The Baseball Digest Archive
December 1979
Baseball Digest named George Brett their player of the year for the 1979 season. That’s an interesting choice; he was a great player who had one of his better years that season. It was a prescient selection as well. In 1980 he would have his signature season, nearly hitting .400 as he helped lead the Royals to their first pennant. Was he the correct choice?
The winners of the 1979 MVP awards had not yet been announced by the time the magazine assembled their list, and you can see that they did not agree with the BBWAA selections - Don Baylor in the AL, and a tie between Keith Hernandez & Willie Stargell in the NL. Modern day voters would not have made the same choices. It’s hard to imagine current voters going with someone like Baylor who was mostly a DH, and as much as everyone loves Stargell, it’s rare to see that type of narrative driven “he’s such a leader” choices anymore. Personally I think the best players in each league in 1979 were Fred Lynn & Dave Winfield.
One of Baseball Digest’s regular features was So You Think You Know Baseball? It would present a hypothetical unusual scenario to test how well readers would know the rule book. This month’s stood out because it closely replicated a famous play that would occur a couple of decades later. A.J. Pierzynski must have read back issues of the magazine when he was a kid because this was almost exactly what happened in Game 2 of the 2005 ALCS, and his quick thinking helped the White Sox steal a win on their way to their first title in generations.
This was an interesting bit of info. By the end of 1979 a total of 15 men had reached the 3000 career hits mark. Almost half of them reached the milestone in the 1970’s! I don’t recall if Grouchy Old Gatekeepers complained that this many players reaching the achievement in such a brief period cheapened the honor the way they did with home runs.
Speaking of home runs, the magazine noted that Bob Horner had started his career with a big home run barrage and compared his totals to some of the greatest power hitters at comparable ages. Needless to say, Horner did not maintain that prolific pace. Because he was a big guy it’s no surprise that he aged poorly; I’m pretty sure that if they had modern projection models back then writers would not have been quite that bullish about his future.
To briefly look at some of the other pieces in this issue - no surprise, the game that Rennie Stennett will never forget is the one in which he had 7 hits in a nine inning game. Was Dave Concepcion the game’s best all-around shortstop at this time? Maybe. Ozzie Smith had already established himself as a brilliant defensive shortstop, but was still a terrible hitter. Neither Robin Yount nor Alan Trammell had quite reached that elite level yet. The only other guy who you could make a solid argument for was probably Garry Templeton.
I’ll close with the retro ad of the month. These types of novelties were such a big part of the landscape at the time. I don’t think I ever had anything like that, not even the famous Sports Illustrated football phone. I subscribed to that magazine for more than 30 years, so I received my share of subscription premiums - so many t-shirts, VHS tapes, tote bags. But never a football phone.
Ballot Breakdown - Ozzy Osbourne
Try to picture a time traveler from the future touching down in 1981 attempting to convince people that Ozzy Osbourne - bat-biting, dove-biting, prince of darkness Ozzy Osbourne - would one day basically become America’s favorite TV dad. It seems impossible, but that’s exactly what happened. Truth sometimes can be stranger than fiction.
Osbourne’s debut as a solo artist came at a real down time for hard rock/heavy metal in America. The pioneering bands of the genre had largely suffered either commercial or chemical downturns. The new wave of British metal was in full swing, and those bands were selling a lot of records, but most American radio stations were steering clear of that sound. Other than Van Halen, there was little metal to be heard on the stateside airwaves. And Osbourne himself had been dismissed from Black Sabbath a few years earlier, placing his own career at a crossroads.
His first solo album, Blizzard Of Ozz, broke through that barrier. As gunshy as radio was to play hard rock, it was impossible to ignore Crazy Train, from the opening “all aboard!” command to Randy Rhoads’s monster riff & monster solo. It was a major hit & the press could not get enough of Ozzy’s fierce personality. At times it got a bit too over the top cartoonish, and some of the horror movie monster iconography of Diary Of a Madman & Bark At the Moon felt too close to a caricature, but he proved time and time again exactly why he was arguably THE iconic frontman for THE iconic metal band.
Rhoads showed every sign of ranking right up there with Eddie Van Halen as the premiere guitar hero of his generation. Sadly, he was killed in a plane crash at the age of 25. That terrible tragedy took a lot of the wind out of Osbourne’s sails. None of his subsequent backup musicians could duplicate the magic that Osbourne & Rhoads shared.
As hard rock became a dominant force later in the 80’s, Osbourne maintained his strong album sales and enjoyed status as an elder statesman of the scene. Even after those sales figures began to dip, he remained a staple of the live circuit, both as a solo act & with the occasional reunion of the classic Black Sabbath lineup. The establishment of the annual Ozzfest tours helped keep him relevant for younger generations of hard rock fans as well.
And then, amazingly enough, he became a mainstream celebrity when The Osbournes premiered on MTV in 2002. A reality show starring him of all people should have never worked, but somehow it did. As is always the case with reality TV, it’s a question of how much is real & how much is manufactured for storytelling purposes, but it’s a fact that the show was a phenomenon and made people look at Ozzy in a whole new light. On one hand, he was the world famous rock star with a giant box labeled “devil heads.” On another, he was the clueless dad living in a house with unruly teenagers & incontinent dogs while struggling to figure out how to work the TV remote. For better or worse, the guy who was constantly picketed by religious groups was now suddenly one of the “safest” celebrities on the landscape.
Osbourne was inducted years ago as a member of Black Sabbath. Is he worthy of a second induction as a solo artist? I’m not a huge fan of hard rock, so I’m probably not the best guy to make that judgement. His overall importance is a factor. So is the fact that he flew the flag so high for his sound at a time when it was otherwise struggling commercially. There are a lot of other artists on this year’s ballot whom I would prefer to see honored instead, but I can’t deny that there is no one quite like Ozzy. He seems to be a likely inductee this year. His place in rock history is so prominent that it’s a justifiable selection.
If elected, will he perform at the ceremony? - His attitude towards the Hall has changed drastically. He blasted the Hall as Sabbath was overlooked year after year, and he held fast to that when they were finally selected. He attended the ceremony to support his band mates, but they did not perform. His stance seems to have softened, perhaps because he can see the finish line approaching. Sharon Osbourne has lobbied very hard for his nomination, and Ozzy’s public statements following the ballot announcement have expressed gratitude. He’ll be there, but a performance is doubtful. His health has declined rapidly in recent years, as he suffers from Parkinson’s and has undergone multiple spinal surgeries as well. If he’s well enough to perform he might, but that seems like a long shot.
Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hit - Mama I’m Coming Home. If you want to include duets, his collaboration with Lita Ford, Close My Eyes Forever, was a bigger hit.
My Personal Favorite - Crazy Train
What Month Is It Again?
The brackets have been assembled, and everyone is carefully calculating their formulas to ensure success in their tourney pools. But let us take a minute to pour a tall one for what may be the final year for a standard joke - which channel is TruTV? WBD is rebranding that network to become more of a sports destination, so those of us who only watch the channel for these few weeks will now have more of a reason to search for it. Losing TruTV jokes shortly after losing Tungsten Arm O’Doyle means SOMETHING, we just don’t know what it is yet.
I’ve said this before, the NCAA tournaments (both men’s & women’s) are my single favorite annual sporting event. (For the record, the Olympics are my favorite overall sporting event, but the games don’t take place every year.) I will certainly watch as much of the action as time allows, and my remote thumb will get quite the workout. Yet at the same time, I have watched almost no college hoops this year. It’s basically a preparation for what’s to come; the conference realignment that will begin next year figures to make the sport barely recognizable. Chasing the football dollars is going to do tremendous damage to all of the other sports. What is happening to the PAC-12 is a travesty, and in a sad bit of symbolism, health issues prevented Bill Walton from calling ESPN’s final PAC-12 game. Whatever form that conference takes going forward, it won’t be the Conference Of Champions anymore, and that is such a terrible shame.
The other concern I have is that there is once again chatter about expanding the tournament field. I’d almost be OK with that if it meant more mid-majors or regular season champs from small conferences that failed to with their conference tournaments would make the field. But you know as well as I do that the additional teams will largely consist of schools from the power conferences with mediocre records. Frankly, as much as the First Four round of games serve as an appetizer for the madness to come, I was perfectly happy with a neat 64 team field. It’s nice & symmetrical to make every team play the exact same number of games to reach the pinnacle. A 72 team field, or whatever the ultimate number would turn out to be, involves all sorts of first round byes & whatnot. If you think there is excess complaining from coaches about seeding, just imagine the gripes we’d hear from coaches forced to play an additional round of games.
A larger tournament field is a clear case of too much of a good thing. There’s only so much basketball one can take in before it feels gluttonous. Or to put it this way. Eating a slice of an Entenmann’s apple pie is a delicious treat. Scarfing down the entire pie in one sitting is too damn much,
50 Years Ago - Pretzel Logic
The third album from Steely Dan marked a transition for that band. Their persona was fully established in their first two albums - meticulous craftsmanship mixed with often caustic lyrics. The release of Pretzel Logic brought that to an entirely new level. Most of the original band still played on this record, but just as much of the material here was supplemented by the work of Los Angeles studio session pros. This would continue for the remainder of their career; the members of Steely Dan not named Donald Fagen or Walter Becker would shortly leave the band, and they would cease touring, completely focusing on making records.
Steely Dan are a bit polarizing. I get that; their endless hours in the studio means that not a single note feels out of place. Some people feel that leaves their music a bit cold and antiseptic. In other words, they sacrifice passion for professionalism. I happen to be a big fan; I admire their supreme skill.
The big hit here was the leadoff track Rikki Don’t Lose That Number. The maturity in their sound was evident with that one. The jazz influence is more prominent than had been heard in their earlier work. Deeper album cuts in this album added more horn work; this album was the real genesis of their later reputation as a jazz-rock band. To make it even more clear, the record also includes a Duke Ellington cover.
1974 was the year of the first Village Voice Pazz & Jop critic’s poll, and Pretzel Logic finished in second place on that initial survey. (What was #1? You’ll have to wait to find out. Or Google it. Your choice.) My favorite Steely Dan is probably Aja, but this is a solid piece of work. Nowhere near the second best album of the year, but it makes for a good listen. One final semi-humorous note - in the early 80’s Rolling Stone published the Book Of Rock Lists. One of the lists was Chubby Checker’s 10 favorite records to dance to. Pretzel Logic was one of his choices. Huh? There are a lot of ways you can characterize Steely Dan; calling them a great dance band is not one of them.
Another Miracle Met Has Passed
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen footage from the 1969 World Series and its accompanying celebrations, up to and including their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in which they sang You Gotta Have Heart. It makes that team appear eternally young, but the brutal reality is that the miraculous World Series run took place 55 years ago. That plucky band of underdogs are now men well into their 70’s & 80’s. Last week we lost another member of that squad with the passing of Jim McAndrew.
McAndrew was the #5 starter on that team. Postseason pitcher usage was radically different at that time, so he did not throw a single inning in either the LCS or the World Series, but he was an important contributor in the regular season. He was still with the team in 1973 as well, but by this time he was a spot starter and swingman, once again not appearing in the postseason. The Mets traded him to San Diego after that year, and 1974 would be his final major league season.
Overall he had a career record of 37-53, with an ERA of 3.65 & an ERA+ just below league average at 98. Once again, the old saying that flags fly forever applies. He was a member of one of the most beloved teams in league history, and for that he will always have a place in history, and in the hearts of fans who were there to witness it.
There Ain’t No Schadenfreude Like Bill Maher Schadenfreude
OK, this one made me rub my temples. Bill Maher threw a hissy fit because he wasn’t invited to an Oscar party and fired his talent agency. The next time he claims that young people today are a bunch of whiny snowflakes is gonna be hilarious.
Closing Laughs
By the time we speak again on Wednesday morning, the Seoul Series between the Dodgers & Padres will have begun. Real, regular season baseball. It counts in the standings and everything. All that, and the vernal equinox will have taken place as well. Can’t wait. See you on Wednesday.