In front of only 1,754 patrons, Mets southpaw Pete Falcone beats the Pirates in the season’s last game at Shea Stadium, 3-1. The crowd is the smallest ever to attend a game at the Flushing ballpark, 33 fewer fans than yesterday’s meager gathering.
In a 12 – 9 Cleveland win over the Yankees, the Tribe’s Ron Hassey has a double and a home run in the 8-run 2nd inning. There are four homers in the game, including Reggie Jackson’s 38th.
Dodger rookie Fernando Valenzuela wins his first ML game, beating the Giants, 4 – 1. Pedro Guerrero has a home run.
A’s OF Rickey Henderson sets the American League single-season stolen base record with his 97th in a 5 – 1 win over the White Sox, breaking Ty Cobb’s record of 96 set in 1915. Henderson will finish the season with 100 stolen bases.
1980 – Vern Ruhle tosses a four-hitter to blank Cincinnati, 2-0. Houston moves two games ahead of Los Angeles in the tight pennant race. The Astros manage just three hits themselves but an RBI single by Jose Cruz and a sacrifice fly by Craig Reynolds are enough.
Brian Kingman loses his 20th game when the A’s are defeated by the White Sox at the Oakland Coliseum, 6-4. The 26 year-old right-hander, who will win his next decision to finish the season with an 8-20 record, will become the last 20-game loser of this century, and the first to hurl for a winning team since Dolf Luque posted a 13-23 mark for the 1922 second-place Reds.
The Padres become the first team in baseball history to have three players to steal more than 50 bases in a season when both Jerry Mumphrey and Ozzie Smith swipe their 50th sack in a 5-3 extra-inning loss to Cincinnati. Fellow Friar Gene Richard, who will lead the club with 61 stolen bases, reached the milestone at the end of last month.
1980 – The Braves, with 24,897 watching, beat the Astros, 4 – 2, at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, pushing the Braves over the one million attendance mark for the season. The 11 other National League teams have already reached that milestone, making this the first season ever in which all the teams in one league have done so.
1980 – Vern Ruhle hurls 7-2/3rds innings of no-hit ball and claims a 5-1 win in San Francisco that retakes the division lead from Los Angeles. Jim Wohlford breaks up the bid and Ruhle finishes with a three-hitter. Art Howe homers and Gary Woods drives in a pair.
On September 21, 1980, Steve Carlton of the Philadelphia Phillies sets a National League record by fanning his 3,118th batter, surpassing Bob Gibson on the all-time list. Andre Dawson becomes Carlton’s record-breaking victim in the third inning of the Phillies’ 1-0 loss to the Montreal Expos.
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