Houston Astros of the ‘80s, Part two: Playoff bound

Pitcher J.R. Richard, at left, and Nolan Ryan played an important part
in the Astro success in the 1980 season.

Source: http://www.tailgatingjerseys.com/houston-1980s.html

(may be subject to copyright)

The 1980 season was not only the dawn of a new decade, but would signal a renaissance in Houston. After coming close the year before, the Houston Astros finally made franchise history and won their first division championship.

Along the way, they would have their fair share of ups and downs in what was the most memorable year in Houston’s history to that point.

Opening day

I had become familiar with the Astros through a number of ways – sports pages when I got to read the Lethbridge Herald; magazines, which I bought more of as I got older, and the nightly sportscasts on Channel 7 and 13. There were no all-sports channels, no Internet where I could learn everything I wanted, heck we didn’t even have cable TV which offered baseball games on the weekends of teams other than Toronto and Montreal.

Through all of this, I still learned about the Astros, and was aware of their starting line-up.

Art Howe played first base, and he was another favourite. A strong, versatile infielder, he had his greatest success as a manager. He was the skipper of the Oakland A’s from 1996 to 2002, when the team had success using metrics to select players. The book “Moneyball” and movie of the same name are about that period.

Joe Morgan was at second. He was a good hitter, fielder, and most importantly, a leader. He knew what it took to win, but he was also one of the great gentlemen of the game.

Craig Reynolds, at shortstop, had come over the year before from the Seattle Mariners. I had his Mariner baseball card.

Enos Cabell played third base. I had his baseball card and, through an Expos-Astros game, learned his named was Cabell and not Campbell.

Terry Puhl, the pride of Melville, Saskatchewan, was in rightfield and the best Canadian player until Larry Walker came along. In centrefield was Cesar Cedeno, who had a combination of speed, power and good defence; and Jose Cruz, who was another great hitter and fielder, was in leftfield.

Alan Ashby, a former Blue Jay, was behind the plate, and J.R. Richard was the opening day starter.

What I remember best about that team was the pitching staff. Beyond Ryan and Richard, they had Ken Forsch, knuckleballer Joe Niekro, the hot-tempered and fiery Joaquin Andujar, Vern Ruhle who had come over from Detroit, and Joe Sambito coming out of the bullpen. It was like the Astros collected quality pitchers.

J.R. Richard powered the Astros past the Los Angelese Dodgers on opening day at the Astrodome, by a score of 3-2. These two teams would battle for another 161 games and settle nothing, finally ending the season the way they started – against each other for all the marbles.

A lot would happen leading up to that point.

Tragedy strikes

The Astros jumped out to a 13-5 start in April, only to go 12-14 in May, and rebound to go 18-9 in June. They were led by J.R. Richard who had a 10-4 start and 1.89 earned run average.

He became the first Astro to start an all-star game. I watched that game and recall the announcers talking about how he was going to have routine surgery to remove a “blockage”. A few days after the all-star game, he collapsed, on July 30 according to Wikipedia. He had suffered a stroke, would undergo life-saving surgery, and never pitch another game.

That sent the Astros for a loop, as they plummeted to third place and fans, me included, wondered if the Astros would ever win their division.

Dramatic conclusion

The Astros rebounded and ended up battling the Dodgers right down to the wire. After taking the division lead, the Astros dropped their final three games of the season to the Dodgers leaving the teams tied for first place at the end of the season.

A one-game playoff at Dodgers Stadium on Monday, October 6 would decide everything.

Playoff bound

The Astros sent Joe Niekro to the mound to face Dave Goltz. The Astros took control early and never looked back. They scored two in the first inning, two more in the third inning, and another three runs in the fourth to lead 7-0 before the Dodgers finally got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth inning with their lone run of the game.

After that, Niekro slammed the door shut. He ended up going the distance, pitching a complete game, allowing six hits, walking two, and striking out six for his 20^th win of the season.

Offensively, Art Howe led the way with a home run, in the third inning off Goltz, and four RBIs. Jose Cruz and Cesar Cedeno each had an RBI while Craig Reynolds had three hits including a double.

Parting thoughts

At long last, the Astros had won their first ever National League West title in dramatic fashion.

They were playoff bound.