TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

August 17 1980, George Brett raises his batting average to .401, going 4 for 4 with five RBI in an 8 – 3 Kansas City win. His first hit of the day also extended his hitting streak to 29 consecutive games.

He will extend the streak one more game. During those 30 games, Brett hit .467 (57-for-122). His high mark for the season came a week later, when Brett's batting average was at .407 on August 26, after he went 5-for-5 on a Tuesday night in Milwaukee. He batted .430 for August (30 games), and his season average was at .403 with five weeks to go.

Brett flirted with 400 right down to the wire. On Sept. 19, 1980, Brett went 2-for-4 in a 13-3 win over the Oakland Athletics to put his average at .39950.

This isn't technically .400 in the eyes of baseball's official statisticians, the Elias Sports Bureau, but to baseball fans at the time, it was. (He went 0-for-4 the next day, falling to .396.)

Regardless, no one since then has come as close to hitting .400 as Brett did this late in the season (apologies to Tony Gwynn, but his year sadly finished in August in 1994).

Brett then slumped and went 4-for-27, and his average dipped to .384 on September 27, with a week to play. For the final week, Brett went 10-for-19, which included going 2-for-4 in the final regular season game on October 4. His season average ended up at .390.

Brett's amazing 1980 season

Brett's 1980 campaign is one of the greatest in baseball in the past 60 years.

He finished at .390, leading the major leagues in average, on-base percentage (.454), and slugging percentage (.664). His 1.118 OPS was more than 100 points better than anyone else's that season.

And though he didn't hit .400 ...

He hit .437 with 118 hits and six strikeouts in 270 at-bats against right-handed pitching.

He hit .469 with 61 hits and five strikeouts with runners in scoring position.

He hit .421 in the first five innings of games.

He hit .425 with 22 RBIs in 10 games against the Yankees. That was foreshadowing for the postseason, when his three-run home run against Rich Gossage in Game 3 of the ALCS helped put the Royals into the World Series.

Todays Podcast

August 17th, 1923, After 111 games, Babe Ruth has 31 homers and is hitting .401. He ends the season with his highest single season batting average, .393, a major league record 170 walks, and 4 times hit by pitches. Ruth collected 205 hits and reached base a record 379 times.

August 17th, 1933 Lou Gehrig quietly surpasses the record of 1,308 consecutive games played held by Everett Scott on his way to a new record of 2,130 consecutive games played.

August 17, 1957 – – Richie Ashburn, known for his ability to foul pitches off, hits spectator Alice Roth twice in the same at bat. The first one breaks her nose, and the second one hits her while she is being removed from her seat on a stretcher. Ironically, she is the wife of Earl Roth, the sports editor of the Philadelphia Bulletin. The Phils win, 3 – 1, over New York.

August 17, 1961 — Charles Finley denies he plans to move the Kansas City Athletics to Texas. “I have no plans to move. We are a Kansas City team, and besides, we have no place to move to.” He says he put out no feelers to other cities about moving the A’s.

August 17, 1966 — At Candlestick Park after tying Jimmie Foxx yesterday for most career home runs hit by a right-handed batter, Giants slugger Willie Mays passes ‘Double X’ with his 535th homer with a 4th-inning blast off Ray Washburn. San Francisco is one-half game out of first place after beating the Cards, 4 – 3 in dramatic fashion down 2, the Giants scored 2 to tie the game in the bottom of the 8th Willie McCovey delivered a 2 out RBI to tie the game and in the bottom of the 9th pinch hitter, Jesus Alou delivered a 1 out single to score Jim Davenport.

The San Francisco center fielder now takes over second place on the all-time list, trailing only Babe Ruth’s 714.

Seven years to the day later, in 1973, the 42-year old Mays, now with the Mets hits the 660th and final home run of his career off Reds lefty Don Gullett.

August 17, 1971 — During a visit to the White House, 21 year-old Vida Blue, who is presently 22-4, is told by President Nixon that he is the most underpaid player in the game.

Nixon talked baseball dur ing a barbecue dinner at the ranch home of his Treasury Secretary, John B. Connally. The President called Blue “a fine young man,” and said the left‐handed pitcher was underpaid last year when he was the American League’s leading pitcher and won the Cy Young award. The Commander-in-Chief tells the eventual Cy Young Award winner and AL MVP he would like to negotiate the A’s southpaw’s next contract, much to the chagrin of Oakland owner Charlie Finley.

Earlier in the day, Finley had said in Milwaukee that he, could not consider keep ing open his contract offer to Blue, as ordered by the commissioner of baseball, Bowie Kuhn, because of Kuhn’s “one‐way‐street stand in the salary dispute.”

August 17, 1985 — At Anaheim Stadium, Reggie Jackson hits his19th homerun of the season and 522nd career home run off Oakland’s Bill Krueger. Jackson’s HR gave the Angels a 9-4 lead. The Angels will win 905, there 67th win of the season and the win improves Mike Witt’s record to 10-7. Jackson goes 3-4 on the day with 4 RBI’s.

His blast moves him past Ted Williams and Willie McCovey into 8th place on the all-time list.

August 17, 1986 — Pete Rose makes his final major league appearance, striking out as a pinch hitter against Goose Gossage. The Reds lose, 9 – 5, to the visiting Padres. The Reds player-manager Pete Rose makes his final major league plate appearance, pinch-hitting in the eighth inning of a 9-5 loss to the Padres at Riverfront Stadium, The all-time hit leader, who will end his 24-year career with a .303 batting average, is struck out by future Hall of Famer Goose Gossage. Barry Larkin, hits his first major league homerun off Lamar Hoyt.

August 17th, 1992 – Dodgers pitcher Kevin Gross tosses a 99 pitch no-hitter, defeating the Giants by a score of 2 – 0. It is the eighth no-hitter in LA Dodgers history.

August 17, 2002 — Alex Rodriguez becomes the sixth player and the first infielder to compile five consecutive 40-home run seasons. The Rangers’ shortstop joins Ralph Kiner (1947-51), Duke Snider (1953-57), Ken Griffey Jr. (1996-2000), Sammy Sosa (1998-2002), and Babe Ruth (1926-32), who established the record with seven straight 40-homer seasons.

 ANSWER TO TODAY’S TRIVIA

TRIVIA ANSWER: JAY BUHNER 

- Ans. The “Bald-In” honored Buhner on 17-Jul-1997. It was his only All-Star season, but he also led everybody in K’s with 175., a total that would not even have placed him in the Top Ten in 2025.

- #1 Buhner out-homered, among others, his HOF outfield mate during those three years. Here are the top 5: Marl McGwire 149, Albert Belle 128, Buhner 124, Griffey 122, Galarraga 119.

- #2 See “Seinfeld”, “The Caddy” Season 7, Episode 12. It was Frank Costanza, George’s farther, who was in high dudgeon over the Buhner trade.

Thank you Horsehide Trivia

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