run in six innings.

“I told the starters I don’t care about complete games,” said Rodgers, “just winning and losing.”5

The Brewers put away the Red Sox efficiently over the final innings as Castro retired the side on three quick groundouts in the seventh, rookie Dan Boitano pitched a scoreless eighth, and Bob McClure struck out two of three batters in the ninth to enter the game into the books.

The Brewers’ 18 runs set a team record. They might have scored 19 had the rookie Brouhard, attempting to score on a fly out, not underestimated the arm of Boston center fielder Lynn and been doubled up at the plate to end the eighth inning.

The nine runs in the second inning broke the team record of eight scored against the Oakland A’s in 1977, and remained a team best until a 13-run outburst in a 20-7 pasting of the California Angels in 1990.

Milwaukee’s two grand slams in one inning tied a major-league record first set on August 18, 1890, when the Chicago Colts stroked a pair against Pittsburgh, and matched by the Twins (1962), Astros (1969), Orioles (1986), Cardinals (1999), and Mets (2006).

This article appears in “From the Braves to the Brewers: Great Games and Exciting History at Milwaukee’s County Stadium” (SABR, 2016), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. To read more stories from this book at the SABR Games Project, click here.

Sources

In addition to those in the notes, the author consulted:

New York Times

Newsday

Notes

1 “He’ll Manage,” Milwaukee Journal, March 11, 1980: B6.

2 “Brewers Sink Red Sox With Two Grand Slams,” San Bernardino County Sun, April 13, 1980: D5.

3 “A Quagmire, a Total Mess,” Boston Globe, April 13, 1980: 1.

4 “A Grand Victory: 18-1,” Milwaukee Journal, April 13, 1980: B6.

5  “Young Ideas,” The Sporting News, May 10, 1980: 18.

With St. Louis in town, the aged venue at Clark and Addison offered a chance to watch what had developed over the past 15 years into what Midwest baseball enthusiasts plugged as baseball’s best rivalry. However, the “Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio” teaser had run its course since the former Cubs outfielder Brock had retired after the 1979 season. Cubs fans did not seem enthralled that their team included ex-Cardinals Mike Tyson, Lynn McGlothen, Doug Capilla, and Mick Kelleher. Similarly, Cardinals rooters were not enchanted having ex-Cubs Steve Swisher, Darold Knowles, and Donnie Moore playing for their team.

Won-lost numbers are traditionally tossed aside when these opponents tangle. Besides, the season was not quite two weeks old. The Cardinals, tied for fifth in the NL East, entered with a 4-6 record. Bullpen ineffectiveness, with the nonstarters pitching to an overall 6.41 ERA, generated a headache for manager Ken Boyer. In right-hander Bruce Sutter, Gomez had an All-Star reliever who could be counted on during late-inning situations. As Boyer viewed his own relief selections, he coveted an option like Sutter.

For April, it was hot. A temperature forecast of 80 was surpassed by midmorning. A record-setting mark of 91 had locals converging en masse to the beach to brave Lake Michigan water still a bone-chilling 48 degrees.2 The unseasonable weather likely threw a wrench into Wrigley’s walk-up attendance. Still, a lively shirtsleeve gathering of 18,889 entered the ballpark with many arriving early to watch batting practice.

Right-hander Dennis Lamp took the ball for Chicago. The 27-year-old Lamp was 2-0 with a 2.57 ERA. Bob Forsch got the nod for the Cardinals, and came in 0-1, 2.25. The veteran right-hander’s older brother, Ken Forsch, pitched for the Houston Astros. The siblings had each hurled no-hitters, Bob’s coming in 1978 (against the Phillies), and Ken’s in 1979 (Braves). Lamp, beginning his third full season, was 2-3 lifetime facing St. Louis. Forsch had enjoyed a 12-4 career versus the Cubs.

Lamp retired Garry Templeton and Ken Oberkfell before Keith Hernandez reached on an infield hit. Ted Simmons walked, and Bobby Bonds singled home Hernandez with Simmons going to third and Bonds taking second on an error by left fielder Larry Biittner. George Hendrick hit a hard grounder that third baseman Steve Ontiveros muffed, allowing Simmons to score. Chicago’s Ivan De Jesus led off the bottom of the first with his second home run of the season.  The drive to the left-field bleachers prompted WGN’s Jack Brickhouse’s trademark round-tripper call of, “Hey, hey!”3

Tony Scott singled to start the second and advanced to third on a stolen base and wild pitch. Lamp walked Forsch, and faced more trouble as the top of the order loomed. Tyson helped Lamp by turning a 4-3 double play against Templeton as Scott sprinted home for a 3-1 lead. The Cubs clipped Forsch in their turn when Jerry Martin doubled and scored on a single by Barry Foote to narrow the deficit to 3-2. A wild pitch followed by a walk to Carlos Lezcano had Chicago vying for a big inning. However, Forsch fanned Tyson, and then turned Lamp’s bunt into a 1-5-4 twin killing.

A steady swirling wind ramped up to 22 mph, switched from due south to southwest, and made life miserable for outfielders trying to corral fly balls.4 In the Cardinals’ third, Bonds blasted a towering two-run smash to left.5 Hendrick lined a hit to the gap in left-center but was thrown out by Lezcano trying for a triple. Kenny Reitz parked a drive to right-center that the wind helped into the bleachers for his second home run of the year, and increased the Cardinals’ advantage to 6-2. Chicago delivered offensive thunder right back at St. Louis. Martin’s bases-loaded single in the third sent home two, and Foote’s double plated another pair to knot things at 6-6.

The ex-Cardinal Lynn McGlothen, a right-hander, came in for the Cubs to begin the fourth. Forsch doubled to lead off. Templeton singled and on Ontiveros’s second error he and Forsch wound up at second and third. Forsch scored on Oberkfell’s groundball, and Simmons worked a two-out walk. Bonds and Hendrick rapped run-scoring singles, so Gomez waved in left-hander Capilla, another ex-Cardinal. Reitz knocked a two-run double into the left-field corner that bumped the St. Louis lead to 11-6. In the bottom of the fourth, Forsch allowed singles to De Jesus and Bill Buckner but was bailed out by Ontiveros’s double-play grounder.

Forsch socked his fourth career home run with a leadoff shot to right field to open the fifth, for a 12-6 cushion. Capilla then accomplished what his mound predecessors could not by retiring three consecutive batters. In the bottom of the inning, Tyson delivered a run-scoring sacrifice fly. Scot Thompson followed with a pinch-hit double, and raced home when De Jesus tripled to right, completed the cycle with a triple to right to make the score 12-9. Forsch, tagged for 14 hits, was lifted as Boyer went to left-hander Bob Sykes, who fanned Ontiveros.

Sykes and Chicago’s Bill Caudill offered semblances of effective relief work by shutting down the bats during the sixth. Caudill did the same in the top of the seventh. Cubs catcher Foote remarked, “Caudill quieting their bats was the important thing for us.”6 Sykes, after opening the bottom half with a strikeout, allowed consecutive singles to Tyson, Steve Dillard, and De Jesus to load the bases. Boyer went to righty John Fulgham, and the 24-year-old fanned pinch-hitter Mike Vail. With Buckner up, Boyer switched to southpaw Don Hood, but Buckner smacked a two-run single to close the Cubs’ deficit to one run (12-11).

In the eighth, Dick Tidrow benefited from Lezcano’s diving catch in right-center of Hernandez’s drive,7 but the pitcher proceeded to fill the bases with two outs on two walks and a hit by Hendrick. Gomez brought in Sutter, who struck out Scott on a split-finger fastball. Right-hander Roy Thomas was on for St. Louis in the bottom of the eighth, and Foote knocked a one-out solo homer into the left-field bleachers that tied the score, 12-12. On WGN radio Vince Lloyd assured listeners, “It’s a bell-ringer!”8

Sutter allowed a one-out single to Templeton in the ninth, but Foote gunned down the shortstop attempting to steal. In the bottom of the inning, right-handed closer Mark Littell came on for the Cardinals, hoping to get the game into extra innings. Littell got De Jesus a grounder, the first time in the game the shortstop was retired. But pinch-hitter Dave Kingman lined a one-out single to left. Lenny Randle ran for Kingman and swiped second. Buckner was intentionally passed, then Littell uncorked a wild pitch to put runners on second and third. Littell struck out Biittner, looking, but walked Jerry Martin to load the bases. Foote, already the author of one homer, lofted a first-pitch slider to right center. Hendrick and Scott retreated, but could only watch the “wind-aided” sphere land in the wire basket near the 368-foot mark for a walk-off grand slam.9

The Wrigley Field faithful responded with a roar as Foote circled the bases. The burly catcher’s career-day line revealed eight RBIs on a single, double, and two home runs. At home plate, Buckner planted a congratulatory kiss on Foote’s forehead before he was mobbed by teammates.10 The line score read 16 runs, 23 hits, and 3 errors for the Cubs, 12 runs, 16 hits, and no errors for the Cardinals. Each team employed six pitchers, with Sutter getting the win and Littell the loss.

Boyer said, “It looked like where the team that scored last would win. In 20 years, I’ve never seen the wind blow out like this.”11

Gomez agreed, commenting, “The wind made things very tough out there today. From batting practice on, you could see it would be one of those days. If you could write a script, this is the way you would have done it.”12

This article appears in “Wrigley Field: The Friendly Confines at Clark and Addison” (SABR, 2019), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. To read more stories from this book online, click here.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com, SABR BioProject, and The Sporting News archive via Paper of Record.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN198004220.shtml

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1980/B04220CHN1980.htm

Notes

1 Bob Verdi, “Cubs’ Choice Represents Victory for Status Quo,” Chicago Tribune, October 3, 1979: 65.

2 Photo caption, “On an August Day in April,” Chicago Tribune, April 23, 1980: 64.

3 Phil Rosenthal, “Hey, Hey Chicago, What Do You Say?” Chicago Tribune, November 9, 2016: 3-1.

4 Richard Dozer, “Another Slam-Bang Cub Day,” Chicago Tribune, April 23, 1980: 57, 59.

5 Rick Hummel, “Cardinals to Claiborne: Get a Stopper,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 23, 1980: 21.

6 Dozer.

7 Ibid.

8 Verdi, “Please Feel Pity for Vince & Lou,” Chicago Tribune, May 22, 1981: 59.

9 Dozer.

10 Photo Caption, Chicago Tribune, April 23, 1980: 57.

11 Associated Press, “Cubs’ Foote Kicks Cardinals on His Biggest Day in Majors,” Southern Illinoisan (Carbondale, Illinois), April 23, 1980: 9.

12 Dozer.

Instead, the Cardinals were third in the National League East Division with an 8-10 record when they opened a three-game weekend series against the NL West-leading Houston Astros (14-5) on May 2 at Busch Stadium. Six of the Cardinals’ 10 losses had come in the seventh inning or later, including four in the opposition’s last at-bat.3 Consequently, when St. Louis starting pitcher Bob Forsch departed the game against Houston in the second inning with an injury, it was reasonable that the home team and its fans figured they were in for a long night at the ballpark.

What they delighted in, however, was two veteran left-handed relievers, Don Hood and Jim Kaat, holding the Astros in check en route to a 9-1 Cardinals victory. Hood, signed as a free agent on March 13, worked 5⅔ innings, while Kaat, purchased from the New York Yankees on April 30,4 went the final 2⅓. Hood earned the win and Kaat the save — both firsts as members of the Cardinals. “I told my wife I wasn’t going to read the newspaper until there was a good story about the Cardinals’ bullpen,” Hood said. “I’ll be happy to read my newspaper tomorrow.”5

In the top of the second, Jose Cruz led off against Forsch and hit a groundball to first base. As he covered first to take the throw from Keith Hernandez, Forsch was spiked on the right heel by Cruz. The wound needed 15 stiches to close.6 Enter Hood, who was coming off a blown save in his previous appearance, April 29 against the Chicago Cubs, but did boast a respectable 2.70 ERA over his first six appearances. He promptly coaxed Enos Cabell to ground into a double play and, after César Cedeño doubled, retired Alan Ashby on a fly out. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t expect my name to be mentioned when the bullpen phone rang for a long time,” Hood said. “Someone said, ‘He wants you.’ I was looking around to see if there was someone behind me.”7

Hood permitted Houston its lone run in the third. He walked starting pitcher Nolan Ryan leading off and gave up a single to Terry Puhl. Craig Reynolds advanced the runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt, and Ryan scored on a groundout to shortstop by Denny Walling. The Astros put runners on base in each of the next four innings against Hood, but he worked out of trouble every time. Houston was 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position against him. All told, Hood yielded six hits and three walks while facing 25 batters.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals took a 2-1 advantage with runs in the fourth and sixth. George Hendrick drove in Ted Simmons with an RBI single to tie the game and a Simmons sacrifice fly plated Hernandez with the go-ahead score.

After giving up a two-out single to Walling in the seventh and uncorking a wild pitch, Hood departed, receiving a standing ovation from the Friday-night crowd of 23,009. The 41-year-old Kaat snuffed out the threat and preserved the lead by getting Joe Morgan to ground out to shortstop.

In the bottom of the inning, the Cardinals erupted for seven runs, sending 10 batters to the plate against Ryan and relievers Joe Sambito and Frank LaCorte. Hendrick doubled leading off and scored on an RBI single by Ken Reitz. A double by Tony Scott put runners at second and third. Ryan struck out Kaat and was replaced by Sambito, who did not retire any of the four batters he faced. Garry Templeton singled home Reitz and advanced Scott to third. After Templeton stole second, Ken Oberkfell walked to load the bases. Hernandez followed with a two-run single, and Simmons put an exclamation point on the surge with a three-run homer to left field — his second of the season. LaCorte replaced Sambito and struck out Bobby Bonds and Hendrick to end the inning. Reitz, Hendrick, and Templeton each had two of the Cardinals’ nine hits in the game — raising their season batting averages to .403 (tops in the NL), .342 (fourth), and .341 (fifth), respectively.

Kaat authored perfect innings in the eighth and ninth, registering four groundouts and two strikeouts. As they did for Hood, the local faithful gave Kaat a standing ovation upon the conclusion of the 2-hour, 39-minute game. “The team was dancing three feet off the carpet tonight,” Cardinals manager Ken Boyer said.8

Combined with 1⅔ flawless innings in his Cardinals debut two days earlier, Kaat retired the first 12 batters he faced with his new club. “Sometimes, all you have to do is spark things,” said Kaat, designated for assignment by the Yankees and pondering a new career in broadcasting before being sold to the Cardinals. “I’ll give you an example. There are plenty of teams that have had hitting slumps. They get a guy in a trade and he starts hitting. Then all of a sudden — bing, bing, bing — everyone starts hitting.”9

Kaat proved prophetic, at least for a while. In their first 20⅔ innings in May, Cardinals relievers surrendered merely two earned runs.10 Overall, however, the bullpen proved to be a season-long bugaboo, registering a 3.93 ERA and 1.47 WHIP. Eight pitchers combined for a league-low 27 saves, led by rookie John Littlefield with nine after his recall from the Cardinals’ Triple-A farm club in Springfield, Illinois, in June.

Boyer was fired on June 8 — in between games of a doubleheader at Montreal — with an 18-33 record. Third-base coach Jack Krol managed the nightcap, and the following day Whitey Herzog was hired.11 The Cardinals wound up 74-88 and in fourth place in the NL East, 17 games behind the champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Kaat proved to be a valuable member of the St. Louis staff for several seasons. In 1980 — his 22nd major-league campaign — he went 8-7 with four saves and a 3.82 ERA. Among his 49 appearances were 14 starts, and he pitched six complete games, including one shutout — a 10-inning, 1-0, gem against the New York Mets on June 4. In his lone season with the Cardinals, Hood posted a 4-6 record with a 3.39 ERA in 33 games (25 relief appearances and eight starts). He went the distance in one of his starts, August 25 against the Astros at Busch Stadium, scattering four hits (all singles) in a 3-1 victory. The Cardinals released Hood after the season.

The Astros, who won the final two games of the early-May series against the Cardinals by identical 4-2 scores, went on to capture their first NL West title after defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in a one-game playoff. Both teams were 92-70, and Houston claimed the winner-take-all tiebreaker, 7-1, on October 6 at Dodger Stadium. Philadelphia beat the Astros in the NLCS, three games to two, on its way to winning its first World Series.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for player, team and season information, as well as pitching game logs and the box scores for this game:

baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN198005020.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1980/B05020SLN1980.htm

Notes

1 Arnold Irish and Cal Fussman, “Cardinals Seek Relief: Sign Jim Kaat, Borbon,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 30, 1980: 1C.

2 Irish and Fussman.

3 Rick Hummel, “Redbirds Turn to Greybeards to Liven Up Their Bullpen,” The Sporting News, May 17, 1980: 35.

4 The Cardinals also signed right-handed reliever Pedro Borbon on April 30 and designated Darold Knowles for assignment.

5 Carl Fussman, “Relieved Redbirds Erupt in Seventh, Belt Astros,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 3, 1980: 5A.

6 Rick Hummel, “Bullpen Leaps to Redbirds’ Rescue,” The Sporting News, May 24, 1980: 27. In his next start, May 7 against the San Francisco Giants, Forsch pitched seven shutout innings and hit a three-run homer in a 12-2 Cardinals win.

7 Fussman, “Relieved Redbirds Erupt in Seventh, Belt Astros.”

8 Fussman, “Relieved Redbirds Erupt in Seventh, Belt Astros.”

9 Fussman, “Relieved Redbirds Erupt in Seventh, Belt Astros.”

10 Hummel, “Bullpen Leaps to Redbirds’ Rescue.”

11 Herzog was manager from June 9 to August 28 — compiling a 38-35 record — before taking over as general manager for John Claiborne, who was fired on August 18. Coach Red Schoendienst served as interim manager for the rest of the season. On October 24, Herzog assumed the dual role of manager and general manager.

The fans didn’t see a Phillies win, but they did see a rare event—a player batting out of turn.2 How rare? From 1950 through 1999, there were 119 no-hitters3  in the American and National Leagues but only 38 incidents of batting out of turn.4

The trouble started before the game. Dodgers coach Monty Basgall, who routinely made out the lineup card and signed manager Tommy Lasorda’s name, had a mental lapse. Third baseman Ron Cey had batted fifth from late in the 1978 season through the middle of the 1979 season. Since then, left fielder Dusty Baker had usually hit fifth, with Cey sixth.

Basgall completed a lineup card with Baker fifth and Cey sixth. It was posted in the Dodgers’ dugout, and he and Lasorda later confirmed that it was the intended order.5 But on the card that was given to the umpires, Basgall wrote in Cey fifth and Baker sixth.

Pete Rose, playing first base for Philadelphia, was the first to notice Cey apparently moved up in the lineup: “What’s the deal? Cey gets two infield hits and they move him up?”6

The stage was set. Facing Randy Lerch, the Dodgers took a 1-0 first-inning lead on cleanup hitter Steve Garvey’s one-out single, leaving runners on first and third for the fifth spot in their lineup.7

Baker, in accordance with the lineup card in the dugout, stepped to the plate. He hit a run-scoring fielder’s choice with the out at second. Rose, who had mentioned the “out-of-turn” to first-base umpire John McSherry as soon as Baker stepped in, informed Baker that he’d batted out of turn when he arrived at first.

Phillies manager Dallas Green challenged. The umpires8 retreated for 20 minutes and returned with their ruling.9 Green could accept the results of the play, or Cey would be called out, the runners returned to their bases and Baker to the plate. Green chose to take the out,10 but he argued that Cey and the runner at second should both be out, saying it wasn’t his error and he shouldn’t be penalized for it.11 He was ejected for arguing, then said he would protest the game.

Baker then had his “second” chance to bat in the inning. As the Los Angeles Times suggested, perhaps Green should have listened to the little old lady in the stands who told Baker, “Dusty, I believe you’re gonna hit a homer.”12 He did, the ball landing high in the left-field seats, giving the Dodgers a 4-0 lead.

Dodgers right-hander Dave Goltz, who had signed a six-year, $3 million free-agent contract in December 1979 after eight seasons with the Minnesota Twins, stifled the Phillies for five innings, allowing only three hits and no scoring. This wasn’t unusual – his two previous outings had been complete-game shutouts.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers were taking advantage of the Phillies’ pitching. They scored one more against Lerch in the third – Derrel Thomas13 scored from second on a wild pitch. Cey doubled in the sixth. Baker, now in the correct batting order, brought Cey home with his second home run of the game, making it 7-0.

Scott Munninghoff, making his last of four big-league appearances, relieved Lerch in the sixth but didn’t record an out. He allowed a single, a wild pitch, and two walks, including the opposing pitcher, allowing the Dodgers’ eighth run and departing with the bases loaded. Ron Reed got the last two outs but allowed another run on a sacrifice fly. With the score 9-0 in his favor in the sixth, Lasorda was relaxed and feeling good.14

That feeling didn’t last. Goltz’s slider disappeared after 23 scoreless innings … and so did the baseballs.15 He got Bake McBride to ground out to open the bottom of the sixth, but before he could get the second out he’d allowed a three-run homer to Greg Luzinski and a homer to Bob Boone on the next pitch.16

Reed pitched a clean top of the seventh, holding the score at 9-4, Dodgers.

The fireworks continued for the Phillies in the seventh. Rose hit a one-out grounder to third, and rookie third baseman Mickey Hatcher threw the ball into the stands17 so Rose took second. McBride singled, scoring Rose. Del Unser tripled, scoring McBride and chasing Goltz.

Knuckleballer Charlie Hough came in and faced four batters with the following results: sacrifice fly, strikeout with a passed ball, wild pitch, walk, and Larry Bowa hit by pitch.18 The third pitcher of the inning was 22-year-old lefty Steve Howe, in his ninth big-league appearance. Howe got the third out with the score 9-7, Dodgers.

Kevin Saucier pitched a clean top of the eighth for Philadelphia.

The Dodgers’ bullpen woes continued, and the Phillies tied the game in the eighth. Howe allowed a one-out walk to Rose and a single to McBride, who took second on an errant throw to third. Their options limited by substitutions and injuries,19 the Phillies called on pinch-hitter John Vukovich, taking his second at-bat of the season, To the surprise of many,20 he singled to tie the game. Lasorda called on his fourth pitcher of the day, Joe Beckwith, who preserved the tie by inducing a strike ’em out-throw ’em out double play.21

Now it was the Phillies’ turn for a bullpen meltdown. Dickie Noles, who hadn’t allowed an earned run in 10⅔ innings, allowed three straight singles to the Dodgers to open the ninth. When backup catcher Keith Moreland allowed a ball to get 20 feet away from him and Noles neglected to cover, Thomas scrambled for the plate and skipped over Moreland’s tag to score on the passed ball.22 Two more runs scored on Hatcher’s double. Given Baker’s two-homer day, the Phillies intentionally walked him. Tug McGraw took over on the mound and walked a tightrope, but got the three outs. He intentionally walked Steve Yeager to load the bases, but struck out Pedro Guerrero and Davey Lopes to escape the inning with the score 12-9, Dodgers.

Jerry Reuss took the mound in the bottom of the ninth, looking for his first save of the year.23 He earned it, but not before giving the Philly fans hope. He allowed singles to Luzinski and Lonnie Smith. Luzinski took third on Bowa’s groundout and scored on Ramón Avilés’s sacrifice fly, bringing the score to 12-10, Dodgers. That was as close as the Phillies would get—Moreland struck out to end the game.

Green’s protest was disallowed as the umpires had correctly interpreted the rule. But what if the protest had been allowed and the Phillies won a replayed game? Instead of heading to Montreal on October 3 tied for the NL East lead, they would have had a one-game lead going into the head-to-head final series of the year. As it transpired, the Phillies clinched the NL East by winning the first two games of the series in Montreal. They won the World Series in six games over the Kansas City Royals.

The Dodgers would have finished one game behind the Houston Astros in the NL West at the end of the season. Instead, they were tied for first in the NL West after 162 games but lost a one-game tiebreaker to the Astros.

After the game, Baker said, “It was a weird game. Weirdest I ever been in.”24 Lasorda had some thoughts, too: “Do I look any older than I did three hours ago? I am, I feel it.25 I think there ought to be a law for managers against games like this.”26

Neither Baker nor Green was done with batting out of turn. During his 26-season career as a major-league manager, Baker was involved in out-of-order incidents while piloting the San Francisco Giants (August 8, 1998), Chicago Cubs (April 16, 2004), and Washington Nationals (July 4, 2016). His lineup changes were the cause of the first two, but with the Nationals he caught the other team batting out of order. Green was managing the New York Mets against the Montreal Expos on May 2, 1995, when a substitute umpire misconstrued the Expos’ batting order after in-game substitutions, resulting in a ruling that Montreal was batting out of turn.27

Pete Rose, too, had an unfortunate encounter with the rule on June 27, 1988. He made the same mistake as a manager that he’d spotted as a player—a different lineup card in the dugout than the one given to the umpires.28 Rose’s Cincinnati Reds lost that game to the San Diego Padres, 9-2, but the BOOT—batting out of turn—was not to blame.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

The author wants to acknowledge baseball historian Mark Pankin (1945-2021), who brought this game to her attention through his 2019 SABR Convention (SABR 49) presentation on teams batting out of order, which he also presented at the Bob Davids Chapter 2020 SABR Day. Pankin’s presentation, “Baseball’s Most Confounding Rule,” received the 2019 Doug Pappas Award for best oral presentation at SABR 49.

Sources  

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and SABR.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI198005040.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1980/B05040PHI1980.htm

Notes

1 Those eight consecutive losses included all the games the Dodgers had played there in 1979, including three walk-off losses in a row in April of 1979.

2 Rule 6.03(b) of the Major League Baseball rule book addresses batting out of turn. The relevant portion reads:

• b) Batting Out of Turn
  • (1) A batter shall be called out, on appeal, when he fails to bat in his proper turn, and another batter completes a time at bat in his place.
  • (2) The proper batter may take his place in the batter’s box at any time before the improper batter becomes a runner or is put out, and any balls and strikes shall be counted in the proper batter’s time at bat.
  • (3) When an improper batter becomes a runner or is put out, and the defensive team appeals to the umpire before the first pitch to the next batter of either team, or before any play or attempted play, the umpire shall (1) declare the proper batter out; and (2) nullify any advance or score made because of a ball batted by the improper batter or because of the improper batter’s advance to first base on a hit, an error, a base on balls, a hit batter or otherwise.

3 “No-Hitters and Perfect Games,” Baseball-Reference.com, accessed February 29, 2024, https://www.baseball-reference.com/friv/no-hitters-and-perfect-games.shtml.

4 “Batting Out of Turn,” Retrosheet.org, accessed February 29, 2024, https://www.retrosheet.org/outturn.htm.

5 Richard Hoffer, “Dodgers Victors in a Wild One at Philly, 12-10,” Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1980: 3:4.

6 Hoffer.

7 Both Baseball Reference and Retrosheet say that Law stayed at second on Garvey’s hit to short. However, newspaper accounts say that Law scored from third on Baker’s initial hit. Tom Cushman, “Lasorda Savors Vet Victory,” Philadelphia Daily News, May 5, 1980: 75.

8 The other umpires were Paul Pryor, Bill Williams, and Joe West.

9 Cushman.

10 An out for a batting-out-of-turn is scored as a fly out to the catcher.

11 Joe Juliano (United Press International), “Dodgers Beat Phillies 12-10,” Barstow (California) Desert Dispatch, May 5, 1980: 9.

12 Hoffer.

13 In case this game needed any more wackiness, Thomas was playing center field since the second inning because Rudy Law was hit in the head with a thrown ball while stealing second in the first inning. Cushman. Thomas was back in the lineup for the Dodgers’ next game on May 6.

14 Juliano.

15 Hoffer.

16 Hoffer.

17 Don Sernoffsky, “Dodgers Win 12-10 in Amateur Exhibition,” Lebanon (Pennsylvania) Daily News, May 5, 1980: 21.

18 Hough’s ERA continued to climb, and the Dodgers sold him to the Texas Rangers on July 11. He stabilized and pitched for 14 more years.

19 Rod Beaton, “Phils Unable to Sweep Away L.A.’s Dusty,” Wilmington (Delaware) News-Journal, May 5, 1980: A10.

20 Vukovich had a .163 batting average entering the game. This was his only hit as a pinch-hitter in his 10-year career.

21 Beckwith was also credited with the win thanks to the Dodgers’ rally in the next inning.

22 Jayson Stark, “Oh, Well …” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 5, 1980; C1.

23 Reuss had been used exclusively as a reliever in 1980 although he had been a starting pitcher through 1979. Within two weeks he returned to the starter role for the rest of the season.

24 Hoffer. This was Baker’s 1,215th regular-season game, plus 20 postseason games, so that was saying a lot. He didn’t supersede that when he managed a 16-inning game on April 24, 2016—he called that one the “craziest” game.

25 Associated Press, “Phillies Rue the Appeal That Worked,” San Francisco Examiner, May 5, 1980: 57.

26 Juliano.

27 The regular umpires had been locked out by the owners. “Batting Out of Turn,” Retrosheet.org.

28 “Batting Out of Turn,” Retrosheet.org, accessed February 29, 2024, https://www.retrosheet.org/outturn.htm.

Lynn, the American League’s reigning batting champion,2 had a solid start to the season. Through his first 26 games of the 1980 campaign, he had hit safely in all but six games.3 As the Red Sox prepared to play the second contest of a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins on May 13, Lynn was heating up. He was riding a four-game hit streak with nine hits in his last 15 at-bats, including three doubles and two homers, and six RBIs. In raising his batting average from .247 to an even .300 in the short stretch (it was still early in the season, causing percentages to fluctuate wildly), he certainly did not want the season to end any time soon. The 19,032 fans at Fenway Park did not want the season to end, either, and they were treated to timely hitting and power by the Red Sox and Lynn – who joined the ranks of ballplayers who hit for the cycle.

Boston (13-15) had been slumping as a team, though, having lost six of its last eight games. The Twins (13-17) had won only three of their last 10 contests, so both clubs were looking to turn it around.

The Red Sox gave the mound duties to a rookie left-hander, Bruce Hurst. He had been chosen by Boston as its first round (22nd overall) pick in the 1976 free-agent draft. Although he sported a 2-1 record through six previous appearances, Hurst’s earned-run average for the season was 9.55.4 The Twins gave the start to their own rookie, righty Albert Williams. This was only the second career appearance for Williams, who had lasted a mere three innings against the Baltimore Orioles in his first start, a week earlier. In this game, both starters struggled.

Hurst gave up a one-out walk in the top of the first, but a round-the-horn double play by the Boston infielders ended the Twins’ early threat. Minnesota’s defense did not help Williams. In the bottom of the first with one down, Rick Burleson reached on an error by second baseman Pete Mackanin. Lynn stroked a double to left; Burleson halted at third but then scored on Jim Rice’s single into right. The unearned run gave Boston a 1-0 lead.

Hurst was blasted by Minnesota for four runs in the second inning, and, according to the Boston Globe, “it looked like another long evening for the Red Sox.”5 The Minneapolis Star Tribune described the Twins’ offensive outburst as “commit[ting] mayhem on Hurst.”6 The first four batters all launched extra-base hits. Ron Jackson doubled to start things off. Dave Edwards and Mackanin each doubled as well, and John Castino tripled into right. Boston’s lead had evaporated. After Butch Wynegar popped out to short, Hosken Powell drove in Castino with a single to left. Red Sox skipper Don Zimmer made a pitching change, bringing in veteran right-hander Steve Renko to relieve Hurst.7 Renko was charged with a balk, sending Powell to second base, but poor baserunning kept the Twins from scoring any more runs.

A 36-minute rain delay in the top of the second inning might have washed away the Twins’ hopes of further runs. Roy Smalley had a 2-and-2 count when the game was delayed, with a runner on first, and he struck out when the game was resumed.

Williams survived the bottom of the second, despite yielding a leadoff double to Carlton Fisk and then walking Jerry Remy with two outs. Renko held the Twins scoreless in the third, and Williams was back out on the mound. He retired Lynn on a grounder to short. Rice then singled, and designated hitter Carl Yastrzemski, playing in his 20th season for Boston, launched a home run deep over the fence in right, his third of the season. Tony Perez struck out before Williams walked Fisk. Butch Hobson doubled to left, and Fisk scored, evening the score at 4-4. Now it was Minnesota manager Gene Mauch’s turn to make a pitching change.8 Righty John Verhoeven entered in relief. He struck out Dwight Evans to end the inning.

Minnesota again took the lead in the fourth inning. Castino led off with a groundball single to left, but his spikes slipped on the rubber surface of first base as he rounded the base, causing him to tumble to the ground in pain.9 Rob Wilfong entered as a pinch-runner. Wynegar singled, and after Renko struck out both Powell and Danny Goodwin, Ken Landreaux walked to load the bases. Smalley also coaxed a walk, driving in Wilfong with the go-ahead run.

The Twins lead was short-lived. With one out in the home half, Burleson doubled to left. Lynn deposited a Verhoeven offering into the right-field seats for his fourth home run of the season. The Red Sox had taken the lead for good. Mike Marshall, who had led the AL in appearances in 1979 with 90, became the Twins’ third pitcher of the game when he trotted to the mound to pitch the fifth inning.

In the sixth inning, Remy singled to center and advanced to second on Burleson’s sacrifice bunt. With Lynn batting, the Twins played the infield in. However, Lynn lined the ball up the middle and hit it so hard that there was little chance second baseman Mackanin could make a play.10 It was by him before he knew it. Remy scored, making it 7-5 in favor of the home team.

The bottom of the eighth began with Remy grounding out to first, with Marshall covering the bag for the putout. Burleson bunted again, and this time he reached with an infield single. Lynn settled into the batter’s box, with three hits (single, double, homer) already to his credit. He drove a pitch to deep center. The ball banged off of the center-field wall and Lynn “steamed into third.”11 Lynn’s triple was only a few feet short of becoming his second home run of the game.12 He had just hit for the cycle. After the game, Lynn told reporters, “I’m glad it wasn’t a homer. I’d much rather have a triple in that situation, anyway. I knew what was going on. I knew I had never had the cycle and this might be the chance for it.”13 He added, “All I knew is that I was going to just keep running until they caught me.”

The Red Sox continued the offense. Rice singled, plating Lynn. Yastrzemski singled; Rice continued to third, and Yaz motored to second base on the throw. Perez grounded a ball to shortstop Smalley, who threw home in time to get Rice. This time, Perez kept running and ended up on second after the play, with Yatrzemski holding at third. Marshall uncorked a wild pitch, and Yastrzemski scored Boston’s 10th run of the game. Minnesota went quietly in the ninth. The Twins had had only one baserunner since the fourth inning.

Renko earned his second win of the season with a strong 5⅔ innings of relief pitching. Verhoeven took the loss. Hurst’s ERA jumped to 10.57. After the game, he was optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket. He was recalled to the big leagues in August. Four of his five appearances at the end of the season were in relief.14

The Red Sox won their next three games but finished May with a sub-.500 record. They ended the season in fourth place in the American League East. Minnesota struggled to win games all season, too, and despite a 12-game winning streak near the end of the season, the Twins finished in third place in the AL West.

From his historic performance, Lynn’s average jumped another 24 points, and his slugging percentage was boosted by 73 points. After the game, Mauch commented, “If you throw Fred Lynn the ball low, he might get a base hit. If you throw the ball up, he will get a base hit.”15

Lynn was the second player in 1980 to hit for the cycle, following Chicago Cubs shortstop Iván DeJesús, who had accomplished the rare feat on April 22 against the St. Louis Cardinals. Three others cycled after Lynn: Pittsburgh’s Mike Easler (June 12, against the Cincinnati Reds), Minnesota’s Gary Ward (September 18, against the Milwaukee Brewers), and Milwaukee’s Charlie Moore (October 1, against the California Angels).

Lynn became the 15th batter in Red Sox franchise history to hit for the cycle, with his accomplishment coming only one season after Bob Watson did it (September 15, 1979, against the Baltimore Orioles).16

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, MLB.com, Retrosheet.org, and SABR.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198005130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1980/B05130BOS1980.htm

Notes

1 See sportingnews.com/au/mlb/news/mlb-free-agents-labor-dispute-history-1994-1981-strike-1990-lockout-marvin-miller-mlbpa/. Accessed April 2021.

2 In 1979 Lynn led the league in batting average (.333), on-base percentage (.423), and slugging percentage (.637). He finished fourth in the American League MVP voting, behind California’s Don Baylor, Baltimore’s Ken Singleton, and Kansas City’s George Brett.

3 Lynn had reached in two of those six games, with a walk each time.

4 In his first three appearances, Hurst allowed 14 earned runs in 4⅔ innings pitched. He averaged more than five innings pitched in his next three starts, but still allowed another nine runs.

5 Larry Whiteside, “Lynn Lets Loose; Sox Romp, 10-5,” Boston Globe, May 14, 1980: 23.

6 Gary Libman, “Boston Bombs Twins 10-5, Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 14, 1980: 6C.

7 Gary Libman, “Boston Bombs Twins 10-5, Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 14, 1980: 6C.

8 After this start, Williams was sent to Toledo, Minnesota’s affiliate in the Triple-A International League. He appeared in 15 games (all starts), and posted a 9-3 record with a 2.10 ERA. The Twins brought him back to the majors in July, and he stayed with them through the end of the season, switching between starting and relieving roles.

9 Castino was taken to the hospital for x-rays, which proved negative, but he did sprain his left ankle.

10 After running for Castino, Wilfong stayed in the game, playing third base. Mackanin moved from second to play third.

11 Libman.

12 Whiteside.

13 Whiteside.

14 It was not until September 1981 that Hurst regained a regular role on Boston’s staff, and he wound up having a solid 10-year run as a starter for the Red Sox and Padres from 1983 to 1992.

15 Whiteside.

16 See mlb.com/news/players-who-hit-for-the-cycle-c265552018 for the full list of players who have hit for the cycle, broken down by franchise. The Red Sox’ Bobby Doerr did it twice (May 17, 1944, and May 13, 1947). Lynn’s feat was the second time that a Red Sox batter had cycled on May 13.

It came June 4, 1980, a 10-inning blanking of the New York Mets at Shea Stadium – just over a month after the St. Louis Cardinals purchased the 41-year-old left-hander from the New York Yankees. Kaat had been designated for assignment and was pondering a new career in broadcasting when the Cardinals acquired him on April 30 to bolster their floundering bullpen.1

The Cardinals beat the Mets, 1-0, before 8,566 Wednesday-night fans. Third baseman Ken Reitz, who came into the game leading the major leagues with a .369 batting average, accounted for the lone run with his fourth homer of the season, to deep left field, leading off the 10th against New York closer Neil Allen.

Kaat, making his second start for St. Louis after 12 relief appearances, had been roughed up of late and entered the game against the Mets with a grisly 7.25 ERA (18 earned runs in 22⅓ innings) and an 0-4 record. Five days earlier, in a start against the Montreal Expos, he was touched for six earned runs in four innings.2

But Kaat befuddled the Mets with his fastball, sinker, and changeup, scattering seven hits (all singles) with three walks and two strikeouts. He threw 105 pitches in the snappy 2-hour, 11-minute affair. The shutout was Kaat’s first since April 25, 1978, against the Chicago Cubs, and he authored his first complete game since June 4, 1978, against the Los Angeles Dodgers – both while pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies.

“You don’t crank up games like that very often,” said Kaat, who was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022 by the Golden Days Era Committee. “I felt like I was part of the game but I didn’t feel that I had much artillery. Good defense. I certainly wasn’t throwing something that wasn’t unhittable.”3

The Mets had at least one baserunner in every inning but the third and eighth. In the seventh, ninth, and 10th, they had leadoff singles and sacrificed the runner to second base. The 10th-inning hit – by Doug Flynn – was the result of Kaat, a premier fielding pitcher, reacting late to cover first base on a groundball to first baseman Keith Hernandez. But Kaat did not surrender a hit in 10 plate appearances with runners in scoring position.4 He induced inning-ending double plays in the first and ninth, both via shortstop Garry Templeton to Hernandez.

“His putting on an exhibition like that is a kick in the butts to all of us,” said Reitz, who, with two on and two out in the fourth inning, deftly fielded a hard-hit ball by Joel Youngblood while almost facing left-center field and turned it into a force out at second base. “We need something like that. He went 10 innings and could have gone another nine. He wasn’t even tired.”5

Offered sportswriter Furman Bisher in The Sporting News on June 28, 1980: “There’s one thing about a Kaat game. You can count on getting home early. None of this dawdling, and scuffing about, and scratching, and cap tugging, and hopeful glances at the bullpen. He pitches as if his house is on fire.”6

Cardinals pitching coach Claude Osteen, who was Kaat’s teammate in 1975 with the Chicago White Sox, had been working with Kaat on his delivery, aiming to get more turn in his motion, which would result in more movement on his pitches.

“It may sound foreign, but it makes a big difference to the hitters,” Osteen said.7

New York right-hander Pat Zachry, recovering from an elbow injury, was nearly unhittable over his seven innings, allowing only two singles – by George Hendrick in the second and Templeton in the fifth. He walked three batters, hit one, and had four strikeouts. Allen retired all six batters he faced before Reitz took him deep on a high fastball.

“We haven’t won a close one like that all year,” said Cardinals left fielder Dane Iorg, who recorded the final out with an over-the-head catch of a ball hit by Elliott Maddox. “Every other game, we’d be leading the seventh, eighth, or ninth inning and we’d figure out a way to screw it up.”8

The Cardinals won a game after the seventh inning for just the third time all season. And coupled with their 8-1 victory in the series opener against the Mets, they won back-to-back games for the first time since May 7 and 9.

Kaat won the 265th game of his major-league career – he debuted in 1959 with the Washington Senators and with his first appearance in 1980 became the 18th player with a career spanning four decades – second among active pitchers to Gaylord Perry (282). But his postgame comments sounded as though he wasn’t sure he would chalk up many more victories.

“When I left [the Yankees], it was more of a jolt than I thought,” Kaat said. “I got myself geared up in spring training at making the club. I knew I had a role to play, but when I lost it, I lost a little enthusiasm for the game. It makes me think about getting out a little bit quicker.

“It’s not a knock against St. Louis. They gave me the opportunity to do what I did tonight … But it’s still only one game. In the back of my mind, the percentages are that I wouldn’t finish the season. That’s my gut feeling – even if I pitch well. With this club or any other. But I’ve been wrong before.”9

Kaat did finish the season with the Cardinals, going 8-7 with four saves and a 3.82 ERA. Among his 49 appearances were 14 starts, and he authored six complete games.10 He emerged as the team’s top pitcher in late June and early July, going the distance three times in a span of four starts: beating the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-1, on June 23;11 losing to the Pirates, 3-2, on July 1, allowing the winning run in the bottom of the 10th; and beating the Phillies, 6-1, on July 5.12

In 1982 Kaat became the first major leaguer to pitch in 24 seasons and played on his only World Series championship team. He pitched for the Cardinals until July 1983 and went to spring training with Pittsburgh in 1984 before retiring at age 44 with a 283-237 record and a 3.45 ERA.13 He won 16 Gold Glove Awards – every year from 1962 to 1977.14 Kaat ultimately started his second career as a broadcaster and as of 2022 has won seven Emmy Awards.

Both the Cardinals and Mets were in the midst of disappointing seasons in 1980, with respective records of 18-29 and 19-26 after the game.

St. Louis fired manager Ken Boyer on June 8 – in between games of a doubleheader at Montreal – with an 18-33 record. Third-base coach Jack Krol managed the nightcap, and the following day Whitey Herzog was hired.15 The Cardinals wound up 74-88 and in fourth place in the National League East Division, 17 games behind the eventual World Series champion Phillies.

New York lost 90-plus games for the fourth straight season, finishing 67-95 and fifth in the NL East, 24 games out.16

A month after Kaat’s gem, another St. Louis left-hander, Bob Sykes, duplicated the performance with a 10-inning shutout of Philadelphia at Busch Stadium on July 4. The Cardinals also won that game, 1-0, on a walk-off home run by Hendrick.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent material and the box scores noted below.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN198006040.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1980/B06040NYN1980.htm

Notes

1 Through April 29 St. Louis relief pitchers had a 7.32 ERA with 51 hits allowed in 35⅔ innings. The Cardinals also signed right-handed reliever Pedro Borbón on April 30 and designated Darold Knowles for assignment.

2 The Expos beat the Cardinals, 10-4, at Busch Stadium. Kaat started in place of Pete Vuckovich, who was moved to the bullpen in hopes of boosting the Cardinals’ struggling relief corps. Vuckovich made back-to-back relief appearances on May 31 and June 1 before returning to the starting rotation.

3 Rick Hummel, “Kaat Provides Swift Kick,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 5, 1980: 1D.

4 The Mets were 0-for-8; John Stearns walked in the fourth inning and Joel Youngblood was intentionally walked in the ninth.

5 “Kaat Provides Swift Kick.”

6 Furman Bisher, “Stubborn Dutchman Jim Kaat Is Up There with Immortals,” The Sporting News, June 28, 1980: 16.

7 “Kaat Provides Swift Kick.”

8 “Kaat Provides Swift Kick.”

9 “Kaat Provides Swift Kick.”

10 Kaat ranked third on the Cardinals in wins and complete games. Pete Vuckovich had 12 wins and seven complete games, while Bob Forsch had 11 wins and eight complete games.

11 Kaat also stole a base in this game, his first since 1971.

12 This game took just 1 hour, 39 minutes to complete, the Cardinals’ shortest of the season.

13 Kaat is one of five major leaguers to pitch in 25 or more seasons, joining Nolan Ryan (27, 1966, 1968-93); Tommy John (26, 1963-74, 1976-89); Charlie Hough (25, 1970-94); and Jamie Moyer (25, 1986-91, 1993-2010, 2012). Kaat and Ryan are the only two major leaguers to play during the administrations of seven U.S. presidents.

14 Pitcher Greg Maddux holds the record for most Gold Gloves with 18 (1990-2002, 2004-08). Third baseman Brooks Robinson also won the award 16 times (1960-75).

15 Herzog was manager from June 9 to August 28 – compiling a 38-35 record – before taking over as general manager for John Claiborne, who was fired on August 18. Coach Red Schoendienst served as interim manager for the rest of the season. On October 24 Herzog assumed the dual role of manager and general manager.

16 The Mets subsequently lost 90-plus games in 1982 and 1983 – they were 41-62 during the strike-shortened 1981 season – before going 90-72 in 1984.