In fact, he was credited with the win for the ’78 & ’79 All-Star games, and then got the save in 1980.

That was all with the Cubs though. Would the pressure of trying to impress a new team and the new fans, make him crumble? NAAWW! He began the season with 4 saves in 4 save opportunities. The only reason it wasn’t 5 saves, is ’cause the Cardinals offense scored an extra 2 runs in the top of the inning of one game that Sutter came into.

He hit a rut after that though. From April 29 – May 24, 1981, he managed 4 saves and only blew 1, but… he was allowing batters to hit .319/.424/.551 off him and posted an awful 5.68 ERA. He got credit for 3 St Louis losses too.

Just when you’d think he wasn’t going to be good enough for another All-Star appearance, he righted his ship. in his next 5 appearances leading up to the strike, he got back to being Bruce Sutter, holding batters to a .154/.154/.231 batting line. He went 1-0, with 3 saves, and a 1.59 ERA during that stretch.

That was enough to get his season ERA back down to 3.07, and get enough All-Star votes to get into the game in Cleveland in ’81.

In typical Bruce Sutter fashion, he was the 9th inning guy for the National League, expected to hold down the 1 run lead that Mike Schmidt gave them an inning earlier.

First batter, Frank White, fouled off 3 pitches and draw a couple balls, but eventually grounded out to third base. Second batter was Blue Jays pitcher Dave Stieb. Now, I don’t know why the AL batted a pitcher, maybe they were out of position players, but whatever the case, Sutter mowed him down on 3 pitches.

At that point, it was all up to Dave Winfield, who gave it his best shot but only managed a flyball to leftfield.

So once again, Bruce earned the save. He won consecutive midsummer classics, and now he’d saved consecutive ones. Would the American League ever figure this guy out? …To be Coninued …in October.

I first noticed it with Steve McCatty‘s card, and now I’m thinking about it again. Scott was just 12-12 with a 106 ERA+ on the year. Average. Dull. Just like his pose & expression.

Just like McCatty’s card, the only thing that keeps this card interesting is the colorful uniform of Les Expos de Montréal.

He had his moments of course, just like anyone else, but he couldn’t catch a break. A good example is the “squirrel game“, in which he tossed a CG but lost, due to a pair of unearned runs.

I think something about that game changed him a little. Maybe it made him feel like, “Why bother?”, I don’t know. If you split his season’s stats after that game though, it’s clear that batters started connecting with Scott’s pitches more after that game.

See? A slight decrease in SO & BB, and a dangerous increase in HR’s allowed. I find it kinda funny that his ERA balloons to nearly double, yet he still ends up with the same W-L. It’s as if the guy cannot win or lose, he was just made to break even.

My main memories of Scott are from his days with the Yankees. I always think of him an Expo though.

Reggie didn’t have quite the career expected of him. He was 6 feet tall by the time he was 14 and pitching to players older them him, but turned to be only a mediocre pitcher with flashes of greatness.

Still, he was good enough to hang onto a major league roster spot for 13 years and get inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

In fact, 30 years after he retired, his 105 career wins still make him the 4th winningest Canadian born pitcher in history out of 120 Canadian hurlers. He also ranks 8th in saves and his ERA ain’t too bad for a Canadian—

A pair of Hall of Famers grace the final League Leaders card in this set. One lookin’ like the twin brother of Grizzly Adams, while the other looks like he just walked out of an old silent film.

These were the days when relievers weren’t called closers yet, but firemen. They weren’t judged solely on their save totals, but on summing up the pitcher’s saves & relief wins.

Bruce Sutter didn’t exactly runaway with the NL reliever points, ’cause Rick Camp was winning a number of his relief appearances. As late in the season as Sept 12th, Rick & Bruce were tied with 23 points a piece.

After that, Rick only earned 3 more saves while Bruce earned 5, giving Bruce the title of Leading NL Reliever in ’81. During the stretch where he pulled ahead, his ERA was a not-so-good 4.26, compared to Rick Camp’s 3.68.

Still, Bruce had 32 appearances of 4 or more outs during the strike-shortened ’81 season. Unfortunately, you won’t see any relievers doing that these days. Rick wasn’t too far behind, with 26 appearances of 4+ outs, but still not quite Sutter-ish

The AL’s Rollie Fingers, in his first season for Milwaukee, pitched a lot of 4 or more out appearances too. He did it in 30 of his 47 appearances.

There was just no doubt in any reasonable mind that he was having one of the best season’s ever, as he posted a 1.04 ERA, 2.07 FIP, league leading 28 saves, appeared in 41 of the Brewers 109 games (38% of team’s games), and accumulating 4.1 bWAR (2.5 fWAR) on route to winning the AL MVP & Cy awards.

This would be a good time for you to go see him throw the final pitch of the Brewer’s season, clinching the team’s first trip to the playoffs.

I always loved Rollie’s mustache. Who wouldn’t? I remember first seeing him on the stickers or maybe a stamp, and that ‘stache just blew me away.

If looks could strike you out… then the piercing look in Nolan Ryan’s eyes here would certainly do it. Steve McCatty looks moody, a bit sad, & deep in thought. Their caps spell “Has”.

Both hurlers faced fierce competition for the ERA titles in 1981. Seriously, just look at the back of this card. Every single pitcher that qualified for the top 10 in each league, were all below 3.00. That hasn’t happened again in the 30 years since.

Future Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan led the way among them all, with a super slim 1.69 ERA, which still stands as the 2nd best post-1968 ERA. This was the first time Nolan led the league in the category.

Now wait you say – “the Astrodome was an extremely good park for pitchers!” and you’d be right. It was especially good to Nolan in the strike-shortened 1981 season, helpin’ him to home ERA of just 1.11. Despite that though, he still had an awesome 2.14 ERA on the road, so he still would’ve won the NL ERA title if he pitched only on the road.

Yeah, that’s how hot he was.

So at first, Baltimore’s Sammy Stewart won the title. A couple days later, it was still being reported that McCatty came in 2nd. After a review of the rules, the Scoring Committee then stripped Sammy and gave the title to Steve because the rule actually removed part of an inning from Sammy and added part of an inning to Steve.

As if that wasn’t insane enough, it makes the situation crazier when you find out that a similar “by the rule” situation happened twice before, decades earlier. What happened then? Well they did the smart thing — “they ignored the rule, and did what common sense told them was right“.

So Steve McCatty appears on this card when he didn’t really have the lowest ERA in the AL among qualified pitchers. Fortunately you won’t see this insanity anymore. Retrosheet, Baseball-Reference, Fangraphs, or MLB.com each accurately show Sammy and Steve’s real ERA for 1981.

It’s funny how you view cards so differently now, than when they came out. In early ’82, getting this card in your pack, was gold. You had the NL ROY and a guy who’d just thrown a perfect game. They were both young enough, to think they were going to be great throughout the 1980′s.

Of course, that isn’t how history played out. So now I see this card as a pair of young pitchers who had their moment. They were both at their peak’s in ’81, and neither had any trouble laying down the law from the mound.

Fernando, as I think everyone reading this knows, was the biggest thing since burritos that season (and I’m not talking about his weight). He tossed shutouts like Cesar does salads. He mowed batters down like he was part of the Dodger Stadium grounds crew. He deserved every ounce of that Cy Young award, and every vote of the NL Rookie of the Year award. He was still only 20 years old.

The only competition he had for the NL strikeout title, was in Philadelphia’s Steve Carlton. They were only separated by 1 strikeout in the end. In fact, in many areas, they were pretty much the same pitcher (including the fact both were lefties), which is a testament to how great this 20 year old Mexican kid was—

The only significant differences between them was the fact Fernando led the world with 8 shutouts, while Steve managed just 1.

Carlton had a shot to surpass Fernando for the strikeout lead in his final start of the season on October 2, one day after Fernando threw his last game of ’81. All Steve needed to do was strikeout 11 Cubs. This wouldn’t be a problem for lefty, especially since he’d struck out 15 Mets, 12 Expos, and 11 Cubbies, in his previous three starts.

Steve managed to strike out 9 Cubs through the 7th inning. Unfortunately for him, he’d given up 4 runs and his team was losing 7-3, so he was replaced by a pinch hitter in the bottom half of the inning. Thus, Fernando won the strikeout title by a single K.

Over in the American League, it wasn’t quite so down-to-the-wire. Len Barker snagged the title for the 2nd straight year, this time by 19 K’s over the ChiSox Britt Burns.

Len sowed the title up early, racking up 46 strikeouts in his first six starts. Len’s teammate and future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven was actually his closest competition at the time, 39 strikeouts through May 21st.

At that point though, the 22 year old Britt Burns over in Chicago began to heat up. From May 22nd through the end of ’81, Britt whiffed 80 batters.

That wasn’t enough though, as Len kept pace with Britt, whiffing 81 batters through the same period. Bert stayed in the race, but came in just behind them both.

The rest is history.

Every single one of the guys on this card had the exact same amount of wins in ’81, with 14. That’s got to be the weirdest thing about it. I mean, all 5? That’s got to be pretty unusual.

Probably even weirder, is that they were all tied at 13 too. Yep, at the end of play on September 22, 1981, these five pitchers along with Fernando Valenzuela, were tied with 13 wins a piece. The difference between them in the end, was what happened afterwards—

McCatty, Vuckovich, & Valenzuela pitched the best but their teams had trouble scoring for them. In fact, Fernando’s final start was 1-0 loss to the 39-68 Padres with Fred Kuhaulua on the mound?

Other than Fernando, the only N.L. pitcher to just miss the big tie in the end, was Steve Carlton. He’d won most of his games earlier in the year, going 9-1 on a 2.80 ERA before the strike.

Strangely, his Phillies had trouble scoring for him after the strike was over. His second half ERA of 1.93 would normally be enough to pull off the 5 wins he needed. Unfortunately, he only went 4-3. He didn’t reach the tie at 13 or 14.

As for the American League pitchers, Pete Vuckovich actually had a blown save, which balloons his ERA in the above table. So it’s notable that in his final 2 starts, he gave up just 1 run in 15 2/3, but still couldn’t get credit for a win in either start. He was incredibly hot, but seemed to suffer the same problem as Carlton & Valenzuela.

Jack Morris’s ERA, BB/9, and HR/9 easily make him look bad, but he’s probably the most interesting story of the bunch here. He won his 14th, against Scott McGregor who was looking for his 13th. Since Scott won his next start, this game effectively kept Scott from being on this card.

Jack faced up against Pete Vuckovich a few days later, with both the pitchers sitting at 14 W’s, hoping to pass each other. Neither of them won it, but if either of them had, then one of them wouldn’t have been on this card.

Besides Scott McGregor, there was another A.L. hurler who just missed out on being pictured here, was Kansas City’s Dennis Leonard. From September 8 onward, he went 6-1, with a 1.39 ERA.

Dennis had been having a rough year up to that point, but he would’ve appeared on this card if he didn’t get a no decision on Aug 25th when he faced Jack Morris, or on Aug 10th when he faced Dennis Martinez, or the loss he got when he matched up against Pete Vuckovich in June.

Dennis is the reason though, why McCatty isn’t the sole American Leaguer on this card. October 2nd, they faced off in a wonderful pitchers duel in Oakland. Steve was lookin’ for his 15th win, which would’ve put him on this card alone with Tom Seaver.

Both pitchers went the distance, but Dennis came out on top with a 2-0 victory, effectively sticking McCatty at 14 wins.

I never realized when I was a kid, that there were almost more players for this card ’til I started lookin’ into it a couple months ago. Now it fascinates me how intertwined this all was.

Whoever designed this card, had to be a perfectionist. Everybody’s facing the same direction like they’re some kind of singing group in the middle of a synchronized dance step, and their skin color gets darker from left to right. It’s like this card had to have some sort of orderliness. I used to think of it like one of those evolution charts. It’s like it shows us the stages of Jay Howell turning into a black guy with a mustache.

Anyway, the Cubs needed future stars when ’82 rolled around. They’d just spent the past two seasons being the worst team in the National League. Overall, only the Mariners were worse than the Cubbies in ’80, and only the Blue Jays in ’81. Both of them being expansion clubs, made the situation feel even worse. So Cubs fans needed new heroes.

Ty Waller

When you hit .268/.303/.451 in the majors, but hit .263/.307/.423 during the same season in AAA, it probably means you got “lucky” in the show during your 77 PA’s. Turns out, that’s exactly what it meant for Ty Waller. The Cubs didn’t realize that though, until about a month into the next season (1982) when they sent him back to AAA ’cause he just wasn’t hitting. He only got 9 more PA’s for the rest of his career. He wouldn’t make the majors again after ’82, ’til a brief stint with the Astros in ’87.

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]]> http://cards.devonyoung.com/cubs/chicago-cubs-future-stars/feed/ 0 http://cards.devonyoung.com/orioles/steve-stone/ http://cards.devonyoung.com/orioles/steve-stone/#comments Wed, 20 Jul 2011 04:32:58 +0000 Devon Young http://cards.devonyoung.com/?p=2072 Hopes were high for Steve Stone as 1981 began. He’d just won the Cy Young award on the strength of 25 victories, and looked like he was simply a late bloomer.

Unfortunately that’s not the direction his story goes. Just six months after he was awarded the Cy, he found himself in pain throughout a game. Something wasn’t right with his elbow.

Even then, there was hope. Arm troubles happen all the time, and advances in the medical field could fix a pitcher’s problems. It was only a couple years earlier that Tommy John had his now famous surgery. So nobody knew that Steve would throw his last major league pitch, exactly one year after he won that 25th game in ’80.

It turned out to be tendonitis in his right forearm, but he wouldn’t pitch again for over three months. He wasn’t even ready when the Orioles began playing again, after the strike finished.

When he finally returned, he wasn’t doing very well, inconsistent at best. He flashed some brilliance at the start of September though. In back to back starts on a west coast trip, highlighted by 7 1/3 innings of shutout ball in the Kingdome. Even then, he said that 98 pitches felt more like 198.

He never even played a game in ’82 — minors or majors. He ended up on the Orioles disabled list before spring training was out and couldn’t recover. When June rolled around, Steve decided it was time to retire and get into something new. That something new, was doin’ the talkin’ thing in the broadcast booth for games.

Random Steve Stone Facts & Stats—

• From May 9 – Aug 23, 1980, Steve posted a 2.67 ERA, while going 19-1.
• Had a 3.11 ERA and 14-1 record vs his division in 1980.
• Had a friendly rivalry with Thurman Munson.
• Career 98 ERA+

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]]> http://cards.devonyoung.com/orioles/steve-stone/feed/ 0 http://cards.devonyoung.com/rangers/bob-babcock/ http://cards.devonyoung.com/rangers/bob-babcock/#comments Tue, 05 Jul 2011 04:39:43 +0000 Devon Young http://cards.devonyoung.com/?p=2070 I’m struggling to find answers when it comes to Bob Babcock, and here he looks like he was looking for some answers too. He looks so pensive, perhaps worried, maybe even beaten.

Bob chiseled a 2.20 ERA out of the first half of the 1981 season. After that, he doesn’t appear in any major league or minor league games for the rest of ’81. Scouring old newspapers, I couldn’t even find any mention of him going on the disabled list. All I found was a cryptic mention in October that “Bob Babcock …. surely will not be back” on the team in ’82.

Very strange remark, when you’re talking about a reliever who’d just improved for the third straight season. A reliever who just posted an ERA of 2.20, which was good for an ERA+ of 159. A reliever who cut his HR/9 in half since ’80.

Not saying he’d blossom into an All-Star, but he definitely had something going on there.

I’m guessing the Rangers decision makers didn’t like the fact that Bob allowed 46% of inherited runners to score. That seems to be the only stat that I can find a big problem with. Whatever the case, Bob ended his major league career the way anyone would want to.

It came on the Thursday night just before the strike, in Milwaukee.

The Brewers were just beginning their reign of terror on the American League, but nobody knew it yet. From Wednesday June 10, ’81 through the rest of the season, Milwaukee would win more games than any other American League team and score more runs than any major league team except Boston. This was just the beginning of when they put it all together.

Anyway, in the 8th inning of this Thursday night game, the Brew Crew knocked two Rangers hurlers out of the game as they took a 6-3 lead, and still had the bases loaded for the next victim daring to take the mound. Neither pitcher had been able to get that last out. The crowd was roaring for their Brewers. The Rangers chose to call Bob Babcock in, to try to keep the game from getting out of hand.

Bob took the mound to face Ted Simmons, a very good veteran hitter. Simmons had already hit a triple and a home run earlier in the game, so he was on fire and probably salivating at the chance for a grand slam on a night when he felt locked in.

First pitch, was a ball. Ted, who knew how to take a walk, had to be thinking that Bob had nowhere to put him. Bob had to be thinking it too. Everyone knew it.

Second pitch, strike. Third pitch, strike two! No doubt, he wasn’t afraid to challenge the hitter.

One strike away, Bob was probably a little nervous, knowing the game situation. He probably would’ve been more nervous if he knew that his next pitch would be his last major league pitch. Maybe he did know, I don’t know.

Ted hit that last pitch, but he couldn’t get solid wood on it, so it ended up as a fly out into foul territory, landing in first baseman Pat Putnam’s glove. That was it. That’s how Bob left the majors.

He certainly wasn’t a star, and didn’t go out with a World Series ring, but he did go out showing some nerve. He challenged the hitter, throwing strikes, and won the moment. If you’re going to be done, do it in style, eh?

Random Facts & Stats about Bob—

• According to Wikipedia, Bob currently lives in western Pennsylvania and is an excellent golfer.
• Had a 16 year minor league career.
• Had a 3.16 ERA in AAA Denver in ’82 (so he could still pitch!)
• 1.42 career ERA on artificial turf.
• 2.70 career ERA in September/October games.
• Batters hit .227/.318/.387 against Bob when there were 2 outs already.

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