I Can't Make 1979 Make No Sense

[Edgy MD]

I've read two or three books this past year scanning a period that includes 1979, and when I get to that season, I've decided that I can't make a lick of sense out of it.

[list:1vmdtgw8][*:1vmdtgw8]The The National League Cy Young went to a reliever.[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]The National League MVP was shared.[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]American League Rookie of the Year? Shared! SHARED!! (And who is John Castino?)[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]An afterthought amid clashing dynasties in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles, Pittsburgh breaks through with one of the goofiest champions of all time, led by a fat, seemingly over-the-hill future Hall-of-Famer, with a superstar that isn't long for the team, and a bunch of goofballs.[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]Their theme song is disco masterpiece about being loyal sisters to one another (?!), even as America is declaring that disco is dead.[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]Speaking of dead, Tom Seaver pretty much looks it for the first half --- his worst ever --- and then is as good as ever for the second half.[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]The Dodgers and Yankees, coming off two hotly contested World Series, don't bother showing up for the post-season at all.[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]The Dodgers in fact have a losing record.[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]The Yankees finish in fourth with two managers.[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]Their winningest pitcher isn't Ron Guidry, but Tommy John, with Guidry relegated to the bullpen for a bit mid-season for the sin of humanity.[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]Among the most balanced teams of the era, the Royals also sit out the post-season.[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]The Expos are laden with talent, but can't turn a corner.[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]The Mets aren't at their worst, just at their most meaningless, adding nothing from 1978, and just waiting for something, anything to happen. (An anonymous young man schemes and dreams.)[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]The pennant-winning Orioles seemed to have a new batch of star pitchers to build around, but Stone, Flanagan, and McGregor ended up having modest, mostly anonymous careers after.[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]The Reds win the West, but they're not recognizably the Reds, with Rose and Perez gone, and Morgan and Bench mostly ordinary. That would have been fine if the re-tooling behind the likes of Junior Kennedy and Dan Driessen and Dave Collins was the beginning of something, but no, it was just a forgottable denouement before the end.[/*:m:1vmdtgw8]
[*:1vmdtgw8]The Angels become the first Frankenstein team (to my mind, anyhow) to make the post-season seemingly completely comprised of parts from other teams.[/*:m:1vmdtgw8][/list:u:1vmdtgw8]

No season goes the way it seemingly should and that's great, but there's something strange to me about 1979 that detaches it from what came before and what followed, yet lacking a theme of it's own apart from the Pirates being a fun story.

And I've decided that I blame that demon cocaine. And maybe that's the unifying theme.

[Edgy MD]

Meanwhile, Oil Can Boyd surprises nobody in confessing that he routinely pitched while wired, but does somehow manage to maintain the delusion that he was persecuted.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Wasn't 1979 the year that the Mets won their last six games in a row in a desperate attempt to avoid 100 losses?

I also remember 1979 as a rematch of the first World Series I ever watched, the 1971 Series. (I thought that was pretty cool.) And yes, it was nice not to see the Yankees in the playoffs for the first time in three years.

I do also remember Seaver pitching in the playoffs; his only non-Mets postseason appearance, although he was a 1986 Red Sock. (Hard to believe that, isn't it?) Was that the season he threw a no-hitter?

Jerry Koosman's first year as an ex-Met. 1978 would be his only Opening Day start for the Mets. Craig Swan was the guy in '79, one year after his ERA title.

Last season for Ed Kranepool, the last of the 69ers, other than Rube and Piggy. The lone Mets season for Richie Hebner.

[Edgy MD]

Jerry Koosman! Winning 20 for Minnesota after going 11-35 his previous two years with the Mets (8-20 and 3-15). Damn you, 1979!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

1979 was all about Lee Mazzilli's All-Star Game home run off Ron Guidry.

[Edgy MD]

That, indeed, made sense. Although the game-tying homer was off of Jim Kern. The go-ahead bases-loaded walk was off of Guidry.

After Mazzilli's homer, Kern promptly struck out Winfield, popped out Carter, and struck out a pinch-hitting Keith Hernandez. The 1986 Mets were everywhere that inning.

Bruce Sutter walked off with this second straight win in an all-star game. He'd get the save the next year.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ALS/ALS197907170.shtml

[stevejrogers]

It is also weird in the sense that all 4 1978 postseason teams would return in 1980 in one form or another (DAMN IT, I AM CALLING A PLAY-IN GAME #163 OR THE OLD NL SERIES PART OF POSTSEASON PLAY).

Though all except for the Dodgers returned under a new full-term skipper (Dallas Green stepped in late in 1979).

[Edgy MD]

Good point. What a historical hiccup.

[Edgy MD]

The Angels would go from division champs in 1979 to 31 games out in 1980. I just can't make it make no sense!

[Guest themetfairy]

I met D-Dad in 1979, and that's the year he became a Mets fan.

Everything else pales in comparison to that.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Edgy DC wrote: That, indeed, made sense. Although the game-tying homer was off of Jim Kern. The go-ahead bases-loaded walk was off of Guidry.

Now that I signed up to write Mazz's bio for SABR I ought to get that detail right.

[Edgy MD]

Make sure you include the road trip to Juarez with the Jackson Mets.

[metirish]

Makes no sense

American League Championship Series MVP: None.

[HahnSolo]

World Champs used 5 starters in the World Series, and the guys who started games 1 and 2 did not make second starts. I would guess the last team to use 5 different starters in one WS?

[stevejrogers]

metirish wrote: Makes no sense American League Championship Series MVP: None.

For reasons known only to the BBWAA, the NLCS award was created a few years before the NLCS one was.

[stevejrogers]

Edgy DC wrote: [*]The Angels become the first Frankenstein team (to my mind, anyhow) to make the post-season seemingly completely comprised of parts from other teams.[/list]

I believe the MFY of 1976-1978 counted Munson, White and Guidry as the only homegrown cogs to those pennant winning teams.

[Edgy MD]

Randolph too, to my thinking.

It was more an impression than a statement of fact, however. It's not that Randoph didn't debut elsewhere, but Grich and Baylor had whole careers as Orioles.

[stevejrogers]

Edgy DC wrote: Randolph too, to my thinking. It was more an impression than a statement of fact, however.

I hear ya. Randolph came to the Yankees via the Pirates.

[Edgy MD]

I understand. I hope you get my meaning, though.

[Edgy MD]

themetfairy wrote: I met D-Dad in 1979, and that's the year he became a Mets fan. Everything else pales in comparison to that.

That's another thing. Kelvin Chapman is the opening day (and regular) secondbaseman for the Mets. He struggles and gets sent down, only to return five years later!

What gives, 1979?!

[stevejrogers]

Edgy DC wrote: [*]The pennant-winning Orioles seemed to have a new batch of star pitchers to build around, but Stone, Flanagan, and McGregor ended up having modest mostly anonymous careers after.

The last pennant for The Earl of Baltimore. They would still have good showings for the rest of Earl's run before winning it all in 1983, the first year of Weaver's first retirement.

Also represents the last WS starts for Jim Palmer, who pitches out of the pen in the 1983 WS. Also the season pretty is the beginning of the end for his career as well.

[stevejrogers]

Pirates and Reds also take the entire decade of the 1980s off in terms of postseason appearances.

They'd do the same in the 2000s as well.

Nolan Ryan, in his final year in Anaheim, is managed by the man he was traded to the Angels for. Fregosi survives 1980, but is replaced by Gene Mauch mid-way in 1981, who skippers the Angels to their two postseason appearances in the 1980s.

[G-Fafif]

Disco's death prematurely announced in 1979. Donna Summer had a chart year for the ages:

� Heaven Knows (No. 4)
� Hot Stuff (No. 1 for three weeks)
� Bad Girls (No. 1 for five weeks)
� Dim All The Lights (No. 2 for two weeks)
� No More Tears w/Barbra Streisand (No. 1 for two weeks)

Rod Stewart, Gloria Gaynor, Bee Gees, Amii Stewart, Blondie, Anita Ward, Chic, Michael Jackson and Herb Alpert all topped Billboard with hits that were plenty at home on dance floors of America in 1979. Amid that milieu, no matter Steve Dahl's fiery protestations, it wasn't at all surprising that Sister Sledge found a champion in the Pirates.

Guidry's volunteering to go to the pen after Cliff Johnson took out Goose Gossage's thumb was one of the most selfless acts I ever saw out of a ballplayer in the realm of baseball (as opposed to the realm of Roberto Clemente taking relief supplies to Nicaragua). One of the few MFYs I could never despise.

Astros and Expos broke through in a big way if not quite big enough.

And Jesse Orosco threw his first pitch. I assume he'll be in camp with the Padres in a couple of weeks.

[Fman99]

I was six and went to a Mets game or two that summer with my parents. My grandparents were living in Flushing at the time.

Lee Mazilli was my favorite player. I think it was because he had the letter "Z" in his name.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

[youtube:1y7vg2a4]_jLGa4X5H2c[/youtube:1y7vg2a4]

[G-Fafif]

[youtube:2h0t8vhr]EtaZ48fERfc[/youtube:2h0t8vhr]

[G-Fafif]

And if Lee Mazzilli had a theme song in 1979 -- maybe even a musical doppelganger -- it had to be this guy:

[youtube:3f4nso4e]WtHXzmXlwhw[/youtube:3f4nso4e]

[G-Fafif]

If only the 1979 Mets had been...

[youtube:1hle7okq]dtvaTdc_qIc[/youtube:1hle7okq]

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, I certainly didn't mean to be attacking disco there. Those wars are done.

Nor am I attacking Guidry. There's a case to be made for virtually any starting pitcher to spend a week to 10 days in the bullpen.

But coming off an all-time season like Guidry's 1978 was, it was certainly highly unusual.

[Frayed Knot]

The music of 1979

Disco wasn't quite dead but it was surely dying (although not fast enough for some of us).
It's whole life-span was really just about 2-3 years and featured both a steep upward slope and a downward one.
In the in-between, NEWSWEEK Magazine laid out its 'DISCO TAKES OVER' cover on the nation and an aging radio station with middle of the pack ratings changed its format to disco and its call letters to WKTU and almost immediately rocketed to the top spot in NYC ... only to die almost as quickly.