The Baseball Digest Archives 4/80

April 1980

In general I have found that the April issues of Baseball Digest, aka the season previews, have been relatively uninteresting. Because so much of the issue is devoted to information - rosters, schedules, statistics, etc. - there is little room for articles. See the table of contents above for proof. Sometimes I get a kick out of seeing how well the preseason predictions turn out, but overall the April issues are some of the weaker ones. 1980 was an exception.

That’s not just because this time that prediction was way off. In 1980 the Phillies won their first World Series, but Baseball Digest had picked them to finish 4th in the NL East. The logic behind that pick sounds reasonable; the core of the team was starting to age. But that core was still damn good; in 1980 Steve Carlton won the Cy Young Award and Mike Schmidt was the MVP. The role players largely filled their roles well, and young players such as Lonnie Smith and Marty Bystrom made important contributions down the stretch.

The unfair new statistic mentioned on the cover was the game winning RBI, which was briefly an official stat. The article in this issue points out that it is unfair to players on losing teams - which is the same reasoning that has been used to diminish the relevance of pitcher wins - and that it fails to also reward the player who drives in the tying run, which is important as well. In the end, the stat failed to catch on and it was quietly removed from the record books.

A good HOF argument will always catch my eye, and this month Jack Lang bemoans the absence of great defensive players from the Hall. Among those specifically mentioned were 3 shortstops who would go on to be elected in subsequent years: Luis Aparicio, Pee Wee Reese, and Phil Rizzuto. Lang also had a specific complaint about the 1980 ballot. Take a look at the voting results and see if you notice anything.

That is a lot of names on the ballot, which was the result of a minor brouhaha from the 1979 ballot. Each year a screening committee makes the final choice as to which of the first year eligibles make it onto the ballot. This prevents career backup catchers or middle relievers from taking up space. In 1979 the committee only approved Aparicio and Willie Mays. Among those left off, and who complained about it, was Milt Pappas. Now, Pappas is no one’s idea of a Hall Of Famer, but he did have more than 200 victories and 2 All-Star nods. That’s worthy of at least a ballot appearance, perhaps even a courtesy vote or two. The Hall responded by doing away with the screening committee and throwing every first year eligible onto the ballot and this was the result. If I were a voter I would have almost been tempted to give John Boccabella a vote in order to honor the way that the PA announcer at Jarry Park used to enunciate his name.

The reason why I enjoyed this issue was the timing. A 1980 issue means that an old decade has just ended and a new one is just beginning. Back to back articles from Moss Klein look back and look ahead. He offered his best ofs for the 70’s. Best team: 1973 Oakland A’s. Best game: 1978 AL East tiebreaker. Special achievement: The 1978 Yankees comeback from a 14 game deficit. Top personality: Reggie Jackson. Best manager: Earl Weaver. Best player and best pitcher are certain to cause arguments, but here were his choices. For player, he went with Johnny Bench over Pete Rose and Rod Carew. His best pitcher was Jim Palmer over Tom Seaver. Palmer was great, but I’ve gotta go with Seaver, and I am not looking through Mets colored glasses when I say that.

Next, Klein acted very boldly. He attempted to pre-select an all-80’s team. This is the sort of project sure to blow up in the writer’s face; many of the dominant stars of the 1980’s were not yet in the big leagues. In the spring of 1980 Cal Ripken Jr. was a minor league third baseman to use just one example. For the record, here is what he went with:

1B - Keith Hernandez

2B - Willie Randolph

SS - Rick Burleson

3B - Buddy Bell

OF - Dave Winfield in left, Omar Moreno in center, Dave Parker in right

C - Gary Carter

DH - Jim Rice

SP - Ron Guidry, J.R. Richard, Mike Flanagan, Scott McGregor, Steve Rogers

RP - Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter

Manager - Billy Martin

I’ll give Klein credit for his audacity, and there was obviously no way to know the tragic turn that J.R. Richard’s career would soon take, but without naming names I’ll just say that some of his choices made me do a double take.

A final note on the list of the wildest pitchers in MLB history. As further evidence of how much better players are now as opposed to the past, in 1949 Dick Weik walked 103 batters in only 93 innings. That’s a BB/9 of 9.76! He was pitching for the Washington Senators, so it’s not as if he was eating up innings on a contending team but I cannot imagine seeing a pitcher with such a glaring lack of command on a major league mound these days.

Most Memorable Moment - Atlanta Braves

1976 Selection: There’s a new home run champion of all time

My 2025 Selection: And it’s Henry Aaron

For the second week in a row, this is an easy choice. As Vin Scully so famously said, it was a marvelous moment for baseball, a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia, and a marvelous moment for the country and the world. I have personal reasons for loving this particular moment as well. It was the first historic achievement in baseball that I watched live on TV.

The game in which Henry Aaron broke the MLB career home run record aired on a rare Monday night edition of NBC’s Game Of the Week. Luckily for me Aaron hit the homer on his second at bat in the 4th inning. Anything later than that would have been after my bedtime and I would have had to learn about it the next morning. Thank you for being considerate enough to set the record around my schedule!

I well remember the anticipation that was building up over the offseason. Aaron ended the 1973 season with 713 home runs, 1 shy of Babe Ruth’s record. At the time I was 7 years old, going on 8, so I was unaware of the racist hate mail that Aaron was receiving. For years whenever I saw the clip of the 2 fans who ran on the field to congratulate Aaron, I thought of it as a sign of times when fans routinely jumped onto the field. It took me years to consider what Aaron might have been thinking when he saw them - were they simply a couple of young idiots intruding onto the playing field, or did they have malicious intentions? Thankfully it was the former. Two other supporting players in the event warrant mention. The Dodgers outfielder who climbed the fence in an attempt to catch the ball was Bill Buckner. This would not be the last time he was on the other side of a historic moment. And the reporter in the raincoat in the middle of that scrum was Craig Sager, and that was probably the last time in his life that he ever dressed that conservatively.

The Braves have had many other memorable moments, especially in their long run of division titles. Think Francisco Cabrera’s series winning hit in the 1992 NLCS, or David Justice’s home run that won the 1995 World Series. But nothing tops the greatest player in franchise history breaking one of the game’s most significant records. Henry Aaron it is.

Meet the Nominees: Maná

Most years the Hall includes a real left field choice on the ballot, and this year the honors go to Maná. I have been reading Billboard long enough to know who they are, and how big they have been for years. I can’t say that I am familiar with their music, however, and I can’t honestly write much about them unless I copy and paste from their Wikipedia page.

Instead, I will take more of a big picture look at what their nomination signifies. As of now, there are no purely Latin artists in the Hall. Santana and Ritchie Valens don’t count. I’m talking about an artist based in a Latin country or territory, who sings largely, or as in the case of Maná, entirely in Spanish. I wonder if their nomination is intended to act as a test case to gauge what sort of support there might be for a Latin artist.

An artist is eligible for induction 25 years after their first release. 25 years back brings us to 2000, which was around the period when there was a surge of Latin music artists hitting it big in the American mainstream. I don’t know if any of the prominent acts from that period are legitimate Hall candidates - perhaps Shakira? Selena? - but in the years since Latin music and Latin beats have continued to hold a steady presence in the culture.

It could very well be that the support Maná receives this year will determine how heavily the nominating committee will mine the Latin music scene going forward. It wouldn’t seem right to have to wait so long to induct a Latin artist that, let’s say, Bad Bunny turns out to become the Hall’s first inductee from that genre.

Biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit: Labios Compartidos

My personal favorite: N/A, I don’t know their music well enough to judge.

If elected, will they perform at the ceremony?: Yes, I have read a couple of interviews with the band since the ballot announcement. They are very grateful for the nomination and would certainly value the opportunity to familiarize Anglo audiences with their music.

So. Much. Basketball.

This is the time of year in which it’s possible to OD on basketball, and there is even an additional entry this year. The NBA has entered the final month of the regular season, a month that will provide answers to a myriad of questions. Which teams will earn home court advantage? How will the battles to avoid needing to rely on the play-in tournament play out? How about that race for the 10th position in the Eastern Conference; will there actually be a 50-loss team earning that spot? Will injured players such as LeBron James or Jaren Jackson Jr. play enough games to qualify for postseason awards? How blatant will the tanking be in the race to nab the draft rights for Cooper Flagg?

The initial championship game in the Unrivaled league will take place tonight. I have enjoyed the games that I have watched, with the caveat that I still can’t tell you which players are on which teams. The league has largely succeeded, it has kept the players in the public eye during the WNBA offseason, which has been a valuable promotional boon, and the players are making more money in this league than they do in the W. We shall see if they can keep the momentum going into season 2 & beyond.

You may have also noticed which month this is; the brackets were revealed yesterday and March Madness officially begins with the First Four tomorrow. This year will be a test for me, as I have watched very little college basketball this season. The radical conference realignment bugs me, the conferences no longer make geographical sense and too many traditional rivalries have been ruined. Even during this last week of conference tournaments too often I would look at a schedule and scratch my head. “Who is playing who in which league? Huh?”

That said, the NCAA tournament is consistently the most thrilling annual sporting event and I say this even though I never have any personal skin in the game. My alma mater, Fordham, has made it into the tournament exactly once since I enrolled. That was so long ago (1992) that their opponent was John Calipari’s first big UMass team. That was so long ago that CBS was the sole broadcaster, and they aired games on a regional basis. Now, as a New York team the Fordham game aired in my market, but the game proved to be such a blowout that CBS eventually cut away to air a closer game instead. In other words, I never feel the need to sweat out Selection Sunday.

The other issue that I have had is the roster volatility. I am all in favor of giving the players power, but it also means that you rarely see teams gel over the course of seasons. Between the one-and-done and the transfer portal, it’s tough to get too attached to players anymore. That’s part of why I find the women’s game more enjoyable, or at least more easy to follow. True, women use the transfer portal just as much as the men do. Hailey Van Lith is representing her third different school this year. But the fact that women do not leave early to turn professional means that we grow more familiar with them and their teams over time. It’s even more striking right now, being that the NCAA granted players an extra year of eligibility due to COVID. It seems like Paige Bueckers has been at UConn forever. This also means that fans can enjoy watching JuJu Watkins play at USC for 2 more years.

One final note on this year’s tournaments. The calendar is slightly different this time; in most years Selection Sunday coincides with the start of Daylight Saving Time, which meant that I could joke that the poor committee members had one fewer hour to construct the brackets. With the Big Dance beginning a week later it also means that game play will bleed into MLB Opening Day. Most teams open on March 27, which is also the day that half of the games in the men’s Sweet 16 will be played. Be sure to pace yourselves; that’s a lot of sports to take in.

It’s OK To Let Him Talk

This is a cute story that came out last week which unfortunately contained one element that ticks me off. To summarize: remember that wonderful viral moment from 2003 when a 13-year old National Anthem singer froze at the beginning of a Portland Trail Blazers game? Blazers coach Mo Cheeks stepped up, placed his hand on her shoulder, and helped her complete the rendition of the anthem.

Fast forward to this week, and Natalie Gilbert-Zito has gone on to become a professional singer. She was invited to return to sing the anthem when the Knicks, for whom Cheeks is currently an assistant coach, visited Portland. The two had a wonderful reunion, and Zito had some choice quotes about the aftermath of the incident - sadly, many of her classmates were predictably cruel - and the life that she has made for himself. But the other key player was not quoted.

That is because the Knicks have a team policy which prohibits assistant coaches from speaking to the press. The reasoning that teams sometimes use when imposing this policy is to make sure that the coaching staff speaks in one voice and no one goes rogue. The problem in practice is that it also means that assistants are unable to publicly defend themselves if a decision goes wrong. (The additional factor in this case is that Knicks owner James Dolan is a thin-skinned paranoiac who despises the media.) It boggles my mind that the team couldn’t make an exception to the policy in this instance. Allowing Cheeks to speak here would not mean an assistant is revealing company secrets, it would mean that a key player is adding his own perspective to a warm human interest story.

John Feinstein

One last basketball related note, and it was the shocking death of longtime sportswriter John Feinstein. Shocking because he had filed what proved to be his final column - a piece for the Washington Post on Michigan State coach Tom Izzo - the day before he died. He was one of the most visible writers of his generation and he published dozens of books, most notably A Season On the Brink. He embedded with the Indiana basketball team for the entire 1985-86 season and provided an insider’s look at the program and coach Bob Knight, warts and all. And oh boy, were there warts. It regularly ranks high on any list of the greatest sports books ever written. He was more than just a basketball writer, however. He also wrote highly acclaimed books on golf and baseball, along with decades worth of newspaper columns and television appearances. Feinstein was 68.

50 Years Ago - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

In a classic example of what could have been, Kirk Douglas purchased the film rights to Cuckoo’s Nest shortly after the novel’s publication in 1962 with the intent that he would portray McMurphy. This wasn’t long after Spartacus had come out, so I would imagine he would have used that same rebellious streak for that role. But it’s impossible to picture anyone other than Jack Nicholson. It is such a quintessentially Jack character that one would almost think Ken Kesey had Jack in mind when he conceived McMurphy. That’s implausible, as at the time Nicholson was generally a supporting player in Roger Corman B-movies.

The physical description of Randall McMurphy in the book doesn’t sound anything like Nicholson either. Nor, for that matter does the book’s depiction of Nurse Ratched look much like Louise Fletcher. There is one other crucial difference between book and movie. Chief serves as the book’s narrator, so the reader knows all along that Chief was faking his deafness and muteness. The revelation that he could actually hear and speak was a dramatic moment in the movie.

Cuckoo was one of the most highly acclaimed movies of the entire decade; of all of movie history for that matter. McMurphy was one of the great antiheroes of American fiction, and Nurse Ratched one of the most icily evil villains. I mentioned that neither of them appear much the novel versions of their characters, but so what? They both inhabited their roles so perfectly. Fletcher in particular was amazing. She embodies the banality of evil. Ratched has nothing to gain from treating her patients so horribly; she only did so because she had power over others.

The supporting cast was filled with lots of first class That Guys, some of whom would go on to become more well known, starting with Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd. There are so many moments and scenes that are among the most iconic moments of the era. The basketball game, McMurphy’s World Series recreation, the rogue fishing trip, the series of tragedies that make up the film’s climax. The final scene also earned the ultimate pop culture badge of honor, a Simpsons parody.

I have to admit that I wanted to hate this movie. Jaws was competing against it in that year’s Oscars, and I was rooting for Jaws. Cuckoo would wind up becoming only the second movie to win the 5 biggest awards - both lead actors, picture, director, and screenplay. Thankfully I waited a few years to see it when I was old enough to appreciate its greatness. 1975 was a spectacular year for movies; it says a lot that Cuckoo stood out from that pack of legendary films.

Closing Laughs

Lest ye forget, the Dodgers & Cubs are opening the season in Tokyo tomorrow. Actual regular season games that count in the standings and everything! Have a great day everyone and we’ll be right back here again on Wednesday.