May 19, 1984: Maligned Giants reliever Greg Minton makes first start in seven seasons

From 1980 to 1982, Greg Minton of the San Francisco Giants reigned as one of the premier relief pitchers in baseball. His 70 saves over that span ranked fifth behind Bruce Sutter (89), Dan Quisenberry (86), Rich “Goose” Gossage (83), and Rollie Fingers (80).1

Minton was at his best in 1982, going 10-4 with a franchise-record 30 saves2 and a snazzy 1.83 ERA. Only Sutter and Quisenberry compiled more saves in the major leagues with 36 and 35, respectively. Minton topped the National League with 66 games finished, ranked second with 78 appearances, and tied for second in saves3—en route to placing sixth in balloting for the NL Cy Young Award and eighth for Most Valuable Player. He was an All-Star, working two-thirds of an inning at the midsummer classic in Montreal.

The right-handed sinker-ball specialist set the major-league record by pitching 269⅓ innings without allowing a home run from September 6, 1978, to May 2, 1982.4

In December 1982, Minton, a back-to-back arbitration loser the previous two offseasons, signed a five-year contract with the Giants with a base salary of $3.75 million.5 He mustered 22 saves in 1983 (tied for third in the NL) and teamed with left-hander Gary Lavelle to give San Francisco the NL’s first-ever bullpen with two 20-save relievers.6 But Minton’s ERA ballooned to 3.54, and in 106⅔ innings he allowed 117 hits and 47 walks with just 38 strikeouts.

Minton struggled in early 1984, earning but one save in April as the Giants won just seven of 23 games. Manager Frank Robinson stopped deploying Minton in save situations after a blown save against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 15.7

After coming into a tie game, giving up two eighth-inning runs, and being tagged with a loss against the Cincinnati Reds on April 21, the always media-friendly Minton left the clubhouse without talking. The next day he said, “It was nothing but my own anger. … I was really frustrated. … I was so mad after that … game that I felt like finding the Crab [team mascot] and putting him in boiling water.”8

With Minton saddled with a 5.86 ERA—and still with only one save—Robinson decided to have him start the Giants’ game on May 19 against the defending NL champion Philadelphia Phillies at Candlestick Park. It was the 32-year-old Minton’s first starting assignment in seven seasons—a span of 346 relief appearances dating to September 21, 19779—and came on the heels of three outings in which he had surrendered eight earned runs in 5⅓ innings.

“I’ve been getting shelled,” Minton said. “A lot of [hits] were ground balls. That was working on my head. When you come on in late relief and [fans are] booing you, you’re tentative and it works on your mind. They have a right to boo me. I was terrible. I didn’t have an answer. I had no clue in the world.”10

Some fans had gone as far as throwing objects at the maligned Minton—oranges, golf balls, even a softball—and he discouraged his wife and three children from attending home games for fear they would encounter wrath.

Minton retired seven of the first nine batters he faced against Philadelphia, allowing a first-inning walk to Mike Schmidt and a second-inning single by Ozzie Virgil. In the third, rookie second baseman Juan Samuel extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a one-out single, stole second, and scored on a single by Von Hayes to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead. The inning ended when Joe Lefebvre hit a line drive that struck Minton’s right hand, glanced off his chest, and lodged under his left arm for the out.

After Minton pitched around a one-out single by Len Matuszek in the top of the fourth, the Giants tied the game in their half on a leadoff home run by Chili Davis into the right-field football bleachers off reigning NL Cy Young Award winner John Denny, who came into the game with a league-leading 1.67 ERA.

Minton gave up singles to Denny and Samuel to start the fifth and was replaced by former Phil Randy Lerch, who walked Hayes to load the bases. Giants left fielder Jeff Leonard robbed Schmidt of a grand slam, leaping above the fence to make a nifty catch and subsequently throwing out Samuel trying to advance to third. Denny scored on the atypical double play to put Philadelphia ahead, 2-1.

San Francisco pulled even in the bottom of the fifth. A bases-loaded groundout to first by Gene Richards scored Johnnie LeMaster, who had singled with one out, taken second on a single by pitcher Renie Martin, and moved to third as Davis reached on an error by Phillies shortstop Iván De Jesús.

Philadelphia broke the tie in the seventh. Denny and Samuel both singled for the second time, and Martin was relieved by Frank Williams11 with a 1-and-2 count on Hayes. Williams struck out Hayes, then walked Schmidt to load the bases, and pinch-hitter Tim Corcoran ripped a 3-and-2 pitch for a three-run double down the right-field line.12 Corcoran later scored on a sacrifice fly by Matuszek for a 6-2 Phillies lead that wound up the final score.

The Phillies won their eighth straight game (three in San Diego, three in Los Angeles, and two in San Francisco) and moved to within one game of the eventual NL East Division champion Chicago Cubs with a 21-16 record. Philadelphia completed a three-game sweep of the Giants with a 7-4 victory the next day—sweeping an entire West Coast trip for the first time in franchise history—and their winning streak ultimately reached 10 games.

The loss dropped the Giants to 14-24, and they were last in the NL West, seven games behind the Dodgers. But there was encouragement based on Minton’s effective four-plus innings in which he allowed two runs on six hits with one walk and two strikeouts. He received a standing ovation from the crowd of 15,124 upon leaving the field.

“I thought the results were good,” Robinson said. “We all knew it wasn’t going to cure his ails. I’m sure it helped his confidence. It was a good outing. When you come out in a tough situation, you almost always have to be letter perfect. He was able to work on some things without it costing him.”13

Minton said: “I have been doing a lot of things wrong lately, and today I think I worked out some of my problems. I felt aggressive today. It was good to get that old ‘Grrrrrr’ back. I could challenge the hitters on my own terms. I can’t do that as a reliever. I hadn’t been doing my job, and I just didn’t feel wanted around here. But when I heard the fans cheering me, everything seemed OK. That felt good.”14

Although Minton said he thought he could help the Giants as a starter, he did not start another game. As it turned out, his return to the bullpen yielded better results. He earned five saves in June, four in July, six in August, and three in September to finish with 19 for the season (seventh in the NL). From May 25 to August 8, Minton allowed just 12 earned runs in 58⅔ innings for a 1.84 ERA spanning 34 outings. Yet he still finished the season with a 3.76 ERA while posting a 4-9 record and allowing 130 hits and 57 walks in 124⅓ innings with 48 strikeouts.

The Giants wound up 66-96, last in the NL West, 26 games behind the San Diego Padres. Robinson was fired on August 4, replaced by third-base coach and former Phillies skipper Danny Ozark for the balance of the campaign.

When Minton reported to spring training in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1985, he revealed that his previous year’s struggles were the result of a suit for divorce filed by his wife, Susan, that wasn’t finalized until after the season. Minton had become a shell of the fun-loving flake nicknamed Moon Man and adored for his sense of humor.

“There were times I felt everyone and everything was against me,” Minton said. “I was letting the team down by not doing my job. I wasn’t keeping my family together. I couldn’t do anything right. I’d go to the park embarrassed. I wouldn’t talk to people. I hated the human race. I hated people. I know it wasn’t their fault. It’s just that I felt so miserable.”15

Slowed by myriad injuries and ailments in the spring of 1985,16 Minton was supplanted as the Giants’ right-handed closer by Scott Garrelts.17 Minton saved only 10 games the remainder of his time in San Francisco,18 which ended with his release on May 28, 1987. His 125 career saves ranked second in franchise history at that time and fifth through the 2022 season.19 Minton pitched for the California Angels from 1987 to 1990, retiring with 150 lifetime saves.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Anthony Escobedo 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/SFN/SFN198405190.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1984/B05190SFN1984.htm

Notes

1 Gossage, Fingers, and Sutter are members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

2 Minton held the Giants’ season saves record until Rod Beck recorded 48 in 1993.

3 Bruce Sutter of the St. Louis Cardinals led the NL with 36 saves, followed by Minton and Gene Garber of the Atlanta Braves with 30 apiece.

4 Minton, who broke the record of 247⅓ homerless innings by Dale Murray from August 18, 1974, to August 18, 1976, still held the mark through the 2022 season.

5 John Hillyer, “Minton Can Afford to Moon the World, but Stays Humble,” San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle, March 20, 1983: C2.

6 Lavelle had 20 saves in 1983. The save became an official statistic in 1969. Retroactively, Eddie Fisher and Hoyt Wilhelm were credited with 24 and 21 saves, respectively, for the 1965 Chicago White Sox.

7 With the Giants leading 6-4, Minton allowed two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. San Francisco went on to win, 8-6, in 11 innings.

8 Bob Padecky, “Minton’s Troubles Making Him a Crab Around Clubhouse,” Sacramento Bee, April 25, 1984: E2.

9 Minton, who both started and relieved in the minor leagues, started six of the 16 games he pitched over his first three major-league seasons (1975-77).

10 Mark Soltau, “Minton Impressive in S.F. Loss,” San Francisco Examiner, April 20, 1984: C1.

11 Williams did not arrive for the 1:05 P.M. game until noon after flying in from Idaho, where he had attended his grandfather’s funeral the previous day.

12 The double was Corcoran’s fifth hit in 12 pinch-hit at-bats in 1984. In his seventh major-league season, he wound up batting .341 in pinch-hitting and reserve duty after getting one plate appearance in 1983 and being out of the big leagues in 1982.

13 “Minton Impressive in S.F. Loss.”

14 Rick Chandler, “Giants Lose, Again … but at Least Minton Seems Helped by Start,” Peninsula Times Tribune (Palo Alto, California), May 20, 1984: F-1.

15 Bob Padecky, “Why Giants’ ‘Moon’ Was in Outer Space in 1984,” Fresno Bee, March 3, 1985: D8.

16 Minton suffered a punctured right middle fingernail during an offseason horseshoeing accident and was diagnosed with high blood pressure, torn muscle fiber in his right bicep, kidney stones, and an inflamed ulnar nerve during spring training.

17 Garrelts was an All-Star in 1985 and led San Francisco with 13 saves.

18 Minton had four saves in 1985, five in 1986, and one in 1987 with the Giants.

19 The Giants’ top four career saves leaders through 2022 are Robb Nen (206), Rod Beck (199), Brian Wilson (171), and Gary Lavelle (127).