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waittilnextyear · 03-01-2019, 02:57 AM

1980 Season

After an interesting 1979 season, there was much anticipation by this author to play thru the sophomore campaign in 1980. Seeing Rico Petrocelli top 80 homers and 200 RBI while batting .377 led to a bit of mental anguish, but the modifiers were adjusted and the season was replayed. Mr. Petrocelli still had a massive campaign for the best team in baseball history--the 1980 Boston Red Sox--but his numbers were a bit more tropospheric than stratospheric the second time around.

A 126-win Red Sox club came up a bit short once again in 1980. The BoSox continue to practice the lost art of rampaging through the regular season and then coughing up 3-2 ALCS leads; they reprised the feat this year against Oakland. Despite winning the AL East by 28 games and playing .722 ball (234-90) over their first couple of years, the Red Sox have yet to taste World Series baseball. With an offense like this, though, it probably won't be long for the nucleus of Rico Petrocelli, Reggie Smith, Ken 'Hawk' Harrelson (who crushed 6 homers in the ALCS), and Mike Stanley--a quartet that amassed 36.9 WAR between them in 1980. If only 1979 Cy Young winner Clay Buchholz hadn't missed all but his first start in 1980 with an injury...If only.

For Oakland's part, they had much less sizzle than Boston, but won the AL pennant anyway. Oakland edged out the defending champeen Minnesota Twins by 4 games in the AL West. Catcher Dave Duncan bashed 47 homers and DH Carney Lansford won a Silver Slugger, but one can't help but feel Oakland got a little bit lucky. Playing in a division laden with the expansion Angels, the expansion Rangers, the expansion Royals, and the expansion Mariners doesn't hurt either.

On the NL side of the ledger, the Los Angeles Dodgers avenged a heartbreaking 7-game NLCS loss to the Pirates en route to the franchise's first championship trophy. LA dumped Pittsburgh and NL MVP and Triple Crown Winner Dave Parker in 6 games and did the same with Oakland in the World Series. The Dodgers won 103 games and were challenged a bit more heartily during the regular season by the 100-win Giants.

1980 Chicago Cubs

Chicago got off to a slow start and there was much consternation in Wrigleyville because phenom corner outfielders Lee Walls and Billy Williams were not starting games despite clearly being atop the depth chart. GM Harry Caray finally figured out that he forgot to turn off the 7-day lineups after Spring Training...lay off the Budweiser, Harry. More Cub Fan, less Bud Man. After making the fix, the Cubs launched a serious bid to take the NL East division, but came up a little bit short after nipping at the heels of the Pirates.

Center fielder Adolfo Phillips was once again squarely in the MVP conversation as he had an even better year than the last. Phillips batted .312/.412/.632 with 43 HR, 130 RBI, 117 R, 29 SB, and a pleasing 10.0 WAR. Too bad the OOTP progression engine recalc'ed Phillips into oblivion after the season. He'll probably not come anywhere close to this level of production in the future...

...which isn't necessarily a catastrophic thing for the Cubs because a 20-year-old Billy Williams is now on the scene. In 78 starts as a rookie, Williams batted .295/.350/.478 with 15 HR and 49 RBI. And he still has some more progressing to do. Another rookie corner outfielder, the 18-year-old Lee Walls, had a slightly better season: .300/.378/.536 with 21 HR and 75 RBI.

The Cubs were a team of more than just outfielders in 1980, however. Bill Buckner fought Dave Parker tooth and nail for the NL batting crown before succumbing in the final weeks (.331 vs .336). Buckner was batting well over .400 deep into the month of June. Billy Buck split his time about 50:50 between 1B and RF after playing RF exclusively last year. Buckner's final line: .331/.356/.481, 14 HR 75 RBI 21 SB. Playing all of the 1980 season at 23 years old, Buckner figures to be around for quite some time.

Another ray of hope for the ascendant Cubbies was 23-year-old Javier Baez. After some hard knocks during his rookie year in 1979, Baez made some leaps and bounds in 1980, starting 156 games and compiling 3.0 WAR. Baez played mostly shortstop, slashed .273/.325/.435, and once again finished 2nd on the team in homers--this time with 22.

On the pitching side of things, #1 starter Matt Clement was worked hard for a second year in a row. He only made 43 starts this year, though, and saw his innings pitched relax from 263.1 to 187. Clement struck out 209 against 73 BBs and ended up with a team-best 3.22 ERA.

Clement had a lot more help in 1980 in the form of rookies Kyle Hendricks [9-6, 3.40 ERA, 4.2 WAR] and Rich Nye the baseball guy [10-6, 3.33 ERA, 4.0 WAR], but it was actually 30-year-old reliever Bruce Sutter [11-5, 4.45 ERA, 30/38 SV] that paced the team in wins. Sutter had to be 'locked' in as the closer to keep the bench coach from putting his guy Paul Assenmacher in that role--Assenmacher led the league with 92 appearances so it's not clear if the coaches actually like him or hate him.

After 96 wins and with a strong core really starting to materialize, the Cubs could be positioned for a very successful 1980s.

Awards and Anomalies

Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw missed out on the NL MVP this time, but won the Cy Young and pitching Triple Crown once again. The guy is amazing. He led the league in W (22), ERA (1.92), IP (211.1), K (314), WHIP (0.78), HR/9 (0.8), BB/9 (0.8), K/9 (13.4), and WAR (10.4). He's now 49-8 with 23 WAR in the first 2 years of his career. He had a 5-start streak where he K'd double digits in each outing: from July 27th to August 19th. He walked zero batters in 20 of his 34 starts. An ERA+ of 223 and a K:BB of 17.44. The guy is an absolute alien. The Dodgers still won't let him don his preferred #21 jersey though.

Despite all that, the NL MVP went to Dave Parker. Parker won the NL Triple Crown, edging out Chicago's Billy Buckner by 5 points and Cincinnati's Lee May by a single home run. Parker didn't just stop at a lowly Triple Crown, but he also paced the Senior Circuit in hits (213), runs (131), SLG (.683), and OPS (1.080). The Cubs might want to hide Ted Lilly when Parker comes to town because Cobra has 2 HR in 2 AB against the young Cubbie southpaw. Parker also batted .411 in August and bashed 16 homers--including 5 games in a row--in September to help hold off the hard-charging Cubs. He also enjoys simple pleasures.

Rounding out the rest of the major NL awards--it was Stan Musial winning Rookie of the Year and SF lefty Dan Runzler taking the award for Best Relief Pitcher with an NL-best 38 saves. Musial was hampered by injuries so he only played in 119 games, but St. Louis fans are stoked about a guy they've started calling Stan 'The Man'. Batting .331/.415/.568 with 19 HR 82 RBI and more BBs than Ks as a 20-year-old tends to earn you nice nicknames. Still love the fact that somehow Musial and Ken Griffey Jr. (who hasn't yet made an appearance in this game) are both from Donora, PA--a town that boasts about 4,500 residents in present day. Must be something in the air...

NL Silver Sluggers:

P - Don Sutton (LAD)
C - Javy Lopez (ATL): [.270/.318/.542, 37 HR 114 RBI]
1B - Lee May (CIN): [.286/.329/.608, 55 HR 128 RBI]
2B - Jim Lefebvre (LAD): [.310/.402/.504, 25 HR 109 RBI]
3B - Sid Gordon (SFN): [.331/.409/.669, 50 HR 107 RBI]
SS - Jose Reyes (NYN): [.300/.354/.491, 17 HR 91 RBI]
LF - Chuck Klein (PHI): [.291/.360/.582, 44 HR 105 RBI]
CF - Adolfo Phillips (CHN): [.312/.412/.632, 43 HR 130 RBI]
RF - Dave Parker (PIT): [.336/.397/.683, 56 HR 147 RBI]

NL Gold Gloves:

P - Pascual Perez (ATL)
C - Carlos Hernandez (SDN, back-2-back)
1B - Lefty O'Doul (LAD, back-2-back)
2B - Jim Lefebvre (LAD)
3B - Ken Oberkfell (STL)
SS - Brandon Crawford (SFN, back-2-back)
LF - Jim Fairey (MON)
CF - Emilio Bonifacio (ATL)
RF - Mike Baxter (NYN)

As for the junior circuit...

The 108-win Red Sox produced the MVP winner last year and it was no different for the 126-win Red Sox this year. Rico Petrocelli was a total stud. He boasted 12.4 WAR [.315/.394/.688, 57 HR, 155 RBI, 45 2B, 135 R, +20.2 ZR at SS] and the Boston faithful just loves him to pieces. This fan favorite is like a really slow 5-tool player, but man he can hit, hit for power, play defense, and fling it.

The Red Sox are definitely good at this award-winning thing. They won the Cy Young again in 1980 also. This time it was...32-year-old knuckleballer Steven Wright? Is that a question or a statement? Much like Buchholz last year, Wright's job was to be an above average body on the mound that would try to stay limber as his offense bludgeoned the opposing team into submission. That's not to take away from what was a fine season [20-5, 2.45 ERA, 223.2 IP, 209:66 K:BB, 5.5 WAR, 8.5 rWAR]. Wright did come up small in the postseason, though. He got pasted for 6 runs on 9 hits in 5.2 IP in Game 1 of the ALCS.

AL Silver Sluggers:

DH - Carney Lansford (OAK): [.296/.339/.523, 21 HR 80 RBI]
C - Rudy York (DET): [.292/.369/.667, 56 HR 134 RBI]
1B - Dave Revering (TOR): [.298/.358/.603, 46 HR 108 RBI]
2B - Jorge Orta (CHA): [.320/.397/.581, 27 HR 97 RBI]
3B - Gary Gaetti (MIN): [.269/.318/.570, 52 HR 137 RBI]
SS - Rico Petrocelli (BOS): [.315/.394/.699, 57 HR 155 RBI]
LF - Pat Seerey (CLE): [.262/.344/.586, 51 HR 124 RBI]
CF - Reggie Smith (BOS): [.330/.406/.597, 36 HR 116 RBI]
RF - Ken Harrelson (BOS): [.316/.410/.605, 49 HR 117 RBI]

AL Gold Gloves:

P - James Paxton (SEA)
C - Darrell Porter (KCA, back-2-back)
1B - Harry Simpson (OAK)
2B - Deivi Cruz (DET)
3B - Buddy Bell (TEX)
SS - Troy Tulowitzki (TOR, back-2-back)
LF - Mike McCoy (TOR)
CF - Paul Blair (BAL)
RF - Russ Snyder (BAL)

Rounding out the major AL awards were Red Sox RP Jonathan Papelbon and Yankees rookie slugger Aaron Judge. Papelbon saved 48 games with a sub-1 ERA (0.88). A 4.0 WAR season is super duper impressive for a 1-inning reliever, and Papelbon's 109 K against 14 BB and 2 HR got him there. Judge gave the Yankees a jolt as they continue to wait for Babe Ruth to become BABE RUTH. Judge batted .280/.402/.586 with 45 HR and 102 RBI (7.4 WAR) for the Bronx Bombers.

The most anomalous anomaly in 1980 was the Curious Case of Lefty Gomez and the Lone Ranger. In 1980, Gomez led all of baseball with 330 K and a gaudy 15.5 K/9, unheard of for a starting pitcher. All of that is well and good: phenomenal pitcher for the Yankees. But, a particularly interesting start came on August 5th, 1980 at Yankee Stadium against the Texas Rangers.

Texas was 46-58 at the time and going nowhere fast. The Yanks were 69-36 and still falling way behind a superhuman Boston team in the AL East. Texas sent out: (1) Bump Wills, 2B; (2) Frank Catalanotto, RF; (3) Jake Smolinski, LF; (4) Pat Putnam, 1B; (5) Bob Saverine, SS; (6) Hank Blalock, DH; (7) Tom Grieve, CF, (8) Mark McLemore, 3B; and (9) Rod Barajas, C. LHP John Koronka started the game for Texas, but that is of no interest.

In the top of the 1st, Gomez gets Wills to fly out. Catalanotto and Smolinski both strike out swinging.

In the 2nd inning, Gomez freezes Putnam, induces a fly out from Saverine, and sits Blalock down on 3 pitches.

3rd inning--Gomez strikes out the side on 11 pitches. The Yankees push ahead 1-0.

In the 4th inning, Gomez once again gets the Rangers, all flailing on 11 pitches. A homer from Joe Collins in the bottom half has the Yankees at 3-0.

Gomez needs 13 pitches in the 5th, but gets Putnam, Saverine, and Blalock--all swinging. 13 K for Gomez so far.

6th inning: Grieve down looking in a 2-2 count, McLemore swinging in a 2-2 count, Barajas grounds out. Barajas is the first Ranger to put the ball in play since the 2nd inning. 15 strikeouts for Gomez. Collins goes deep again to stretch the Yankee lead to 5-0. Clay Bellinger triples home Bob Geren to make it 6-0.

In the 7th inning, Gomez gets Wills looking after 4 foul balls. Catalanotto is thrown out at 1st by Geren on a dropped 3rd strike. Smolinski goes down hacking. That's now 18 for Gomez. Geren comes through again with a bases loaded RBI single in the bottom half. Yanks are up 7-0.

Now the 8th inning. Gomez gets Putnam looking again. This time on a full count. Saverine goes down looking. Blalock once again swinging. Gomez is up to 21 K. The Rangers have yet to reach base.

9th inning. Perfecto/21 K-game in progress. No one has ever seen anything like this before. Gomez comes back out to thunderous applause.

Grieve...that could be trouble...lines out. Hard. A rocket to center--the best contact all game. McLemore goes down swinging on a full count. Gomez has 22 punch-outs and Yankee Stadium is in full throat with one voice.

Barajas comes up once again. Strike one called. Strike two, swinging. Ball! Count is 1-2. Gomez is now at 127 pitches.

57,145 are on their feet and the stadium is literally shaking.

The 1-2 delivery...home...

...Barajas bloops a Texas leaguer over the head of Bellinger at 3rd...Bob Meachem is on a dead sprint coming over from SS...Greg Golson on a furious charge coming in from his left field position...they're covering huge chunks of ground, but the ball is dying like a shot quail...

...the ball is...no one is going to catch it! The ball falls in front of Golson! Noooooooooooooooooo!!! There goes the perfect game!

That base knock raises Barajas' batting average to .196. Barajas is the Lone Ranger. He now leads off from 1st as Gomez stalks around the pitching mound throwing the baseball frenetically into his glove and removing it.

And the Yankee manager heads out...

BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! The manager gets hit in the head with a cigarette lighter! Oh, doctor! And now an unruly fan in a Yankees ballcap is being ushered off the premises. Pandemonium here in the Bronx!

Righty Joe Cowley comes out of the pen...and gets Wills to fly out meekly to end the game. Yankees win 7-0.

Gomez's final line: 128 pitches, 8.2 IP, 1 hit, 0 BB, 22 K. But somehow it feels disappointing. That's baseball sometimes.

03-01-2019, 02:57 AM	#14
waittilnextyear All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2016 Posts: 1,272	1980 in Review 1980 Season After an interesting 1979 season, there was much anticipation by this author to play thru the sophomore campaign in 1980. Seeing Rico Petrocelli top 80 homers and 200 RBI while batting .377 led to a bit of mental anguish, but the modifiers were adjusted and the season was replayed. Mr. Petrocelli still had a massive campaign for the best team in baseball history--the 1980 Boston Red Sox--but his numbers were a bit more tropospheric than stratospheric the second time around. A 126-win Red Sox club came up a bit short once again in 1980. The BoSox continue to practice the lost art of rampaging through the regular season and then coughing up 3-2 ALCS leads; they reprised the feat this year against Oakland. Despite winning the AL East by 28 games and playing .722 ball (234-90) over their first couple of years, the Red Sox have yet to taste World Series baseball. With an offense like this, though, it probably won't be long for the nucleus of Rico Petrocelli, Reggie Smith, Ken 'Hawk' Harrelson (who crushed 6 homers in the ALCS), and Mike Stanley--a quartet that amassed 36.9 WAR between them in 1980. If only 1979 Cy Young winner Clay Buchholz hadn't missed all but his first start in 1980 with an injury...If only. For Oakland's part, they had much less sizzle than Boston, but won the AL pennant anyway. Oakland edged out the defending champeen Minnesota Twins by 4 games in the AL West. Catcher Dave Duncan bashed 47 homers and DH Carney Lansford won a Silver Slugger, but one can't help but feel Oakland got a little bit lucky. Playing in a division laden with the expansion Angels, the expansion Rangers, the expansion Royals, and the expansion Mariners doesn't hurt either. On the NL side of the ledger, the Los Angeles Dodgers avenged a heartbreaking 7-game NLCS loss to the Pirates en route to the franchise's first championship trophy. LA dumped Pittsburgh and NL MVP and Triple Crown Winner Dave Parker in 6 games and did the same with Oakland in the World Series. The Dodgers won 103 games and were challenged a bit more heartily during the regular season by the 100-win Giants. 1980 Chicago Cubs Chicago got off to a slow start and there was much consternation in Wrigleyville because phenom corner outfielders Lee Walls and Billy Williams were not starting games despite clearly being atop the depth chart. GM Harry Caray finally figured out that he forgot to turn off the 7-day lineups after Spring Training...lay off the Budweiser, Harry. More Cub Fan, less Bud Man. After making the fix, the Cubs launched a serious bid to take the NL East division, but came up a little bit short after nipping at the heels of the Pirates. Center fielder Adolfo Phillips was once again squarely in the MVP conversation as he had an even better year than the last. Phillips batted .312/.412/.632 with 43 HR, 130 RBI, 117 R, 29 SB, and a pleasing 10.0 WAR. Too bad the OOTP progression engine recalc'ed Phillips into oblivion after the season. He'll probably not come anywhere close to this level of production in the future... ...which isn't necessarily a catastrophic thing for the Cubs because a 20-year-old Billy Williams is now on the scene. In 78 starts as a rookie, Williams batted .295/.350/.478 with 15 HR and 49 RBI. And he still has some more progressing to do. Another rookie corner outfielder, the 18-year-old Lee Walls, had a slightly better season: .300/.378/.536 with 21 HR and 75 RBI. The Cubs were a team of more than just outfielders in 1980, however. Bill Buckner fought Dave Parker tooth and nail for the NL batting crown before succumbing in the final weeks (.331 vs .336). Buckner was batting well over .400 deep into the month of June. Billy Buck split his time about 50:50 between 1B and RF after playing RF exclusively last year. Buckner's final line: .331/.356/.481, 14 HR 75 RBI 21 SB. Playing all of the 1980 season at 23 years old, Buckner figures to be around for quite some time. Another ray of hope for the ascendant Cubbies was 23-year-old Javier Baez. After some hard knocks during his rookie year in 1979, Baez made some leaps and bounds in 1980, starting 156 games and compiling 3.0 WAR. Baez played mostly shortstop, slashed .273/.325/.435, and once again finished 2nd on the team in homers--this time with 22. On the pitching side of things, #1 starter Matt Clement was worked hard for a second year in a row. He only made 43 starts this year, though, and saw his innings pitched relax from 263.1 to 187. Clement struck out 209 against 73 BBs and ended up with a team-best 3.22 ERA. Clement had a lot more help in 1980 in the form of rookies Kyle Hendricks [9-6, 3.40 ERA, 4.2 WAR] and Rich Nye the baseball guy [10-6, 3.33 ERA, 4.0 WAR], but it was actually 30-year-old reliever Bruce Sutter [11-5, 4.45 ERA, 30/38 SV] that paced the team in wins. Sutter had to be 'locked' in as the closer to keep the bench coach from putting his guy Paul Assenmacher in that role--Assenmacher led the league with 92 appearances so it's not clear if the coaches actually like him or hate him. After 96 wins and with a strong core really starting to materialize, the Cubs could be positioned for a very successful 1980s. Awards and Anomalies Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw missed out on the NL MVP this time, but won the Cy Young and pitching Triple Crown once again. The guy is amazing. He led the league in W (22), ERA (1.92), IP (211.1), K (314), WHIP (0.78), HR/9 (0.8), BB/9 (0.8), K/9 (13.4), and WAR (10.4). He's now 49-8 with 23 WAR in the first 2 years of his career. He had a 5-start streak where he K'd double digits in each outing: from July 27th to August 19th. He walked zero batters in 20 of his 34 starts. An ERA+ of 223 and a K:BB of 17.44. The guy is an absolute alien. The Dodgers still won't let him don his preferred #21 jersey though. Despite all that, the NL MVP went to Dave Parker. Parker won the NL Triple Crown, edging out Chicago's Billy Buckner by 5 points and Cincinnati's Lee May by a single home run. Parker didn't just stop at a lowly Triple Crown, but he also paced the Senior Circuit in hits (213), runs (131), SLG (.683), and OPS (1.080). The Cubs might want to hide Ted Lilly when Parker comes to town because Cobra has 2 HR in 2 AB against the young Cubbie southpaw. Parker also batted .411 in August and bashed 16 homers--including 5 games in a row--in September to help hold off the hard-charging Cubs. He also enjoys simple pleasures. Rounding out the rest of the major NL awards--it was Stan Musial winning Rookie of the Year and SF lefty Dan Runzler taking the award for Best Relief Pitcher with an NL-best 38 saves. Musial was hampered by injuries so he only played in 119 games, but St. Louis fans are stoked about a guy they've started calling Stan 'The Man'. Batting .331/.415/.568 with 19 HR 82 RBI and more BBs than Ks as a 20-year-old tends to earn you nice nicknames. Still love the fact that somehow Musial and Ken Griffey Jr. (who hasn't yet made an appearance in this game) are both from Donora, PA--a town that boasts about 4,500 residents in present day. Must be something in the air... NL Silver Sluggers: P - Don Sutton (LAD) C - Javy Lopez (ATL): [.270/.318/.542, 37 HR 114 RBI] 1B - Lee May (CIN): [.286/.329/.608, 55 HR 128 RBI] 2B - Jim Lefebvre (LAD): [.310/.402/.504, 25 HR 109 RBI] 3B - Sid Gordon (SFN): [.331/.409/.669, 50 HR 107 RBI] SS - Jose Reyes (NYN): [.300/.354/.491, 17 HR 91 RBI] LF - Chuck Klein (PHI): [.291/.360/.582, 44 HR 105 RBI] CF - Adolfo Phillips (CHN): [.312/.412/.632, 43 HR 130 RBI] RF - Dave Parker (PIT): [.336/.397/.683, 56 HR 147 RBI] NL Gold Gloves: P - Pascual Perez (ATL) C - Carlos Hernandez (SDN, back-2-back) 1B - Lefty O'Doul (LAD, back-2-back) 2B - Jim Lefebvre (LAD) 3B - Ken Oberkfell (STL) SS - Brandon Crawford (SFN, back-2-back) LF - Jim Fairey (MON) CF - Emilio Bonifacio (ATL) RF - Mike Baxter (NYN) As for the junior circuit... The 108-win Red Sox produced the MVP winner last year and it was no different for the 126-win Red Sox this year. Rico Petrocelli was a total stud. He boasted 12.4 WAR [.315/.394/.688, 57 HR, 155 RBI, 45 2B, 135 R, +20.2 ZR at SS] and the Boston faithful just loves him to pieces. This fan favorite is like a really slow 5-tool player, but man he can hit, hit for power, play defense, and fling it. The Red Sox are definitely good at this award-winning thing. They won the Cy Young again in 1980 also. This time it was...32-year-old knuckleballer Steven Wright? Is that a question or a statement? Much like Buchholz last year, Wright's job was to be an above average body on the mound that would try to stay limber as his offense bludgeoned the opposing team into submission. That's not to take away from what was a fine season [20-5, 2.45 ERA, 223.2 IP, 209:66 K:BB, 5.5 WAR, 8.5 rWAR]. Wright did come up small in the postseason, though. He got pasted for 6 runs on 9 hits in 5.2 IP in Game 1 of the ALCS. AL Silver Sluggers: DH - Carney Lansford (OAK): [.296/.339/.523, 21 HR 80 RBI] C - Rudy York (DET): [.292/.369/.667, 56 HR 134 RBI] 1B - Dave Revering (TOR): [.298/.358/.603, 46 HR 108 RBI] 2B - Jorge Orta (CHA): [.320/.397/.581, 27 HR 97 RBI] 3B - Gary Gaetti (MIN): [.269/.318/.570, 52 HR 137 RBI] SS - Rico Petrocelli (BOS): [.315/.394/.699, 57 HR 155 RBI] LF - Pat Seerey (CLE): [.262/.344/.586, 51 HR 124 RBI] CF - Reggie Smith (BOS): [.330/.406/.597, 36 HR 116 RBI] RF - Ken Harrelson (BOS): [.316/.410/.605, 49 HR 117 RBI] AL Gold Gloves: P - James Paxton (SEA) C - Darrell Porter (KCA, back-2-back) 1B - Harry Simpson (OAK) 2B - Deivi Cruz (DET) 3B - Buddy Bell (TEX) SS - Troy Tulowitzki (TOR, back-2-back) LF - Mike McCoy (TOR) CF - Paul Blair (BAL) RF - Russ Snyder (BAL) Rounding out the major AL awards were Red Sox RP Jonathan Papelbon and Yankees rookie slugger Aaron Judge. Papelbon saved 48 games with a sub-1 ERA (0.88). A 4.0 WAR season is super duper impressive for a 1-inning reliever, and Papelbon's 109 K against 14 BB and 2 HR got him there. Judge gave the Yankees a jolt as they continue to wait for Babe Ruth to become BABE RUTH. Judge batted .280/.402/.586 with 45 HR and 102 RBI (7.4 WAR) for the Bronx Bombers. The most anomalous anomaly in 1980 was the Curious Case of Lefty Gomez and the Lone Ranger. In 1980, Gomez led all of baseball with 330 K and a gaudy 15.5 K/9, unheard of for a starting pitcher. All of that is well and good: phenomenal pitcher for the Yankees. But, a particularly interesting start came on August 5th, 1980 at Yankee Stadium against the Texas Rangers. Texas was 46-58 at the time and going nowhere fast. The Yanks were 69-36 and still falling way behind a superhuman Boston team in the AL East. Texas sent out: (1) Bump Wills, 2B; (2) Frank Catalanotto, RF; (3) Jake Smolinski, LF; (4) Pat Putnam, 1B; (5) Bob Saverine, SS; (6) Hank Blalock, DH; (7) Tom Grieve, CF, (8) Mark McLemore, 3B; and (9) Rod Barajas, C. LHP John Koronka started the game for Texas, but that is of no interest. In the top of the 1st, Gomez gets Wills to fly out. Catalanotto and Smolinski both strike out swinging. In the 2nd inning, Gomez freezes Putnam, induces a fly out from Saverine, and sits Blalock down on 3 pitches. 3rd inning--Gomez strikes out the side on 11 pitches. The Yankees push ahead 1-0. In the 4th inning, Gomez once again gets the Rangers, all flailing on 11 pitches. A homer from Joe Collins in the bottom half has the Yankees at 3-0. Gomez needs 13 pitches in the 5th, but gets Putnam, Saverine, and Blalock--all swinging. 13 K for Gomez so far. 6th inning: Grieve down looking in a 2-2 count, McLemore swinging in a 2-2 count, Barajas grounds out. Barajas is the first Ranger to put the ball in play since the 2nd inning. 15 strikeouts for Gomez. Collins goes deep again to stretch the Yankee lead to 5-0. Clay Bellinger triples home Bob Geren to make it 6-0. In the 7th inning, Gomez gets Wills looking after 4 foul balls. Catalanotto is thrown out at 1st by Geren on a dropped 3rd strike. Smolinski goes down hacking. That's now 18 for Gomez. Geren comes through again with a bases loaded RBI single in the bottom half. Yanks are up 7-0. Now the 8th inning. Gomez gets Putnam looking again. This time on a full count. Saverine goes down looking. Blalock once again swinging. Gomez is up to 21 K. The Rangers have yet to reach base. 9th inning. Perfecto/21 K-game in progress. No one has ever seen anything like this before. Gomez comes back out to thunderous applause. Grieve...that could be trouble...lines out. Hard. A rocket to center--the best contact all game. McLemore goes down swinging on a full count. Gomez has 22 punch-outs and Yankee Stadium is in full throat with one voice. Barajas comes up once again. Strike one called. Strike two, swinging. Ball! Count is 1-2. Gomez is now at 127 pitches. 57,145 are on their feet and the stadium is literally shaking. The 1-2 delivery...home... ...Barajas bloops a Texas leaguer over the head of Bellinger at 3rd...Bob Meachem is on a dead sprint coming over from SS...Greg Golson on a furious charge coming in from his left field position...they're covering huge chunks of ground, but the ball is dying like a shot quail... ...the ball is...no one is going to catch it! The ball falls in front of Golson! Noooooooooooooooooo!!! There goes the perfect game! That base knock raises Barajas' batting average to .196. Barajas is the Lone Ranger. He now leads off from 1st as Gomez stalks around the pitching mound throwing the baseball frenetically into his glove and removing it. And the Yankee manager heads out... BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! The manager gets hit in the head with a cigarette lighter! Oh, doctor! And now an unruly fan in a Yankees ballcap is being ushered off the premises. Pandemonium here in the Bronx! Righty Joe Cowley comes out of the pen...and gets Wills to fly out meekly to end the game. Yankees win 7-0. Gomez's final line: 128 pitches, 8.2 IP, 1 hit, 0 BB, 22 K. But somehow it feels disappointing. That's baseball sometimes.