pete@umcp-cs.UUCP (Pete Cottrell) (01/18/85)
.....a baseball fan who doesn't want to argue about the Mets or Cubs. With all of the flaming going back and forth, I sometimes wonder if this is a baseball newsgroup; it almost makes me want to unsubscribe. So, I have decided to post the kind of thing I would like to see; I'm sure other stats freaks and fans will enjoy it too. It is a small list of significant events and record-breakers that occurred during the 1984 season. I only started keeping it during the latter part of the season, and all facts came from the short synopses of games that fill about a half page of the daily paper. So please excuse the start date, and remember that omissions could be due to my missing the paper or the wire services not mentioning them. If there are events you think should have been included, post them; as I said, this is the kind of thing that I would like to see!!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7/22 Steve Carlton's 309th win moved him past Charles (Hoss) Radbourn into 12th place on the all-time win list. He also passed Tim Keefe into 11th place on the all-time innings pitched list with 4,706.7. (Phillies 6, Braves 2) 7/23 Joe Morgan got 2 hits to raise his major league total to 2,501; he became the 59th player to reach the 2,500 hit milestone. (Twins 14, A's 4) 8/12 George Wright of the Texas Rangers tied a league record by stranding 11 runners. He tied the mark set set in 1901 by the White Sox's Frank Isabell and tied in 1907 by the White Sox's John Donahue. The major league record is 12 by the Cubs' Glenn Beckert in 1972. (Red Sox 3, Rangers 2) 8/15 Ron Cey of the Cubs got his 1000th and 1001st career RBIs. (Astros 6, Cubs 2) 8/29 The Padres' Steve Garvey played his 131st consecutive errorless game to tie a major league record set by Frank McCormick of the Cincinnati Reds in 1946. The major league record over 2 seasons is 178 by Mike Hegan. This game by Garvey put his mark at 159 (I'm sure he broke the record a while later). (Padres 2, Phillies 0) 8/29 Rusty Staub hit a pinch-hit double, his 2,700th career hit. (Mets 3, Dodgers 2) 8/30 Jim Rice of the Red Sox hit into his 33rd double play of the season to set a major league record (at least Wade Boggs scored on the play!). The old record of 32 was held by Jackie Jensen of the Red Sox in 1954. (Red Sox 9, Twins 3) 9/10 Don Sutton of the Brewers moved into 6th place in the all-time strikeout list with 3,194, 2 more than Ferguson Jenkins. He also got his 13th win of the season and his 279th career victory. (Brewers 7, Red Sox 4) 9/14 Pete Rose hit the 724th double of his career, tying him with Ty Cobb for 3rd place on the all-time list. (Dodgers 6, Reds 5) 9/15 Reggie Jackson hit his 499th home run and drove in 3 runs, which tied him with Mickey Mantle for 24th on the all-time career RBI list with 1,509. (Angels 11, White Sox 2) (Sorry, I lost the blurb for Jackson's 500th, but I do know it was also the RBI that put him past Mantle.) 9/15 Tony Gwynn had 2 hits to become the first Padre to get 200 hits in one year. (Astros 3, Padres 2) 9/16 Pirates participate in their 25th extra-inning game of the season, 2 fewer than the National League record of 27 set by the Boston Braves in 1943 and tied by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1967. The major league record is 31 by the 1943 Red Sox. (Cardinals 8, Pirates 7) 9/16 Angels Bobby Grich got 3 hits, giving him 8 in his last 8 official at-bats, tying the club record by Jim Fregosi, and had reached base 11 straight times, breaking the team record of 10 by Mickey Rivers. (Angels 4, White Sox 2) 9/17 This marks the date that 2 hall-of-famers had their big league debuts. Stan Musial went 2-for-4 in a victory against the Boston Braves in 1941, while Brooks Robinson also went 2-for-4 in a victory over the Washington Senators in 1955. 9/17 Dwight Gooden struck out 16 en route to setting 2 NL records. The 16 Ks tied the major league record of 32 in 2 consecutive games, set in 1968 by Luis Tiant of Cleveland and Nolan Ryan of the Angels in 1974. The NL record had been 31, set by Sandy Koufax in 1959. In his last 3 games, Gooden had 43 Ks, breaking Koufax's record of 41. The major league record is 47 by Ryan. This game was lost by Gooden when he balked in the winning run in the 8th inning. (Phillies 2, Mets 1) 9/19 Pete Rose tied the NL record for doubles; he shares the record with Stan Musial with 725. The double was also his 100th hit of the season, extending his record to 22 consecutive 100-hit seasons. After his double, he was thrown out at the plate by Dale Murphy trying to score on Dave Parker's single. Since he ignored the 3rd base coach's stop sign, he fined himself $50. (Reds 4, Braves 2) 9/20 Nolan Ryan seesaws past Steve Carlton on the alltime strikeout list; his 3,874 is 2 more than Carlton. (Dodgers 6, Astros 2) 9/20 The Cards got stolen bases by Willie McGee and Terry Pendleton to give them 201 for the season, the 3rd seaon in a row they have passed the 200 mark. The record is 4 consecutive seasons (1913-1916) by the St. Louis Browns. (Cards 3, Expos 2) 9/24 Don Mattingly had 2 hits to make hime the first Yankee in 22 years to get 200 hits in a season; the last was Bobby Richardson with 209 in 1962. (Orioles 7, Yankees 6) 9/24 Rick Sutcliffe became the 4th person to win a combined 20 games for 2 teams in different leagues, as he won his 16 of the season and 14th in a row for the Cubs, who won their first championship since 1945. The last 2 league 20-game winner had been Hank Borowy, who was 21-7 in 1945 for the Yankees and (guess who???) the Cubs. (Cubs 4, Pirates 1) 9/24 The Padres dealt the Giants a franchise-record-tying 91st loss. (Padres 7, Giants 1) 9/25 Rusty Staub hit a pinch-hit 2-run homer to beat the Phillies. Staub became the second person (the other was Ty Cobb) to hit home runs in his teens, 20s, 30s, and 40s. The hit was Staub's second 2-rbi pinch-hit game winner in 2 nights. (Mets 6, Phillies 4) 9/25 Steve Braun of the Cards got his 100th career pinch hit, a 2-run triple. (Cards 6, Expos 4) 9/26 Juan Samuel stole his 72nd base of the season, breaking the rookie record of 71 set by Montreal's Tim Raines in 1981. (Mets 7, Phillies 1) 9/30 The End of the Season!!! There are several events worth noting. Mike Witt of the California Angels pitches only the 13th perfect games in major league history. The last was a 5 inning effort by Montreal's David Palmer against the Cards on April 21st. The last 9 inning affair was that of then Cleveland Indian Len Barker vs. Blue Jays on May 15, 1981. Witt's effort was the first in the history of Angels and the 7th no-hitter by the club (4 by Nolan Ryan, 1 each by Bo Belinsky and Clyde Wright). The victory was the 15th of the season for Witt. (Angels 1, Rangers 0) Don Mattingly of the Yankees went 4 for 5 to edge teammate Dave Winfield for the league batting championship, .343 to .340. He became the 7th player since 1900 to lead a league in batting in his first full season. He ended the season by also leading in hits with 207, and 44 doubles, the most by any Yankee since Red Rolfe's 46 in 1939. (Yankees 9, Tigers 2) The Orioles spoiled Ralph Houk's finale. Houk retired with 1,619 victories in 3,155 games. (Orioles 5, Red Sox 3) Mark Langford of the Mariners had 9 strikeouts against the White Sox to win the AL strikeout crown, edging Toronto's Dave Stieb, who had 198. Langford became the first rookie to lead the AL in strikeouts since Herb Score of the Indians in 1955. (Mariners 5, White Sox 3) The Phillies Juan Samuel set a NL record with 701 at bats. (Pirates 2-7, Phillies 0-2) Pete Rose broke the NL record with his 726th career double. He had 3 hits to give him 107 this season, a career total of 4,097. This is only 94 behind Ty Cobb's record 4,191. (Reds 7, Astros 6) And then came the World Series, which ended all too soon. And then the long wait until opening day. I hope this subset of 1984 helps fill the time. -- Call-Me: Pete Cottrell, Univ. of Md. Comp. Sci. Dept. UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!pete CSNet: pete@umcp-cs ARPA: pete@maryland