Historically Speaking: Musta Thought it Was '80s Baseball Day

Lotsa baseball today. You love it. It's a nice break from all the dreaded reading about great quarterbacks we've been giving you. You know, the posts where you're just looking at the pictures.

* It was on this day in 1980 that the Seattle Mariners fired skipper Darrell Johnson. Maury Wills, his replacement, became just the third black manager in league history.

* Picture a day, a day much like any with the date of August 4, only back in 1982, a journey beyond sight and sound that takes us to one Joel Youngblood, who, on 8/4/82, connected for a base hit that gave his New York Mets a day-game victory over the Cubs. After the contest, he was traded to the Expos who were playing that night in Philly. Youngblood, who took rightfield in the fourth inning, collected a base hit later in the game, making him the only player in Major League Baseball history to get a base hit for two different teams in two different cities on the same day.

* Today in 1983, New York Yankee Dave Winfield was arrested after a game in Toronto. The charges: causing unnecessary suffering to an animal, which he was apparently guilty of after throwing a baseball during warm-ups that hit and killed a seagull. I think the moral of the story is that this is hard evidence that Canadians have been stupid for a solid quarter century and counting.

* Two years later, Tom Seaver earned win number 300 while Rod Carew tallied hit number 3000 on this day.

* Toronto Blue Jay pitcher Dave Stieb had a pretty fantastic September in 1988. On the 13th versus Detroit, he gave up six hits, but logged a 9-1 victory. Five days later, he gave up only four hits to Cleveland, a 4-0 shutout win. His final two starts for the month -- versus Cleveland again and then Baltimore, were 1-0 and 4-0 shutouts as well, but these two were both no-hitters with two outs in the ninth. No kiddin'. On the fourth of August the following year, he is one out away from nailing down a perfect game over the Yankees, but ends up settling for a two-hit, 2-1 win instead.

And since this theme came together so nice and tidy, we'll give you two '80s baseball Sports Illustrated quotes of the day. The first one was delivered in 1980, courtesy of...



...John McMullen, who, as Houston Astro owner, reflected upon his time as a limited partner of New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner: "Nothing is more limited than being a limited partner of George's."

Quote number two came from A.L. umpire Marty Springstead, who, in 1984, spoke of former Baltimore Oriole Manager Earl Weaver:



"The way to test the durability of a Timex watch would be to strap it to his tongue."