Today in 1983

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Taken from the Baseball-Reference.com bullpen, here are a few interesting things that happened in MLB on September 13, 1983.

Dan Quisenberry became the all-time single season saves leader

Makes sense, right? Quisenberry was one of the preeminent closers of the 1980s. On this date in 1983, he saved his 39th save of the season. Thirty ninth! That was all it took for the all-time record!

Now here’s the interesting part. Guess where a 39-save season would rank now. The answer is that it would tie for138th-most in MLB history.

Yes, folks, the way closers are used has changed a lot.

Rickey Henderson stole his 99th, 100th, and 101st bases of the season, giving him 3 straight seasons with 100

Since that 1983 performance, the only player to top 100 stolen bases in a season was Vince Coleman, and in the last 20 full seasons the highest total is 78, by Jose Reyes in 2007.

One can’t help but wonder when we’ll next see a 100-SB performance in the majors. (Raise your hand if you just thought of Billy Hamilton.) Will we ever again see a guy have 3 such years in a row? I find it hard to believe but I’ll never say never. The game has shifted a lot since the early 1980s, but nothing says it can’t shift back.

The Mets’ Mike Fitzgerald homered in his first career plate appearance

Fitzgerald is one of 4 Mets to accomplish the feat:

Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	PA	AB	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	WPA
Mike Jacobs	2005-08-21	NYM	WSN	L 4-7	1	1	1	1	0	1	3	0	0	0.062
Kazuo Matsui	2004-04-06	NYM	ATL	W 7-2	5	3	1	3	2	1	3	2	0	0.268
Mike Fitzgerald	1983-09-13	NYM	PHI	W 5-1	4	4	1	1	0	1	2	0	1	0.106
Benny Ayala	1974-08-27	NYM	HOU	W 4-2	4	3	2	1	0	1	1	1	1	0.093

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/12/2012.

It’s interesting that all 4 of these guys spent very little time with the Mets (Matsui had the most with 3 seasons) and all of them were considered significant disappointments.

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Dan McCloskey

12 years ago

I <3 Dan Quisenberry...and not just because of his first name.

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Adam Darowski

12 years ago

Reply to Dan McCloskey

Same here. When I discovered ERA+, I became absolutely obsessed with him.

In my sim league, I happened to get a computer-generated player with the last name Quisenberry. I cherished having him on my team.

Brent

12 years ago

In 1983 when the Quiz set the record (he ended up with 45 saves), he had 69 appearances, which is a little more than most closers have today, but the big change is the numbers of IP, 139, which means he averaged more than 2 IP per appearance. In contrast, KRod, when he set the record for saves had more appearances at 76, but pitched only 68.1 innings or less than an inning per appearance. Put another way, last year, Mariano Rivera saved 44 games in 64 games, but threw only 61.1 innings. His primary set up guy, David Robertson,… Read more »

oneblankspace

12 years ago

Reply to Brent

When you look at the team that finished with the best record in 1983 (LaRussa’s White Sox, 99-63) you find two of the top four base stealers in the AL (JuCruz [leading the AL when acquired from Seattle in June], RLaw). The team leader in saves (Lamp) had 15 saves and one CG; the team had fewer than 50 saves. First baseman Squires led the league in fielding percentage with only 27 starts at first base (122 total games).

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Ah, the 1980s, when baseball was truly exciting and teams didn’t wait around for the three run homers to start. Minor correction: it was the third straight full season for Rickey with 100 swipes, as the 1981 season was shortened by the strike. Vince Coleman then repeated the trick from 1985 to 87. In the first year of the streak (1980) MLB came very close to having multiple 100 bag swipers, and not just two but three such, with Henderson at 100, Ron Leflore at 97 and Omar Moreno at 96. Stolen bases were at their historical apex, with the… Read more »

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Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Jim Bouldin

The 100 SB club is pretty exclusive – Henderson and Coleman have six of only eight seasons with singletons by Maury Wills and Lou Brock filling out the list. In Wills’s 104 SB season in 1962, the second best total in baseball was 32 by teammate Willie Davis (AL leader Luis Aparicio had 31). In Brock’s 118 SB year in 1974, nobody else cracked 60. That 18 year gap for Henderson is almost certainly the longest – Max Carey had 12 seasons between his first and last SB crown. Also, Henderson led in SB in 11 of 12 seasons, but… Read more »

Yippeeyappee

12 years ago

Reply to Jim Bouldin

“Ah, the 1980s, when baseball was truly exciting and teams didn’t wait around for the three run homers to start.”

But wasn’t Earl Weaver the original proponent of a couple of walks and a home run?

Editor

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Yippeeyappee

That was definitely Earl, but Weaver was a 70s manager. When he came back in ’85 and ’86, he was the same Earl (near the bottom in SB) and the Orioles finished 4th and last.

Jimbo

12 years ago

Reply to Jim Bouldin

Wow, Ron Leflore stole 97 bases in a season and somehow I’ve never even heard of him. It’s always interesting to see a players’s br page for the first time ever, as I’m been to thousands of the pages by now.

Surprising also, that such a great basestealer could be statistically such a terrible centerfielder.

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Andy

12 years ago

Reply to Jimbo

LeFlore has an interesting backstory–made into a TV movie starring LeVar Burton, no less.

If I recall correctly, he had a very rough childhood and was in prison before MLB (note he debuted at the very late age of 26). He didn’t play baseball much growing up, I don’t think, and so didn’t have a lot of the skills that most other players had…hence good speed, bad fundamentals.

12 years ago

Reply to Andy

Yes he was in prison for armed robbery. He was discovered by Billy Martin no less.

Brent

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Since you opened the can of worms, I must make a snarky post: What was Billy in the joint for when he discovered LeFlore?

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Andy

I loved that movie as a kid. I remember his band of thieves getting caught because the driver forgot to turn the getaway van’s lights on.

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Reply to Jimbo

Time for the personal experience portion of the show 🙂 Those of us who witnessed the 1976 Tiger season won’t likely ever forget it. The old guard that carried the team through the late 60s and early 70s were now mostly gone and the 75 Tigers plummeted drastically to the worst record in MLB. But there were some electric talents on the horizon and two of them developed that year. Leflore was one of them. The kid with the curls and the live arm was the other. As Andy said, he was just raw talent when he came out of… Read more »

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Reply to Jim Bouldin

Oh yeah, and the kid with the curls started the ASG for the AL on the mound as well, without even making his first major league start until mid-May.

Editor

Doug

12 years ago

More about stolen bases. Mike Trout has a chance to lead his league in both BA and SB, a pretty rare feat. Others to do it since 1901 are Ichiro (2001), Jackie Robinson (1949), Snuffy Stirnweiss (1945), George Sisler (1922), Ty Cobb (5 times) and Honus Wagner (thrice). Actually, eyeballing the lists, the only others to do both at any point in their careers appear to be Elmer Flick, Arky Vaughan, Pete Reiser, Richie Ashburn, Willie Mays, Willie Wilson, Tim Raines and Jose Reyes. Also, Trout is currently at 45 steals and Michael Bourn is at 39. If both should… Read more »

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Andy

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

I’m confused by the line in your 1st paragraph about the only others to do both at any point…you mean to have lead the league in SB and BA both, but not necessarily in the same year?

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Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Andy

Yes, that’s what I meant.

Brent

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Willie Wilson led he AL in Stolen bases in 1979 (with 83) and batting average in 1982 (.332), so add him to the latter list.

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Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Brent

Thanks Brent. I updated the post.

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Plus the success rates in some of those years was incredible, approaching 90% several times, by each of Henderson, Coleman, Raines and Wilson. When Coleman stole 107 in 1986 he was only caught 14 times. Henderson was 80 for 90 one year and Wilson had a very similar year.

The mentality of these guys was very much: “I’m going to steal now, stop me if you can”. The audacity of the whole thing was just fun to watch.

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Andy

12 years ago

Reply to Jim Bouldin

One of the incredible things to me about Henderson’s career was the insane number of walks he drew. It’s one thing to walk a mega power-hitting cleanup batter–those guys are almost always immobile. But how a pitcher could so “willingly” walk Henderson, knowing was a distraction he was, is beyond me. I know he had a very small strike zone thanks to his crouch, plus his good power kept pitchers from throwing him a lot of strikes, but there must have been a lot more regret about walking him than, say, a guy like McGwire or Canseco. Here’s a study… Read more »

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Reply to Andy

I’m with you 100% Andy. The disruption caused by high quality bag thieves is immeasurable IMO. If you’re looking for an unmeasured intangible in baseball, there’s one. It was basically “Well, I’m on base now. At the very least, I’m going to distract you, along with the catcher and the various infielders (whom I will also shift out of optimal positioning, depending on which bag I’m about to swipe). I may or may not steal 3rd after stealing 2nd, but no worries on that front because I can often score from second anyway. This of course is not to mention… Read more »

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Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Andy

Here’s a start to that study. In 1984, Dwayne Murphy and Carney Lansford split time batting 2nd behind Rickey Henderson. Here are their splits for 1984. First, Murphy. Split G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP ROE BAbip Batting 2nd 72 72 317 273 52 75 10 0 20 50 36 50 .275 .357 .531 .888 145 8 2 .266 Batting 3rd 43 42 179 153 22 37 3 0 8 23 20 28 .242 .331 .418 .750 64 4 1 .242 Batting 5th 25 25 106 93 19… Read more »

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Of course what we really need is to see how batters did when Rickey was on base vs. when someone else was on base vs. when no one was on base. But that would (I assume) require going through box scores and coding things by hand. Not fun!

Editor

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Andy

And, here’s New York in 1985. The Yankees batted Ken Griffey and Willie Randolph second, neither of whom did much with the opportunity, before settling on Mattingly from late July through the end of the season. Look at his splits. Split G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP ROE BAbip Batting 2nd 58 58 274 242 54 86 17 0 20 50 26 19 .355 .414 .674 1.087 163 5 8 .319 Batting 3rd 99 99 446 404 53 123 30 3 15 92 30 22 .304 .344 .505… Read more »

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Andy’s 2012 is your 1975.

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Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Thanks Richard,

Fixed it.

Nash Bruce

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

From what I remember of Rickey, pure opinion, but, during his prime, I’d bet he could have hit 30 homers a year…..easy?!…..had that been his intent.

saying that to say, it would have been really interesting to see how his career played out, numbers-wise, had he came up in the “Steroid Era(mid-90’s)”, rather than the very early 80’s.

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Very informative Doug, thanks. Another set of data that I would very much like to see, is the distribution of counts that these top class base stealers (Ricky, Raines, Lofton etc) stole on, especially when stealing second. You’ve got some forces working in opposition there. On the one hand, if you’re really good (and thus unlikely to be thrown out), stealing early in the count is to be encouraged, for the simple reason that you want to get yourself into scoring position asap. On the other hand, if you are truly disruptive of the pitcher (including e.g. forcing a tendency… Read more »

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Andy

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Doug, although I appreciate it, your two data posts aren’t actually relevant. I suspect virtually all batters hit better in the #2 slot than lower in the order, because they are more likely to be batting with runners on. What I’d love to see, for example, are career numbers for Dwayne Murphy batting with Henderson at first, vs with other people at first. There’s probably not enough data to make it statistically significant, but if we summed it for all guys who batted behind Rickey, I’d bet we’d find a positive effect.

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Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Agree, Andy, this doesn’t speak directly to your point. But, I went with the data readily at hand 🙂 .

Regarding hitting better further up the batting order, yes. Although, I wouldn’t expect differences as dramatic as Mattingly’s just from moving up the order one position. Definitely think Rickey was a help for Don.

So, while nothing is “proved” by looking at these splits, definitely seems to support your hypothesis.

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John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Andy

My opinion on the “why” of Rickey’s huge walk totals: Any batter who wants to can draw a significant number of walks. There is a broad range of selectivity among MLB hitters, and pitchers generally aren’t able or willing to adjust to the guys at the extreme ends of the spectrum. Baseball history is replete with guys who drew tons of walks despite being far less of a hitting threat than Rickey. From 1909-15, Donie Bush batted .247 with a total of 8 HRs (and never hit 20 doubles in a season, either) — but he averaged 99 walks, leading… Read more »

Brent

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Any post that mentions my favorite (non-Royal, non-Cardinal) player of all time, Maxie “Camera-eye” Bishop, is a hit with me. In 1929, despite hitting .232, with absolutely zero power (19 doubles, 6 triples, 3 Homers), he led the AL in walks with 128 and had a .398 OBP. Considering the 2, 3, 4 and 5 hitters were Haas (OPS+ 114), Cochrane (OPS+ 124), Foxx (OPS+ 173) and Simmons (OPS+ 159), I can guarantee you that no pitcher was ever pitching around Bishop.

Forrest

12 years ago

I would LOVE to see the steal happy 80’s style return to baseball. I loved it then & I’ve missed it since. With Billy Hamilton & Delino Deshields (Jr) coming up soon (one hopes), I hope we might be in for a treat not seen since the Henderson vs Raines debates about who the better leadoff guy is. BTW, Henderson’s “3 straight” seasons with 100+ steals should be “3 straight non-strike” seasons.

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Reply to Forrest

Hmmm well this is interesting.

I had been under the impression that the team SB leader (in the post-1920 era) was certainly won of the 1980 teams, likely the mid-80s Cardinals or the early 80s Expos. Not the case. Take a bow 1976 A’s, at 341 swiped bags, well ahead of the next best ’85 Cardinals with 314.

The now Reggie-less A’s had a guy that year with exactly 4 PAs and 1 AB…who stole 31 bags.

I say we could use a few more Dick Williams’ around MLB these days.

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Reply to Forrest

Hmmm well this is interesting.

I had been under the impression that the team SB leader (in the post-1920 era) was certainly one of the 1980 teams, likely the mid-80s Cardinals or the early 80s Expos. Not the case. Take a bow 1976 A’s, at 341 swiped bags, well ahead of the next best ’85 Cardinals with 314.

The now Reggie-less A’s had a guy that year with exactly 4 PAs and 1 AB…who stole 31 bags.

I say we could use a few more Dick Williams’ around MLB these days.

Author

Andy

12 years ago

How did nobody tell me I put 2012 instead of 1983 in the first sentence! (now fixed)

Editor

Dan McCloskey

12 years ago

Reply to Andy

We’re afraid of you.

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Andy

12 years ago

Reply to Dan McCloskey

I haze only on Twitter.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Andy

As long as you don’t mind us mentioning your errors there’s one I pointed out in your Mt. Rushmore blog on the Angels (5/29/2012) that you probably haven’t seen. See my post #41 there.

Editor

Doug

12 years ago

Just noticed Benny Ayala’s name on the list of Mets to homer in their first career PA. That’s interesting because Ayala is also the last player to homer in his first career post-season game, in the World Series (in 1979). He is, thus, also the only player since 1918 to homer in both the first regular season and first post-season (in the WS) games of his career.

The only pre-1918 player who may have matched that feat is Happy Felsch who debuted for the White Sox in 1915 in a game won by Chicago by a 7-6 score.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Maybe I’m misreading your claim, Doug — but Andruw Jones hit 2 HRs in his first career WS game in 1996.

That wasn’t Andruw’s first postseason game, which was the case for Ayala — so maybe there’s a bit of a mixup in your search?

Editor

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

That must be it, John. Thanks for pointing this out.

If I select only WS and first career game in P-I, it gives me the players who hit a HR in their first career post-season game, if that game was in the WS. Thus, no Andruw.

I’ll amend the wording of the post.

Too bad I can’t get P-I to look for 1st WS (or 1st LCS) game, rather than just 1st post-season game.

MikeD

12 years ago

Note to self: If I’m ever signed by the NY Mets, do not hit a HR in my first AB.

Note to everyone else: There is a better chance the world ends in December than I will ever be signed by the NY Mets.