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 | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | WPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Jacobs | 2005-08-21 | NYM | WSN | L 4-7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.062 |
| Kazuo Matsui | 2004-04-06 | NYM | ATL | W 7-2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0.268 |
| Mike Fitzgerald | 1983-09-13 | NYM | PHI | W 5-1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0.106 |
| Benny Ayala | 1974-08-27 | NYM | HOU | W 4-2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.093 |
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.
I <3 Dan Quisenberry...and not just because of his first name.
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.
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, threw 66.2 innings in 70 appearances. Essentially, in 1983 the Quiz was doing both jobs that Mariano and Robertson did last year. And he wasn’t the only one. Lee Smith threw 103.1 innings in 56 appearances (with an NL leading 29 saves); Sutter threw 122.1 innings the next year in 63 appearances (and getting 45 saves); Fingers threw over 100 innings every year from 1969 to 1978; Gossage was a little less used, but had 87 innings in 57 appearances in 1983.
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).
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 careers of other notorious thieves (Raines, Wilson) also taking off.
And amazingly, 18 years later, Henderson again led all of MLB with 66 swipes, and two years later, at age 41 he still swiped 36 bags.
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 Luis Aparicio has the most consecutive seasons leading his league with 9.
“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?
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.
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.
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.
Yes he was in prison for armed robbery. He was discovered by Billy Martin no less.
Since you opened the can of worms, I must make a snarky post: What was Billy in the joint for when he discovered LeFlore?
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.
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 prison and ’76 was really his breakout year, when he hit over .300 for the first time and started swiping bags in a major way, and started the All Star Game in left field before being replaced by Yaz.
To those of us used to the plodding old Tigers, seeing this guy in center field was something. He just had raw, sprinter physique and speed. He would run down balls in the no man’s land that was deep center field of Tiger Stadium (440′) that you just could not believe, doing things that had never been done. He took ferocious hacks at the plate and struck out a *lot* but you could tell he had real potential, and when he hit it, he ripped it. It took him a while to read pitchers properly, but he improved every year, and when went to the NL in 1980 with a whole new set of pitchers, he had over an 80% success rate in steaing 97 bags.
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.
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 fail to reach 50, it will be only the second time since 1963 (the other was 2001). Last time both leader were under 40 – 1958, under 30 – 1955. Lowest combined total for both league leaders – 43 in 1938. In contrast, both league leaders reached 90 steals in 1983, only the second time that ever happened (the other was in 1980).
Finally, again eyeballing the lists, it appears only Juan Pierre and Ron LeFlore have led both leagues in steals.
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?
Yes, that’s what I meant.
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.
Thanks Brent. I updated the post.
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.
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 I would love to see—comparison of the batting numbers of the guys who hit behind Henderson with either A) Henderson on base & second base open or B) another player on base & second base open. I would have to think there’s a statistically significant edge when Henderson’s on base, just from pitcher distraction and/or recognizing he’s more likely to go 1st or 3rd, etc.
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 that you will have a tendency to throw fastballs when I’m on base, which will help the hitter out a fair bit”.
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.
Generated 9/13/2012.
And Lansford.
Generated 9/13/2012.
Huge difference for Lanaford batting second. Less so for Murphy, but still noticeable.
I’ll follow in next comment with what happened in New York the next season.
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!
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.
Generated 9/13/2012.
No doubt, the effect Andy was postulating. Would it be too much to suggest that Mattingly owed his MVP selection to Rickey’s efforts batting ahead of him.
Andy’s 2012 is your 1975.
Thanks Richard,
Fixed it.
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.
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 to throw more FBs and/or to hurry the delivery to the plate a tad), then one might argue that staying put for a few pitches is advantageous, especially if the hitter has some power.
Most likely someone has beaten me to this type of analysis long ago however.
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.
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.
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 the league in 5 of the 7 years, just by being patient. John McGraw, Roy Thomas, Miller Huggins, Max Bishop, Eddie Stanky, Eddie Yost — these guys and many others took advantage of the fact that pitchers HATE to throw the ball down the middle, even when they know the hitter has as little power as Mick Kelleher.
On the other end, we’ve all seen sluggers so free-swinging that you wonder, “Why do pitchers *ever* throw him a strike?” But they do. Habits are hard to break.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How did nobody tell me I put 2012 instead of 1983 in the first sentence! (now fixed)
We’re afraid of you.
I haze only on Twitter.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.