The Baseball Digest Archive

March 1980

What stands out for me in this issue is much more than just the cover subject - yes, Gary Carter was in fact the NL’s. best young catcher in the spring of 1980. It’s the two last articles listed in the table of contents. In March of 1980 Satchel Paige and Rube Marquard were both still alive! Marquard’s major league career began in 1908 for goodness sake. In the Paige article he did some minor grumbling about today’s players, but you might be surprised over the one active pitcher that he singled out for praise - Kent Tekulve. He loved Tekulve’s unique delivery.

This issue contains a larger than usual number of articles that read much differently in retrospect. For example, if I told you that there is a feature on Baltimore’s shortstop of the future, you’d be surprised that it’s not about Cal Ripken Jr., who at this time was merely a Double-A third basemen. As for Kiko Garcia, he would go on to hit under .200 in the 1980 season, so he didn’t exactly pan out.

In 1980 an article discussing a time when Nolan Ryan nearly quit the game sounded like one of those absurd alternate history tales; at this time he was a well-established star pitcher. Knowing what we know now, that he would pitch until the age of 46 while setting several records along the way, it seems unimaginable that he supposedly almost walked away from the game at a young age. For the record, according to this story, Ryan’s wife said that during the 1972 spring training strike they were out of money with a newborn son & feeling homesick.

The issue also featured a lengthy preview of the upcoming rookie class including brief scouting reports of the top prospects from each team. It surprises me that eventual AL Rookie Of the Year Joe Charboneau was mentioned in the sub headline. If my memory serves correctly, he made such a splash not just because he was a colorful personality but also because his success was so unexpected. I’m obviously wrong there, because he was clearly held in high regard before that season.

Nothing is quite as heartbreaking as a prospect that does not pan out, scrolling through the prospect lists I came across so many names of players that I never heard of. On a more positive note, among the players listed as the #1 prospect for their respective teams are Harold Baines, Kirk Gibson, Rickey Henderson, Pedro Guerrero, Jeff Reardon, and Leon Durham. I mentioned that my memory was that Charboneau was an unexpected ROTY, what about the 1980 NL winner of the award? That would be Steve Howe - he was NOT one of the more than 150 players listed in these scouting reports.

Both Rookies of the Year had ill-fated careers. Charboneau was a classic flash in the pan; an endless litany of injuries ended his career in 1982. Steve Howe’s career was frequently interrupted by suspensions for a cocaine addiction. He was one of the top closers when he was available, but he could never escape his demons. He was killed in a truck accident at the age of only 48; not only was he not wearing a seatbelt, but toxicology reports found substances in his system. His problems were all self-inflicted, but his was still a very sad case.

Let’s close this one on a better note, or at least on a negative note that’s not as depressing. The magazine listed the “leaders” in negative statistics for the 1979 season. Some of the honorees are predictable - as an example the strikeout leaders in each league are Gorman Thomas and Dave Kingman. The worst ERA belonged to Mark Lemongello, who is the cousin of infamous pop singer Peter Lemongello. And one man had the dubious distinction of leading in 2 separate categories. Bruce Bochte led the majors in grounding into double plays and led the AL in most errors by a first baseman. Congrats?

Presenting… The Class Of 2024

The Rock & Hall Of Fame announcement dropped too late in the day for me to put together thoughts beyond the most basic. I’ll elaborate further on Wednesday, but for now here are my initial reactions:

• The announcement banner lists every inductee together. The categorization comes down to 8 artists, 4 Musical Excellence awards, 3 Musical Influence awards, and 1 Ertegun Award winner.

• If you had read my ballot breakdowns, you know that the Foreigner & Frampton selections are making me figuratively bang my head against the wall.

• I was bracing myself for disappointment, so I’m extremely happy over the MJB & ATCQ selections.

• Still no Carol Kaye? The woman is 89 years old. What is wrong with the selectors? At least Big Mama Thornton finally made it.

• I never thought of either Suzanne de Passé or Norman Whitfield. Good choices both.

Much more to come Wednesday.

Let It Be

In the Here’s Something I Wasn’t Expecting Department, word has come that the Beatles documentary Let It Be will stream on Disney+ starting next month. The movie has been out of circulation for decades. When the Peter Jackson Get Back doc premiered back in 2021 I was hoping that the interest generated by the movie would create an impetus for TCM or some other outlet to show Let It Be, but I failed to take into account the reason why it had been buried in the vault for so long in the first place. The Beatles members were a bit embarrassed by the way they were depicted in the original movie. Get Back served as a more honest look at how those sessions went; what would be gained by showing a movie that was selectively edited to make the atmosphere look more harsh than it actually was?

I was able to get my hands on a copy of Let It Be at one of my old jobs, and I’ve rewatched it on a few occasions. It’s obviously not as thorough as Get Back was, but as a Beatles fan I found it to be a fascinating capture of a moment in time. I agree that it made it seem as if the studio sessions consisted of little more than constant grievance airing; Jackson’s film made it clear that sure, there was griping, but there was also strong collaboration.

I’m such a big Beatles fan that my opinion has its share of bias, but I still highly recommend it. Peter Jackson’s production company has given the film a full restoration; it premieres on Disney+ May 8.

50 Years Ago - Court & Spark

You may recall that when I recently wrote a few paragraphs about Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic I mentioned that it came in second place in the 1974 Village Voice Pazz & Jop critic’s poll. I won’t prolong the suspense any further; the winner was Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark. What is even more impressive is this - it was the most critically acclaimed album 50 years ago, but it may be even more highly admired now. It has stood the test of time and then some.

An odd footnote about Mitchell’s career is that for all of the modern day standards she has written, she was seldom embraced by Top 40 radio. In fact, she hit the Billboard Top 10 exactly once, and that was with Help Me from this very collection. (Digression, I have never much cared for the phrase Great American Songbook. It belittles great songwriters from the rock era. I guarantee that in another 100 years just as many Joni Mitchell compositions will have survived as those from someone like Irving Berlin. Yes, I know that Mitchell is Canadian, but my point holds.)

Court & Spark also marks a transitional point in Mitchell’s career arc. Her arrangements had already begun to grow more complex, but the songs here contain even more jazz inflections. Even though this was her most popular album, the direction toward a more non-commercial sound is evident. Joni Mitchell has always been an artist who follows her own muse, record sales be damned. But if she ever chased the top of the charts, this was the last time she did so. Her next studio album would be The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, and that sounded absolutely nothing like what was selling at the time.

This album contains some of my very favorite Joni Mitchell tunes, assisted in no small way by the band of Los Angeles based studio pros who backed her up, and I’m not just talking about Cheech & Chong. The likes of Larry Carlton, Tom Scott, and Joe Sample serve as the main backup band, and among the guests who play on a song or two are Robbie Robertson and Jose Feliciano. David Crosby and Graham Nash both contribute some backing vocals as well, along with the aforementioned Cheech & Chong.

As for the songs, Free Man In Paris and Raised On Robbery are two that rank right up there with the best that she had ever written. Even the filler is impressive; just take a listen to Just Like This Train or Trouble Child. It’s also fitting that the album concludes with the one cover song on the record. The novelty tune Twisted is the most jazz-heavy song heard here; it’s a good preview of her musical direction to come.

Joni Mitchell is one of those artists whom I have learned to appreciate much more as I have gotten older. The victory lap she has taken in the last couple years as she has recovered from a serious aneurysm is very heart warming to see. She has so earned every end of career accolade that she has received; good to know that she is healthy enough to fully enjoy it all.

Facebook & Tumbleweeds

I used to be a heavy Facebook user, and looking back my feed was probably pretty exhausting at times. So, belated apologies to my FB friends who subscribe to this newsletter. Sorry I clogged up your newsfeeds so badly.

I know that it’s trendy to crap all over Facebook, and I understand every anti-Facebook argument. And yet, I can’t hate on it too much. I made several meaningful reconnections with people that I had lost touch with, and I am grateful for that. I can’t speak for everyone, but I can say with confidence that for all its faults my time on Facebook was a personal net positive.

Eventually the website lost a lot of luster. Simply put, it stopped being fun, so more than 2 years ago I decided to rip off the band aid. I didn’t delete my account entirely - how will I know anyone’s birthday otherwise? In all seriousness, the birthday thing still has some value. It’s nice to be able to check in with someone once a year, as well as if someone reciprocates and wishes me a happy birthday when that date comes.

Here is why I’m bringing up Facebook in the first place. Even after I stopped posting, I would still make a point to do a daily scroll. I would hate to miss out on major news from a friend - either a career change, or happy news about someone’s children, or sad news about the death of a parent. Even that has become useless, however. I don’t know how much of this is due to my absence screwing with the algorithm or how much is due to a large number of my FB friends also abandoning the site, but I have found that for every post on my feed from friends, there are at least 5 targeted posts. Some are ads, some are posts that trackers believe I would like, but it makes me want to immediately log off. Are any of you still largely active on Facebook, and if so, are you seeing these same issues?

On a related note, the first Twitter alternative that I sampled following the Elon takeover was Post. I thought that one held promise, as it was developed by the founder of Waze. I found it unsatisfactory, and I quickly let my account there lay dormant. I guess I wasn’t the only one, as it was announced last week that the site will soon go dark. With so many sites attempting to siphon users away from Elon’s Sandbox, it’s inevitable that there is going to be a lot of carnage. Let me once again encourage people to try Bluesky. It’s fun over there, and it’s out of beta, so invitations are no longer required. Climb aboard!

Closing Laughs

And that’s the end of that for another day. Thanks as always for reading, and I will see you all again on Wednesday.