Edgy MD

And why didn't guys like Dwight Gooden, Steve Howe, Joaquin Andujar, Oil Can Boyd, and Lary Sorenson fashion Hall of Fame careers? Say it with me.

Scott Moviel, too. What a pair of A-ball stupids.

Dock, you cock!

Dock, you dick!

Yup. A few other very-good-for-a-short-time AL-types in there include Lolich, McLain, and Blue. Among the guys who failed to pick up the baton at the end of the seventies, count Eckersley. Co. Caine.

There was certainly that. J.R. Richard declared Tom Seaver to be "old" early in the season. His time was done and the new breed that Richard had personified would be taking over. Seaver's second half not only gave him a better season than Richard, but as Rogers noted, Richard was through before his time. Nolan Ryan was, somehow, just getting started. I guess that's one MORE thing that's strange about 1979 --- the lost generation of starters. So many absolute greats were coming around the final turn --- Seaver, Sutton, Palmer, Niekro, Carlton and such --- but despite Richard's braggadocio, there was almost nobody to take their place. And some of these guys managed to hang on well past their sell-by dates as the likes of Morris, Steib, Rogers, Lea, Caldwell, Richard, and all those young O's tried to pass themselves off as somebodies. As aces! No wonder folks think Morris was good. The context was lousy. A buncha Candelerias. It wasn't until Gooden and Clemens that people again got a sniff of what an ace really looked like. A lost generation. And I blame cocaine.

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.

Seems a little late, but totally excellent.

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?!

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

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.

Oh, and Classic. Met. Porn.

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

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

Good point. What a historical hiccup.

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

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!

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.

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.

The O-Mets may be a thing after all.

Dad, is that you?

Part of it may be an illusion of the mound height, but if that's my wookie, where are his neck tatts? He looks too young to be Rauch, and I've just seen those slouching shoulders somewhere.

Actually, it may be Knotts' forerunner who had the suit taken right off his back.

Oh, dear!

Starting to get itchy. Irritable.