OTDIB – May 31st, 1981 – Fernandomania moves the turnstiles

Phil Gurnee ♦ May 31, 2017 ♦ 2 Comments

On this date in baseball:

May 31st, 1981 – Fernandomania moves turnstiles

Playing before their tenth consecutive home sellout, the Dodgers pound the Reds 16-4 and raise their season attendance to 1,026,725 in 22 dates. It is the earliest any team has cracked the one million attendance barrier.

16 – 4 sounds like a fun game. And it was. Look at this box score. Two of the best pitchers of that year Mario Soto and Jerry Reuss squared off. Reuss only pitched to one batter before being lifted for Rick Sutcliffe. By the bottom of the 3rd the Dodgers were down 4 – 0 before scoring the next sixteen runs. They only hit one home run that game courtesy of Rick Monday. Reuss would make his next start so I’m not sure what happened to him.  Dave Goltz/Dave Stewart/Terry Forster pitched five scoreless innings. If only Dave Goltz had at least 3 innings of scoreless ball in his arm the previous October.

May 31st, 1980 – This one is for Big Mike 

Ken Landreaux goes 0-for-4 in Minnesota’s 11-1 loss to the Orioles to end his hitting streak at 31 consecutive games. Baltimore southpaw Scott McGregor does the honors. It is the longest streak in the A.L. since Dom DiMaggio’s 34-game stretch in 1949.

Kenny Landreaux would become a Dodger in 1981 and be the starting CF on the 1981 World Championship team. He had a sweet left-handed swing that seemed to indicate more production than what you actually got so you always felt like you didn’t get the best of him.

Ok, this is cool. Kenny Landreau was drafted by the Angels with the 6th pick of the 1976 draft. He was traded to the Twins for none other than Rod Carew. He was then traded to the Dodgers on March 30, 1981, just before the start of the season. For fan favorite Mickey Hatcher.  Landreau would retire in 1987, but Mickey Hatcher would rejoin the team in 1988 and rekindle his love affair with the Dodger fans and be an integral part of the World Championship 1988 team.

It is all just one big circle.

And to cement that circle is this Rod Carew heart transplant story that aired on CBS Sunday Morning. It will get misty.