Opening day games for most teams, including the postponements from the day before. Games of note below.
Montreal at New York Mets
In a game featuring the two teams who finished at the bottom of the NL East in 1977, Jerry Koosman pitched a gem. Koosman pitched all 9, giving up a single run and striking out 7, driving a Mets 3-1 win. Koosman had lost 20 games in 1977, but had actually been above average. The problem is that the Mets support him with 3.28 runs per game, while the league average is 4.40.
The Expos have an intriguing lineup, featuring Gary Carter and Tony Perez in the infield, and a talented outfield of Warren Cromartie, Ellis Valentine and Andre Dawson.
St. Louis at Philadelphia
The Phillies won 101 games in 1977 on the way to winning the NL East. They opened 1978 with their ace -- a true Hall of Fame ace -- Steve Carlton. Carlton was off, though, and managed only 3 innings, surrendering 10 hits and achieving only 3 strikeouts.
The Cards had been decent, but not great in 1977. They had talented hitters in Lou Brock, Keith Hernandez, Ted Simmons and Garry Templeton, but the remainder of the lineup was weak. All four were back for 1978, with the addition of a talented George Hendrick in the outfield. The rotation remained anchored by Ken Forsch (today's starter) and John Denny, and Pete Vuckovich had come over in a trade from the Blue Jays. The Cards gave up pitchers Tom Underwood and Victor Cruz, both of whom were relatively unknown but decent pitchers.
Three years later Vuckovich will be packaged with Simmons and Rollie Fingers and shipped to the Brewers for Sixto Lezcano, David Green, Lary Sorensen and Dave LaPoint in a blockbuster trade. He cleans up for Bob Forsch on this opening day 5-1 win for the Cardinals.
Chicago at Pittsburgh
The Cubbies were a .500 team in 1977. They had some talented position players in Bill Buckner, Manny Trillo and Bobby Murcer, but not enough of them. The starters were a fairly talented group: Ray Burris, the underappreciated Rick Reuschel, Bill Bonham, Steve Renko and Mike Krukow, with Bruce Sutter closing AND Willie Hernandez and Donnie Moore setting up. Before long, Hernandez and Moore would be good closers for other teams.
The 1978 lineup added slugger Dave Kingman and the starting rotation added talented Dennis Lamp to replace Bonham, who was traded to the Reds for 38-year-old starter Woodie Fryman and reliever Bill Caudill.
Pittsburgh had finished second to their Pennsylvania rivals in 1977, having won 96 games. It's easy to see why. The lineup features Willie Stargell, Dave Parker and Al Oliver, the first of whom is in the hall of fame, and the other two are near misses. There was also a strong supporting cast in Rennie Stennett (2b), Phil Garner (3b) and Bill Robinson (1b). A similar lineup would drive the Pirates to a world championship in 1979. The relief corps in 1977 featured not only closer Goose Gossage, but also Kent Tekulve and Terry Forster. When Forster was with the Dodgers, David Letterman constantly referred to him as a "fat tub of goo." The starting rotation was John Candelaria, Jerry Reuss, Bruce Kison and Jim Rooker, four guys with talent, even if if does not always manifest itself.
Unfortunately for the Pirates, the 1978 lineup will not contain Oliver, and they were unable to replace his bat. He was traded in a huge trade involving four teams, that looked like this:
Oliver and Nelson Norman to the Rangers
Willie Montanez (Braves) to the Mets
Adrian Devine, Tommy Boggs and Eddie Miller (Rangers) to the Braves
Ken Henderson and Tom Grieve (Rangers) to the Mets
Bert Blyleven (Rangers) to the Pirates
Jon Matlack (Mets) to the Rangers
John Milner (Mets) to the Pirates
Long and short, Pittsburgh lost Oliver and a bad shortstop and got Bert Blyleven and John Milner. Sounds like a good deal to me, and maybe it would have been, but Milner managed only 295 at bats. Still, adding Blyleven to a pretty talented pitching staff would have had Pittsburgh hopeful that they'd get over the hump.
Today they threw Candelaria, who pitched a complete game 1-0 victory, outdueling Rick Reuschel. Ivan DeJesus had 3 of the game's 10 hits.
Los Angeles at Atlanta
Best in the West against the worst. Hard to remember for many of you, but the Braves were regularly doormats, and in 1977 had a team ERA nearly half a run higher than the next-to-worst team. There weren't any pitching upgrades on tap for 1978, but the lineup promised to be stronger, with rookie Dale Murphy added to the mix with Jeff Burroughs and Gary ("Sarge") Matthews.
This would be Bobby Cox' first year at the helm, having taken over for a trio of managers in 1977, one of whom was the owner, Ted Turner. Cox would be fired in 1981, in favor of Joe Torre, but I'd say his comeback was pretty strong.
By contrast the Dodgers have the best pitching, and good hitting. The rotation is Hall of Famer Don Sutton, near HoFer Tommy John, Burt Hooten, Rick Rhoden and Doug Rau, with Charlie Hough closing. No, I'm not kidding. Charlie Hough, the guy you watched as an old man throwing knuckleballs for the Rangers, was the Dodgers closer. And he was pretty good. All returned for 1978, and they got even better, adding a young Bob Welch.
The hitting doesn't need an upgrade: Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, Ron Cey, Dusty Baker, Ron Monday and Reggie Smith. Hard to beat that lineup, even though it does not contain a single Hall of Famer. Smith is the closest to that caliber, followed by Garvey. But they are all good. And they are all returning, although Monday will split time in center field with Billy North when he arrives from Oakland in mid-May.
This one goes the way you might expect, with the Dodgers thrashing the Braves 13-4. Lopes homered and had 4 RBI. Monday had 4 hits, a homer and 4 RBI. Sutton got the win. Phil Niekro's knuckler must not have been working. The "fat tub of goo" got the save for the Dodgers.
San Diego at San Francisco
This game featured two below average teams from 1977. The Giants still had McCovey, and some other real good hitters in batting title Bill Madlock, Darrell Evans and Jack Clark. They still don't score many runs. The pitching staff was entirely forgettable, though a young Bob Knepper would go on to have a nice career for the Astros.
The Giants outfield would improve with a young Larry Herndon and Terry Whitfield in 1978, though Herndon's best years were still to come. Vida Blue was added to the rotation.
The Padres featured youngster Dave Winfield, George Hendrick and former A's backstop Gene Tenace in 1977. They also couldn't score, but the pitching was even worse. They had 1976 Cy Young winner Randy Jones (runner up in 1975), but he was not the same pitcher. At least Rollie Fingers was in the bullpen.
Roger Craig took over in 1978 as manager of the Padres, which bodes well for the pitching staff. They add Gaylord Perry (age 39) to the rotation. This year also marks the debut of Ozzie Smith at shortstop and they signed free agent Oscar Gamble, who had probably the best afro I've ever seen on a baseball card.
Winfield helps the Padres win this one 3-2, with a homer in the 8th off of Gary Lavelle. The Padres pinch hit for Ozzie Smith after just one at bat.
Oakland at California
Both teams were bad in 1977, but the game is notable because California will turn things around in 1978 with a ton of lineup changes. The pitching in '77 was good, with Nolan Ryan and Frank Tanana anchoring things. The lineup was pretty awful. They had Don Baylor and Bobby Bonds, but that's about it.
In 1978, Ryan and Tanana return, but there's a big difference in the lineup. Talented Lyman Bostock comes over to play right field, allowing Baylor to DH. Brian Downing takes over at catcher. Near Hall of Famer Bobby Grich came over from the Orioles. Carney Lansford debuts at 3b. And a young Ken Landreaux sees a lot of playing time. That lineup will mature in 1979 (with the addition of Rod Carew) and turn things around for the Angels.
Oakland had no hitters in 1977 worth mentioning, and only Vida Blue was notable on the pitching staff. They do nothing to improve in 1978. Blue moved to the Giants. Their best pitcher is Matt Keough. Their best hitter is Mitchell Page. Yeah.
Oakland loses the opener 1-0, as Frank Tanana strikes out 8 in a complete game victory for the Angels.
Boston at Chicago White Sox
Boston was good in 1977, with 97 wins. Unfortunately, that was good for third place(!). Carlton Fisk, George Scott, Carl Yastrzemski, Fred Lynn, Jim Rice and Dwight Evans -- you bet they could score runs. The starters included Luis Tiant, Fergie Jenkins, Bill Lee, and some others. Pretty solid. More of the same in 1978, except no Fergie Jenkins. Instead, Mike Torrez and Dennis Eckersley would start a combined 71 games.
The White Sox won 90 games in 1977, with a group of good-not-great hitters: Brian Downing, Richie Zisk, Chet Lemon, Ralph Garr and Jorge Orta. The pitching staff had been the weak spot. Actually, the worst thing about the White Sox were the uniforms. This was the softball uniform era for the ChiSox. Pullover jerseys, short pants and high black socks. Ah, the memories.
The wheels will come off in 1978, as the White Sox will win 19 fewer games. They are moving in the opposite direction of the Angels, who in 1978 acquired Downing. The pitching did not improve.
The White beats the Red 6-5 on this particular occasion, thanks to a Ron Blomberg homer and Wayne Nordgagen double in the 9th, against Dick Drago and Bill Campbell respectively. That makes up for three White Sox errors.
Toronto at Detroit
The makeup for the previous day's postponement. Detroit debuts the keystone combo of Alan Trammell and Sweet Lou Whitaker (though they played a few games in September 1977). The talented Ron LeFlore returns in center field. Mark Fidrych (he who talks to the ball) is on the wane, and Jack Morris is on the rise. Toronto's best upgrades were the aforementioned additions of Tom Underwood and Victor Cruz from the St. Louis trade. Needless to say, that's not enough.
Detroit wins 6-2, as Fidrych pitches a complete game gem. These are 9 of Fidrych's 22 innings on the season, but they are good ones. Platoon third baseman Phil Mankowski has the best day of his career with the key home run and 3 RBI. Whitaker and Trammell each get a hit.
Baltimore at Milwaukee
The Orioles strength in 1977 was pitching, with Jim Palmer, Rudy May, Ross Grimsley, Mike Flanagan, Tippy Martinez, Dennis Martinez and Scott McGregor. Everyone but Grimsley returns in '78, but he will not be missed. The lineup gets better in 1978, although there are few personnel changes. Eddie Murray solidifies 1b, Doug Decinces matures, and Ken Singleton mashes in RF.
Milwaukee has added Larry Hisle and Gorman Thomas to the outfield, significant upgrades with the bat. Yount starts his sophomore season, and Paul Molitor debuts. Don't forget that Cecil Cooper is still at 1b. They are going to score runs in 1978. A lot of runs...165 to be exact, and they will win a whopping 26 games more than in 1977. This is a different team. There aren't many upgrades to the pitching staff, but in 1977 they averaged 24 years old. They mature in 1978.
The home opener is a preview of all of this, as Milwaukee wins 11-3, sending Mike Flanagan to the showers before the third inning. Sixto Lezcano, talented in his own right, drives in 4 runs. Molitor, subbing for Yount at shortstop, gets the first of his 3,319 hits in the bottom of the second.
You think this is a lot of runs for Milwaukee. Tune in on April 8!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
April 6, 1978
The second day of the season featured a light schedule: the second game of the Twins/Mariners series, the Orioles at the Brewers, the Blue Jays at the Tigers, and the Astros at the Reds.
Twins/Mariners
The Twins got three hits apiece from Roy Smalley and Rod Carew, on the way to a 5-4 victory. Roger Erickson got the win in his 21-year-old debut. As mentioned in the opening day post, Mike Marshall was a Twin in 1978, but he was holding out as a free agent. He didn't actually sign with the Twins until May 15. Accordingly, last year's closer, Tom Johnson, got the save with 2 2/3 innings of work.
Dick Pole got the shaft (sorry, I couldn't resist). He lasted only 1 2/3 innings, giving up 7 hits and 4 earned runs.
Orioles/Brewers
Baltimore finished 2d in the East in 1977, with a solid 97 wins. Sorry, no wild card back then. The Brewers finished next to last, barely above expansion Toronto. The Brew Crew couldn't score runs, and that produced a 67 win season.
The game apparently was postponed until the next day.
Jays/Tigers
The Tigers played .500 ball in 1977, but the matchup with the Blue Jays was hardly interesting. The Jays won 57 games in 1977, finishing last in hitting and next-to-last in pitching.
The game apparently was postponed until the next day.
Astros/Reds
This was the most interesting matchup of the day, these two teams having finished 3d and 2d, respectively in the NL West the prior year.
The Reds still had the personnel from the Big Red Machine, with Pete Rose, Ken Griffey, Joe Morgan, George Foster, Johnny Bench, Dave Concepcion and Cesar Geronimo, with Dan Driessen having taken over for Tony Perez at 1b in 1977. Ray Knight was waiting for his moment when Rose left the Reds. The Reds had won 88 games with that lineup.
The pitching had gone south, though. Other than Fred Norman and the outstanding Tom Seaver, their rotation in 1977 was weak: Jack Billingham, Paul Moskau, Doug Capilla and, you get the picture. Mario Soto pitched as a starter, and he would be a key contributor to the Reds later, but he was not too good at age 20. The Reds did have a solid closer in Pedro Borbon, but Doug Bair would get most of the save opportunities in '78.
The rotation returned in 1978, but they added a couple of young arms in Tom Hume and Mike LaCoss, both of whom had decent major league careers.
Houston was a .500 team in 1977. They didn't score many runs, but didn't allow many either. They were built for the expansive features of the Astrodome, with J.R. Richard, Mark Lemongello (fun to say aloud), Joaquin Andujar, and Joe Niekro getting most of the starts, and a bullpen of Ken Forsch, Joe Sambito and some other decent performers. That same group, with Vern Ruhle thrown in the mix, returned for 1978, but nearly all of them saw their performances dip.
The lineup was essentially the same too: Joe Ferguson, Bob Watson, Art Howe, Enos Cabell, Terry Puhl and Jose Cruz returned. Cesar Cedeno did too, but had injury problems that forced Puhl from LF to CF, and called Denny Walling into service. Rafael Landestoy was the new SS, taking over for the very light hitting Roger Metzger.
Of note, this team also included Bruce Bochy, who went on to a substantial managerial career, and Jeff "Penitentiary Face" Leonard in a cup of coffee.
Their opening day game was a slugfest, won by Cincinnati 11-9. J.R. Richard got pounded in 4 2/3 innings, giving up 7 earned runs. He did strike out 8, but that doesn't matter if you give up nearly 3 hits and 1 walk every inning. The Reds ended up with 16 hits, only one of them a HR (Joe Morgan). Morgan was a fantasy beast, even though fantasy baseball didn't exist then. How about this line: 3-for-4, 3 runs scored, 5 RBI, 1 HR, 2 doubles and a stolen base?
Seaver started for the Reds, and was just as bad, lasting only 3 innings and giving up 5 earned runs. Houston spread their hits up and down the order, but Jose Cruz was 3-for-5 with 2 RBI. Puhl, Cedeno and Ferguson all homered off of Seaver. After Cedeno's homer in the 4th, the game was stopped for a 38 minute rain delay. Seaver came back from the delay and gave up a double, single and home run to the first three batters, before Sparky Anderson removed him.
No wonder. The 4th inning rain delay was the third (!) rain delay of the game. The game had also been stopped for a little more than a 1/2 hour in both the second and third innings. Easy to see why the aces had trouble.
With two postponements and a third game delayed three times, the weather in the midwest must have been awful. It was in the mid-30s in Milwaukee and Detroit on that day (courtesy of NOAA historical weather data archives).
Twins/Mariners
The Twins got three hits apiece from Roy Smalley and Rod Carew, on the way to a 5-4 victory. Roger Erickson got the win in his 21-year-old debut. As mentioned in the opening day post, Mike Marshall was a Twin in 1978, but he was holding out as a free agent. He didn't actually sign with the Twins until May 15. Accordingly, last year's closer, Tom Johnson, got the save with 2 2/3 innings of work.
Dick Pole got the shaft (sorry, I couldn't resist). He lasted only 1 2/3 innings, giving up 7 hits and 4 earned runs.
Orioles/Brewers
Baltimore finished 2d in the East in 1977, with a solid 97 wins. Sorry, no wild card back then. The Brewers finished next to last, barely above expansion Toronto. The Brew Crew couldn't score runs, and that produced a 67 win season.
The game apparently was postponed until the next day.
Jays/Tigers
The Tigers played .500 ball in 1977, but the matchup with the Blue Jays was hardly interesting. The Jays won 57 games in 1977, finishing last in hitting and next-to-last in pitching.
The game apparently was postponed until the next day.
Astros/Reds
This was the most interesting matchup of the day, these two teams having finished 3d and 2d, respectively in the NL West the prior year.
The Reds still had the personnel from the Big Red Machine, with Pete Rose, Ken Griffey, Joe Morgan, George Foster, Johnny Bench, Dave Concepcion and Cesar Geronimo, with Dan Driessen having taken over for Tony Perez at 1b in 1977. Ray Knight was waiting for his moment when Rose left the Reds. The Reds had won 88 games with that lineup.
The pitching had gone south, though. Other than Fred Norman and the outstanding Tom Seaver, their rotation in 1977 was weak: Jack Billingham, Paul Moskau, Doug Capilla and, you get the picture. Mario Soto pitched as a starter, and he would be a key contributor to the Reds later, but he was not too good at age 20. The Reds did have a solid closer in Pedro Borbon, but Doug Bair would get most of the save opportunities in '78.
The rotation returned in 1978, but they added a couple of young arms in Tom Hume and Mike LaCoss, both of whom had decent major league careers.
Houston was a .500 team in 1977. They didn't score many runs, but didn't allow many either. They were built for the expansive features of the Astrodome, with J.R. Richard, Mark Lemongello (fun to say aloud), Joaquin Andujar, and Joe Niekro getting most of the starts, and a bullpen of Ken Forsch, Joe Sambito and some other decent performers. That same group, with Vern Ruhle thrown in the mix, returned for 1978, but nearly all of them saw their performances dip.
The lineup was essentially the same too: Joe Ferguson, Bob Watson, Art Howe, Enos Cabell, Terry Puhl and Jose Cruz returned. Cesar Cedeno did too, but had injury problems that forced Puhl from LF to CF, and called Denny Walling into service. Rafael Landestoy was the new SS, taking over for the very light hitting Roger Metzger.
Of note, this team also included Bruce Bochy, who went on to a substantial managerial career, and Jeff "Penitentiary Face" Leonard in a cup of coffee.
Their opening day game was a slugfest, won by Cincinnati 11-9. J.R. Richard got pounded in 4 2/3 innings, giving up 7 earned runs. He did strike out 8, but that doesn't matter if you give up nearly 3 hits and 1 walk every inning. The Reds ended up with 16 hits, only one of them a HR (Joe Morgan). Morgan was a fantasy beast, even though fantasy baseball didn't exist then. How about this line: 3-for-4, 3 runs scored, 5 RBI, 1 HR, 2 doubles and a stolen base?
Seaver started for the Reds, and was just as bad, lasting only 3 innings and giving up 5 earned runs. Houston spread their hits up and down the order, but Jose Cruz was 3-for-5 with 2 RBI. Puhl, Cedeno and Ferguson all homered off of Seaver. After Cedeno's homer in the 4th, the game was stopped for a 38 minute rain delay. Seaver came back from the delay and gave up a double, single and home run to the first three batters, before Sparky Anderson removed him.
No wonder. The 4th inning rain delay was the third (!) rain delay of the game. The game had also been stopped for a little more than a 1/2 hour in both the second and third innings. Easy to see why the aces had trouble.
With two postponements and a third game delayed three times, the weather in the midwest must have been awful. It was in the mid-30s in Milwaukee and Detroit on that day (courtesy of NOAA historical weather data archives).
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
1978: Opening Day
The season opened on April 5, with a somewhat unusual game: Minnesota at Seattle. It was only Seattle's second year in the league, and in their first year, they were as awful as expansion franchises used to be: 64-98...and they did NOT finish last. Minnesota had actually been decent the year before, finishing 17.5 games back, but with a record 7 games over .500.
Minnesota
Minnesota had a different look to start the 1978 season. Lyman Bostock, who hit a robust .336 in 1977, with 14 HR, 102 R, 90 RBI and 16 SB, had become a free agent at the end of the '77 season. At age 27, he was in his prime. The California Angels quickly signed him.
Bostock had mostly manned CF, with some games in LF. Dan Ford, the regular right fielder in 1977, moved to center field in 1978. It's interesting that Ford would become a free agent at the end of 1978, and would sign with California to replace Bostock, who was killed in September 1978 in a shooting incident.
Hosken Powell, a 25 year old first round draft pick (3d overall in 1975) was brought up to play right field. He would manage only an 84 OPS+, compared to Bostock's 144 in 1977 and 113 in 1978. Left field was to be manned by Willie Norwood, a backup to Larry Hisle in 1977. Hisle took his own 144 OPS+ to Milwaukee via free agency.
Bostock mostly led off, but also hit cleanup at times...an unusual situation. Hisle mostly hit cleanup, but he moved all over the order, including leadoff, 3d, 5th and 6th. In any event, they were key parts of the team. Powell would start the season as the leadoff man, but Norwood would be down in the 8 spot. The rest of the lineup remained stable.
Minnesota's pitching, ranked 12th out of 14 teams in 1977, lost Pete Redfern from the starting rotation (bumping him to the bullpen), but replaced him with 21 year old Roger Erickson -- no relation to the later Twin Scott Erickson. Roger had been drafted in the 3d round...the year before!
Minnesota had a strong closer in 1977 (the unknown Tom Johnson), but the rest of the bullpen was horrible. Johnson had to pitch 146 innings, all in relief. He was replaced in 1978 by Mike Marshall, a star reliever who regularly threw more than 100 IP a year. Johnson threw only 33 innings in 1978, and was mostly ineffective.
As for defense, Minnesota ranked 10th out of 14 teams in 1977 and did nothing to improve -- and in fact, lost ground in center field, where Bostock had good range and Ford did not.
Seattle
The Mariners had been 10th in the league in runs scored in 1977, with a pretty forgettable lineup. Danny Meyer had a decent year at 1b, with 22 HR and 90 RBI, but a weak OPS. Ruppert Jones, who would have a good major league career thereafter, was an above average hitter in CF, and cranked 24 homers, which would turn out to be his career high. Leroy Stanton, whose baseball card I cannot even picture, was the team stud with 27 HR and 90 RBIs.
The rest of the hitting was pretty bad, particularly at DH where the combination of Juan Bernhardt and Dave Collins managed an OPS+ of around 65. At least Collins was a rabbit on the bases. Same situation at 2b, where Jose Baez and Julio Cruz produced an OPS+ of about 75, but Cruz was a big time base stealer. They also suffered with Craig Reynolds' bat at SS. Reynolds would play 15 years, mostly with Houston, but only had one worse year at the plate than 1977.
In 1978, the lineup would be much the same. Bruce Bochte, a pretty good hitter, took over in left for Steve Braun. Leon Roberts took over in RF for Stanton, and Stanton moved to DH. That would seem to be a hitting upgrade, except Stanton fell apart. He went from a 130 OPS+ in 1977 to an atrocious 46 (!!) in 330+ plate appearances. He never played again. Bochte would fill in often at DH, with Tom Paciorek playing LF on those days. Paciorek, of course, went on to be a well-known broadcaster with the White Sox, as Hawk Harrelson's partner on WGN.
But it's opening day, and the changes look positive in the lineup on this day. Their opening day lineup would stay the same for four games, and then Darrell Johnson would abandon it, never to return to that lineup for the final 158 games.
As you might expect on an expansion team, the pitching in 1977 was awful, finishing last in the league. Except for a good closer in Enrique Romo, nearly every pitcher was substandard, and the rotation was uniformly bad. How's this for a rotation: Paul Abbott (had both hands), Dick Pole (great name, now a pitching coach for the Reds), Gary Wheelock, Rick Jones, Paul Mitchell (not the shampoo), Stan Thomas and Bob Galasso. They did get three starts from a young Rick Honeycutt, who went on to a nice career with the Dodgers and as Eck's setup man in Oakland.
So, with plenty of room for improvement, the Mariners did almost nothing to improve. Honeycutt would be a regular starter in 1978, and so would Byron McLaughlin. They did not pitch well, though. Abbott, Pole and Mitchell returned, with the same results, and they threw in Jim Colborn (now a pitching coach for the Pirates). Headed for last in ERA again.
Seattle's defensive efficiency was average in 1977, so with relatively few changes to the lineup, the same could be expected in 1978. Doesn't turn out that way, but hey, we don't know that yet.
Opening Day Game
Oh yeah, that. Well, not much happened. Seattle won 3-2, in a pitching duel between Dave Goltz (Min) and Glenn Abbott (Sea). Goltz threw a complete game. Abbott only went 6 1/2, but the closer Romo went 2 2/3 innings -- yeah, closers were different then -- for the save.
Probably the two weakest hitters in the game, Rob Wilfong at 2b for Minnesota, and Craig Reynolds at SS for Seattle had the best games. Wilfong was 2-for-3 and Reynolds was 3-for-4 with two RBI and a homer. Hosken Powell was 1-for-4 in his major league debut.
Minnesota
Minnesota had a different look to start the 1978 season. Lyman Bostock, who hit a robust .336 in 1977, with 14 HR, 102 R, 90 RBI and 16 SB, had become a free agent at the end of the '77 season. At age 27, he was in his prime. The California Angels quickly signed him.
Bostock had mostly manned CF, with some games in LF. Dan Ford, the regular right fielder in 1977, moved to center field in 1978. It's interesting that Ford would become a free agent at the end of 1978, and would sign with California to replace Bostock, who was killed in September 1978 in a shooting incident.
Hosken Powell, a 25 year old first round draft pick (3d overall in 1975) was brought up to play right field. He would manage only an 84 OPS+, compared to Bostock's 144 in 1977 and 113 in 1978. Left field was to be manned by Willie Norwood, a backup to Larry Hisle in 1977. Hisle took his own 144 OPS+ to Milwaukee via free agency.
Bostock mostly led off, but also hit cleanup at times...an unusual situation. Hisle mostly hit cleanup, but he moved all over the order, including leadoff, 3d, 5th and 6th. In any event, they were key parts of the team. Powell would start the season as the leadoff man, but Norwood would be down in the 8 spot. The rest of the lineup remained stable.
Minnesota's pitching, ranked 12th out of 14 teams in 1977, lost Pete Redfern from the starting rotation (bumping him to the bullpen), but replaced him with 21 year old Roger Erickson -- no relation to the later Twin Scott Erickson. Roger had been drafted in the 3d round...the year before!
Minnesota had a strong closer in 1977 (the unknown Tom Johnson), but the rest of the bullpen was horrible. Johnson had to pitch 146 innings, all in relief. He was replaced in 1978 by Mike Marshall, a star reliever who regularly threw more than 100 IP a year. Johnson threw only 33 innings in 1978, and was mostly ineffective.
As for defense, Minnesota ranked 10th out of 14 teams in 1977 and did nothing to improve -- and in fact, lost ground in center field, where Bostock had good range and Ford did not.
Seattle
The Mariners had been 10th in the league in runs scored in 1977, with a pretty forgettable lineup. Danny Meyer had a decent year at 1b, with 22 HR and 90 RBI, but a weak OPS. Ruppert Jones, who would have a good major league career thereafter, was an above average hitter in CF, and cranked 24 homers, which would turn out to be his career high. Leroy Stanton, whose baseball card I cannot even picture, was the team stud with 27 HR and 90 RBIs.
The rest of the hitting was pretty bad, particularly at DH where the combination of Juan Bernhardt and Dave Collins managed an OPS+ of around 65. At least Collins was a rabbit on the bases. Same situation at 2b, where Jose Baez and Julio Cruz produced an OPS+ of about 75, but Cruz was a big time base stealer. They also suffered with Craig Reynolds' bat at SS. Reynolds would play 15 years, mostly with Houston, but only had one worse year at the plate than 1977.
In 1978, the lineup would be much the same. Bruce Bochte, a pretty good hitter, took over in left for Steve Braun. Leon Roberts took over in RF for Stanton, and Stanton moved to DH. That would seem to be a hitting upgrade, except Stanton fell apart. He went from a 130 OPS+ in 1977 to an atrocious 46 (!!) in 330+ plate appearances. He never played again. Bochte would fill in often at DH, with Tom Paciorek playing LF on those days. Paciorek, of course, went on to be a well-known broadcaster with the White Sox, as Hawk Harrelson's partner on WGN.
But it's opening day, and the changes look positive in the lineup on this day. Their opening day lineup would stay the same for four games, and then Darrell Johnson would abandon it, never to return to that lineup for the final 158 games.
As you might expect on an expansion team, the pitching in 1977 was awful, finishing last in the league. Except for a good closer in Enrique Romo, nearly every pitcher was substandard, and the rotation was uniformly bad. How's this for a rotation: Paul Abbott (had both hands), Dick Pole (great name, now a pitching coach for the Reds), Gary Wheelock, Rick Jones, Paul Mitchell (not the shampoo), Stan Thomas and Bob Galasso. They did get three starts from a young Rick Honeycutt, who went on to a nice career with the Dodgers and as Eck's setup man in Oakland.
So, with plenty of room for improvement, the Mariners did almost nothing to improve. Honeycutt would be a regular starter in 1978, and so would Byron McLaughlin. They did not pitch well, though. Abbott, Pole and Mitchell returned, with the same results, and they threw in Jim Colborn (now a pitching coach for the Pirates). Headed for last in ERA again.
Seattle's defensive efficiency was average in 1977, so with relatively few changes to the lineup, the same could be expected in 1978. Doesn't turn out that way, but hey, we don't know that yet.
Opening Day Game
Oh yeah, that. Well, not much happened. Seattle won 3-2, in a pitching duel between Dave Goltz (Min) and Glenn Abbott (Sea). Goltz threw a complete game. Abbott only went 6 1/2, but the closer Romo went 2 2/3 innings -- yeah, closers were different then -- for the save.
Probably the two weakest hitters in the game, Rob Wilfong at 2b for Minnesota, and Craig Reynolds at SS for Seattle had the best games. Wilfong was 2-for-3 and Reynolds was 3-for-4 with two RBI and a homer. Hosken Powell was 1-for-4 in his major league debut.
1978
My memory may be faulty, but I think 1978 may have been my favorite season as a kid. I was the right age to understand everything going on in baseball (age 12), the Dodgers had finally solidified their suppression of the Big Red Machine, and the Kansas City Royals were actually a good team. This latter fact was important, because in Jacksonville, Florida, the AA Jacksonville Suns were a Royals affiliate.
It was also the peak of my baseball card collecting, an important activity in 1978. If you didn't have a local MLB team, you saw baseball twice a week, at best: the Saturday Game of the Week on NBC, and the occasional Monday Night Baseball. Those games normally featured the Yankees, Red Sox, Reds and Dodgers, but in 1978 you got some Phillies, Pirates and Royals games too.
But that's only 7 teams. If you wanted to know what a player on one of the other teams looked like, you pretty much had to look at baseball cards. At that time, cards were not valuable and we had no inkling they would be some day. We just used them as our only access to what players and teams looked like.
I'm feeling old, because that was 30 years ago. I thought it might be fun to look back at the box scores, day-by-day, and see what the season might look like in hindsight. At 12 and without much television, I don't have many memories of specific plays or games, so it's almost like I'll be looking at the games cold.
It was also the peak of my baseball card collecting, an important activity in 1978. If you didn't have a local MLB team, you saw baseball twice a week, at best: the Saturday Game of the Week on NBC, and the occasional Monday Night Baseball. Those games normally featured the Yankees, Red Sox, Reds and Dodgers, but in 1978 you got some Phillies, Pirates and Royals games too.
But that's only 7 teams. If you wanted to know what a player on one of the other teams looked like, you pretty much had to look at baseball cards. At that time, cards were not valuable and we had no inkling they would be some day. We just used them as our only access to what players and teams looked like.
I'm feeling old, because that was 30 years ago. I thought it might be fun to look back at the box scores, day-by-day, and see what the season might look like in hindsight. At 12 and without much television, I don't have many memories of specific plays or games, so it's almost like I'll be looking at the games cold.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Bad Trades
Watching the Reds-Marlins game, and researching where some of the players began their careers, revealed a couple of awful trades:
1. The Expos traded all-star Grady Sizemore, pitcher Cliff Lee (who looks like Cy Young) and Brandon Phillips of the Reds, for Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew.
Colon pitched well for Montreal in the second half. He was then traded with Jorge Nunez to the ChiSox, for Rocky Biddle, El Duque, Jeff Liefer and cash.
Okay, so that means: Sizemore + Lee + Phillips = Drew + Biddle + Liefer + El Duque + cash. Yeah, that MLB-Montreal thing worked great!
2. The Rangers traded Aaron Harang with Ryan Cullen to the A's for Randy Velarde. Uh, I'd say they didn't think much of Harang as a prospect, since at the time of the trade, Velarde was a 38-year-old utilityman.
Oakland turned Harang into Jeff Bruksch and Joe Valentine three years later. Safe to say Harang was not developing like they thought?
So at 25-years old, some genius in Cincinnati said "I think Harang is worth more than Velarde + Bruksch + Valentine." And for once, I'm not using "genius" in a facetious manner.
BTW, did you realize Harang is 6'7" and 245 pounds. Wow. To put that in perspective, Jason Taylor, the defensive end for the Miami Dolphins, goes 6'6" 255!
1. The Expos traded all-star Grady Sizemore, pitcher Cliff Lee (who looks like Cy Young) and Brandon Phillips of the Reds, for Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew.
Colon pitched well for Montreal in the second half. He was then traded with Jorge Nunez to the ChiSox, for Rocky Biddle, El Duque, Jeff Liefer and cash.
Okay, so that means: Sizemore + Lee + Phillips = Drew + Biddle + Liefer + El Duque + cash. Yeah, that MLB-Montreal thing worked great!
2. The Rangers traded Aaron Harang with Ryan Cullen to the A's for Randy Velarde. Uh, I'd say they didn't think much of Harang as a prospect, since at the time of the trade, Velarde was a 38-year-old utilityman.
Oakland turned Harang into Jeff Bruksch and Joe Valentine three years later. Safe to say Harang was not developing like they thought?
So at 25-years old, some genius in Cincinnati said "I think Harang is worth more than Velarde + Bruksch + Valentine." And for once, I'm not using "genius" in a facetious manner.
BTW, did you realize Harang is 6'7" and 245 pounds. Wow. To put that in perspective, Jason Taylor, the defensive end for the Miami Dolphins, goes 6'6" 255!
Monday, May 05, 2008
Dodger Broadcasts
I don't think there's a better baseball experience than listening or watching a Dodgers telecast. Vin Scully solos on radio for three innings, and then switches to tv for the middle three, before moving back. Charlie Steiner and Rick Monday do t.v. and then radio. It helps that the Dodgers have an exciting young team.
There's so much experience on the broacast crew. To a young listener, the broadcasters are probably a little corny, and not hip enough. But they are classic baseball old school broadcasts. It's worth listening to a Dodger game on radio, even when t.v. is available.
The camera crew is experienced too. Tonight was a good example.
Blake DeWitt hit his first major league home run. The camera was poised in the dugout to capture this:
DeWitt enters the dugout taking off his helmet. His teammates do not meet him at the steps. They are uniformly sitting on the bench, looking out at the ball field, as if nothing happened. DeWitt is like a man on an island. DeWitt puts his bat in the rack. He sort of hangs his head. Can't decide what to do with the helmet. Then, when he decides to take it off, the Dodger bench explodes towards him, patting him on the back, hugging him, wrestling him around, etc. The silent treatment, and then the celebration for a kid's first MLB homer. Then the fans gave him a curtain call.
That's a great baseball moment...the kind of thing that made you want to play as a kid, and made me read box scores every morning. And good broadcasting to know that was coming.
There's so much experience on the broacast crew. To a young listener, the broadcasters are probably a little corny, and not hip enough. But they are classic baseball old school broadcasts. It's worth listening to a Dodger game on radio, even when t.v. is available.
The camera crew is experienced too. Tonight was a good example.
Blake DeWitt hit his first major league home run. The camera was poised in the dugout to capture this:
DeWitt enters the dugout taking off his helmet. His teammates do not meet him at the steps. They are uniformly sitting on the bench, looking out at the ball field, as if nothing happened. DeWitt is like a man on an island. DeWitt puts his bat in the rack. He sort of hangs his head. Can't decide what to do with the helmet. Then, when he decides to take it off, the Dodger bench explodes towards him, patting him on the back, hugging him, wrestling him around, etc. The silent treatment, and then the celebration for a kid's first MLB homer. Then the fans gave him a curtain call.
That's a great baseball moment...the kind of thing that made you want to play as a kid, and made me read box scores every morning. And good broadcasting to know that was coming.
Rose's 3,000th Hit
Today is the 30th anniversary of Pete Rose's 3,000 hit, on the way to becoming baseball's all-time hit leader.
They showed some video of the hit tonight on ESPN. He hit it off Steve Rogers of the Expos, a name pretty much forgotten today, but one of the very good pitchers of the 1970s and early 1980s. Rogers made the All-Star team four times, was runner up for ROY in 1973, and finished in the top 5 in Cy Young voting three different times -- including a second place finish to Steve Carlton in 1982.
It was a road game, so no celebration: There wasn't a lot of fanfare/Nor were there many fans there/It was Montreal/After all.
Anyway, whereas now they would stop the game and celebrate, even in a road park, there was virtually nothing to mark the event. No teammates congratulating him. No opponents congratulating him. This was no Mark McGwire moment with Sosa hugging him (which I personally found disgusting).
But most interesting of all, Tony Perez, Rose's teammate on the Big Red Machine, was playing first base for Montreal. Rose trotted down to first and stood there. And so did Perez. Stand there. Ready for the next pitch. No congratulations. Just standing there. After a couple of minutes of both of them just standing there, Rose reached over and patted Perez' chest, and gave him the half-hug, with Perez sort of returning the half-hug...call it a quarter-hug.
I think the lack of general celebration is a product of the times. I think the lack of Perez' celebration is something deeper, like maybe Rose was always an asshole? Maybe? Not exactly far-fetched.
They showed some video of the hit tonight on ESPN. He hit it off Steve Rogers of the Expos, a name pretty much forgotten today, but one of the very good pitchers of the 1970s and early 1980s. Rogers made the All-Star team four times, was runner up for ROY in 1973, and finished in the top 5 in Cy Young voting three different times -- including a second place finish to Steve Carlton in 1982.
It was a road game, so no celebration: There wasn't a lot of fanfare/Nor were there many fans there/It was Montreal/After all.
Anyway, whereas now they would stop the game and celebrate, even in a road park, there was virtually nothing to mark the event. No teammates congratulating him. No opponents congratulating him. This was no Mark McGwire moment with Sosa hugging him (which I personally found disgusting).
But most interesting of all, Tony Perez, Rose's teammate on the Big Red Machine, was playing first base for Montreal. Rose trotted down to first and stood there. And so did Perez. Stand there. Ready for the next pitch. No congratulations. Just standing there. After a couple of minutes of both of them just standing there, Rose reached over and patted Perez' chest, and gave him the half-hug, with Perez sort of returning the half-hug...call it a quarter-hug.
I think the lack of general celebration is a product of the times. I think the lack of Perez' celebration is something deeper, like maybe Rose was always an asshole? Maybe? Not exactly far-fetched.
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