Fearing legal consequences, Bowie Kuhn gives access to female reporters to enter major league locker rooms. The commissioner’s unpopular ruling puts the players in an awkward position in their once all-male domain.
At spring training, exhibition season opens with semi-pro and amateur umpires in place of major league arbiters, who are staging a collective holdout which won’t be resolved until a few weeks into the season.
Hack Wilson and Warren Giles are elected to the Hall of Fame On March 7, 1979, Slugging outfielder Hack Wilson and longtime executive Warren Giles are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. Wilson, who had a relatively short career, won four National League home run titles while with the Chicago Cubs. His most productive season came in 1930, when he set an…
1979 – The Philadelphia Phillies trade five players to the Chicago Cubs for 2B Manny Trillo, OF Greg Gross, and C Dave Rader. Chicago gets C Barry Foote, OF Jerry Martin, 2B Ted Sizemore, and two minor leaguers, Henry Mack and P Derek Botelho.
1979 – Minor league pitcher Jesse Orosco becomes the player to be named later, going to the New York Mets in compensation for pitcher Jerry Koosman, who had been sent earlier to the Minnesota Twins. Greg Field was the other pitcher Minnesota sent to New York; he will never appear for the Mets, whereas Orosco had a long stint with them.
1979 – The Minnesota Twins trade star first baseman Rod Carew to the California Angels for outfielder Ken Landreaux and three lesser players (Dave Engle, Paul Hartzell and Brad Havens). Carew, who hit .333 for the Twins in 1978 but had vowed never to play again for owner Calvin Griffith after he made disparaging remarks against black players a few months earlier, will hit .318 for the Angels this season. He will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991.
1979 – Philip Barzilla is born in Houston, TX. The lefthander tosses 1/3rd of an inning for the hometown team in 2006, much to the joy of his family, including one proud uncle.
On January 23, 1979, Willie Mays, considered one of the greatest players of his generation, is elected to the Hall of Fame. Mays garners 409 out of 432 votes and becomes the 14th man to gain election in his first year on the ballot. Mays will officially enter the Hall on August 5, along with…
Lindsey Nelson, selected by the expansion Mets as the team’s lead announcer in 1962, reveals he will not be returning to the Mets broadcast booth this season, ending a 17-year partnership with Ralph Kiner and Bob Murphy. The colorfully-clad Hall of Fame announcer, who will eventually do play-by-play for the Giants, is replaced by Steve Albert, the younger brother of the well-known NBA Knicks and NHL Rangers’ broadcaster, Marv Albert.
On January 19, 1979, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed Lee Lacy to a six-year deal worth over $1,00,000. The 30-year-old Lacy spent the first seven years of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he was a .270 hitter in 497 games and he played five different positions. In six years with the Pirates, Lacy…
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