Today in 1977 - Cleveland Indians vs California Angels

Today in 1977, the California Angels hosted the Cleveland Indians in Anaheim Stadium. Wayne Garland of the Indians would face off against Frank Tanana of the Angels.

  The game became a pitcher's duel with both pitchers allowing a combined total of six hits for the game, with Tanana pitching a no-hitter for half the game.

   In the second inning, Bobby Bonds hit a leadoff solo homerun, getting California on the board.

   Tanana's no-hitter ended in the fifth inning, when Buddy Bell hit a double. However, during that play, he tried to make it to third base and was thrown out.

   The score remained the same into the top of the ninth. Ron Pruitt hit a double into center field. Frank Duffy had a sacrifice bunt, sending Pruitt to third. Larvell Blanks pinch hit for Duane Kuiper, but struck out looking. Tanana walked Paul Dade and now with runners at the corners, Andre Norton pinch hit for Jim Norris. Thornton hit a fly ball to right field. Bonds caught the ball, ending the game. The California Angels beat the Cleveland Indians 1-0.

   Tanana got the win, going to 10-2. Garland was charged with the loss and fell to 2-6. Tanana struck out seven batters, while Garland struck out two. California improved to 27-26, 3rd in the AL West, 4.5 games behind the Minnesota Twins. Cleveland went to 23-27, 5th in the AL East, 6.5 games behind the New York Yankees. Cleveland ended the season at 71-90, 5th in the AL East. California ended the season at 74-88, 5th in the AL West.


Trivia

• There was 1 Hall of Famer playing in or managing this game: Manager Frank Robinson for the Indians.
  
• The was Robinson's third season managing the Indians. He was a player/manager in his first two seasons with the team, but only a manager this season. He would be replaced after 57 games by Jeff Torborg.
  
• Robinson also managed the San Francisco Giants (1981-84), Baltimore Orioles (1988-91), and Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals (2002-06). He never achieved higher than second place as a manager.
  
• This was Norm Sherry's second season managing the Angels. He would be replaced by Dave Garcia after 81 games. Ironically, Garcia would be replaced after 46 games in his second season by Jim Fregosi. This was the only time Sherry managed a major league team.
  
• Buddy Bell went on to manage the Detroit Tigers (1996-98), Colorado Rockies (2000-02), and Kansas City Royals (2005-07).
  
• Robinson and Sherry faced each other as players from 1959-63. Robinson played for the Cincinnati Reds during that time and Sherry played for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1959-62) and New York Mets (1963).
  
• Robinson was best known for playing for the Baltimore Orioles from 1966-71. He was the AL MVP in 1966 and played in four World Series during his time there. Baltimore won two (1966 and 1970) and lost two (1969 and 1971).

Game stats can be found at Baseball-Reference.com on the box score page at Cleveland Indians vs California Angels - June 10, 1977.

Random Musings

• Hats off to Jered Weaver of the Anaheim Angels for givings Angels fans something to celebrate by throwing the second no-hitter of the season.  Anaheim dominated the Minnesota Twins 9-0.  Weaver struck out nine batters in the victory and went to 4-0 on the season.  LP Liam Hendriks fell to 0-2.
  
• The football world suffered a great loss at the death of future NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Junior Seau.  Seau committed suicide yesterday.  Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come with former NFL players.  Former Chicago Bears CB great Dave Duerson and one of his former opponents, former Philadelphia Eagles CB Andre Waters also committed suicide.  Both Waters' and Duerson's autopsies revealed brain damage from the concussions they suffered as players.  Seau was an old school hard hitting linebacker.  He will be missed.
  
• The NFL has handed down its suspensions of current and former New Orleans Saints players from the Bountygate scandal.  LB Jonathan Vilma received the worst punishment, getting suspended for the entire season.  DE Will Smith (4 games), former Saints LB Scott Fujita, (3 games) and DE Anthony Hargrove (8 games) also received suspensions.  There's a lot of chatter on both sides of the argument, from too harsh and lack of due process to the suspensions being more than fair.  If the NFL has smoking gun evidence, then the suspensions are fair.  If the NFL only has hearsay and no hard evidence, then the players should win on appeal.  Regardless of who wins, this will probably not help the NFL in the class action lawsuit the former players filed.
  
• Drum corps season starts next month.  Back in the day, the first contests usually for junior drum & bugle corps began on the first weekend in June.  The first contest sanction by Drum Corps International is on June 16.  The All Age drum & bugle corps of Drum Corps Associates begin their contest season on the same day.  The drum and bugle corps activity is the second highest youth activity in the country next to sports.  The activity changed a lot of lives for the better, including mine.  Let's support the activity and if you or people you know are too old to march in the junior corps, find an all age corps and get back to playing music.  There will be "On this day" entries for drum corps, but as with baseball, the entries will be posted when I can post them.
  
• Speaking of posting, if this was a Last Place Update, the 6-18 Minnesota Twins, fresh from getting no-hit by the Anaheim Angels, lead the 7-16 Kansas City Royals by a game and a half for Kings of the Cellar.  The defending champion Houston Astros are 11-14.  The honorable mention would go to the 12-12 Detroit Tigers for going 3-7 in their last 10 games.
   
• On this day in 1978, Mother Nature gave our local weathermen a reality check on predicting rain.  The evening before, the local New Orleans weathermen said the city had a 20 percent chance of rain and would have maybe a few showers.  Yeah...right.  The downpour began early in the morning and never let up.  By 6:30, the streets began to flood.  By 1:00, the high school I attended turned into one big lake and the principal was authorized to declare an early dismissal.  The rain finally stopped at about two or three in the afternoon.  What happened?  A cell of rain developed over the city and never moved, although the rest of the storm connected to the cell moved northeast.  By the time the cell dissipated, it had dropped a good six inches over parts of the Greater New Orleans area and caused a lot of flood damage.  Luckily, we weren't flooded at all where I lived, but at least we had some fun in our high school lake.

Have a great day!!

Today in 1998 - Anaheim Angels vs Baltimore Orioles

September 12, 1998 – Today in 1998, the Anaheim Angels took on the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

Phil Nevin hit in Chris Pritchett and the Angels led 1-0. In the 4^th, Gary Disarcina hit in Nevin and the Angels increased their lead to 2-0.

After eight innings, Anaheim kept Baltimore at bay, not letting them score.  But in the bottom of the 9^th, things changed.  Troy Percival went in to close out the game.  Rich Becker hit a single to right field and Mike Bordick hit a 2 run shot to tie the game at 2-2.  Roberto Alomar got out on a fly ball to left field and Brady Anderson hit a single to left field.  Eric Davis came to bat.  During the at-bat, Anderson stole second.  Davis hit a single to center field.  Anderson scored and the game was over.  The Baltimore Orioles beat the Anaheim Angels 3-2.

Alan Mills was credited with the win and went to 2-4.  Percival got the loss and fell to 2-6.  He was also charged with his fifth blown save.

The Orioles improved to 75-72.  They were 28.5 games behind the New York Yankees, fourth in the AL East.  The Angels went to 80-67.  They were first in the AL West, a game ahead of the Texas Rangers.

Notables

• Two Hall of Famers played in this game, both with the Orioles: Roberto Alomar and Cal Ripken, Jr.
  
• This was Terry Collins’ second season managing the Angels.  He managed the team from 1997-99.  He managed the Houston Astros from 1994-96.  Today, Collins is the managing his first season with the New York Mets.
  
• This was Ray Miller’s first season managing the Orioles.  He was the manager for only two seasons.  He previously managed the Minnesota Twins from 1985-86.

Game stats and other data can be found on Baseball-Reference.com at Anaheim Angels vs Baltimore Orioles - September 12, 1998.