This Date In Royals History--1984 Edition: May 23
Bud Black gives the Royals the well-pitched game they sorely need.
After two nights of slugfests with the Chicago White Sox, the Royals needed a well-pitched game. And did they ever get it, as Bud Black struck out nine in a complete game to lead Kansas City to a 1-0 win on Wednesday night at Royals Stadium.
The lone run in the game came in the bottom of the first. With two outs, Chicago starter Britt Burns walked George Brett. Hal McRae hit a ground ball that shortstop Scott Fletcher mishandled, keeping the inning alive. Frank White singled to drive in Brett.
The White Sox had scored 14 runs total in the previous two games, but Black mowed them down in this one. He allowed a Tom Paciorek single with two outs in the first, then retired the next 17 hitters in a row. Paciorek broke that streak with a single and Greg Luzinski followed with a double, but Black calmly struck out Ron Kittle and got Harold Baines on a harmless ground ball.
Chicago did threaten to score again in the eighth. Marc Hill singled with one out and Julio Cruz singled, moving pinch-runner Dave Stegman to second. But two ground balls later, the Royals were out of trouble.
Burns pitched quite well himself, only to get a hard-luck loss. He held the Royals to three hits in his eight innings, with three walks and one strikeout. He also had a string of 17 straight outs, following an Onix Concepcion walk with two outs in the second and ending with a Concepcion single with one out in the eighth. Willie Wilson followed that with a single, but Darryl Motley grounded into a double play to end the inning. But Black didn’t need the insurance run, getting a double play for the first two outs of the ninth and striking out Kittle to end the game.
“I just had it going tonight. I threw some breaking balls when they were looking for something else and vice-versa. I was really seeing the catcher’s glove tonight. In the middle innings, that’s the best I ever saw it. Every pitch I threw, I felt I could hit the glove.”--Black, quoted by the Associated Press, May 24, 1984
With the two pitchers both breezing through the other lineup, the game was played in a brisk one hour and 49 minutes.
The Royals improved to 16-23 with the win and took the three-game series as well. They were in sixth place in the AL West but were now just 4.5 games behind California.
Box score and play-by-play: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA198405230.shtml
1984 baseball news: Fernando Valenzuela did even better than Black, striking out 15 and driving in the game’s only run as the Los Angeles Dodgers snapped Philadelphia’s 10-game winning streak with a 1-0 win. It was the highest strikeout total for a pitcher so far in the 1984 season.
1984 sports news: For the second year in a row, the Houston Rockets won a coin flip for the first pick in the NBA draft. The Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers had both said they would use the selection on Akeem Olajuwon, the 7-foot center at the University of Houston. The previous year, the Rockets won the coin flip with the Indiana Pacers and selected 7’4” Ralph Sampson from Virginia. After losing the coin flip, Portland owner Larry Weinberg said the team was “very interested” in forward Sam Bowie of Kentucky, another 7-footer but already considered injury-prone. Weinberg also indicated the team, which went 48-34 but was in the coin flip after trading for Indiana’s 1984 first-round pick three years earlier, might take North Carolina’s Michael Jordan. “We have to consider him although our principal need is at center. There’s no pressure on us to decide now. It’s like asking if you like Michael Jackson or Robert Goulet as a singer. They do different things well.” Weinberg told the Associated Press.
Today’s birthdays: None
Hindsight is 20/20, but quotes like the one from Portland's owner is why I can understand when a public figure has no interest in ever saying anything "on the record."