1983 in baseball


Champions

Major League Baseball

Major league baseball final standings

Events

January

  • January 10 – New York Supreme Court Justice Richard Lane issues a preliminary injunction barring the Yankees from playing their season-opening series with the Detroit Tigers in Denver. The club had sought to move the games because it feared off-season renovations to Yankee Stadium would not be completed for the series April 11–13.
  • January 11
  • *For the third time in eight years, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner hires Billy Martin as his manager. Martin's most recent job was his three-year stint implementing "Billy Ball" while at the helm of the Oakland Athletics. Martin replaces Clyde King, who will move to the Bombers' front office.
  • *In the January edition of the 1980 Major League Baseball draft, the Boston Red Sox select outfielder and future All-Star and Gold Glove Award-winner Ellis Burks, 18, in the first round, the 20th overall. The Chicago Cubs take outfielder and future MLB manager Dave Martinez, also 18, in the third round, 53rd overall.
  • January 12 – Brooks Robinson and Juan Marichal are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Robinson becomes the 14th player to be elected in his first year of eligibility.
  • January 13 – Right-hander Mike Torrez' five-year tenure with the Boston Red Sox ends when he's sent to the New York Mets for a minor-league player to be named later, third baseman Mike Davis. Torrez, 36, is a 16-year veteran who will forever be known in Boston for allowing Bucky Dent's decisive home run in the 1978 American League East tie-breaker game.
  • January 14 – Outfielder Al Cowens, granted free agency from the Seattle Mariners last November 10, opts to return to Seattle, signing a three-year, $1.2 million contract.
  • January 18 – The Oakland Athletics sign shortstop Bill Almon, granted free agency from the Chicago White Sox last November 10.
  • January 19 – The Los Angeles Dodgers trade third baseman Ron Cey, 34, to the Chicago Cubs for southpaw pitching prospect Vance Lovelace and minor-league outfielder Dan Cataline. The deal leaves shortstop Bill Russell as the last remaining member of the Dodgers' fabled 1970s infield of Cey, Russell, Davey Lopes and Steve Garvey. Russell will retire to a coach's job with Los Angeles after the season.
  • January 20 – In the second-ever Type A free agent compensation draft, implemented after the 1981 MLB strike, the Seattle Mariners select 20-year-old outfield prospect Danny Tartabull from the Cincinnati Reds. The Mariners gain the draft pick after losing starting pitcher Floyd Bannister to the Chicago White Sox in free agency. Tartabull is selected from a pool of players provided by teams, such as Cincinnati, who have "opted in" to pursuing free-agent talent.
  • January 26
  • *Chicago's cross-town rivals make a deal: the Cubs trade shortstop Scott Fletcher, pitchers Randy Martz and Dick Tidrow, and first baseman Pat Tabler to the White Sox in exchange for pitchers Steve Trout and Warren Brusstar.
  • *The White Sox, who lost Type A free-agent outfielder Steve Kemp to the New York Yankees last December 9, select St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Steve Mura as compensation. Six days earlier, the ChiSox had picked southpaw Rudy May from the Yankees out of the compensation pool, but May's selection was voided because the veteran left-hander has a no-trade provision in his contract.
  • January 31 – The Philadelphia Phillies sign two veteran free-agents: first baseman and future Hall of Famer Tony Pérez, released by the Boston Red Sox on November 1, 1982; and outfielder Bill Robinson, who returns for a final season with the Phils after being granted free-agency last November 10.

    February

  • February 5 – The Kansas City Royals trade 19-year-old first-base prospect Cecil Fielder to the Toronto Blue Jays for 32-year old outfielder Leon Roberts, who will retire after two mediocre seasons in Kansas City. "Big Daddy" Fielder will go on to enjoy several MVP-caliber seasons during his 13-year tenure in the major leagues, having his best years playing with the Detroit Tigers.
  • February 7 – The San Francisco Giants sign outfielder Joel Youngblood, granted free agency from the Montreal Expos last November 10. On June 15, 1982, Youngblood made history as the only player in MLB history to get a hit for two different teams on the same day.
  • February 9 – Mike Ferraro, 38, the first-year manager of the Cleveland Indians, undergoes successful surgery to remove his cancerous left kidney 12 days before spring training begins. He's able to take the Indians' helm for their first Cactus League exhibition game a month later.
  • February 16 – The St. Louis Cardinals sign utility player Jamie Quirk, granted free agency from the Kansas City Royals the previous November.
  • February 23 – The San Diego Padres sign free agent and reserve catcher Bruce Bochy, 27, who one month earlier had been released by the New York Mets.
  • February 24 – Veteran free-agent outfielder John Lowenstein, enjoying the most productive period of his 13-year MLB career, remains a member of the Baltimore Orioles, signing a new, three-year $1 million contract. Lowenstein, 36, will bat.385 in the 1983 World Series and earn a championship ring.
  • February 28 – Outfielder Jerry Turner, who appeared in over 600 games during his first eight big-league seasons with the San Diego Padres, returns to San Diego as a free agent. He had spent 1982 with the Detroit Tigers.

    March

  • March 1 – The Philadelphia Phillies sign infielder Kiko Garcia, granted free agency from the Houston Astros last November 10.
  • March 24
  • *The Detroit Tigers acquire outfielder Johnny Grubb from the Texas Rangers in exchange for pitcher Dave Tobik.
  • *The New York Yankees release veteran first baseman/DH John Mayberry, 34, ending his 15-year MLB career after 255 home runs.
  • March 25 – The Tigers release pitcher Kevin Saucier. He had gone 3–1 in, but developed a case of the Yips, which prevented Saucier from making simple throws to the catcher or even the bases. Saucier will never again pitch in the major leagues.
  • March 31 – The Seattle Mariners purchase the contract of 28-year-old first baseman Ken Phelps from the Montreal Expos. Phelps will establish himself as a major-leaguer in Seattle, slugging 105 homers before he's swapped to the New York Yankees in July 1988 in a one-sided exchange that nets the Mariners future All-Star Jay Buhner.

    April

  • April 5
  • *Tom Seaver pitches six scoreless innings in his return to the New York Mets in front of 46,687 fans at Shea Stadium. He does not, however, factor in the decision, as he's matched by Philadelphia Phillies ace Steve Carlton. The Mets break through for two runs in the seventh, to make Doug Sisk the winner of their season opener.
  • *At Candlestick Park on Opening Day, hitters are in midseason form, as the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants combine for 33 hits and 29 runs. The Giants hit four homers to the Padres' one, but San Diego triumphs, 16–13.
  • April 7 – Major League Baseball, ABC, and NBC agree to terms of a six-year television package worth in excess of $1.1 billion. The two networks will continue alternative coverage of the All-Star Game, the playoffs and the World Series through the 1989 season with each of the 26 clubs receiving $7 million per year in return. The last package gave each club $1.9 million per year.
  • April 9 – Houston Astros knuckleballer Joe Niekro surrenders an unearned run on a passed ball in the first inning and the Pittsburgh Pirates' Larry McWilliams makes the tally stand up, hurling a two-hit shutout for a 1–0 Pittsburgh victory at the Astrodome. Niekro allows only three hits himself.
  • April 13 – Philadelphia Phillies catcher Bo Díaz accomplishes something that only 11 other Major League players have in the 150-plus year history of the sport: a game-winning "Sayonara Slam". With the New York Mets leading, 9–6, and the Phillies down to their last out, Díaz drives a 2–1 Neil Allen pitch out of Veterans Stadium to win the game, 10–9.
  • April 15
  • * Against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park, Milt Wilcox of the Detroit Tigers has his bid for a perfect game broken up with two outs in the ninth by a Jerry Hairston single. The hit is the only one Wilcox allows in defeating the White Sox 6–0. Wilcox was also bidding to pitch the first no-hitter by a Tiger since Jim Bunning in. The perfect game would also have made the White Sox and Tigers the first teams to record perfect games against each other; the Tigers were on the losing end of Charlie Robertson's perfect game on April 30,.
  • * Steve Garvey returns to Dodger Stadium as a member of the San Diego Padres and earns cheers before 53,392 fans as he ties Billy Williams' National League record for most consecutive games. Garvey will break the record the following night, when, in his 1,118th straight game, he goes 2 for 4 in the Padres' 8–5 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
  • April 16 – The Montreal Expos' Charlie Lea one-hits the Houston Astros, taking a no-hitter into the bottom of the eighth with two out before pinch hitter and native Canadian Terry Puhl singles. Montreal's 2–0 win is the Astros' tenth loss in their first 11 games of 1983.
  • April 17
  • *At Fenway Park, the Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox are locked in a scoreless tie until two out in the visitors' 14th inning, when an error by Boston shortstop Glenn Hoffman enables Larry Biittner to score the game's only run. Three Ranger pitchers combine for the shutout victory.
  • *Nolan Ryan whiffs seven Expos in a 6–3 Houston win, becoming the second pitcher in MLB recorded history with 3,500 strikeouts.
  • April 20 – Tom Seaver throws a complete-game, three-hit shutout, registers nine strikeouts, and hits an RBI triple in a vintage, 6–0 triumph for his New York Mets over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the opener of a twi-night doubleheader at Shea Stadium. It's the first victory in Seaver's homecoming season in New York, and lowers his ERA to 0.82.
  • April 27 – Nolan Ryan strikes out Brad Mills of the Montreal Expos for the 3,509th strikeout of his career, breaking the long-time record established by Walter Johnson.
  • April 29 – Frustrated by his 5–14 Chicago Cubs' late-game one-run loss at Wrigley Field—and incensed at the abuse of his players coming from spectators in the left-field bleachers as the Cubs exit the field—manager Lee Elia launches into a profanity-laced, three-minute-long tirade against Chicago fans during a postgame media interview. A tape recording of Elia's outburst made by a radio reporter spreads like wildfire, and the blowback almost costs Elia his job. He apologizes at a press conference soon after, and later says: "It was terrible. It was immature of me. But if you can get through the cursing, which I’m ashamed of, you'll see I was supporting my players. I just didn’t say it right."
  • April 29–30 – A marathon night game between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals is suspended in the top of the 14th inning when, with the contest tied five-all, the arc lights fail at Busch Memorial Stadium. When the game resumes on April 30, the teams play into the bottom of the 16th, when the Cardinals score an unearned run for a 6–5 triumph.