Mid-1980s playoff baseball had no equal - My Latest For The Hardball Times

In my latest article for The Hardball Times I make the case that the 1980s had the greatest stretch of post season baseball ever.

October baseball never was better than between 1985 and 1988 and year in and year out we not only had exciting games but also a few iconic moments that became legendary.

The 1980s might have been a maligned decade for baseball, but the Octobers were sublime… from “Go crazy folks” to “I don’t believe what I just saw.”

Read the article HERE.

Sully Baseball Honors... The 1981 Houston Astros Future Stars

When I was a kid collecting Topps cards, I used to love the Future Stars card.

I always trusted the Future Card. Why would Topps lie to me? The players on the card were ALL destined for stardom.

Granted, they didn't look 100% reliable when they picked players like Mike O'Berry and Keith MacWorther for future Red Sox stardom... but hey! Everyone can make a bad pick from time to time.

Now I stumbled across this 1981 Topps card of the Astros Future Stars. While none of them became a true star, each name on this card is worth noting for one reason or another.


DANNY HEEP

The native Texan played for 13 seasons in the bigs, only playing more than 100 games a season in two of them.

He was a platoon player and left handed pinch hitter who in his career saw some of the great moments of 1980s baseball in uniform.

He played for the Astros in the 1980 NLCS against the Phillies, which was arguably the greatest best of 5 series in baseball history.

As a member of the 1986 Mets, he was a pinch hitter in the amazing 16 inning marathon NLCS Game 6 against his former team, the Astros.

In the famous Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, he came up as a pinch hitter again tying the game as a run scored on his fifth inning double play.

In 1988, he played for the Dodgers against his former Mets teammates in the NLCS. In the epic momentum shifting Game 4, Heep once again came up as a pinch hitter.

In the World Series Game 1 that year, the "Kirk Gibson Game", Heep once again came up as a pinch hitter.

Later he played for the 1990 AL East Champion Red Sox and played for the 1991 Braves, but was cut before they won the NL Pennant.

I guess asking him to be on ANOTHER miracle pennant winner would have been too much to ask. But for a part time pinch hitter, four trips to the post season and two World Series rings and playing in so many memorable games isn't anything to sneeze at.


ALAN KNICELY

Astros fans were patient with Knicely. He was an Astros Future Star in 1980 as well. He played 7 games with the Astros in 1979, 1 in 1980 and 3 in 1981. So later when he had a HIS OWN baseball card it looked impressive like he played 3 seasons between 79 and 81 instead of just 11 games.

In 1981, he managed to hit 2 homers in those 3 games... both against the eventual World Champion Dodgers. (One off of Bob Welch and one was an 8th inning game tying shot off of Dave Goltz.)

Maybe the Astros should have had him on their 1981 Divisional Series roster against the Dodgers that year.

BOBBY SPROWL

Red Sox fans might be amused to see Sprowl picked as a future star for 1981. Turn the clocks back to 1978 and Don Zimmer must have thought he was a budding star right then and there.

In a critical game on September 10th, 1978 between the Red Sox and Yankees, Boston was trying to end a crippling losing streak. The Yankees were trying to sweep a 4 game series in Fenway and pull into a tie with Boston.

Who should Don Zimmer start? Veteran Yankee killer Bill Lee? Or 22 rookie Sprowl who had one big league start under his belt?

Zimmer went with Sprowl. In Spaceman, I asked "Why in the name of Yahweh was Bobby Sprowl pitching in a pennant race?" He was pitching because Zimmer let his pride get in the way. He was told that Sprowl had ice water in his veins.

That might have been true, but throwing him into that game against the defending champs was simply cruel.

Sprowl didn't last an inning. Bill Lee came out of the bullpen and threw 2 1/3 shutout innings.

Sprowl never won a game that year.
He never EVER won a game in the bigs.

Topps optimistically made him a future star based on his 10-11 season for Tuscon in 1980.
Alas it never was to be.

Not in Boston nor in Houston.


So there you have it... one guy was a veteran of many post seasons... one should have been a post season weapon... and the other was thrown into the deep end too soon.

Stars?
Maybe not... but worth a Sully Baseball salute.

This series is OVER! (So were these)

A team that gave their fans generations of frustrations and a heart stopping playoff stormed into the World Series, out slugged the favored opposition one day, out pitched them the next and beat the other team's marquee ace (who was gone after 5.)



Now they knew they had their two aces available fully rested for Games 5 and 6. Just split the next two and they'd be in the drivers seat for the World Championship.



The title was all but assured... a great moment for fans who already felt they had waited enough after years of near misses.



Am I talking about the 2010 World Series and Giants fans?

Or am I talking about the 1986 World Series and my beloved Red Sox?



That's what happened when the Red Sox took the first two games from the Mets (including battering Doc Gooden) and went back to Fenway with the Mets reeling.



And we all know what happened after that.



I've seen many series in my life, both best of 5 and best of 7, that looked 100 done after 2 games. Where one team just looked over matched and dead from the neck up... only to win the damn thing.

I've seen my Red Sox win two Best of 5 series where they dropped the first two and didn't have their best pitcher available for games 3 and 4. In 1999 when they lost the first 2 to Cleveland and in 2003 when they dropped the first 2 to the A's, the Sox looked like a defeated crew.

And things turned around (and the Indians and A's started making mistakes) and before you can say Trot Nixon homer, the Red Sox won.

The 1982 Brewers were battered and injured against an Angel team that boasted 4 former MVPs in their lineup and somehow pulled it off.

The 1985 Royals looked overmatched by both the Blue Jays and Cardinals... yet with some help from Don Denkinger won the whole thing.

The 1988 Dodgers looked overmatched by the Mets even though they split the first 2 games. The bullpen blew 2 Hershiser starts and the NLCS looked like a formality. Yet they won.

Remember how the Yankees just looked so overwhelmed by Atlanta at HOME in 1996? And when they took a 6-0 lead in Game 4, I remember thinking "Man, this Yankee team is just embarrassing themselves."

Remember how it ended... the Yankees won in 6.

A lot can happen in 2 games. Sanchez and Bumgarner could fall on their faces.

The Rangers bats can wake up.

People didn't think the Giants had 20 runs in them for the whole series... can they keep this offense up?

I think the Giants are in great shape. They need 2 more wins and will get 1 more Lincecum start and 1 more Cain start.

But things can turn fast.

Just ask the 1986 Boston Red Sox.

sullybaseball on Twitter">