This weekend, the Houston Astros invade Chavez Ravine to play the one-time rival LA Dodgers. Yes, the “Astros and Dodgers = rivals” sounds odd, but it was once true. In fact, so true that in 1980 the two teams squared off in a final three game series in Chavez Ravine for the NL West title. Houston held a three game lead on the Dodgers going into the series. That the Astros lost all three games to the Dodgers in three tightly contested games led to perhaps the most memorable and delightful one game, winner takes the NL West showdown. And that is when Joe Niekro became a Houston hero for most of us too. In honor of Joseph Franklin Niekro, this last National League series preview held at Chavez Ravine is dedicated to the game he swore he “Wasn’t going to lose!”.

Series: Houston Astros versus the LA Trolley Dodgers
Where: Chavez Ravine, home of the Dodger Dog
When: Friday, May 25 through Sunday, May 27th

There isn’t much drama involved in this particular series, even though the 2012 Houston Astros have been a hot club lately and the Dodgers are leading the NL West and playing consistently good baseball. But this in no way should be considered a permiere series to watch. At least not like in 1980 when the Houston Astros fought hard under skipper Bill Virdon. In 1980 the Astros featured the arm of Nolan Ryan, Joe Niekro, and for a part of the season JR Richard. Richard suffered a career ending stroke in July of 1980, the same season when Cincinnatti Red pitcher Tom Seaver swore the Astros would fall from the NL West frontrunner status like a lead balloon. That was then, this is now and there is not much drama involved in this series, only the one that some fans like me will put into it: the last National League series to be played at Chavez Ravine by the ‘Stros. Bittersweet, isn’t it?

Friday, May 25th – 9:10pm CST
Lucas Harrel vs. Clayton Kershaw

Okay, this is not an even match in anybodies eyes. Lucas Harrel has had some good outings for the Astros and some bad ones. The bad ones seem to outnumber the good ones, but lately he has been throwing his sinker more effectively. The ball seems to be more lively when he pitches but it’s still staying true in the middle of the plate way too much. Kershaw has been the ACE for the Dodgers and one the primary reasons they’re leading the West this year. What may help Harrel is how much Chavez Ravine plays into a pitcher’s strenghts, it is one of the most forgiving parks in the National League. Hey, any park that can make Chan Ho Park look like Cy Young has got to be good news for a pitcher.

Flashback to 1980: The first game of the 1980 series in Chavez Ravine featured Ken Forsch squaring off with future Hall of Famer Don Sutton. Forsh pitched a gem of a game and had a 2-1 lead going into the ninth. However, in the ninth, Ron Cey (“The Penguin”) singled home the tying run and ruining a great opportunity for the Astros to take the NL West outright in the first game. Joe Ferguson, the stout catcher for the Dodgers, drove home the game winner in the following inning with a homerun to lift the Dodgers back to two games out from the lead. This was just the beginning of the fun that was to insue for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday, May 26th, – 9:10pm CST
Bud Norris vs. Chad Billingsley

You wanna talk young talented arms battling each other? This is it, yet another fine matchup for Bud Norris to look forward to. Norris has been one hot pitcher in May, sporting a very nifty .035 ERA for the month. Not bad. Billingsley on the other hand is starting to come around after struggling a bit. It would not surprise me if this one is a throwback game of pitchers going toe to toe and lasting late into the games clinging to a one or two run lead. My money is on Bud and here is hoping the just enough offense nine on Houston’s part gets just that to support Norris in a win.

Flashback to 1980: Talk about veteran war horses squaring off, in the second game of the 1980 series, Nolan Ryan too the hill for the Astros and Jerry Reuss for the Dodgers. Ryan was dealing this day, striking out nine trolley men, but the day game took it’s toll on the fastballer and he lasted only seven innings. Reuss out did Nolan and lasted the entire nine innings and held the Astros to only one run on seven hits. The one run was not enough, as Ryan had allowed two runs for his part. Dodgers win game 2 by the score of 2-1 to pull to one game within the lead with one game to play.

Sunday, May 27th – 3:10pm CST
J.A. Happ vs. TBD

What can one say about Happ that hasn’t already been said a million times (minimum) by Mr. Happy? Well, the fact that his last two starts have been very good and that he now has his own personal catcher in Synder is about all the news anyone needs to know. Synder supposedly called Happ all sorts of names, like “Nancy Boy” and “Sissy Man”, because of his penchant for nibbling at corners way too much. This has led to Happ challenging more hitters and actually getting them out more efficiently too. Now if he can work in some short inning stints along the way, the Astros will have the starter they thought they had when in the trade with the Phillies. And of course what can be said about TBD for the Dodgers? Literally nothing at this point. No word if Mr. Happy is laying down some cash on TBD though, but you never know!

Flashback to 1980: What a game! The starters for this last game of the season were Vern Ruhle for the Astros and Burt “Happy” Hooton for the Dodgers. Houston seemed motivated to get this game put away early, scoring two off Hooton while Ruhle seemed to be in control. But then, after the Astros scored another run to lead 3-0, the Dodgers came roaring back. They scored 2 runs when Ruhle had to leave the game with a cut finger. Joaquin Andujar could not hold the Dodgers back, allowing them to score two runs, the tying run coming on a pinch hit by Manny Mota, who was activated by the club to be eligible to play in the series. Mota was the first base coach at the time. In this game, Jay Johnstone was playing right field for the Dodgers and was going to be removed from the game for a sub by Tommy Lasorda. For some reason, Johnstone was ape-shit over the move and confronted Lasorda in the dugout, wanting to fight. What fun! In the 8th, Steven “The Original Capitan America” Garvey led off with a single and Ron Cey was asked to bunt. He failed miserably at his attempts to move over the Captian 90 feet, so Lasorda had him swing away. Swing he did, hitting a homerun to left off reliever Frank LaCorte. The Dodgers were quickly running out of pitchers and subs, so they had to rely on inigmatic closer Steven Howe to try and lock this one down. He ran into trouble and the Astros looked like they were going to have a big inning in the ninth. But the Dodgers trotted out Don Sutton to face Denny Walling and the ballgame was secure and now the one game playoff was assured.

1980 – One game, winner takes the NL West
Joe Niekro versus Dave Goltz

The press in LA was so sure the Astros had a massive dinosaur size bone stuck in their throat, that this one game was a formality. But they didn’t count on Joseph Franklin Niekro either. Why? I don’t know, Nierko was every bit a reason for the success of the Houston Astros as anyone else, including Nolan Ryan. Joe was a 19 game winner and if he won this one game, he’d be a vaunted 20 game winner in 1980. Still, the press believed the chocking sounds from the Houston bench was too much to ignore. So Joe decided to be bold. He told as many teammates as he could that he was going to win this game. He wasn’t going to lose was more his mantra and that may have kept his teammates in the right frame of mind. From the AP report on the game: “Maybe some of them were disappointed in losing those three in a row that they thought it might be four in a row,” said Niekro. “Before the game, I told them just to get me a few runs and I’d take care of the rest. I told them I wasn’t going to lose the game. I came out here to win.”

The knuckleball specialist said he knew early that he was in for a good game. “The first two innings, the knuckleball was getting over and moving,” the righthander said. “Right then I knew I could handle the Dodgers, even though they’re always capable of that big inning. Later in the game, when we had that big lead, I started throwing mostly fastballs to get ahead of them and then would finish them off with the knuckleball.”

Houston won the game going away, 7-1, aided by the offense provided by Terry Puhl and Art Howe, the other big hero of the day.

“For a game like this, you don’t have to do anything to get up,” said Niekro, the 35-year-old righthander who upped his record to 20-12. “I’ve never been in a game like this and I’ve never been happier. I thank all of the people in Houston and I thank God. I’m so happy.”

No Joe… thank you and rest in peace my good man!


A tribute to Joe Niekro, by the Joe Niekro foundation and narrated by Bob Allen. Nice inclusion of the 1980 game too.

Check out this cool story about Chelsea Baker, a protege of Joe Niekro.