The Baseball Reference website

[rudel.dietrich]

I remember what seems like a lifetime ago, back when BB ref was not exactly brand new but not exactly mainstream either. I actually supported the site by purchasing year long ad on the Honus Wagner page and using it to link to the OOTP website.
And I did not have to pay a fortune for it either. I expect that page now to go for possibly around $500 USD?

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

I remember what seems like a lifetime ago, back when BB ref was not exactly brand new but not exactly mainstream either. I actually supported the site by purchasing year long ad on the Honus Wagner page and using it to link to the OOTP website.
And I did not have to pay a fortune for it either. I expect that page now to go for possibly around $500 USD?

I remember the sponsorship days too, but there are no sponsorships any more. At least I can't find any.

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

I remember the sponsorship days too, but there are no sponsorships any more. At least I can't find any.

I looked it up right after I posted that and indeed they have done away with sponsored player pages.
I guess their other ad revenue is enough to pay for server and other costs. Good for them

[Lordofbrewtown]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

One of my favourite features about BB-Ref is the ability to look up games that you were at, or really cool games that you remember from TV or the radio, and check out things like who the starting pitchers were, what the lineups were, how the scoring happened, and on and on and on. I believe you can do this at Retrosheet as well, but I much prefer BB-Ref's interface/presentation. Matter of personal preference I guess.

Great topic/story!!!!! Based on that, I looked up a couple of games I was at. I was looking for the August 27th, 1982 A's/Brewers game I was at in Milwaukee - yes, the game where Ricky broke the all-time single season stolen base record. But, why it really stood out to me was that I used to keep box scores at the time and add up 'career' stats for the just the games I attended. Dwayne Murphy homered this game, and i remember it because I bet my cousin he would homer in this game and he did (won $1!!! woo-hoo!). Incredibly, he just raked at County Stadium. I had looked at my box scores, and he had homered in both previous games I had attended against the A's. That 3rd homer made him the all-time leader in games I had attended at the time - a visiting player!!! He became one of my favorite non-Brewers.

Also stumbled across a game where the Brewers scored 10 in the last 2 innings to come from behind against the Tigers. Ted Simmons with a grand slam.

Now I need to try to find the first game I ever attended, and see if my memories are really true (I think Moose Haas started in a comeback from injury, and Von Joshua tripled).

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by Lordofbrewtown

But, why it really stood out to me was that I used to keep box scores at the time and add up 'career' stats for the just the games I attended.

I used to do this too. Believe or not IIRC, Alfredo Griffin was a stud in the games that I went to and kept score.

[actionjackson]

I was at this game in 2015 (how I miss 2015, but I'm also excited at the prospect of Vlad and the new generation of Blue Jays). It was a sweet win over the Red Sox. Unfortunately, said victory was overshadowed by a guy who ripped one of the 5th deck urinals enough off the wall that water gushed out, and flooded the entire 5th deck, and the water seeped down to the 4th and 3rd levels. Not all Canadians are polite, and some children really can't handle their $13 beers. Kind of embarrassing really. Sad.

[actionjackson]

I was also at this 2015 game which was awesome, with the 10th inning 1-out walkoff 2-run HR by...Ryan Goins??? Seriously??? Yep...He might be the most shocked guy in the ballpark...At least he looks like it. It's probably a tie though. Everybody was equally shocked I think. Check out the spinning cement mixer from Bryan Shaw of the Clevelands. It's on a tee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UIAbBbivmU

[actionjackson]

On his 100th birthday, there is only one boxscore that matters.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/b...94704150.shtml

[actionjackson]

I used the old transistor radio under the pillow trick to tune into this classic (look away Tigers fans ) game from 1985, with an absolutely amazing pitcher's duel between Jimmy Key and Dan Petry (who both pitched ten scoreless innings), that ended in a walkoff with a 2-run HR by one of the most unlikely heroes you could imagine. Including this hit, this guy wound up hitting .162/.239/.313/.552 (48 wRC+, which is far beyond putrid) that year.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/b...98506060.shtml

[DocHalladay]

This has turned into a great thread!

The details of my very first Blue Jays game are fuzzy, but something always stuck with me. The last batter struck out to end the game with the bases loaded. I always thought it was Rico Carty, but upon further review, it was Otto Velez!

All those years wailing on Rico's short-comings, I am sorry Mr. Carty!

At any rate, being born in Scotland and coming to Canada when I was 6, all i knew was soccer. In September, 1979, my first Blue Jays game turned this guy into a life-long fan of baseball, to this very day.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/b...97909220.shtml

The Blue Jays lost 7-4 but i will always remember this experience (and Exhibition Stadium!) forever.

[actionjackson]

This is the closest I have ever come to being in the stands for a perfect game, and man was it close. Only a fourth inning single by B.J. bleepin' Surhoff of the Brewers prevented it. Outside of that, 27 up, 27 down. **** you B.J. Surhoff! **** you! Of course, on the mound that night was the great (and extremely hard luck) Dave Stieb, my favourite player as a kid. Another one of his near misses, though not as near as some of the other ones.

Three times he took a no-hitter into the ninth and it lasted all the way to the final out, and three times it was broken up, by Julio Franco of the Clevelands (Sep 24, 1988 when a routine groundball hit a pebble or something in the dirt, and bounded over the head of 2B Manuel Lee), Jim Traber of the Orioles (in his very next start on Sep 30, 1988 on a flare that got over Fred McGriff's head), and Roberto Kelly of the Yankees (Aug 4, 1989 on a double in a [to that point] perfect game - the Yankees would get one run off him that day on a follow up RBI single by Steve Sax, but Stieb settled down to get Luis Polonia to ground out, and strand the tying run). He would finally get his no-no on Sep 2, 1990 against the Clevelands in Cleveland.

He did have two other one hitters, but those (including mine) were broken up earlier in the game, so they didn't have the drama and gut wrenching conclusions of the other three. Interestingly enough, both of those 1-hitters came against the Brewers. What a career.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/b...98805310.shtml

[actionjackson]

The 1983 Blue Jays team was an extremely fun team to cheer for. All sorts of successful platoons (they don't always work). Dave Stieb, Lloyd "Shaker" Moseby, and Willie Upshaw were studs. Ernie Whitt and Buck Martinez formed a particularly successful platoon at C, as did Rance Mulliniks and Garth Iorg at 3B. *Ahem*...Take note L.A. Dodgers...These are the types of players you platoon...Not guys who should be everyday players...Thank you. A hand grenade brigade of a bullpen, and a disastrous pair of road trips in August that yielded an 8-13 record, and included four straight walkoff losses (with a win sandwiched somewhere in the middle) where all kinds of crazy crap happened spelled the end of this team's postseason hopes, but it was a fun ride while it lasted. It gutted this then 13 year old Blue Jays fan.

I vividly remember watching this game early in the season on WUTV Buffalo (Yankee feed with Scooter, and Bill White [?]). The weather was absolutely awful. I believe there was a rain delay (possibly more than one, but the conditions were absolutely terrible). Dave Stieb persisted through all of it, and despite four unearned runs, and throwing between 145 and 150 pitches (I remember it being announced as in that neighbourhood, but they didn't track it officially in those days), picked up the CG win. He had 40 BF for cryin' out loud! Definitely the personification of a gutsy effort displaying incredible perseverance.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/b...98304150.shtml

[actionjackson]

This might be the one of the coolest tools that B-R has ever put out there. Select whatever two teams you wish to look at, and boom!, the entire transaction history between the two clubs from the most recent move all the way back. Go ahead, take it for a spin.

[r0nster]

I will never forget this as I saw this live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn44Rsn9WlY

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by r0nster

I will never forget this as I saw this live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn44Rsn9WlY

Thanks for the memory. Now we're even after the story of Buck Martinez' 12th inning walk shot off Aurelio "Senor Smoke" Lopez almost exactly one year (June 6, 1985) later that I detailed above. I don't have video footage of it though, as TV coverage was much spottier back then, and it was not on TV that night.

The rest of the division was roadkill for the steamroller that was the 1984 Tigers. That was one of the greatest teams that I ever saw. Put the Blue Jays in the AL Central I say, and bring back the rivalry with the Clevelands, and especially the Tigers. I miss it.

Bergman's walkoff shot came against one of only two Jacksons (Roy Lee Jackson) to play for the Blue Jays in their 42 year history up to now. Roy Lee and Darrin are still the only two.