Friday, September 23, 2005 |
Random Angels Game Callback
September 23, 1979
My partisanship shows here: I was a junior in high school, and expecting the Dodgers to win their third straight pennant. That they only finished third and with a losing record, to boot, did not diminish my interest in the team, nor did it make any difference in any interest I might have had in following the Angels, on this day 84-71 coming into the game. At the All Star break, the Angels earned a two-game lead over the AL West going into the All Star break when second baseman Bobby Grich blasted a two-run shot into the construction trenches being dug to expand the stadium for football. Yankee manager Billy Martin blamed the winds for Grich's dinger against Ron Guidry, the losing pitcher despite a complete game:"He got the ball up in the jetstream," said Yankee manager Billy Martin in a stunned Yankee clubhouse. "The ball takes off."The Angels beat the Yanks 5-4, with a come-from-behind victory that presaged the Rally Monkey; after hitting the home run, Grich, who had driven in all five runs and was about to appear in the All Star game, had already walked into the clubhouse, but the fans would have none of it, demanding a curtain call. When, five minutes after giving it, the crowd still wouldn't let up, he made another appearance."Well," said Grich smiling, "tell him that jetstream is all the weightlifting I did last winter. That's the jetstream."
It was a rare good year for the Angels. By September 22, the Angels had extended their division lead to three games over Kansas City and Minnesota, with Texas falling back to six games behind thanks in part to a 3-1 win the previous day by the Angels over the Rangers. On this Sunday, Dave Frost, having a career year in wins and starts, would toss one of the best games of his brief tenure in the bigs, a six hit, one-run complete game door-slammer against the Rangers that the Angels would take 6-1, eliminating the Rangers from the AL West. Frost was on that day, throwing 91 pitches total, 63 for strikes, prompting manager Jim Fregosi to say
He's just one hell of a competitor. ... He's been somewhat of our stopper all year long. Being as how he was the fifth starter coming out of spring training, I kind of think he's done a hell of a job ....What was especially impressive was the fact that Frost had to sit out the prior twelve days due to a sore pitching elbow; previously, he couldn't even get breaking pitches over the plate, and had to rely exclusively on his fastball.After the first month of the season, his control's been phenominal. He pitched one inning -- I think it was the seventh -- when he didn't throw a ball. You talk about a ball-strike ratio of 1 to 3, that's some kind of job.
Third baseman Carney Lansford, who hit a three-run shot in the fifth, had spent a lot of the season whiffing, though he was far from unproductive; with 76 RBI and 18 homers, Lansford hit .289. Like everyone else, he was getting tired:
"I've got close to 650 at bats," Lansford said. "I've never had more than 453. That's a big difference. My arms are getting a little heavy. I'm using a much lighter bat now than I used the first part of the season and it feels like it weighs 10 pounds.Grich, too, was sanguine but steady about the team's prospects:I've never played anything close to this (his appearances in 151 games are surpassed on the Angels only by Don Baylor's 156). I could use a day off but there's no way I'd ask for one 'til we clinch it."
"We're not cocky at all," said Grich, smiling. "Our winning percentage isn't that good that we can be cocky. Too many things have happened this year.The next day, Nolan Ryan went for the Angels against the Royals, pitching a five-hit, three-run complete game, beating Kansas City 4-3, all on right fielder Dan Ford's bat. George Brett, upon whose impressive .329/.376/.563 line the Royals rested much of their offense, said of Ryan that"We can't take anything for granted, like we've got it in the bag, because we don't. Kansas City's always played well here. We can't be counting them out. We've got to keep a cool head 'til we clinch it. Then you can party all you want."
I've faced him for six years and it's not that you're scared but you don't walk up there with the same confidence you have against everybody else. His fastball just puts everybody else's to shame.The next year, Brett would hit .390, as close as any man had come since Ted Williams to hitting .400. But in 1979, the Royals wouldn't quite have enough, and the Angels would, clinching two days later. They would lose the ALCS to the Orioles 3-1, paving the way for more years of frustration.
Thanks as always to Retrosheet, Baseball Reference, and the Los Angeles Times for research assistance.
Newer› ‹Older
 |
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.