Japan’s all-time home run hitter, Sadaharu Oh, retires from professional baseball. The Tokyo Yomiuri Giants’ first baseman hit a record 868 home runs in his 22-year playing career.
Ralph Houk, who managed the Yankees and Tigers for 16 years before retiring in 1978, is named manager of the Boston Red Sox.
In a shocking announcement, Houston Astros owner John McMullen fires President and General Manager Tal Smith, replacing him with Al Rosen, former GM of the Yankees. Smith will soon be named Major League Executive of the Year. The move prompts a rebellion among the Astros’ 20 limited owners (who together own over 60 percent of the club), and on November 24th, McMullen will give up his sole authority to run the club, accepting a position on the club’s newly-formed executive committee instead.
In the 163rd game of the season, 35 year-old knuckleballer Joe Niekro earns his 20th victory, going the distance to defeat the Dodgers, 7-1, in the winner-take-all contest for the NL West. With the win, the Astros hold on to capture their first title in the 19-year history of the franchise after losing a season-ending three game series to LA, (3-2, 2-1, and 4-3) that forced the one-game playoff.
1980 – Capping an improbable comeback, the Dodgers beat Houston for the third day in a row to force a one-game playoff for the NL West title. The Dodgers trailed Houston by three games with three games left in the season, and won each game by a single run.
In a duel between two 19-game winners on the last day of the season, Scott McGregor enters the 20-win circle for the first and only time when he bests Len Barker in the Orioles’ 7-1 victory over the Indians. The Cleveland right-hander, who gives up six runs in five innings to finish the campaign with a 19-12 record, will never again come close to being a 20-game winner.
Reaching first on a fielder’s choice in the top of the seventh in the 4-0 win over the Twins, Royals’ leadoff hitter Willie Wilson establishes a major league record for the most at-bats in a season with 705. The Kansas City outfielder will collect 230 hits and score 133 runs for the division-winning club.
The Yankees break the American League regular season attendance record when 35,879 fans watch the team beat the Tigers, 2-1, in the season finale, bringing the final total 2,627,417. The 1948 Indians previously set the mark when 2,620,627 fans turned turnstiles to watch their Tribe capture the Junior Circuit’s pennant.
Brewers’ outfielder Ben Ogilvie becomes the first non-American born player to lead the American League in home runs. On the last day of the season, the 31 year-old Panamanian goes deep off Oakland’s Rick Langford for his 41st homer, which ties Reggie Jackson for the most round-trippers in the Junior Circuit.
Mike Schmidt’s two-run home run off Stan Bahnsen in the top of the 11th inning gives Philadelphia a 6 – 4 win over Montreal and the NL East title. The home run is Schmidt’s 48th of the season, breaking Eddie Mathews’ single-season record for third basemen set in 1953.
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