’82 Highlights

Most people overlook 1982 when they talk about great seasons in baseball. I can understand that, since there weren’t any no-hitters or many flashy record breaking moments beyond Rickey Henderson stealing every base possible. In reality though, the season included highlights ranging from future Hall of Famers beginning their careers, to a 300 game winner, to a 3000 strikeout milestone, to the first All-Star game outside of the USA, to a squirrel, to a grand slam out, to one guy playing for two teams in two different cities, to a classic 7 game World Series.

NOTE: This list isn’t finished yet. I add to it whenever I find more.

April

  1. April 6, the Twins open up the Metrodome
  2. April 8, Rickey Henderson draws 5 walks in a game.
  3. On April 10 in Baltimore, future Hall of Famer Wade Boggs plays in his first major league baseball game.
  4. April 20, the Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-2 to go 12-0. This is the best start to a season ever by any Major League team to that time. The fans went poured onto the field after the game (you just don’t see that happen anymore!).
  5. April 23, Julio Franco begins his major league career. He’ll play 23 seasons, playing his final major league game at age 49. At age 50, he posts a .356 OBP in the Mexican league.

May

  1. May 6, Gaylord Perry wins his 300th career game. He’s the first pitcher to do this since the 1960′s.
  2. May 9, “Spaceman” Bill Lee walks out to a bar during a game, in protest over the Expos dropping his teammate Rodney Scott. Lee gets fined & released by the team and never pitches in the major leagues again.
  3. May 8, Mike Schmidt reaches base for the 56th consecutive game with a 1st inning single off Padres pitcher John Montefusco. Schmidt’s streak began on August 16, 1981 & it was the longest streak since Jimmy Wynn’s 66 game on-base streak in 1969 and wouldn’t be outdone until 1985 by fellow Hall of Famer Wade Boggs (81 straight games).
  4. May 9, Greg Minton gives up a home run to Rusty Staub, ending Minton’s homerless streak at 254 1/3 IP
  5. May 13, Atlanta’s Bob Horner scores in his 15th consecutive game.
  6. May 14, Lee Lacy smacks a go ahead grand slam in the 8th, but is called out after passing the runner ahead of him when he’s heading for 2nd.
  7. May 18 in Detroit, Larry Herndon smacks 3 consecutive home runs after hitting a homer in his final at-bat in his previous game. Thus, he becomes only the 14th player to hit 4 home runs in 4 consecutive plate appearances.
  8. In his final career plate appearance, on May 22, Mario Mendoza pinch hits in the 12th inning against elite closer Dan Quisenberry and reaches base safely on a sac bunt, then scores the insurance run. Mendoza was known for not being able to hit the ball….oh the irony.
  9. May 25, Ferguson Jenkins of the Cubs, makes Gary Templeton his 3,000th strikeout victim in the third inning
  10. May 29, the Twins pull off a triple play against the Yankees without the ball being hit in the top of the 2nd in the Metrodome. It started with Roy Smalley striking out, followed by Craig Nettles and Bobby Murcer getting caught trying a double steal. You can see this on youtube. By my count, it’s only the 7th time this ever occurred (without the benefit of a defensive error) and it wouldn’t happen again for 20 years.
  11. May 30, Cal Ripken Jr begins his consecutive game streak.

June

  1. June 2, the Brewers are 7 games out of first place. So they fire manager Buck Rodgers, replace him with Harvey Kuenn and win 20 of their next 27 games to take over first place on July 11. Harvey’s Wallbangers go on to win the American League East title and their only American League pennant.
  2. June 11, Jerry Reuss nearly pitches a perfect game. He allows 1 hit to the game’s first batter, then doesn’t allow another base runner for the rest of the game. He wins 11-1. 2nd time in career he’s come so close to a perfecto.
  3. June 12 in Toronto, Tony Armas makes 11 putouts in a single game in rightfield, setting a new standard.
  4. June 20, Pete Rose becomes plays in his 3,000th Major League game. He’s just the 5th player to play that many games.

July

  1. July 1, a comical moment as a squirrel finds it’s way onto the field in the 5th inning of the Mets-Expos game in Montreal.
  2. July 10, the Milwaukee Brewers perform the rare feat of getting their leadoff batter on base safely to start each inning they came up to bat. They defeated the Royals 7-0.
  3. July 13, All Star game…first time Canada (Montreal). The NL beats the AL for the 11th consecutive year….and going 24-2 against the AL in the past 26 contests. Concepcion wins the MVP, but the AL’s Parrish hit a homer & threw out 3 runners.
  4. on July 19, future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, plays his first major league game. He smacks 2 hits, including a double, and scores a run.
  5. July 31, Manny Trillo fielded 479 consecutive chances without an error, setting a record, before he misplayed a grounder by Bill Buckner in the 7th inning. It had been 89 games without an error for Manny, just 2 games short of the record by Joe Morgan.”

August

  1. August 3, Frank White hits for the cycle against the Tigers, driving in 4 of the Royals 6 runs. This is the only cycle between 10/2/81 and 05/05/84
  2. August 4, Joel Youngblood plays in 2 games for 2 teams in 2 cities. First for the Mets in an afternoon game at Wrigley, then for the Expos at night in Philadelphia.
  3. August 8, Rollie Fingers becomes the first fireman to reach the 300 career saves.
  4. August 23, Gaylord Perry is ejected from a game against the Boston Red Sox for throwing a spitball. This is the only time in his career he’s ejected for that, despite it not being a secret he throws it.
  5. Aug 24, in Texas, Royals catcher John Wathan steals his 31st base of the season, breaking the record for steals in a season by a catcher. The previous mark was set by Ray Shalk in 1916.
  6. August 27 in Milwaukee, Rickey Henderson breaks single season steals record with his 119th. He steals 4 bases without getting a base hit.

September

  1. On September 4, Lonnie Smith steals 5 bases in a game, tying the record for bases stolen in a game.
  2. September 5, Roy Smalley of the New York Yankees hits a pair of three-run home runs, one from each side of the plate.
  3. September 6, Veteran first baseman Willie Stargell, whose jersey #8 is retired, is saluted by 38,000 fans on his day at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium. The 41-year-old slugger delivers a pinch single in the Pirates’ 6-1 win over the Mets.
  4. September 8, Don Mattingly begins his major league career
  5. September 28, a bloop hit to lead off the 9th spoils Jim Clancy’s bid for a perfect game.

October

  1. October 1. Through seven innings, the New York Mets’ Terry Leach and the Philadelphia Phillies’ John Denny have each only given up one hit. Denny is lifted in the ninth for a pinch hitter, however, Leach remains in the game through the tenth inning without giving up a second hit. A sacrifice fly by Hubie Brooks in the tenth inning off Larry Anderson is the deciding factor in the Mets’ 1-0 victory at Veterans Stadium.
  2. Oct 2, longtime great defensive shortstop Mark Belanger plays his final big league game.
  3. October 3, striking out in his final at-bat of the season, Mike Davis becomes the 3rd player to end his season with a .400 batting average since 1941. Unfortunately, he’s also the 3rd since ’41 to not have enough plate appearances to qualify for a batting title. This is also Willie Stargell’s final major league day.
  4. October 10. After being down 2-0 to the California Angels, the Milwaukee Brewers complete a three game comeback, defeating the Angels 4-3 to capture their first and only American League Championship. Fred Lynn of the losing Angels is named the Most Valuable Player of the Series after going 11-for-18 with 5 RBI and 4 runs scored.
  5. October 12. The first game of the 1982 World Series features Paul Molitor setting a new World Series record with five hits (in five at bats), as he leads the Milwaukee Brewers to a 10-0 victory over the Cardinals in St. Louis.
  6. October 20, The Cardinals win the 7th game of the World Series over the Brewers.

Comments are closed.