On April 5, 1982, Jim Kaat of the St. Louis Cardinals sets a major league record for pitchers by playing in his 24th consecutive season. The 43-year-old left-hander pitches one inning in the Cardinals’ 14-3 defeat of the Houston Astros…
1982 – J.R. Richard tosses one inning in an exhibition game against Toronto. It would be his last appearance as an Astro after suffering a stroke in 1980. Richard gives up no runs and no hits but walks the bases full in the 3-2 victory.
1981 – Outfielder Cesar Cedeno is traded to Cincinnati for infielder Ray Knight. It ends a 12-year run in Houston for Cedeno who bats .289 as an Astro with 163 HRs, 778 RBIs, 487 steals and four All-Star appearances.
1981 – Astros trade outfielder Gary Woods to the Cubs for outfielder Jim Tracy. Woods had hit .377 as a September call-up in 1980 but reverted to .209 the next season. Tracy never makes it into a regular season game for Houston but he will one day become the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Colorado Rockies.
1981 – Fernando Valenzuela outpitches Vern Ruhle in a 2-1 decision in Los Angeles. Only eight hits are registered, four by each side, but a homer by Pedro Guerrero and an RBI single by Bill Russell trump last-inning heroics by Terry Puhl and Tony Scott. The series is knotted at two games apiece.
1981 – Alan Ashby, as if waiting a year for revenge, slams a two-out two-run homer off Dave Stewart in the ninth to stun the Dodgers, 3-1, in Game One of their divisional playoff series . Tony Scott had driven in Terry Puhl earlier but Los Angeles ties it up on a solo shot from Steve Garvey, one of just two hits given up by Nolan Ryan.
Nolan Ryan becomes the first pitcher to throw five no-hitters when the Astros defeat the Dodgers at the Astrodome, 5-0. The Ryan Express, who will finish his 27-year major league career with a record seven no-hitters, previously has thrown hitless gems against the Royals (1973), Tigers (1973), Twins (1974), and Orioles (1975).
1981 – Joe Niekro and Dave Smith combine on a two-hitter to blank San Diego, 3-0. Niekro and Steve Mura trade goose eggs for seven innings until Tony Scott drives home Joe Pittman in the eighth. Gary Woods then delivers Scott. In the ninth, Scott again plates Pittman with an insurance run. The shutout caps a seven-game road trip to open the “second season”, with the Astros winning five of them.
1981 – Pete Rose of Philadelphia singles against Nolan Ryan to tie Stan Musial for the most hits in league history (3,630). Ryan would fan Rose in his final three at-bats before a two-month strike begins the next day. The strike is one day too late for Frank LaCortewho blows a 4-0 lead in a 5-4 Phillies verdict.
On June 10, 1981, The Philadelphia Phillies’ Pete Rose hits a single in the 1st inning off Nolan Ryan that gives him 3,630 hits, tying Stan Musial’s National League mark. The Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 5 – 4, before more than 57,000 fans at Veterans Stadium.
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