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1984 baseball year in review (the first- and maybe the last!) of these to pass time during the lockout

Wulaw Horn

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Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19153

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OK- so there is nothing going on in MLB. I'm not even sure if the sides are talking or negotiating. I can't imagine anything gets done before February or March, so it's just even more empty and desolate than most years are at this time of the year.  But- I thought this might be a fun game- if anyone else wants to play.  Everyone can post their thoughts on what they recall from that season- don't cheat and look anything up- and then we can do a deep dive into what actually happened.  

1984 I was 5 and turned 6 years old. It was the first baseball season I can actually remember remember- but I don't have a ton of memories and hell- I'm sure most of them were wrong.

I lived in San Francisco at the time.  The Giants were my favorite team.  The Giants sucked.  But, my dad took me to the games and if you could carry your kid through the gate they got in free. So, my dad hustled the shit out of them by carrying us into the game even though we were way bigger than they meant that to be. Didn't care. He beat them out of $5.00 for us between me and my brother- as I seem to recall that being what ticket prices were at the 'Stick.  We couldn't get any food to eat b/c a malt was probably super expensive.   I don't know what it actually cost but I know my Dad didn't buy us shit (we were poor- he was driving a bread truck and mom was a secretary at a medical office making probably minimum wage) at the game- said if we didn't bug him about buying souveniers we'd go to games more often.  Dad was off Sunday and Wednesday which were getaway games, and as I recall there were a fair amount of day games on Wednesday.  When we got one we would go, but it was usually after church on Sunday that we went to games. 

I think Atlee Hammaker was the Giants star (such as they had one) at the time.  The Giants sucked.  I think they hosted the all star game and he was the starter and I think he gave up like eleventy billion runs in the first inning.  That could have all been a different year.  It will be interesting to see when I look that up.  I also recall going to a game with Dad where Champ Summers hit a walk off home run.  Dad predicted it would happen.  When I asked him how he knew it would happen he gave me some BS about how he noticed he wasn't choked up so he was going to swing for the fence and that's how he knew. I was amazed that I had the smartest Dad in the world- having no idea that he just got lucky.  Champ Summers became my favorite player.  How could you not like a guy named Champ that hit a walk off home run while you were at the game?  If none of this ever happened when I look this up I'm going to be so bummed.  If it happened in a different year- no big deal.

I remember being amazed at Detroit.  I think they started the year something like 30-5.  Alan Trammel and Sweet Lou Whittaker.  If I recall correctly Black Jack Morris was their ace and Sparky Anderson was chain smoking in their dugout.  If I recall correctly they beat a sort of shitty San Diego Padres team who made the world series after beating the Cubs.  Apparently, I learned then that it was a big deal the cubs got in the playoffs b/c they were a bunch of losers and always had been.  Ryne Sandberg and Tony Gwinn, I think, were the best players in the game at that time.  No idea if any of that was true.  I liked the Padres uniforms- brown and mustard colored. I think I liked the Pirates uniforms too- if I recall right they had yellow hats with brown circles around them- but no idea if that was the case or if I made that up or pulled that from a different year.

The Tigers won the World Series as was fitting for what I'm sure was the best team ever that went like an entire month practically without losing.  

The only two other things I remember about 1984 were my mom voting for RR (She had been a democrat- my grandparents were always democrats as they were union through and through) and apparently everyone else in the world voting for the Gipper.  That and the US dominating the olympics and us eating a lot of McDonalds.  I was pretty patriotic proud of my country and then my dad told me it didn't really count b/c the Russians weren't there. I didn't understand why they weren't there even after he explained it to me.  That- and I think that was the year I cracked up at the "where's the beef" commercials. 


What- if anything- do you remember about the 84 season?  Anything I say actually true?  Don't look it up yet.  Where were you, who was your team, how old were you?

If anyone likes this and is interested we can share thoughts for the week and then figure out what really happened/the rest of the story. 

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Guest Lobo

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I still fucking hate the Padres because of 1984.  Leon Durham is worse than Bill Buckner IMHO.  

The 1984 Cubs roster (both additions and subtractions) is still fascinating to me.  Dallas Green was Theo Epstein before Epstein existed. 

Only thing I remember at age 5 about the 1981 season was my Dad vehemently thought the strike was bullshit.  1982 comes around, and I really started to understand the game (was only 6, but was playing organized ball for the first time, and my father was an excellent student/teacher of the game.  And two of my uncles had played minor league/semi-pro ball so this is when I start listening to their stories).  1983, the White Sox make the playoffs but lose to Baltimore.  My father is a lifelong Cubs fan and he revels in Earl Weaver and Cal Ripken's success.  But 1984 was something to behold.  We had been to many, many Cubs games before 1984...it was affordable in those days to take a family of 4 for $20 to Wrigley.  Now, you can't park for under $50, but we'd go after Church or a surprise in April or May...they'd come get me early from school and we'd head to a 3:05p start.  You have to understand, going to Wrigley in 1984 wasn't the thing it's been for the last 25 years.  There were no bachelor parties or corporate outings to Wrigley back then, just families and diehard fans.  If you met a group of folks in 1984 there for a bachelor party or bucket list trip, you'd think there was something mentally wrong with them.  By 1984, I can calculate slugging percentage, and I know how leftie/leftie matchups work, and I know when to steal and not to steal in situations. 

So 1984 was fucking huge to me as a kid just outside Chicago.  My father had just turned 40 and the signs around town "39 years is long enough" brought a smile to us both.  I wish we could say we were at the Sandberg game, but alas...we were not.  But I bet we made a dozen games that year, maybe more.  By the time September hit, it was too pricey to attend but that's what WGN was for (one of the handful of channels you got with an antenna in Chicago) 

But that 1984 roster was 3 years in the making, mainly by raiding the rest of the National League.  4-time all-star Davey Lopes and Bill Buckner were footnotes in that dugout.  Texas native Dave Owen, who wins the Sandberg game on a pinch-hit has a place in Cubs lore.  But in 1981, Durham comes over from STL.  1982 sees Sandberg, Bowa, Moreland all from PHI.  In 1984, also from PHI-they get Gary Matthews and Dernier.  1983, Cey comes from LAD.  7 of our position players over 3 years come there.  Starting pitching was in abundance to start the season with veterans like Rick Reuschel, Chuck Rainey, and Dick Ruthven are all supposed to factor into the rotation.  But all get hurt and/or struggle mightily.  Reuschel almost retires (luckily for him, he doesn't---goes on to a career reboot from 1985-1991 with PIT & SFG and selected to multiple all-star games.  Green is desperate, so he goes and gets Eckersley and Sutcliffe to compliment Trout and a great bullpen.   

When most of those transactions are completed in late June, the Cubs finish out the season 61-35...far ahead of the competition.  Next I'll get to the soul-crushing NLCS.  The last of its format.

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Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19153

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32 minutes ago, Lobo said:

I still fucking hate the Padres because of 1984.  Leon Durham is worse than Bill Buckner IMHO.  

The 1984 Cubs roster (both additions and subtractions) is still fascinating to me.  Dallas Green was Theo Epstein before Epstein existed. 

Only thing I remember at age 5 about the 1981 season was my Dad vehemently thought the strike was bullshit.  1982 comes around, and I really started to understand the game (was only 6, but was playing organized ball for the first time, and my father was an excellent student/teacher of the game.  And two of my uncles had played minor league/semi-pro ball so this is when I start listening to their stories).  1983, the White Sox make the playoffs but lose to Baltimore.  My father is a lifelong Cubs fan and he revels in Earl Weaver and Cal Ripken's success.  But 1984 was something to behold.  We had been to many, many Cubs games before 1984...it was affordable in those days to take a family of 4 for $20 to Wrigley.  Now, you can't park for under $50, but we'd go after Church or a surprise in April or May...they'd come get me early from school and we'd head to a 3:05p start.  You have to understand, going to Wrigley in 1984 wasn't the thing it's been for the last 25 years.  There were no bachelor parties or corporate outings to Wrigley back then, just families and diehard fans.  If you met a group of folks in 1984 there for a bachelor party or bucket list trip, you'd think there was something mentally wrong with them.  By 1984, I can calculate slugging percentage, and I know how leftie/leftie matchups work, and I know when to steal and not to steal in situations. 

So 1984 was fucking huge to me as a kid just outside Chicago.  My father had just turned 40 and the signs around town "39 years is long enough" brought a smile to us both.  I wish we could say we were at the Sandberg game, but alas...we were not.  But I bet we made a dozen games that year, maybe more.  By the time September hit, it was too pricey to attend but that's what WGN was for (one of the handful of channels you got with an antenna in Chicago) 

But that 1984 roster was 3 years in the making, mainly by raiding the rest of the National League.  4-time all-star Davey Lopes and Bill Buckner were footnotes in that dugout.  Texas native Dave Owen, who wins the Sandberg game on a pinch-hit has a place in Cubs lore.  But in 1981, Durham comes over from STL.  1982 sees Sandberg, Bowa, Moreland all from PHI.  In 1984, also from PHI-they get Gary Matthews and Dernier.  1983, Cey comes from LAD.  7 of our position players over 3 years come there.  Starting pitching was in abundance to start the season with veterans like Rick Reuschel, Chuck Rainey, and Dick Ruthven are all supposed to factor into the rotation.  But all get hurt and/or struggle mightily.  Reuschel almost retires (luckily for him, he doesn't---goes on to a career reboot from 1985-1991 with PIT & SFG and selected to multiple all-star games.  Green is desperate, so he goes and gets Eckersley and Sutcliffe to compliment Trout and a great bullpen.   

When most of those transactions are completed in late June, the Cubs finish out the season 61-35...far ahead of the competition.  Next I'll get to the soul-crushing NLCS.  The last of its format.

Sanberg game? 

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Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19153

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1 hour ago, Lobo said:

Ryne Sandberg.  He played second base for thE Cubs.  Had a modicum of success.  Even won a major award in 1984.  

I know. I even said I remember him being really good that year. The question was you said “Sandberg game” a couple times and I have no idea what you are talking about. What was the Sandberg game/your recollections of it? 

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Guest Lobo

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Well, now I look insane (as usual).  The fucking documentary which they put together during Covid when there was no baseball, complete with updated interviews with Sandberg, Dernier, Matthews, Sutter, and Costas.  All fucking gone for some reason.  One of the very few regular season games named after a position player.  

It's an amazing 40-minute documentary if you're a fan of the 1984 NL season.  Really good production value as well.  But can't find it now, watched it a half dozen times earlier this year.  FUCK!  Thanks a lot Cardinals fans, fuckfaces. 

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henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29195

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a lot of my family is originally from chicago and many of them are still cubs fans, especially my grandmother, so i always had a soft spot for them.  i remember watching the padres series pretty well (i turned 8 that summer).  when they lost, i was not interested in watching the world series (even though i had watched the past couple of years with my dad).

back then i was able to root for some other nl teams who had players i liked as long as they were in the east (sandberg, ozzie smith), while the stros battled traditional west rivals cincinnati and atlanta.  rarely was i able to watch any american league teams with any regularity, i just knew their baseball cards.

a couple of years later we spent a few weeks with my grandparents at a summer rental in park city and the cubs and padres played a series at wrigley where eric show hit andre dawson in the face and it started one of the best baseball fights i've seen.  sutcliffe looked like a monster coming out of the dugout and it was one of those great baseball fights where you think it's over and then it keeps flaring up again in little hotspots all over the field.

my grandmother was not pleased with the shenanigans. 

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Wade

Wade 464

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40 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

I know. I even said I remember him being really good that year. The question was you said “Sandberg game” a couple times and I have no idea what you are talking about. What was the Sandberg game/your recollections of it? 

Like long Cardinal fan.  Sandberg game refers to a June game between the Cubs and Cards that happened to be the Saturday Game of the Week (back when that was a big deal).  It was an amazing, high-scoring game.  Willie McGee hit for the cycle, something that's only happened around 300 times in MLB history, and his performance was an afterthought.

After a back and forth game, Bruce Sutter, who then was still pretty much unhittable, was brought into the 9th with a two run lead.  Sandberg hit a two-out two-run homer off him.  Tenth inning the Cards take a one-run lead.  Two outs and Sandberg homers again off Sutter!  Unheard of.  Cubs ended up finishing the game and crushing the Cards season.

I remember working at a restaurant getting ready to open and suffering through the ups and downs of that game.  Lot of Cubs fans worked at that restaurant.

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Guest Lobo

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At the end of a big football game, you want to get the ball to your big playmakers---Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice, Rob Gronkowski, or even Justin Tucker.  

At the end of a big basketball game, you want to get the ball to your big playmakers---Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Wilt Chamberlain, or even Stephon Curry.

At the end of a big soccer match, you want to get the ball to your big playmakers---Messi, Ronaldo, Pele, or even Maradona.

At the end of a big hockey game, you want to get the pick to your big playmakers---Howe, Jagr, Gretzksy, or even Hull.

But at the end of an extra innings baseball game, with everything on the line, having exhausted your substitutions---sometimes it all comes down to Spike Owen's brother, Dave.  And sometimes Dave Owen writes history.

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MaybeACoordinator

MaybeACoordinator 8349

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13 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

Back then I was a die hard Astro fan with season tickets.  The only thing I remember about the 1984 season was SS Dickie Thon having a verying promising career come to a halt when he got beaned in the face

I was playing shortstop for my LL team in Nashville and wore #10 in his honor -- I'd made the pick before he got beaned. Up until that year I'd been a mediocre little league player but I sat out the previous year because of grades and my dad took me to this rickety batting cage in this ramshackle old fairgrounds in Nashville day after day after day.....And then again right before the 1984 season started, by which time I had calluses on my hands and was incredibly dialed in to 75 mph heat, lol. And I crushed it that year -- unanimous MVP of the team, a terror on the basepaths and a slugger at the plate. I cannot thank my dad enough for taking the time to maximize the talent I had.....I played on for a few more years....I hit .333 every single year, with a pretty good OBP. I could handle breaking balls pretty well (thanks to wiffle ball) but when I hit the level when fastballs were touching 90 and coming in with movement, I realized I was not going to the bigs. 

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Johnny Sack

Johnny Sack 8397

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I was pretty young, but I remember my dad taking me to a game against the Reds.  It was in Spring, because he picked my brother and I up from Friday afternoon baseball practice to go (know it was a Friday, because parents were divorced and he had us every other weekend).

It was a 1-0 game.  My recollection is the only run was scored late on an errorl, and I think it was Cruz or Bass.  Niekro pitched.  I remember thinking his name was funny.  And Mother's Cookies had Astros trading cards.  I had the whole team.

All I remember about Cincy was Dave Parker, who looked like a giant out there compared to our guys.

Oh and Pete Rose was on the team.  

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Guest Lobo

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We're all getting old, Johnny.  Our memories betray us, it's okay---I've been there myself.  Like you, I have fond memories of baseball games with Dad in the 1980's, but you couldn't have seen Pete Rose in the Spring of 1984 in a Reds game.  You would have been lucky to see him the week that school started.  

But you're right about one thing, Dave Parker was an absolute giant.  Seeing him at Wrigley from up in our cheap seats, he still towered over everybody else.  Even though there were plenty of guys out there just a couple inches shorter, something about his shoulders and the way he could do that high-leg kick when running the bases or chasing a ball down in the OF.  He just looked different, like a true athlete in a massive frame.  Basically he and Dave Winfield were just giant athletes among great players.  Sure, you had some big power pitchers with long arms and powerful cores, but those two guys just looked different out there.  Like they could be anything from a Power Forward to a Tight End to a Corner Outfielder to a Decathlete.  

I'd like to think those guys did it with a steady diet of genes, weights, whiskey, and women.  

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Johnny Sack

Johnny Sack 8397

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I started going to games frequently after that night.  I know I saw Rose play in the Dome.  Must have been in 85 or 86. He was playing and managing.

That night my strongest memory was that it was a Friday, dad surprised us with tickets after a friday practice (so had to be in Spring), Astros won 1-0, and Parker was massive.

Looked it up.  Friday, April 13, 1984.  Astros win 1-0.  Bass scored on an error in bottom of 7th.

Me and 10,000 other people were there.

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Guest Lobo

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No doubt you were there . Pete Rose wasn't though.  He was living in Canada at the time.  Because my mysterious girlfriend from another school in Canada told me so.  But yeah, levity aside---Pete wasn't on the Reds in Spring of 1984.  I'm meticulous about Pete and the mid 80's.  I got to see him tie Cobb's record at Wrigley and kick myself because I pissed my dad off and he was gonna take me home early and drop me off (like you, my parents were split at the time).  But we listened to his last at-bat in the car and looked at each other like, "Why the fuck did we leave?  We're gonna miss this!"  We didn't, Pete broke it back home in Cincinnati where he was meant to, but still a cool moment when the little tiny digital display under the old-school Wrigley scoreboard read "4191."  Hopefully I'll never forget that moment as long as I live.  

And Tom Lawless goes down in baseball infamy.  

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MaybeACoordinator

MaybeACoordinator 8349

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That was the year my cousin Michael -- who lived with me and our grandparents and his mom, sister and our aunts in our shabby wreck of a mansion in the Museum District -- starting sneaking into the clubhouse. He was 8, and I was 14 The two of us would go like four hours early to games and I would catch foul balls in BP while he would sneak off with his little crew of Astro-hooligans and just kind of wormed their way into the clubhouse and stayed there for years....I think at first everyone assumed they were somehow connected to players and by the time they found out they weren't, of if they ever did, the organization just didn't care, because they hung around in there until the got bored with it years later. Michael ended up a pretty good player but one of his running buddies did him better by going on to become Andrew Friedman. 

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TornACL

TornACL 7724

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I think my first baseball memory at 6 was Fred Lynn hitting a grand slam in the 1983 All Star Game. I was playing tball and immediately loved baseball.

So when 1984 started I was all in. I was a numbers nerd as soon as I could count, and at 7 I liked the box scores and standings in the morning paper. I will never ever forget that the Tigers started 35-5 that year. 

In 1984 I also saw my first game in the Astrodome. 1-0 Astros over Dodgers. Nolan Ryan got the W. My old man got sweet tickets right behind home plate from his boss. I was mad that there wasn't a home run, so we couldn't see the famed Astrodome scoreboard go off. 

 

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Fudge Nuggets

Fudge Nuggets 19227

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On 12/15/2021 at 6:33 PM, TornACL said:

I was mad that there wasn't a home run, so we couldn't see the famed Astrodome scoreboard go off. 

We would go visit my grandparents in Houston every summer from 1978 - 1984 for a few days and catch one or maybe two games in the Dome.  I believe I saw a total of two home runs in those 10 or so games both by the other team.  Now we see that many just about anytime we go to MMP.

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WBT

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On 12/13/2021 at 8:48 PM, Wade said:

Like long Cardinal fan.  Sandberg game refers to a June game between the Cubs and Cards that happened to be the Saturday Game of the Week (back when that was a big deal).  It was an amazing, high-scoring game.  Willie McGee hit for the cycle, something that's only happened around 300 times in MLB history, and his performance was an afterthought.

After a back and forth game, Bruce Sutter, who then was still pretty much unhittable, was brought into the 9th with a two run lead.  Sandberg hit a two-out two-run homer off him.  Tenth inning the Cards take a one-run lead.  Two outs and Sandberg homers again off Sutter!  Unheard of.  Cubs ended up finishing the game and crushing the Cards season.

I remember working at a restaurant getting ready to open and suffering through the ups and downs of that game.  Lot of Cubs fans worked at that restaurant.

Just started on MLBN.  Bob Costas on the call.  Keith Moreland at the plate for the Cubbies in the bottom of the 1st.

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Guest Lobo

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Thanks.  Gonna watch it here in a minute.  But also, found a free link to the documentary they made last year during lockdown:

Scroll down about halfway and there's the ~40minute video:

https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2020/06/23/the-cubs-produced-a-documentary-on-the-sandberg-game-and-you-can-watch-it-right-now/

(Watch that Gary Matthews attempt on a foul ball in LF around the 27:00 mark and see how eerie it is to the Steve Bartman incident 20 years later)

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Guest Lobo

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You could just say "fuck Joe West" and we'd be done.

I have to admit, I hated Sutter growing up because he was a Cub, then became an evil Cardinal.  And because I thought it was just absolute bullshit that he was inducted into the Hall of Fame after having 10 great seasons as a reliever.  Yes, I get it...every other outing he pitched two innings...that's not a metric for Cooperstown.  "Oh once, a week he worked for 20 minutes instead of 10...Get Him a Plaque!"  But anyway, after seeing him in this documentary...seems like a really good dude who loved the game.  I hate him a little less now.  Whatever Sandberg did that game, Sutter was never the same.  

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