Neil Best linked to this recently…pretty cool of Sports Illustrated to put up this article.
When Seaver finally took the mound after the festivities to honor Rizzuto, he found he had his good stuff. TheWhite Sox failed to take advantage of early opportunities and trailed 1-0 going into the sixth. But then they touched Joe Cowley and Brian Fisher for four runs and left it up to Seaver. In the eighth, a two-out single by New York‘s Don Mattingly put runners on first and third, but Seaver told pitching coach Dave Duncan he wanted to finish, and Duncan—subbing for ejected manager Tony La Russa—allowed him to face Dave Winfield. Seaver went to a full count and struck out Winfield on a changeup.
He ran into trouble again in the ninth. Rookie Dan Pasqua opened with a single. Seaver struck out Ron Hassey, and Harold Baines made a leaping grab of a Willie Randolph liner against the wall in right. After walking Mike Pagliaruloon four pitches, Fisk and Duncan went out to the mound to see if everything was all right. Fisk later said that to keep Duncan from taking Seaver out, “I would have picked Dune up and carried him back to the dugout.” Seaver thereupon got pinch hitter Don Baylor to hit his first pitch into the air in left, and Nichols settled under it for the final out. There was something else in the air: Seaver’s number is 41, as is that of losing pitcher Cowley, and the score of both this game and the Mets‘ victory that day was 4-1. Whatever the score, the very idea of a players’ strike seemed far away on Sunday afternoon.
You know you want to read the whole thing.
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