OTL reporting new evidence Pete Rose bet on baseball as player

He's in the HOF museum. He should get used to the notion that's all he'll ever get.

 

Funny, my thought was that the Cards would like to thank ESPN for unearthing this notebook.

 

April 30, 1986: White Sox 8, Orioles 6

Orioles (10-9) still managed by Earl Weaver, his 18th and final season. White Sox (6-12) managed by Tony LaRussa, in his 9th season.

Orioles led by Ripken, Murray, Lynn. White Sox led by Cangelosi, Baines, Fisk, Kittle, Guillen, and a rookie named Bobby Bonilla, who'd be traded to the Pirates 4 months later.

I grew up with a hard focus on the National League -- the real league -- though I paid attention to the Angels (and their AL foes) and watched them when Dodgers games weren't on TV.



That said, I have zero recollection of Rich Bordi, Bill Dawley, or Bob James. The American League sucks anyway.

Orioles lead 4-3 heading into bottom-3, when Storm Davis loses his shit and opens with 3 straight walks. White Sox score 6 that inning and hold on.



Both teams go on to suck that season, Orioles finish last in the East (73-89) and the White Sox 5th in the West (72-90).

And because it was Earl's last year, we really need this:

 

April 30, 1986: Royals 7, Tigers 3

Two more unforgettable stalwarts of managing, Dick Howser for the defending World Series champions, and Sparky Anderson for the Tigers. Both teams are 9-9 on this day.

KC with Willie Wilson, George Brett, Jorge Orta, Bye Bye Balboni, Jamie Quirk, who hit his first homer of the season, and a shortstop named Angel Salazar, who went 3 for 4 to raise his average to .209.

Detroit with Trammell, who had a double and homer, Darnell Coles, Larry Herndon, Lance Parrish, Chet Lemon, Darrell Evans (homer).

Charlie Leibrandt and Dan Petry pitched strong games through 8 innings before Tigers relievers went to shit in top-9:



Balboni went 0 for 5 but on a good note he struck out just once.

Dick Hower -- the only manager to lead the Royals to a World Series title and twice runner-up for AL Manager of the Year ('84 and '85) -- didn't coach again after 1986.

Brain cancer got him 414 days after this game.

Royals: Dick Howser, No. 10 | MLB.com

 

Technically, Manfred isn't restoring him to HOF voting eligibility. He'd be taking Rose off the banned list. Realize it's semantics but couldn't the BBWAA or Hall come up with a reason to keep him off the ballot since MLB doesn't control it?

 

The Mariners were in fine form in that series. This was the day after Roger Clemens' 20 strikeout game.

 

April 30, 1986: Brewers 5, A's 1

The season's a month old and yet only 5,892 people show up to County Stadium, still an American League park. Game took just 138 minutes.

First off, Dusty Baker played for the A's, his third team in three years.



So again, the AL was a backburner league for me and I have no recollection of A's manager Jackie Moore or Brewers manager George Bamberger.

A's had Rookie of the Year Jose Canseco (33 homers, 117 RBIs), Baker, Carney Lansford, Alfredo Griffin and a young Jose Rijo on the mound.

Brewers had Molitor, Fielder, Yount, Ogilvie, and some dude named Billy Jo Robidoux. Whoux?

A seemingly boring game though the Brewers hit 3 triples. Teddy Higuera threw a 5-hitter -- the lone run on a homer by ... Dusty Baker.

And, Paul Molitor wore the Golden Sombrero into the clubhouse.

 

Brewers didn't have Fielder -- he was still a Jays prospect and never played for the Brewers. They had Mike Felder. Much different player.

 

You're right, I mixed up Cecil Fielder and Cecil Cooper.

 

Things I never knew till today: Lou Piniella managed the Yankees in 1986.



April 30, 1986: Yankees 3, Twins 2. Only 18,774 people show up in the Bronx. Game takes 2:45. Ray Miller manages the Twinks.

Great matchup: Joe Niekro v. Bert Blyleven

Twins have guys who'd become famous a season later: Puckett, Hrbek, Gaetti, Hatcher, Lombardozzi, Gagne. Interesting stuff about Puckett: Through his first 289 games with the Twins ('84, '85) he hit 4 homers and drove in 105 runs. In '84 he had 165 hits and 0 homers. In '85 he had 199 hits and 4 homers. Then he busted loose in '86 with 223 hits, 31 homers, 96 RBIs, .328 average, .366 OBP.

In this game he went 4 for 5 with a homer and double and pushed his average to .396 and OPS to 1.180.

But Lou's Yanks featured Rickey and Griffey and Donnie Baseball and Winfield and Pags and Randolph. Mattingly hit his first homer, a 3-run shot in the 5th, and that's all Niekro needed.

Well, Niekro pitched 6 decent. Some guy named Brian Fisher -- who? -- pitched 3 innings to get the save. A 3-inning save! Like that would ever. fucking. happen. again.

The game ended when Fisher got William Lamar Beane -- we know him as Billy -- to ground into a 6-4-3.

Blyleven pitched well enough for the Twins: 8 innings, 8 hits, 3 runs (earned), 2 walks, 6 strikeouts.

He probably farted too.



The Twins finished 71-91 in '86. Miller lasted just 139 games and was fired after a 59-80 record.

A fella named Tom Kelly took over and went 12-11 the rest of the way. Not great but Not bad.

We know what happened in '87.

Interesting thing about Joe Niekro: He improved to 3-0 after this win but sucked the rest of the season and finished 9-10 with a 4.74 ERA. He began the '87 season at 3-4 before the Yankees traded him to ...

... the Twins.



He went 4-9 with a 6.26 ERA the rest of the season and didn't sniff much of the playoffs.

But in the one game he did get in -- Game 4 of the World Series -- he made it through 2 frames unscathed.



Back to '86 ... Lou Piniella's Yankees went 90-72, just 5.5 behind the Sox.

 

April 30, 1986: Indians 6, Rangers 4

First of all, let's get this out of the way ...



Second of all, you can make alotta fucking money in bar bets with the following trivia:

The Pat Corrales-managed 1986 Cleveland Indians, who finished 5th out of 7 in the East, 11.5 behind the Red Sox, led the American League in ...

° RBIs: 775 (yet 10th in homers, 157)
° Triples: 45
° Hits: 1,620 (80 more than the Jays)
° Runs: 831
° Stolen bases: 141
° Batting average: .284
° Total bases: 2,451

No wonder they got the cover of SI in '87 ...



But back to '86 ...

The Tribe had guys like Billy Butler and Joe Carter and Pat Tabler and Mel Hall and a guy with a pornstache who made IJAG moist.

Joe Carter's season went like this: 162 games, 663 ABs, 108 runs, 200 hits, 36 doubles, 9 triples, 29 homers, 121 RBIs, 29 stolen bases, .302 average.

And yet he finished 9th in the MVP voting.

Joe Carter went on to do stuff with the Blue Jays ...

The '86 Rangers meanwhile played for Bobby Valentine and finished 87-75, second behind the Angels. Every other AL West team finished at least 10 games below .500. The Rangers had guys like Oddibe McDowell and Toby Harrah (in his last of 17 seasons, the first several with the Indians) and Pete Incaviglia and some 9-hole shortstop named Curt Wilkerson.

Wilkerson went 3 for 4 in this game to raise his average to .174. It was probably the highlight of the game.

Although, the Indians needed 6 pitchers but not for reasons you might think:



What exactly happened to Cotton Candiotti after 4 batters?

 

This killed me. Killed me. Nothing in my 14 years of living had ever made me feel so low. I cried. I went into a funk for the next 2 weeks.

You can imagine what that did to the Dodgers organization and 1986 proved it. Jack's homer -- and cocksuckerly stroll around the bases -- put Lasorda's Dodgers into a gnarly funk and 1986 might just be the worst Dodgers season I remember. They were so fucking awful. Played like ghosts. Zero luster. Finished 73-89, 23 games behind the Astros, even though they were top in attendance at 3,023,208. They were so bad that Franklin Stubbs led them in homers (23) and Bill Madlock led them in RBIs (60). Sixty fucking RBIs led the team. On the bright side, Mariano Duncan and Steve Sax combined for 88 stolen bases, and Sax actually played great with a .332 average, 210 hits, 43 doubles and 40 swipes. Mike Marshall did OK, I suppose, with 19 homers and 53 RBIs. Only Sax and Madlock (106) reached triple figures in hits.

On the flip side, the Dodgers had a nice pitching staff:

° Fernando at 21-11, 3.14 ERA, 242 strikeouts
° Bob Welch at 7-13, 3.28 ERA, 183 strikeouts
° Orel Hershiser at 14-14, 3.85 ERA
° Rick Honeycutt at 11-9, 3.32 ERA

Dodgers' problem in '86 was they didn't exist at the plate and oh, by the way, they led the league with 181 errors. Their heads were up Jack Clark's ass.

Jim Frey's Cubs weren't much better in '86 at 70-90, 5th out of 6 in the East, 37 games back of the Mets.

Bob Dernier, Lopes and Cey, Ryno, Gary Matthews, Young Shawon, a Tito (Francona) and a Chico (Walker). And yet the Cubbies -- only 2 years removed from the brink of history -- led the National League in homers (155) and were third in hits (1,409) and fourth in RBIs (638). Where the Cubs sucked was pitching with guys like Eckersley and Sutcliffe and Sanderson and Trout (Mike's dad) and young Jamie Moyer -- and some 20-year-old named Greg Maddux (2-4, 5.52 ERA in 31 IP, 20 strikeouts, 11 walks). Cubs finished last in ERA (4.49) and complete games (11). Dodgers led the league in CG's (35).

Anyway ...

April 30, 1986: Dodgers 4, Cubs 0

Welch tossed a complete-game 6-hitter (6 K's, 1 walk) and lowered his ERA to 1.44. Eck pitched a decent game but gave up homers to Marshall, Stubbs, and Sax.

Dodgers improved to 10-13 with the win but slothed their way through the back-alley abortion that was 1986.

The 1986 Dodgers can be summed up by one name: Jack Fimple.



The Dodgers' Clarkian Funk continued through 1987.

Then 1988 happened.