Oh, To Be A Padre In August ’80
Posted by Steve Lombardi on April 9, 2010
I was playing around with Baseball-Reference.com's Play Idex Batting Game Finder - asking it to show me, since 1973, what team has had the the most players in a season have 8+ PA in a game - and I noticed the 1980 Padres at the top of the list. So, I then looked at those 20 games for the Pods back in '80. Here they are:
August 15th - 20 innings against the Astros.
August 21st - 17 innings against the Phillies.
August 26th - 18 innings against the Mets.
Man, that's alotta extra innings in the span of 12 days. Next, I went to the Padres 1980 Schedule & Game Results and I noticed that they actually played a double-header two days after that first extra innings game - on August 17th. And, three days after that last extra innings game, they played another double-header on August 30th.
Yikes - the second half of August 1980 was not very heaven-like for the Padres pitchers' arms, eh?
April 9th, 2010 at 8:32 am
If they tried to do that nowadays, they'd have to just place the balls on tees or something.
April 9th, 2010 at 8:39 am
The Senators played 8 doubleheaders in 10 days, 27 July to 5 August 1909. The Senators and Athletics played 5 doubleheaders against each other in 6 days, 5 to 10 August 1901. Of course, it was a different game back then.
April 9th, 2010 at 11:38 am
And a little more recently, the Mets and Phillies played five games in 47 hours on the weekend of June 25-27, 1982.
April 9th, 2010 at 11:57 am
Regarding the Padres that month, their load was lightened a bit by four off-days between 15-31 Aug. It looks like three were scheduled and the fourth was a rain-out that forced one of the double-headers. They also lost five road games during that stretch, so the staff only had to go eight in those. 😉
April 9th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Ouch! The Padres were 3-8 in that period....poor pitching staff, but at least they didn't have Billy Martin for the manager that year, heh.
April 9th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
the 'Great' Craig Stimac is mentioned - nice. Had 9 AB's in one of those extra inning games in 1980...Had 9 AB's in 9 games in all of 1981. Gotta love event finder.
April 9th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
If you were a Padres position player in August 1980, it meant you probably were headed elsewhere.
Of the ten players on Steve's 8-PA list, five were gone by Opening Day 1981: Willie Montañez (traded to Expos on 8/31/80), Jerry Mumphrey (traded to Yankees after the season), Gene Tenace (traded to Cardinals after the season), Dave Winfield (signed with Yankees after the season), and Dave Cash (released during spring training). Reserves Aurelio Rodriguez, Kurt Bevacqua and Von Joshua had been sold, traded and released, respectively, earlier in August, and reserves Bill Fahey and Paul Dade would be let go after the season ended. The average age of a Padres position player in 1980 was 28.1; in 1981, it was 25.8. Twenty-seven-year-old Gene Richards was the oldest 1981 Padres non-pitcher to get more than 30 plate appearances.
April 10th, 2010 at 9:23 am
What led to the Phils and Mets playing so many games in such a short span in 1982?
April 16th, 2010 at 8:57 am
[...] Oh, To Be A Padre In August ‘80 (Baseball-Reference). Steve Lombardi notes that the Padres played three games of 17 innings or more within a 12-day stretch back in 1980. Yikes. [...]