Danny, out of the bullpen, managed to win 10 games while he led the team with 7 saves. His 3.44 ERA was 2nd best on the staff among pitchers who’d thrown more than 18 innings….and those 2 pitchers were September call-ups, so Texas didn’t really have them all season long.

Being the most consistent on a pitching staff isn’t always enough though, ’cause you also have to be good at the right times too. Well, Danny was good at the right times. He made 4 appearances in 1-run or tie games, that kept his team from ending up with over 100 loses.

The first, was very early in the season against the eventual AL champs, the Brewers. On April 16, Danny came into the game to start the 6th, with the score tied at 1. The game remained tied after 9, but the Rangers got to Rollie Fingers in the 10th to take the lead. Danny held the Brew Crew down in the bottom half of the inning to keep the game in favor of Texas.

The second, was on May 7 against the Red Sox, who were 18-9 and in 1st place in the AL East. The Rangers were just 7-16, in last place, and in the midst of a 12 game losing streak. It would’ve become a 13 game losing streak that night if not for Danny getting a fine 5 out save in a 1-0 Rangers victory. He came into the game with a man on 2nd and only 1 out, having to keep big bats Dwight Evans and Jim Rice from driving in the runner. That’s a situation, and a game, that easily could’ve slipped away. The Rangers couldn’t beat Boston that year, going just 2-10 against ‘em.

The third, came on July 31 against the Yankees when he tossed 3 1/3 shutout innings to save another 1 run game.

The fourth appearance, was about a week later, in Yankee stadium. Danny entered a tie game with 2 outs in the 6th and a runner on 3rd to face Dave Winfield. Not only does he get the slugger to hit a weak grounder to shortstop, but he ends up inducing 6 groundballs out of the 7 batters he faces to finish the game. The tie game, turned into a Rangers victory thanks to Danny keeping the Yankees offense shut down.

When the season was finished, the Rangers had 98 losses, just 4 games ahead of the Twins in the AL standings. Seems to me, Danny Darwin was the difference between Texas and Minnesota in ’82.

If not for the phrase “The Mendoza Line”, we’d probably all have forgotten about him by now. He’s the image of inept hitting, having hit just .215 for his career (thus a .200 BA being the Mendoza Line). Personally, I find it even more amazing that his OBP was a mere .245. That means he actually got out 3/4 of the time in his career. How he managed to play parts of 9 seasons is beyond me.

But little do people know, that there’s a great irony in how his career ended.

It was a Saturday night in Kansas City, May 22, 1982. The Royals and Rangers were tied 1-1 entering the 12th inning. The Royals had legendary closer Dan Quisenberry on the mound, during the peak of Quizz’s career.

The Rangers lead the inning off with a single. Then something off the wall amazing happens. Rangers manager Don Zimmer takes rightfielder Larry Parrish out of the game for a pinch hitter. The pinch hitter is Mario Mendoza.

Now, sure, Parrish was in a bad slump, batting around .100 for about a month, but he’s replacing a slumping hitter for a hitter who’s batting .118 for the year. On top of that, he has Mario in there to sacrifice the runner over. Uummm, couldn’t Parrish do that?

Then one of those amazing baseball moments happen. When Mendoza lays down a sacrifice bunt, something goes weird…and Mario Mendoza ends up safe at 1st and the lead runner is safe at 2nd. A couple batters later, Mario’s scoring the final run of the game to bring the Rangers to a 3-1 lead. Which is how the game ended.

When I think about it, I have to figure this was Zimmer’s plan all the way. He must’ve figured that if Parrish laid down a bunt, he’d have little to no shot at reaching safely because he’s slower than Mendoza, who had 48 career SH enterting this game. So Zimmer wasn’t actually trying to sacrifice the runner over, he was actually putting Mendoza in the game to get a hit. And he did it. If he wasn’t playing for Mendoza to get a hit, he would’ve just let Parrish stay in the game and sac bunt.

So, let’s recap. The guy who’s infamous for being unable to get base hits, ends his career by getting to pinch hit precisely because the manager believes he’ll get a hit and then he actually does get the hit, and then he crosses home plate for the final run of the game. How amazing is that? Oh and in the bottom half of the inning he catches a pop fly by Frank White for the final play of the game and his career.

Statistically it’ll always be counted a sacrifice, but in reality, I think it was a hit since he wasn’t really trying to sacrifice.

And was Topps being sarcastic by slapping 2 homer related trivia questions on the back of Mario’s card?

Mark was the regular shortstop through the first game of a doubleheader on July 9, 1982, although he shared some time in April and May with Mario Mendoza. A few others were used at the position during July and early August, when the Rangers acquired Bucky Dent from the Yankees for Lee Mazilli, and Dent took over the regular duties.

The highlight of Mark’s season was probably April 12, when he went 2 for 4, scoring 2 runs and driving in another 2. He was responsible for 4 of his team’s 7 runs. Usually that kind of offense will win you a game, but that day the Yankees hitters were hot and the Rangers pitchers were not.

That spring, May 30 – June 21, 1982, he had his last stretch of good hitting in his major league career, posting up a hitting line of .359/.388/.359. Less than a month later, he lost the starting SS job and would only play 2 big league games between July 9, 1982 and May 4, 1984. Not sure if that was due to injury or just lack of consistency in the lineup. in ’84, he had a 3 game hitting streak and after that season he never played in the majors again.

He spent most of ’83 and ’85 as a bench player in AAA, before reappearing on the baseball map in 1997 at the age of 43, finishing his professional career going 1 for 4 for the Chattanooga Lookouts in AA.