Houston ASTROS at Los Angeles DODGERS 4/11/81 Original KBSC Broadcast

[Music] on april 12th on tv is proud to present a special sports feature it's live horse racing action from santa anita park when on tv presents the santa anita derby this is the west coast prelim to the kentucky derby one of the richest races of the season be sure to watch the santa anita derby april 12th at five o'clock this is kbsc tv channel 52 corona los angeles he wore dodger blue for 15 seasons and holds virtually every dodger pitching record but tonight don sutton makes his first start against his former teammates in a houston astro uniform as on tv sports presents our premiere telecast of the 1981 season [Music] [Applause] [Music] live from dodger stadium on tv sports presents exciting major league baseball action tonight the houston astros meet the los angeles dodgers hello again everybody i'm jeff witcher here at dodger stadium we've got a sellout for on tv's premier telecast of dodger baseball 1981. this is the first 15 specially selected broadcast for you tonight it's a dandy don sutton versus bird hooton sutton's first meeting in a houston uniform my broadcasting partner in his fourth season the a sound downing are you ready yes i am jeff okay let's talk a little bit about hooton and sutton can you make any comparisons between these two veteran right-handers well they're basically controlled pictures they'll be around the plate and i think there won't be a lot of hits tonight okay now what must don sutton be feeling you have an idea you've gone through this before well i talked to don before the game about playing 15 years as a dodger and coming back as a visiting ball player to get his reactions don what are your thoughts tonight as you come back to pitch against the dodgers for the first against the dodgers for the first time in a visiting uniform well i kind of have mixed emotions i spent a lot of great years here and i enjoyed them all and it's not the most comfortable feeling i've ever felt i guess i never thought the day would come when i'd sit in this dugout and play against those guys over there so right now i'm a little nervous i'm a legitory but hopefully i'll get over it before the first pitch do you think you'll be affected at all by the fans reaction to you out on the mail oh sure i'm a human being i'd like to be liked by everybody and i hope that what will happen is that the people will not see a guy who used to play for the dodgers but and is now in another uniform but i hope they'll see somebody who tried to give him 15 years and i tried to give him the best i could and i hope that they'll judge me on that and there's been a mentally mini controversy over the years whether or not don sutton doctors of baseball it'll be interesting to find out if he is checked tonight so the stage is set here are the umpires for tonight's dodgers houston astros ball game jerry dale paul rungey jim quick and bob engel and now ladies and gentlemen our national anthem [Music] what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] that our flag was still there oh say does that star [Music] [Applause] spangled or the love [Applause] [Music] the grace the national anthem sung tonight by blush [Applause] here's the houston astros batting order tonight leading off in right field at terry poole batting second their shortstop craig reynolds cesar cedeno batting third in center field the cleanup hitter in left field jose cruz dally heap batting fifth at first base hart howe will batch six he'll be at third base tonight battling seventh their catcher alan ashby raphael landistoy will play second base in bad eighth doing the pitching and batting ninth former dodger don sutton at home plate with the batting card for los angeles is reggie smith reggie of course recuperating from shoulder surgery and he's not quite ready to do everything and of course he can't throw a hundred percent so in the meantime a young kid maybe a future superstar pete guerrero will be in right field for los angeles because of his possible effects first i knew that reggie wore glasses jeff this is the first year that he has tried it out he was having a little bit of a problem he had great success wearing the glasses in spring training decided what the heck any edge i can have i'll take it it is a sellout crowd here at dodger stadium they had over 50 000 out here thursday the season opener and fernando valenzuela the young 20 year old going on 40 shut out the astros on five hits so the dodgers want to know and they are all set to take the field pitching instructor sandy koufax the greatest pitcher i've ever seen in pitchow he could really throw couldn't he yes he was jeff and the dodgers take the field [Applause] this is our first telecast we'll be bringing you 15 exciting dodger games this 1981 season and it is a pleasure to have al downing working with me again this is our fifth season bringing dodger baseball your way on on tv and now you're already in your fourth it's my first time flies setting the dodgers defensively steve garvey the iron man tonight 836 consecutive game second baseman davey lopes hoping to come back after disappointing 1980 season around at shortstop he was a big question mark could he come back from that finger injury the answer yes bill russell around the third the penguin ron say who the last couple of months last year really came through with the power finished up with 28 home runs in the outfield dusty baker in left the dodgers came very close to losing him to free agency but then signed him at the last moment to a multi-year big money contract in center field kenny landro the newest member of the dodgers acquired from minnesota for mickey hatcher and two minor leaguers and there is a superstar of the future perhaps pedro guerrero in right field led the team at home runs in rbis in the spring 22 year old mike socia beat out ferguson and jaeger he's the starting catcher for los angeles and on the mound veteran right-hander bird hoot last year despite a bursitis problem in that shoulder he won 14 games lost eight with an earned run average of 3.65 and it was the sixth consecutive year he was in double figures as far as victories were concerned well bert mentioned he thought the versailles was causing a weakness in his shoulder but then he found that he was just he just had a muscular problem back there and he worked very hard on all of this equipment this past winter and he feels great now for the astros terry poole will start it off followed by craig reynolds and cesar cedano ron say is up on the edge of the infield grass at third first pitch of the ball game called strike had perhaps his best spring training ever high and away one ball and one strike he worked 31 innings two wins and a loss and an earned run average of just barely over two he was quite pleased swung on and hit down the right field line very high guerrero coming over in foul ground and he runs out of room it's back in the third row of the field boxes here at dodger stadium ideally jeff a pitcher starting pitcher likes to get in about 30 innings in the spring if he possibly can because it gives you a chance to get your your arm in the condition where you're pitching six or seven innings in a game that way when you come north you know you're ready to pitch one ball two strikes to terry poole just the start of tonight's telecast here's a liner over the head of ron say in the left field base hit for pool so poole who drew the caller on thursday afternoon gets the first hit tonight [Music] looks like the penguin had a beat on that one in the last minute it kind of got by him but i think what might have fooled him was the fact that pooler just pulled the pitch before foul and then the last thing you expect is for the guy to hit the ball the opposite field on you like that so you're really not ready for it shortstop craig reynolds who hit 226 last season and bill burton is hoping to get a little more sock from him this year he went two for four on thursday against los angeles so he's hitting a lusty 500 throw to first ron say again is a step or two up on the infield grass at third the outfield against reynolds who's batting left-handed is around towards left a big gap in right center as again putin goes over to garvey well the first threw over the first base pool of taking a half a step with his right foot and i think probably garvey alerted hooting that he possibly had a play on maybe hit and run or even steal not in time so reynolds running sharply to ron say one down and cesar cedeno coming up [Music] cedano who's been in the big leagues it seems like forever is 30 years old he's coming off that ankle injury he dislocated it in the national league championship series against philadelphia they could have used him out yes they could have they lost some of their power production when he was out of the lineup there cedeno went one for four in the opener on thursday so he's hitting 250 as he stands in pull it first one out strike on the outside corner how did you used to work cedano when you were pitching i never had very much success with cedano i tried to throw him a breaking ball down and in and he would hammer it down the line if i threw a fastball's weight he hit him up the right center field alley he just seemed to hit me wherever i pitched him and that's the mark of a good hitter but i think in the later years he's going more trying to pull the ball again i'll throw the first actually paul getting his lead here that is basically what you call the one-way lead where you get as far off as you can and you know first sign your pitcher makes a funny move you start diving back to first base no score if you just tuned down the astros batting top of the first state one out 0-1 to cedeno and terry poole has to get back again paul drops out of garvey's club he goes to get garvey holding fool at first cedano has won five gold gloves he did it five consecutive years from 1972 through 1976 and he hits a shot to right field slicing away from guerrero it's him they're going to third his pool and cedano holds on with a long single so the astros have runners at the corners with one out and their cleanup hitter jose cruz coming up well he saw caesar just going with a pitch he had a one strike count on him and uh he got a breaking ball out over the plate and he just kind of pushed it into the right field corner there but i think uh something significant on that play jeff no pete guerrero hurt his shoulder thursday in the ballgame diving and sliding into one of the bags head first he didn't make a very strong throw there in the second base and i think that's a sign that the astros are going to pick up on putin misses ball one jose cruz six footer 175 pounds he was purchased from st louis back in september of 1974 and he is one of the finest left-handed hitters in the national league and he found it back in the crowd well he's one of the finest ball players in the national league i think as now phil he's rather underrated and he's a very fine base stealer and a very fine base runner that's terry poole away from third cedano takes his lead garvey holds him on in first one and one to count to cruz with one out through strike one ball and two strikes to jose cruz he led the astros with 185 hits last year that was fifth best in the master league he also led them with 91 runs batted in ninth best in the league is only play the first in time to get crews and pool scores down to second goal cedano one nothing houston that's a very difficult play right there for the pitcher because bird had to back down off the mound to get that ball he's here he's going towards shortstop now he has to wheel and throw the ball in for a fellow coming off a bad shoulder he made a pretty good throw there but that's always a tough play because a lot of times you you lose your bearings and when you wheel around you throw them blindly first baseman danny heaps steps in high and away one ball and no strike so with penis cabell and joe morgan no longer with the astros in fact both men ended up with san francisco art howe went from first to third and heap now getting a shot at the first base job two and over the count to danny [Music] bird's been in the big leagues a number of years jeff but that first start of the season you're always a little apprehensive you're a little edgy out there and it takes an indie or two to get your feet on the ground i think right now bert's kind of aiming the ball a little bit he doesn't seem to have that pop on his fastball yet [Music] and if you joined us late terry poole started off the ball game with a base hit to left field reynolds try to punt him along bill verton looks on the skipper of the astros reynolds unable to do it as he pointed on a popper to say cedano singled and then cruz get back to the box and fools court from third and that's the story to now three and one the gown to danny heap cedano at second base putin 14 and 8 last year with a 3.65 earned run average swung on and sliced down the left field line and that carries back into the crowd danny heap got off to a pretty good start in spring training and then had a slump towards the last four or five ball games dave roberts started at first base thursday against the left-hander valenzuela and heaps in there tonight he was the co-winner of the southern league mvp with a teammate in 1979. [Music] [Applause] so dally heaps strikes out and the astros in the top of the first settle for one run on two hits and leave about and at the end of one half money to play here at dodger stadium houston won the dodgers coming up [Music] the dodgers batting order tonight leading off their second baseman davey loves kendall android will back second and be in center field dusty baker bounty third in left field steve garvey heading cleanup to first baseman ron say batting fifth to third base pete guerrero will back six he's in right field the catcher mike social batting seven bill russell that's eight tonight he's a shortstop and batty knight doing the pitching for los angeles setting the astros defensively at first base danny heap and he has to do a good job to keep his position according to bill burton former dodger rafael landistore he came over in the deal that brought joe ferguson back to los angeles craig reynolds at shortstop he started pro ball as an outfielder doing a pretty good job now as a shortstop at third the veteran art howe taking over for penis cabell who was traded to san francisco in the outfield it left jose cruz always a thorn in the dodgers side in center field cesar cedeno who a couple of years ago they tried him at first base he didn't like it now he's back home in right field terry poole who's made it a habit the last couple of years on opening day of hitting home runs the astros battery behind the plate a local product he was born in long beach alan ashby and on the mound former dodger donald howard sutton with los angeles last season he was 13-5 he won the national league era title with a 2.21 earned run average i'm sure the butterflies are there as john sutton gets ready to face davey lopes ken landrieu dusty baker daniel played first base when he was healthy now he's coming off a fraction ankle and they put him back out in center field i think i have the answer last spring training after he had played one season at first he told the astros i want to play center field or trade me no more first base well i'm gonna have to do it on half an acre sutton starts lopes and gets a strike on the outside corner 0-1 davey went over three on opening day thursday so he's looking for that first hit one ball and one strike he's also looking to turn things around here in 1981 after a disappointing 1980 season and just the year prior he had his best major league season ever in 1979 big chopper up along third foul balboa one ball and two strikes to dodgers lead-off hitter davey lopes jeff there's going to be just as much anxiety on the part of the dodgers hitters as there is on sutton's part simply because now they're facing him they want to know can they guess with him you know he has the upper hand actually as a pitcher because he knows what he's going to throw they're going to be out there guessing thinking of the times they played behind him and the pattern he established as a pitcher outfield shading looks towards left there's a little bit of a gap in right center field way outside two and two why don't you run down sutton's repertoire well don has a good fastball but he's cutting his fastball more lately and uh i mean not literally so davey loves strikes out has a few words of anger at himself but here comes kenny landro that was just a good slider that just ran away from davey like it backed up on him but uh he's cutting his fastball more and uh he's sinking it more before he had a riding fastball he has a good curveball and a good slider and he's turning the ball over using it as a change up to left-handed batters but his strong suit is don's always had good control 281 last year seven homerun 62 runs batted in that was with minnesota ground ball hit sharply to land the store he gloves throws him out [Applause] so quickly to god here in the bottom of the first inning the astros won the dodgers nothing now here's dusty baker he gets a warm welcome from the capacity crowd here at dodger stadium 294 29 home runs 97 runs better than his best major league season can't believe he hasn't made an all-star team but he's got that to look forward to i'm sure way outside the dusty one ball no strikes he was over four on thursday so dusty too looking for that first hit of the regular campaign [Music] sudden just misses outfield deep swung around towards left no breeze a nice evening for baseball here at dodger stadium swung out and get it two and one to johnny b baker steve garvey waits his turn on deck [Music] behind second land historic calls he makes a catch so don sutton didn't show any nervousness or butterflies as he puts the dodgers down one two three and the score at the end of one inning here at dodger stadium houston won the dodgers nothing [Music] i talked to tommy the sword before this game and i asked him uh the number of his pitches on the injured list will he be using a four or five man rotation through the first one of the season [Music] well al with the condition of our pitching staff right now dave gold's not being able to start we had to leave him down to spring training bobby welch and with jerry royce unable to pick up a baseball for 10 days we're definitely planning on using the four-man rotation right now i think you know most managers like to have the luxury jeff of having five starters that they can rely on but in the first month of the season you want to get your most effective pitchers out on the mound and even if it means you only use three starters because the idea there is to get off to as fast as start as you possibly can and get those pitchers sharp and keep them sharp not try to spread out the work so that everybody gets equal work because that can only hurt a ball club [Music] one run two hits no errors for houston and goose eggs for los angeles as bird hooton gets ready to work the top of the second to art howe allen ashby and raphael landistore [Music] looks like burt hoon's experimenting with a little bit of a screwball there warming up kind in winter ball and he's done pretty well we'll lay things off for houston park 34 years old now he was the player to be named later when houston traded tommy helms to pittsburgh in december of 1975. that always keeps the ballplayers on edge when they say player to be named later and they tell you that in july yes you go home that winter man you don't want to make any permanent plans [Music] you talk about injury problems aren't how is the epitome of it at least in the last few years 1-0 pitch mrs lowe 2-0 he's had more than his sheer hamstring pulls of both legs a broken finger a beanball injury last season you might recall that in the month of may he suffered a fractured jaw he takes a strike he was hit by montreal scott sanderson he wasn't out long however can you imagine this how he came back after six days as a pinch hitter with a wire jaw and a special protective helmet that's pretty tough well he obviously it took him a long time to get to the big leagues and he realizes being in the big leagues and he doesn't feel that he can sit down for any length of time and still retain his job two and two to art howe leading off the top of the second for houston they lead it one nothing over los angeles a couple of veteran right-handers burned hooten on the mound for los angeles and former dodger don sutton mike sotion might be having some problems with size and social runs through them again [Music] strike three i'll knew it and walks away uh half probably felt that bird had him set up for his good knuckle curve ball and uh that's probably why bird shook off social and came back with a fastball right in the outside corner there but that's just a case of a pitcher having a feel for a pitch in a certain time and he probably felt the fastball was a pitch he felt more like throwing in the curveball alan ashby 256 three home runs 48 runs batted in last year this is his first start of the 1981 campaign he takes a strike at the knees a lot of catchers jeff will catch in a pattern there's a pitcher of pitch according to the feel he has that particular inning [Music] there's a big chopper ropes wait for that big bounce over to garvey two down once pitchers establish a pattern of throwing pitches hitters can guess with them but usually they're guessing with the ketchup more so than the pitcher rafael landistoy who hit 247 last year not too much power one home run 27 runs batted in fact it's interesting that the home run that land destroy hit last season came as a pinch hitter it was his major league first and it came off atlanta's larry mcwilliams on may 9. is it inside the park nope he fights off the fish that carries behind our plate back into the crowd oh and one to land a steward one nothing houston top of the second nobody on two down one ball one strike to land the story with say up on the edge of the grass at third the outfield comes in quite a bit there's shallow and around towards left well raphael has good power but he has good speed but he doesn't have very much power so with burt kitchen they don't expect him to drive the ball in the air russell throw to garvey in time [Applause] so bert hooton settles down on the second and the astros go one two three and at the end of an inning and a half houston won the dodgers nothing [Music] well one of the many many fun parts of major league baseball for fans and media alike is trying to figure out who's going to win the various divisions and the penance and hal downing and jeff witcher we're just like the rest of you we love to do it so alex let's pick them the national league west who you picking i'm picking the dodgers jeff i think they have the best all-around 25-man roster in the national league west okay i disagree with you i'm going to go with houston primarily because of their pitching strength i think that the dodgers still have too many question marks and i have them for third and sandwiched in between the astros and dodgers cincinnati let's go to the national league eastern division montreal is my salon montreal is my pizza i picked i think that they're a young ball club last year they knocked on the door i think this year they're ready that really does mean something to have a young club experience a pennant race and even though they fall short there's no uh there's there's so much to that experience thing isn't there yes there is and it's uh something you have to fail before you can succeed what about st louis they're a dark horse if they could get some pitching they don't have any pitching at all in fact i was going to write a letter to whitey herzog and suggest that maybe i come out of retirement i'm using jim cott let's go to the american league first the western division i'm picking kansas city i still think they're the best ball club in that division all around i have to go along with you kansas city is my pick the angels if they got pitching they'd be strong in the eastern division i'm going with milwaukee how about you i'm going with the yankees the yankees just like a yankee steve garvey gets a round of applause as he steps in to lead off the dodgers second inning he'll be followed by ron say and pedro guerrero against don sutton houston won the dodgers nothing time timeout called because garvey wants to get set of course you see these two this way and immediately you think back to that altercation they had back in 1978 outside and low one ball and no strikes i i think that they both respect one another as ball players jeff and that's all that matters when you're out on the field all the other stuff it takes a back seat you still have to get the batter out he still has to hit you inside the garage the crowd gets all over swung out and fouled back into the crowd two balls one strike i guess fans are asking many of them who has the advantage a sutton or a garvey i think sutton does because the pitcher always knows what he wants to throw at what speed and in what location and the hitter basically still has to guess outfield deep it's one around towards left [Applause] [Music] so a smiling steve garvey collects the first hook off john sutton it was a good pitch done got it down but uh as you can see steve was right on top of it he was able to get it into the hole there just drive into the hole that's one of those balls you say a cni ball you know you're three feet either way the fielder has it garvey takes his lead at first as a penguin steps in ron say he was over two thursday but he did have a sacrifice fly and an rbi low one ball no strikes as the crowd starts some hand clapping it's a capacity crowd here at dodger stadium ron say is one home run shy of the fourth spot in dodger history [Applause] the sutton has a very quick move going to first jeff but surprisingly he's not as quick coming to the plate consequence to stealing him quite a bit but it's something in your picture you don't have to worry about it because when you go to the play you're worried about getting hit around strike on the outside corner so sutton painting the black on home plate and evens a count at one and one danny ozark the third base coach manny mota in the first place coaching lines garvey takes his lead he holds him on one nothing houston bottom of the second inning [Applause] outside two and one [Applause] say has always been a select hitter has a very good knowledge of the strike zone and this spring he worked on going to the opposite field more often and he says he'll try it and see what kind of success he has garvey wandering off first base nobody out bottom of the second one-nothing houston something working to say penguin's had great success in the past whenever he's going to the right center field it makes the pitcher pitch him a little more carefully he can't just throw that ball out of the plate there i think he'd be wise to take more shots than just hitting the ball in the first base hole because it takes another element away from the pitcher as far as how he's going to try to get you out he has to start thinking about pitching you tight again which a power hitter likes uh say once a lot of room on the right side of the infield with land destroy over near the bag and double playjack there's the strike two and two [Applause] donald howard sutton born in clio alabama and has he ever come a long way garvey right on the bag as he pulls him on now he takes his lead say waits [Applause] just outside so don sutton goes all the way to the penguin say checking with ozark pete guerrero chomping on some bubble gum waiting his turn on deck again save backs up [Music] so steve has to turn around and go back to first base new baseball thrilled out to don sutton from home plate up for jerry dale sale try it again the astro scored their run in the top of the first inning pool singled went to third on a base hit by cedano and then scored on a ball hit back to garvey goes again diving reynolds left center field onto third goes garvey [Music] and get the ball back through the middle remember got a bad jump on the ball because in that situation he should have been expecting say to four should have been looking for the ball to come back through the middle somewhere so ron say given instructions from first base coach and batting instructor manny moda pete guerrero 3 22 average last year seven home runs and 31 runs batted in he had an outstanding spring a 293 batting average he led the team with five home runs and 19 runs batted in i think pedro's arrived he uh he's glad to be in the big leagues but i think more importantly you understand what it takes to play in the big legend you've got confidence in the fact that he can hit and also he can play the outfield struggle and he was trying to put three on the board owen one to pedro guerrero that's a good fastball setting through inside but the ball kind of slunked on him a little bit and pete jumped on it he had a pretty good opening day on thursday afternoon three for four hitting a mere 750 second change in a hurry cattle [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're going to get a lot of base hits for the simple reason that you're going to be hitting the ball and you have runners they're going to be running and forcing the defense to move a lot and anytime you make contact there's a chance you're going to find a hole somewhere that brings up the young 22 year old catcher left-handed heading mike sosha [Applause] he takes a strike on the inside corner owen warren to social who beat out veterans steve yeager and joe ferguson for the starting job behind the plate last year 254 average one home run eight runs better than second for one and that is all as social beats to play down the line at first so danny heath gets the force at second guerrero erased and that'll bring out shortstop bill russell [Applause] [Music] [Applause] one tie bottom of the second one out ron say it third mike socia at first and russell ready to hit against don sutton 264 last season for ropes whose season abruptly ended on september 12th when mike lacoste of cincinnati hit him and it just crushed his index finger of his right hand he takes a strike he had to undergo two and a half hour surgery to put the finger back together he had pins put in it he was a big question mark but he's come through it okay and he started thursday went two for three and he's in there tonight just outside one ball and one strike to russell ronsay at third mike socia held on by danny heap at first one run in one out owen one to russell bottom of the second all tied up at 1-1 the dodgers and astros there goes sosha and it's at the center field and it drops in front of ceno scores and the dodgers lead [Applause] [Music] 2-1 i think that pitch was just right up right down the middle right up in russell's wheelhouse right there and uh don just made a mistake he just threw one and got away from a little bit but i think in that case right there you know russell's a type of hitter he just hits the ball where it's pitched and he's the type of hitter that something would have the most problems with jeff because he doesn't try to overpower the ball he just tries to make contact and move the ball around we have some action now in the astros bullpen right-hander joaquin abduhar is up and throwing behind center [Music] there's joaquin loosening up so the dodgers lead now two to one bird hooton up there trying to get some more in he's around a lot takes outside [Music] putin last year hit under 100.063 but he is a much better hitter than that would indicate he also had one home run and six runs batted in social takes his lead at second russell away from first bunning again and he gets it down only play first race and the sacrifice works well that that was a weird play right there jeff i'll tell you why because in your butt plays that you work on when the third baseman charges like that normally he'll go to second base and try to get the double play otherwise you'll let the pitcher take that ball and try to make a play at third and with a slow runner on second like social i didn't understand why they didn't have that play why would uh hal would be running like that because it made no sense nobody was covering third base and you're giving third base to a very slow runner davey lopes steps in with runners at second and third the dodgers leading two to one lopes struck out his first time up outside and lopes asks jerry dale to check the ball he does and throws it out of the [Applause] [Music] game [Music] the inside part of home plate [Music] two runs four hits no errors for los angeles one run two hits no errors for houston bottom of the second mike social third phil russell at second the hitter two balls and one strike to count to debbie lopes social leads off third russell with a very short lead at second base strike two call that evens things into it too [Music] folks trying to waiting backs out momentarily you may have heard about the ken porsche vicki von deal possibly being called off if terms were not agreed upon today that was settled [Applause] here comes russell he scores and it's 4-1 los angeles [Applause] [Music] [Applause] davey was rather jammed on that pitch and i think that's the story because he jumped too soon there and consequently the ball hit off the top of his glove [Applause] ken landro takes a called strike owen won delandro this fellow is a good ball player jeff he did a great addition to the basketball club solo gets his first hit of the year at two rbis to boot 4-1 los angeles and welcome back davey by the way is one stolen base shy of 400 in his career he does not go one ball and one strike to land row there's only been one dodger in their history to steal over 400 in a career and we all know the answer to that wasn't what he will be the second [Music] is right there he's got it and that'll do it for the dodgers in the second however the damage was done four runs on five hits one man left off and the score at the end of two innings here at dodger stadium los angeles four houston won [Music] one remind you about dodgers poster day this beautiful poster by artist jim czar will be given to all fans at tomorrow's astro dodgers game it's an afternoon contest the poster features highlights of last year's great astros dodgers series reserved seat tickets and general emissions seats are available for tomorrow's contest game time one o'clock dodger season tickets it's still not too late to purchase dodger season tickets the dodgers stadium ticket office is open from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon to show you seasoned seat locations why not stop by the dodger stadium ticket office when you're at the game tomorrow or any day next week and check out season seed locations dodger baseball it's a best buy in town [Music] capacity crowd they're enjoying themselves thus far after two four runs five hits no errors for the dodgers one run two hits no heirs for houston albert must be feeling pretty good about things about now well a pitcher usually takes a game in a couple contexts jeff burton hasn't really been throwing that well up to now so he's glad to get the runs but he's probably hoping he can get himself straightened out and start getting ahead of the hitters with a little more consistency but it's always like nice to have that big cushion early in the ball game don sutton steps in and hoot misses one ball and no strikes there's a big chopper over the bound russell has it over the garvey sutton's gone so bill russell with that injured index finger apparently causing no problems whatsoever takes care of sutton and here's leadoff man terry poole he's going to have to send that uniform to the laundry after the game started off the ball game with a single to left and then eventually came around to score the only houston run big chopper foul along first base 4-1 to terry poole during your career al i know that so many hitters when they're jammed they have problems was there any one hitter you can remember who you just couldn't jam he'd always be able to hit you inside again one and two now kayla he was very difficult to jam he's very quick inside and from a left-handed pitcher he stayed far enough from the plate that uh to jamming we had to throw a bad pitch and he didn't swing at very many bad pitches [Music] actually it's not very cold out here it's about 65 degrees imagine but when you get back east in the spring of the year that's when you try to jam just about everybody because hitters don't like the ball inside that time he pulled that one too much the count will stay at two and two to terry pool skipper the astros bill virgin looking on [Music] bounces in front of dusty baker so terry poole has his second hit of the night and shortstop craig reynolds coming up well that was uh took a little chop swing on that one excuse me hits but usually that's an indication that it was a pretty good breaking ball and he he just couldn't hold up on it reynolds tried to bunt popped up to ron say back in the first inning so craig over one say comes up on the edge of the infield grass at third the outfield is swung around towards left he went around imagine there's a little bit of unrest on this houston ball club jeff you know they uh they have craig reynolds with you they just got dickie thon and they got kiko garcia and there's two other shortstops and he must be thinking boy if i don't get two or three hits a game i'm not gonna be in the lineup very long he won't have to worry about kiko for a while because he's on the disable list for 15 days [Music] there's a high fly ball in the shallow right field guerrero comes up makes the catch and pull heads back to first base but you're right dickie and garcia both can play shortstop and i think uh offensively i think thon is a little better ball player than uh and that's exactly what verden wanted to to maybe get someone like that to push reynolds because he did drop off the year before he did a little bit better offensively well they just put him in a short stop [Music] so two down pull it first and here's cesar cedano [Music] full with his lead at first he goes the pitch is swung on and missed the third on the left not nearly didn't have a chance there because uh poole was running before burke cocked his leg that's one of the things the pitcher supposedly worked on in spring trading but when burke was there the pool already had 10 steps off the second bait off first base there was no way he's going to throw him out he made it close but bert's going to have to quicken his release a little bit that's something that all of the dodger pitchers worked on during spring training trying to hold the runners on a little bit better for their catching core 0-1 well it's not so much that you hold the runners on it's more that you get rid of the ball quicker so you get the ball to the catcher fast enough so he has time to make a play at second base jerry royce will be out for 10 days with that strained right cap muscle he will schedule the pitch tomorrow afternoon but it'll be rick sutcliffe instead and bob welch will make his initial start on monday up at candlestick park against the giants fouled back by cedano 1-2 [Music] so the astros with five new members of the team this year kiko garcia acquired from baltimore for chris burgess pool leads off second base dickie thon obtained from the angels for ken forest april first and that deal was settled today as porsche and his agent came to terms with the buzzy bavasi and the angels down low two and two bob never a left-handed starting pitcher acquired from san francisco for penis cabel and chris borges got a player to be named later that was december 8th of last year and of course dave roberts and don sutton both signed as free agents the only rookie on the astros this season is a left-handed pitcher by the name of bobby sproul he was in the red sock organization at one time i think there's a shot to left field but that's where faker hangs out and he played it perfectly takes a catch in the top of the third for houston no runs one hit one man left on and the score through two and a half remains the dodgers for the astros one when you look at the houston ball club all you think about is the uh excess of pitching that they have but i asked bill verton how did he attempt to generate more offense out of his ball club this year well i think one thing that most people don't realize is that really power is not that important as far as our club's concerned if you'll check the statistics over the course of 162 games in 1980 we hit more home runs than the opposition did so it really is immaterial how many home runs we do hit we do have some potential we can we get base hits and i think we only scored something like 30 less runs than the dodgers did last year and they're considered one of the best in the offensive department in fact the dodgers ranked sixth in scoring runs and the astros ranked seven there was a 26 run deficit the two ball clubs so it all came down to the pitching jeff and to that one ball game last game of the season so it's going to be interesting to see how they pair up come october 4th this year as we get ready for the bottom of the third it's the dodgers leading houston 4-1 this copyrighted telecast is presented by authority of the los angeles dodgers incorporated and is intended solely for the private non-commercial use of our audience any publication reproduction re-transmission or other use of the pictures descriptions or accounts of this game without the express written consent of the los angeles dodgers incorporated is prohibited dusty baker will start it off he'll be followed by steve garvey and ron say in the bottom of the third the dodgers and burt hooten leading the astros and don sutton 4-1 [Music] baker popped up the land destoy his first time up but he takes low ball one [Music] baker with a slightly closed stance started out in the atlanta braves organization played with a fellow by the name of hank here and he found that one back into the crowd behind home plate one ball and one strike [Music] a lot of room in right center field they play baker to pull and he does to the left side of the infield backhanded by reynolds a long throw out of bounce in time doesn't matter how it gets there how as long as it gets there well that's when those ice cream one of those asperger throws right there where you throw the ball at one hop and uh with the astroturf it just makes it way over the first base i guess david concepcion really has mastered that play yes he has well you know you get deep in the hole in some of the power hitters and you have to play them deeply in astroturf you have to come up with that throw because there's no way you're going to be able to throw the ball all the way in the air you wind up having a lot of bad throws garvey steps in he's one for one there's a strike i could see uh houston playing dusty to pull and giving them the big hole in right center but not garvey because garvey will take advantage of that alley right there and they're giving him a big hole in right center right now darby started the four-run five-hit uprising in the second inning one ball and one strike to steve you're a hitter and you see that jeff you know that you're going to get a lot of hard stuff in and very few breaking balls out of the playthrough he fouls out what it all played strike two one and two to steve garvey garvey with the sixth longest consecutive game playing streak in the history of major league baseball five ahead of him lou gehrig everett scott billy williams joe sewell and stan the man museum [Music] i think sutton's starting to settle down now he's pitching a little more aggressively he went right after dusty and he's going right after the steve he's he seems to be throwing a lot freer right now he's not aiming the ball any longer and a lot of that is probably just the tension cause of coming back to pitching this ballpark again half swing held up in time outside of course the dodgers got down to their final 25-man roster the other day and one major surprise was the designated for assignment of don stanhouse the right-handed relief fisher rudy law jack fercati option to albuquerque outside so gravity drives a rock with one out that'll bring up ron say and they placed right-handed pitcher joe beckwith on the 21-day receiver list did that come as a surprise to you uh yes it did because he mentioned he had been injured and usually when you're injured they don't put you on assignment for purpose of getting rid of you but you know mentioning beckwith i was talking to j.r richards today and he said that uh he had the same problem with his left side now that back with his habit and i'm kind of wondering whether joe might not be leading up to something there he really doesn't understand what it is and he's having trouble having vision out of his left side when he releases the ball they have had him on steroids i understand and he is starting to feel a little bit better and notice some improvement they pitch out garvey not going you just can't do a lot of weight lifting when you're on those things and start looking like arnold schwarzenegger now that's not good for him pennwood had a base hit now he scored a run back in the second inning garvey's got a pretty good lead heap holds him on he does not go the pitch high 2-0 [Music] say checking ozark who flashes the signs to the penguin [Music] the right fielder terry poole is over to his right giving say the the right field line and a lot of center and right center [Music] 4-1 dodgers bottom of the third one out garvey at first base the count 2-0 to run say [Music] get off the end of the stick foul down the first base side [Music] so garvey goes back to first base don sutton rubbing up a new baseball [Music] capacity crowd here at dodger stadium i'm jeff witcher along with al downing hope you're enjoying the action called strike two and two to say but now you would think that they would close that gap a little more on right center field and let sadania move over for the simple reason that penguin was more likely to go to the opposite field two strikes on him but they don't seem to be doing it [Applause] in the second is save waiting for the official scores ruling well it's a good breaking ball but penguin has two strikes he's just trying to make contact and uh i think the ball sunk on on cruz he thought it was going to be out and sunk and hit him on the palm of the club so safe gets a break and they give crews an error so if you're scoring with us e7 the crowd doing because guerrero is given an intentional watch they're also born because they didn't think that should have been heir i don't think penguin wants it to be an error either he hit that ball pretty hard and uh cruz did have to go back to the wall for the ball even though he got there when the ball was there it's a very difficult play and he made it looked like an easy play but he made it look like an easy play but he had to jump for that ball then the ball sunk on him i guess we'll always have that problem with someone up in the stands or in the press cross trying to score and they're not down on the field because on certain plays with the angle or the difficulty you just can't see it from on the stands can you well i also jeff i think in all fairness they should have an ex-ball player as a scorer who can understand just what it takes to go out there and try to catch the ball he understands that he knows what should be a hit and which should be an error bases loaded one out mike sosha at the plate strike on the outside corner [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] there is someone up and throwing down in the right field corner in the astros bullpen but they're blocked from our vision earlier it was veteran right-hander joaquin and but we cannot tell you who it is at this point 4-1 dodgers bottom of the third they're trying to get some more faces full one out way inside one more two strikes steve garvey at third ron say takes a short lead away from second base and pete guerrero not being held on at first swung on a miss or a big strikeout for don sutton that is his second k tonight well that pitch was set up by the previous two pitches where with where breaking ball that he pulled foul fast fall up and in that was a good change up that he threw away but he he got social thinking inside inside he kind of pulled the string on him away from the plate that's good pitching right there that'll bring out bill russell who's singled in a run back in the second inning russell is three for four so far on the season half swing he fouls it right behind the astros dugout here in the field boxes at dodger stadium 0-1 to russell bill russell the strawberry blonde from pittsburgh kansas and would you believe that he is now the dean of the dodgers came up in 1969 half swing one ball and one strike to russell [Applause] started out his career as an outfielder in fact at one point walt austin said that he could play center field as well as willie davis and that's quite a compliment then he was converted to shortstop he swings and he fouls it off the end of the stick back into the crowd one ball and two strikes darby back to third say it second standing on at first base pedro guerrero four runs five hits no errors for los angeles one run it came in the first inning three hits in one error for houston bottom of the third two outs swung out with a tip to right center field cool is there the ball hung up for him he makes a catch and sutton gets out of a jab in the third inning for the dodgers no runs no hits one error three men left on and the score at the end of three the dodgers [Music] while we were down at dodger town vero beach board of the spring is shooting our dodger instructional features for use between headings we recorded a very special outtake of dodger left fielder dusty baker and friends and we thought you'd enjoy sharing it with us hey dusty look you forgot something here oh hi todd hey guys look over there honey oh yeah wave to the people time hi say hi yeah you know how to wear your sunglasses don't you you wear sunglasses like daddy tash all right that's nice look it looks i see it there look at those pretty sunglasses you can even use them to knock out the glare of the sun and you can use it for a mirror like peekaboo look at that she sees her stuff in there look mm-hmm look at this she has her own pair of sunglasses at the house okay let me do this film baby right with you okay mommy [Music] dusty baker he's quite a human being besides being an outstanding baseball player he's a perfectionist from the word go he's never satisfied but he says uh he's always been that way he's always trying to better himself i guess as an athlete that's more commonplace than a lot of people think well that's always your driving force but i think coming up in an organization such as the atlanta braves where there really wasn't that much uh continuity and there's a great turnover in players you have to scrap every year to keep your job and i think dusty really appreciates being in the big leagues and now he's appreciating what it takes to play every day and to really be a consistent player and i think last year was just the start of what you're going to see maybe three or four consistent good years in a row for dusty cleanup hitter jose cruz will start off the fourth against bird hoot and he'll be followed by danny heap and art howe 4-1 dodgers here in the fourth inning thousand-pack strike one cruz grounded back to hooton back in the first but it was not an easy chance for bert and on the play pool scored from third one and one [Music] lifetime versus the dodgers crews has a 288 batting average seven home runs and 47 runs better than [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] starting to throw the ball a little freer too he started to get more velocity and he just threw jose fastballs and i think jose kept looking for that curve while he had two strikes but i think bert's now starting to relax a little bit and get into getting rid of the jitters of his first uh start this season here's first baseman danny heap who struck out back in the first he's over one low one ball no strikes to heath as everyone talks about houston's pitching but they don't have a lot of sock and their pitching has to be tough with their lineup out well the pigeon has to be tough and their defense has to be tough he found that one back and i think the defense is probably a little more questionable than their their hitting i think they have the hitting they have the speed if they just use it properly but the defense you know is something that is still a question mark two balls and one strike to down the heap nobody on one out fourth honey slices that one down the left-field line that'll carry back into the crowd baker has a look but that's [Music] and they all a leader and a very fine third baseman and hitter and enos cabell for pitcher bob knepper and joe morgan his leadership certainly helped him last season in their quest for their first national league west title first it's a fair ball social hurries and now the ball hit him and he's out so the ball hit danny heap so he is out of there that's the second out that ball hit off the end of the bat and it's going to curl around and he just can't get out of the way of it so when that ball hits you and you're out of the batteries box it see you later you can see the umpire with his palms up in the air saying hey he's out paul hit him so two down and here's third baseman art howe he was called out on strikes his first time up and he has a shot right back through the middle get number four for houston that's why i would never want to be a pitcher out well you get a lot of practice on those things in spring training and red adams will stand by halfway to the mound and hit line drives back at you you can always get out of the way of the ball whenever it's hit above your waist but when you sit below your waist you're in trouble because there's no way you can move your feet fast enough to get out of the way of a line drive that's knee-high if you're wondering how you score that last play when it hit him it would go to the man closest to the play so give it to social swung on and missed by alan ashby the catcher who grounded out the lopes back in the second owen won the count to ashby center fielder landro is over to his right in left center ashby fouls it back to the screen 0-2 they give him all of right center although he is a left-handed hitter against the right-hander who and with the left-handed stick up there garvey is not holding howe on at first base there's one hit right over the mound charging russell he hurries inside nice play by the dodger shortstop bill russell to get ashby moving down the line good play because aspie doesn't have great speed but that's a difficult play russell's playing deep in his position and he has to come in and throw that ball in the run very fun play so in the top of the fourth hunting for houston no runs on a hit they leave a man and threw three and a half here at dodger stadium the score remains dodgers for astros one last season we had the on tv sports quiz which proved rather popular so we will continue with it here in 1981 and our initial question of 1981 is only three players have career batting averages of 300 or better with the los angeles dodgers who are they so you dodge your trivia experts start thinking and we will give you the answer a little bit later and i know al downing will get them right okay let's check the other major league action in the national league montreal pittsburgh rained out the cubbies knocked off the mets 3-1 at wrigley field in philadelphia socked st louis 5-2 cincinnati edged atlanta 3-2 and san francisco blanked san diego at candlestick park over the american lego was the yankees knocking off texas 5-1 milwaukee over cleveland 5-3 the tigers defeated toronto's blue jay 6-2 oakland shut off minnesota 3-0 in the first inning the angels have a one-nothing lead over the mariners at the kingdome up in seattle don sutton ready to work the bottom of the fourth honey the dodgers lead 4-1 on four runs six hits and no errors the astros one run of four hits and no errors and now we have a scoring change if you're scoring with us at home remember that ball that ron say hit and they gave cruz an error take the error away and give say a double what do penguin call the prison so ron say is now two for two tonight rather than one for two owen won the count to pitcher bird hoot [Music] owen two to the man called happy he picked that nickname up from tommy lasorda because according to lasorda he never looks happy here's a high fly ball hit the left field cruz going back but he's got room he makes a catch so hooton gave it a ride and he's done that before he has three career home runs in fact last year he hit a home run and drove in four july 29th against pittsburgh did you ever have a day like that out oh yeah i drove in five runs one night in uh boston did you hit a home run no bases loaded triple in a single right a triple yeah i i displayed my i displayed my speed that night you know i didn't want to go for that stand up triple or anybody can hit it over that green monster i just want to show them i can hit up the gap in right center baby lopes up there with nobody on it one out and he rips it but he pulls it too much back into the crowd owen one to the providence express baby [Music] lopes davey he's as honest as you'll find among major league ball players he admitted that he did not have a good mental attitude a good mental approach last season he was affected by the the talk of strike and there's a strike jerry dale rings him up hole in two there's talk of a strike again this season may 29th is the deadline unless the owners and players association can work out that compensation issue called strike three says he's in a great middle frame for 1981 and he's looking to be aggressive on the base pass and lead the dodgers to hopefully a nationally great round well something you gotta do is looking for the breaking ball and he's getting two strikes and he's nipping the corners of fastball but that's a pitch a couple innings ago that jerry dale wasn't given to dine i think probably davey was probably just thinking well that he called the ball before maybe he'll call the ball this time ken landrieu up there now with nobody on and two down bottom of the fourth dodgers four astros one hi don't pitchers dislike that when an umpire is inconsistent yes you want the consistency you want to know that if you're in a tough jam you throw a pitch in a certain location you're going to have that pitch he's got one right there strike called on the outside part of the plate that evens it at one and one but the umpire is also just they have to adjust it's a new season they have to adjust to seeing the pitcher again and trying to remember what his pattern of pitching was craig reynolds for the catch and that'll do it for the dodgers in the fourth easy ending for don sun the dodgers go one two three and the score remains at the end of four the dodgers four and the astros one kenny landrieu was traded to the dodgers just before the end of spring training and i asked him did he anticipate any difficulties in adjusting to a new league on such short notice um i think uh i have to adjust a little bit defensively uh i know some of the players um how to hit and uh but i think some players i don't know and i have to uh get a little help from the coaches and from uh outfitters who who's been here for a while and uh offensively uh i faced a lot of national league pictures and i pretty much know just how they throw but i still think it's some pictures i haven't got a chance to face and uh i think um it'll be a little difficult one time one time around but i think that uh in a matter of time a short period of time i will adjust one of the interesting observations ken made jeff was that he's already noticed the difference in the strike zone in the two legs and then he's going to have to start zeroing in on the low pitch because that is what the umpires in the national league have a tendency to call and not the high pitches that you get in the miracle league so his strike zones get narrowed down somewhere warming up to catcher mike sosha after four of dodgers four runs half dozen hits no errors the astros one run four hits and no errors remember if you were away for a moment there was a change in the scoring as bill burton looks on from the astros dugout on that ball that ron say hit back in the third inning they credited say with the double the new pitching coach of the dodgers ron piernoski on the right of your screen and the skipper tommy lasorda 25 pounds lighter diamond vision a little bit larger they enlarged it for 1981. this one tommy last week too here's second baseman rafael lamdistoy to start things off in the fifth inning he'll be followed by don sutton and the lead-off hitter terry poole say comes up on the edge of the infield grass at third the outfield shallow again and around towards left field he's around the bunk takes inside bowl one rafael one time jeff was strictly right here in the batter and then the dodgers persuaded him the switch hit and one of the weapons he uses as a left-hand hitter is that drag point or that push point with his excellent speed takes all the way and it's a called strike on the inside corner one ball and one strike he grounded out to bill russell back in the second so land destroy making his first start of the season over one hits it the other way and russell cannot backhand it it goes into left field base hit hit number five off birdhoot what you call a cue shot right at the end of the he's back and he hits the ball inside out and well that play right there the shortstop doesn't have a chance because he's going by this the stroke of the bat and the stroke of the bat meant that the ball should have gone to the right side of the infield but he hit the ball off the end of the bet therefore he hit it to the other side and uh russell's weight was going the other way you don't have a chance to get that ball don sutton during his career has not been a great hitter 144 career she gets it right back to him he goes to russell for one well burton made an excellent play right there was a hard hit ball the fake butt and he just put his glove out to knock it down but uh just composed himself and made a good throw to russell who then was able to turn the double play for him and garvey made a nice play had to stretch out for it and able to backhand it so fine play all the way around a one six three double play if you're scoring and that brings up terry pull with nobody on and two down pool is two for two tonight as single to left field score to run in the first and then single the left in the third also had a stolen base low ball one 4-1 dodgers top of the fifth building sell-out crowd here at dodger stadium i'm jeff witcher along with al downing hope you're enjoying our initial telecast the first of 15 specially selected dodger home games on tv 1981. lots of people here the traffic jam getting out of this ballpark tonight jeff two strikes well i'll stay after let you buy me a tomato juice off the fist and he fouls it behind home plate back into the crowd terry poole has played all three outfield positions for houston but the last couple of years has finally settled in as their right fielder with jose cruz moving to left way outside by happy two and two of the count two thousand career inning in the national league that's a few innings isn't it two innings and a lot of wear and tear on that arm third base on fire bob engel trying to get the attention of someone now the home plate campfire jerry dale there's a light on up in the press box area depressed target [Music] gets it back in standing at second is terry poole with a two out double so terry is 3-4-3 as he stands at second base he's a good hitter with two strikes he's just trying to make contact it's a good low fast ball but he went down and got got it uh can't do anything about those plays that brings up the astro shortstop craig reynolds trying to pun in the first unit he popped up to the penguin at third and then he flied out to pedro guerrero in the third so reynolds over two which makes him two for six on the season hitting 333. strike on the outside part of the plate oh and one to reynolds [Music] gordon craig reynolds 28 years old 6 175 pounder the astros picked him up from the seattle mariners with floyd bannister in december of 1978. [Music] strike two now from up here ah that pitch looked like it was right down the middle was he guessing well he's not a very aggressive hitter jeff and i think he might have been guessing curveball and uh it was a fast ball he figures less than two strikes i'll take it but with a man in scoring position you don't guess you just look for the ball he's supposed to look for the ball and try to drive that man in [Music] he made the all-star team in the american league in 78 then turned around and made it in the national league in 1979 there's a cue shot but it's foul kicks off the axillary scoreboard and the dodger batboy picks it up [Music] first start of 1981. he made 33 starts last season completed only four games he also had one relief performance and he picked up a save in that one [Music] owen two to craig reynolds terry poole at second base reynolds not happy with the call but it stands well that's the fastball it's just on the inside part of the plate he was surprised that the ball kind of backed up over the inside corner what a burst better fast boss [Music] so for the astros in the fifth no runs on two hits and they leave one man on and the score at the end of four and one half innings of play here at dodger stadium the dodgers four and the astros won tonight it was quite a pitching matchup a couple of veteran right-handers in fact former teammates don sutton making his first start at a houston uniform and burt hooten going against him bird now is the dean of the staff since the departure of sutton and he's putting it to him tonight well dying got off to a shaky start but you have to realize there was a lot of emotion involved um coming back to dodger stadium in his first start of the season i think he's settled down now i think bert's also settled down and right now they're both pitching at the top of their games now hal donnie knows what he's talking about because when he went from the yankees to the oakland a's he had the pitch against his former mates what was that feeling what were you feeling inside well i was trying to figure out how i was going to get him out number one but uh basically you just go out there on the mound and try to figure out what your pattern of pitching's gonna be and uh remember how you pitched to a player or how somebody else pitched to him the dodgers lead four to one let's go back to the action as we go to the bottom of the fifth inning dusty baker will start things off for los angeles and he'll be followed by steve garvey and ron say tonight popped up to second baseman lambda story in the first and then crowded out to craig reynolds in the third so dusty looking for his first hit of 1981 he's over six thus far way outside and down low one goal no strikes for dusty baker [Music] you know you can tell the difference jeff in the breaking balls of both sutton and hooton and that gives you an indication that they've loosened up because the breaking ball has more spin on it now the ball ball's actually dropping before it was more of a slider type breaking ball because they were tight and they were choking the ball off there's a strike two and one to baker sutton 36 years old now right center field indeed going back on the borders of daniel he's got a long way to go and it's off the line baker is heading for second he's gonna go for three here comes a throw he's in with a stand-up triple well [Applause] [Music] that's when dusty's most effective as a hitter he's going to the opposite field with the pitch and they had the big gap out there for him and he knows that there's no outfielders around so once he rounds first he knows he has clear cell in the third base he doesn't need a signal from the coach [Music] [Applause] [Music] dusty baker pulls up with a stand-up triple opening up the bottom of the fifth inning and the capacity crowd starts some hand clapping again well this is where the dodger batting order jeff is very devastating because now you have about three power hitters in a row coming up here and you have a male and third with nobody out so sutton i mean the infield's in he he has to be very careful right here [Applause] mr garvey is low and away one ball no strikes garvey single to open up the second inning uprising which the dodgers scored four times on five hits and then he walked back in the third so steve is one for one and a scored a run outside again ball two al pointed out the enfield is drawn in the outfield swung around towards left and fairly deep there's the infield alignment right-hander joaquin and is up and throwing again behind sutton and the astros pen way outside ball three darby immediately stares down at daddy ozark to see if he'll be given the green light i think sutton is uh unintentionally walking him i don't think he wants to give him anything good to hit it off because he knows steve will hit the ball all over the field whereas ron is more of a full hitter save stands on deck way outside rocks garvey that is the third walk given up by tonight [Music] great reynolds came in alan ashby went out and had a few words with don diamond vision say two for two a single in the second a double in the third and he scored a run back in the second baker away from third garvey being held on at first by danny heath 4-1 dodgers bottom of the fifth inning they're trying for more say takes outside good eye one ball no strikes don sutton ranks 43rd on the all-time win list for major league pitchers he has 52 career shutouts only 10 men have more one ball and one strike to the penguin at one time now they said that don sutton had as good a curveball as anybody in the national league i didn't see sutton in those early years i i think 66 60 i was in the american league then but i remember mel stodomier coming back from an all-star game and remarking how great a curveball the sutton had and i got to see don in 71 and he had started throwing a slider which took something off his curveball ready to pounce on it but he takes outside call two two and one i guess after that then they talked about brute fly levin with the great breaking pitch he still has a great curveball pete guerrero on deck for los angeles this is where penguin has to be very selective he's looking for a pitch in a certain location and if he doesn't get it he's not going to swing he didn't get it he did not swing in it's ball three three and one he checked with ozo yet that was a pretty good pitch a less disciplined hitter would have swung at it but he knows that he wants a fishing he can get in the air and drive baker takes his lead ozark talks to him garvey away from the bag at first 4-1 dodgers trying for more a throw to first not in time bottom of the fifth inning well i think sutton is expecting garvey to be moving with his pitch here baker scores garvey stops at second 5-1 dodgers bill burton heading out to the mound and the crowd loving it they're on their feet in mass here at dodger stadium [Applause] so burton smiling and chatting with don sutton who doesn't seem to be too upset about things well it's a good breaking ball but uh penguin is he's just a fine hitter it's amazing that he doesn't hit for higher average because he as you mentioned before he has a tremendous knowledge of the strike zone he's really facing at the plate and once a while he just gets in the habit of pulling right there he just waited on that pitch very well i think sutton is probably a little relieved because he was under a lot of stress today that's really difficult to come in and pitch under these circumstances it'll be veteran right-hander joaquin and who will take over for don sutton with runners at first and second nobody out bottom of the fifth inning if you think you've heard the crowd making noise wait till sutton walks into that dugout i'm sure this place will come apart at the seams sutton still has the baseball now he gives it to ander listen to the crowd now [Applause] [Music] so joaquin and luhar begins his warm-up tosses and he gets eight of them but now why don't you run down what we might see from andrew hart what kind of stuff is he joaquin is a power pitcher jeff and i think he's somewhat of a puzzleman i think i think he has the best stuff on the ball club but yet he never seems a pitch with any type of consistency he's a good fastball good breaking ball a good off speed curveball and uh fairly good control but sometimes he gets erratic and he's out of the strike zone and other times he pitches in those great spurts and you just can't seem to hit him but i think that this is probably the best spot for him as a long or middle relief man where he can come in and just air it out for two or three innings he has been used in just about every capacity a pitcher could be used as spot starter long man short man he's been in the dog house with billy burton a couple of times and almost was traded and demanded to be traded but when he's on as you say uh he is a dandy he's tough last year he had a little bit of a problem there with the ball club he felt he should have been starting and burton had put him in the bullpen and he felt slighted by it he felt he had put in his years and earned the right to start and uh sometimes you know a pitcher they feel that way yeah and you really can't labor you have to have confidence in your ability [Music] [Applause] the first man that manual will face is one of the hottest hitting dodgers pete guerrero guerrero went three for four on opening day singled his first time up in the second tonight drove in a run and was intentionally walked by sutton in the third and now we'll face joaquin and duhar 5-1 at los angeles garvey away from second say leads off first these fellows are from the same hometown jeff so uh conceivably they faced each other quite a bit in the past uh perhaps in the dominican winter league and i don't think there'll be any secrets as of what one might be expecting at the plate or what the van duhar thinks that uh guerrero kenner cannot hit good heater but he missed 2-0 and was acquired from the cincinnati reds back in 1975 with carlos alfonso and luis sanchez been with houston since 1976 as far as his big league career is concerned he was three and eight last year with a 3.91 earned one average there's a spike on the outside corner he won 12 games for the astros in 1979 11 and 77. i guess if he had his brothers he would like to be a masculine rotation of course there was a time i guess that it was a demotion to go to the pool it was and i think that's when they took the uh veteran pictures and they put him in the bullpen because they were in the last leg but now you take the young power pitches and throw them in the bullpen because you want to keep that hitter off guard all during the game you bring in more and more hard throwers as the game progresses [Music] just outside guerrero [Music] just a couple of steps away from first not being held on by danny heap the outfield is deep and around towards left still no breeze here at dodger stadium a sellout crowd having all kinds of fun 5-1 dodgers bottom of the 5th building [Music] outside [Applause] well that's not quite what bill verton had in mind when he brought anderhart in but that's a case in point how into our pitches right there he was a hitting accountant and uh he just lost guerrero and i think mainly because he just tries so hard out there in the mount sometimes i think that he just loses control of himself but that last pitch wasn't anywhere near the plate social so far tonight 0 for 2 and has scored a run [Music] struck out back in the 3rd [Applause] here he comes to the plate the throw is cut [Applause] [Music] los off [Music] sacrifice fly for sosha and an rbi and that brings up shortstop bill russell as sosha gets the congratulatory handshakes from tom lasorda and the rest of his teammates and garvey as well bill russell singled in a run in the second came around to score and then flied out to terry poole in right field in the third one for two tonight there's a drive hit the left center field cedano calling for it right in front of cruz and the runners hold so two down and burt hooten will be the batter as ron say stands at second sedan seems to be moving fairly well up there in the outfield jeff doesn't look like the ankle's bottom he's running fluidly even on dusty's triple he got over to the wall pretty good it's just that he was out of position to get to the ball i agree which is surprising when you think he had a dislocated ankle very very seriously and with a mustache waiting for hoot warming up behind the big right-hander joaquin abduhar is the only rookie to make the astros a left-handed pitcher bobby sproul he's warming up with a bullpen putin sacrificed in the second flied out to left fielder cruz in the fourth so he's over one half swing back into the crowd 6-1 dodgers they scored four in the second two so far here in the fifth with runners at first and second owen won the count to hooton outside that run brought home by garby by the way if you're scoring with us is charged to starting pitcher don sutton don't close the book on set yet [Music] [Music] two and one [Music] here's the case jeff where andrew hall and ashby are just giving bert hooten just a little bit too much respect he has two outs he's got a man's quarter position go right after the pitcher go get him and get him out make him hit the ball [Music] two and two so deuces wild for los angeles at the bottom of the fifth they've got a deuce up on the board they have two base runners two and two to count and two down take that to vegas got him swinging so hooton strikes out and for the dodgers in the fifth they settle for two runs on a two hits two men left on the score through five the dodgers six the astros one well young mike socia has won the dodgers starting catcher's job this season and one of the toughest things a young catcher must learn is how to effectively block balls in the dirt we asked the young gods your backstop to demonstrate the proper technique okay i'd like to talk today about blocking balls in the dirt this is one of the most important jobs that a catcher has to do to try to stop runners from advancing to bases and i'd just like to get down and show you the technique right now it's very simple it's a it's a tough thing to master but the technique is very simple you're in your basic catching stance and let's let's assume that the ball is going to hit about right here in the dirt all you want to do is go down on your right knee if it's on this side like here have your glove between your legs on the ground you don't want the ball to scoot underneath between your legs and don't try to catch the ball just let it bounce up and you've got all protection here chest protector and then a bounce in front okay now if the ball is on the other side right here all you want to do is go down your left knee go on your left knee right here make sure the glove is on the ground and block it right there don't try to catch it just block in front and get on the ball so a runner cannot advance these this is the two basic steps and you to practice and and you don't want to vary from these just practice them and master them and it's very easy just make sure you have the glove in the middle and don't try to catch the ball and you should have no trouble yes mike social took his tutoring well from one of the all-time great catchers brooklyn and los angeles fame roy campanella and he won the starting job and boy he certainly is a happy 22 year old major leaguer and well he should be well at the end of five here at dodger stadium with a capacity crowd the dodgers lead the houston astros six to one six runs eight hits no errors for the dodgers houston one run half dozen hits and no errors a lot of the fans having a real good time and hooton getting ready for the top of the sixth inning he'll work to caesar sedano jose cruz and danny heap of course the dodgers did a job on their former mate don sutton and you can close the book now on he worked four innings plus he allowed six runs all earned eight hits had three strikeouts and three walks one of those intentional here's cesar cedeno stepping in [Music] ball one caesar tonight base it to right field in the first and flight out to dusty baker in the third one for two [Music] hit sharply to second base lopes grounds throws it out so one down at jose cruz coming up jose hit back to the box that got a run home in the first and then struck out looking in the fourth [Music] [Music] garvey stays with it does it himself quickly to god here in the sixth inning thought made a good play on that one the ball took a bad hop off from coming off the left-handers back and he blocked it with his left leg he watched right they blocked him with his left leg so he keep the ball in front of him in case he couldn't catch it it's always a tough play for first baseman brings up left hand swinging first base but danny heap william he's 23 years old bows it back to the screen owen warren he was the astros number two selection of the june 1978 free agent draft he was originally an outfielder and then moved to first base last spring training [Music] hoop misses inside 1-1 he spent most of last season with the astros aaa farm club in the pacific coast league tucson down low two and one he ripped up the pco with a 343 average 17 home runs and 69 runs batted on deck for houston there's a shot to right field coming up for it is guerrero and he plays it on a hop base hit for downey heath with two down but pete knew that ball hit hard jeff and uh at first he thought it might take off but then he saw it sink and he decided to come and try to catch it on the hop but that's one of those plays he was very fortunate that the ball hopped right into his glove otherwise it would go into the wall for three bagger but that's a very difficult play for the outfielder because the ball looks like it's going to take off into the last minute it sinks on you here's arthur henry jr hart howe with heap at first and two down top of the sixth inning the dodgers with a five run lead over houston six one to score there's a circling backhanded by lopes he'll step on second and that forces heath nice play by lopes and hooton is out of the sixth inning for houston no runs on one hit one man left on and the score through five and a half dodgers six astros one joaquin and duhar starts to to warm up as we get ready for the bottom of the sixth sentence six runs eight hits no errors for los angeles one run seven hits no errors for the houston astros tomorrow afternoon it will be rick sutcliffe making his first stride of the 1981 season and he'll try to make everybody including himself forget about the nightmarish 1980 season he had caesar sardinia fractured his right ankle in the playoffs against the phillies this past season i asked him has he recovered 100 from that compound fracture well um you know i still have a way to go with my uncle uh it's it's good enough to play i only have around 65 to 70 flexibility on it that uh it's not affecting me uh to play in the field or hitting the ball i i think it kind of had improved my hitting well the reason he mentioned in the province hitting jeff he said it made him wait back on that right foot and consequently by waiting back on that right footing he stopped jumping at the ball and he thinks that it makes him a more patient hitter now but i think a lot of that patience also comes from the fact that he's more experienced but he he's the key to their offensive he plays and he produces along with jose cruz and arnold they'll have a successful season i think that's a very interesting point because it's probably something that young hitters have a lot of trouble with because they they want to perform well they want to impress and sometimes are over aggressive what as a pitcher as a young pitcher what is one of the major problems that a kid would have well you'd have the same problem you jump uh what would happen is you'd be so anxious to throw the ball that your body would start getting ahead of your arm and consequently your arm would lag and you'd wind up being high in the strike zone and it's a similar reaction you would have to a hitter jumping at the ball at home plate we go now to the bottom of the sixth setting the top of the lineup for los angeles to face joaquin anduhar who took over in the fifth for don sutton and worked his way out of a jam davey lopes ken landro and dusty baker the skipper tommy lasorda looking on and he's quite happy about things and well he should be lopes one for three tonight takes way inside ball one looks struck out in the first singled in the second struck out in the fourth all against don sutton this is his first time against andew hart there's a shot clubbed by landistoy last time lopes hit that ball jumping too soon landistoy had to bounce off his glove but not this time well he hit this ball a little harder jeff and uh landon story was moving to his left he's a very good infielder very quick and you see he got there one down here's center fielder ken landro landro grabbed it out to land history in the first flight out the baker in the second and then popped up to craig reynolds in shallow left field in the fourth inning kandahar misses one ball no strikes delandro he wears the number that a lot of famous players awards famous players have worn that number two 44. you better believe it slices foul and out of play henrietta wore it willie mccartney willie mccaby wore it reggie jackson where is it now now he wore it i was wondering when you were going to get to that well i saved the best for last howl down in war number 44 ii landra wore number 44 when he was with minnesota if you are wondering that's probably why they traded him for hatchet all they had to do was resell the names that's right what if they wore the same size uniform i'm sure if they didn't they'd freak it or stretch it put some more material in it one and two delandro nobody on one out six innings six one dodgers one hopper off the proper land into right field landro is gonna go for two here comes a clue that's a remarkable play because number one the balls hit very sharply off the bat and so sharply in fact the landing story even with his good speed couldn't get it see lannister has excellent speed and he couldn't get the ball hits off his glove and yet it wasn't that deep oh poet was charging he's charging on the ball and uh speed just forced pulling to make it an erratic throw and the atlanta lannister was able to come up with a double well that's what they talk about when they say play aggressive baseball and force the opposition to make a mistake that's a good example of it i knew orlando was a good hitter i didn't realize he had that kind of speed and if you're wondering how the officials score ruled they give landro a double [Applause] baker hits it through center field here comes [Applause] [Music] well just kind of uh hit that ball at the end of the bat right over second base in fact ladies almost had a play on it i think if cedano had thrown that ball it might have been a closer play but then again he didn't have a chance to get to it but ashley did a great job of blocking the plate but he just couldn't come up with a ball so it's now 7-1 dodgers in the bottom of the sixth inning a single for baker and rbi he went to second on the throw and steve garvey steps in [Applause] this is what puts pressures on opposing pictures jeff the fact that you know you have a fast man like landro get on the base and generate some enthusiasm and now you have the power of the lineup coming up strike on the outside corner one ball and one strike to garvey steve one for one tonight he singled and walked twice [Applause] [Music] strike two one and two [Applause] there is action in the astros voltman but we cannot tell you who they are because they're blocked there's the right-hander that looks like on the left side right-hander frank licordy [Applause] the throw is at home but baker holds it third [Applause] so dusty baker stops at third and garvey stands at second well that's a very difficult play jeff because that's balls hitting no man's land it's in between the first baseman second baseman and right fielder who had a very long run for it very fortunate to get his glove on the ball and running at full speed just wasn't able to hold on to it [Music] [Applause] time out call as the pitching coach goes out to talk with ander and that is melvin wright mel wright the fine pitching coach of the houston astros for another situation where handler gave it one sharp hit to landro he turned it into a double and two bloopers and the official scorer has given right fielder terry poole an error on the play so if darby does not get credit for a hit it's an error [Applause] terry pool giving an error on that last play was a tough chance but they felt he should have made the play well i think they thought he had the ball in his glove [Applause] [Music] swing doesn't get it owen won says had a big night three for three two singles a double a run batted in and he has scored a run let's hit the ball sharply all three times though very sharply now he hit it sharply on the thursday afternoon so he's off to another hot start this is bottom of the sixth inning one run in for los angeles they lead houston by six seven to one the score seven runs on ten hits the astros have seven hits but only one run to show casey stengel would have pinched it for penguin in this situation because he felt he hit the ball sharply three times he's not going to do it a fourth time with the infield slot in the ball is low one and two are you serious that was one of his theories yeah you know a guy's been extremely successful one particular day you pinch it because you know the next time he's going to fail baker at third garvey leads off second the penguins studying joaquin and who took over back in the fifth inning blowing away warming up in the dodger bullpen in the left field corner is one of two rookies who made the club right-hander dave stewart in fact he was told early in the day on wednesday that he was going to be cut and then he got a reprieve later he's warming up right now as you see [Music] so the penguin fans and up comes guerrero [Music] guerrero singled the left in the second drove in iran was intentionally walked by sutton in the third and was unintentionally walked by anduhar in the fifth baker and garvey lead off third and second respectively with two down basketball is inside 1-0 to pedro guerrero mike socia the young catcher waiting his turn on deck bottom of the 6th 7-1 los angeles timeout pete steps out [Music] baker with a short lead in third as ozark you know something on garvey who has his lead from second there's a strike on guerrero [Music] the outfield shading guerrero around towards left social looks on with the on deck circle [Music] one ball two strikes to pedro guerrero not only gives you a lot of different motions he gets a lot of different release points he'll throw three quarters at one time he'll kind of drop down even lower or right-handed another time and come over top sometimes when his fast walk over top on a slider and it makes it very difficult to pick up any type of point of release on him and he's thrown extremely hard to begin with and you don't know whether he's gonna throw it over the plate or not oh god foul tipped at all played the cow remains one and two [Music] so the astros drew first blood they scored their only run in the first inning the dodgers came up with four on five hits in the second two more in the fifth to chase sutton bill burton's not happy about things right now and they've won so far here in the sixth inning 7-1 los angeles with two down runners at second and fourth fly ball play up over center field cedano is right there he's got it in the sixth inning for the dodgers they settle for one run two hits one air and two men left on the score through six here at dodger stadium the dodgers 7 the astros won earlier this evening we gave you a test of all you trivia experts the on tv sports question and that was only three players of career bounding averages of 300 or better with the los angeles dodgers who are they did you get them here are the answers manny mota 315 steve garvey 304 and one of the finest hitters ever in the national league tommy davis 304. did you get them all out now there's our on tv position from center field on tv continues its exclusive live coverage of throw of red racing from magnificent san anita park tomorrow afternoon at five o'clock as we present the 44th running of the santa anita derby among the horses expected to buy for the 200 thousand dollar purse are flying nashua winner of the san vicente stakes and san rafael stakes winner john leon harold join dave johnson and gill stratton for all the excitement that's tomorrow afternoon at five o'clock the center anita derby right here on tv in the stanley cup playoffs look at this from madison square garden the rangers flushing the la kings 10-3 so new york leads that series two games to one looks like a baseball score sure or a football score touchdown extra point in the field goal against the field goal tonight's attendance 51 691 it was announced as a sellout so we did have some no-shows the seventh straight sellout here at dodger stadium first pitch to alan ashby swung on and best strike one was that the fame knuckle curve i was watching ashby more than anything figuring out how come a guy is down 7-1 in the seventh inning is jumping on the first pitch and a 230 hitter right i don't know that's a good point owen two now as ashby is in a hole ashby tonight grounded out twice in the second and in the fourth he fouls that one back [Music] fouled again seven runs ten hits no errors for the dodgers one run seven hits in one error for houston we are in the top of the seventh inning in the dirt one ball and two strikes we'd be remiss not to mention the fact that james rodney richard who is recovering from that stroke is on the 60-day emergency list as he is trying to to recover and pitch again in 1981 he got a a great standing ovation a well-deserved reception on thursday afternoon during the opening day ceremonies and uh al did you mention earlier you had a chance to talk with the talk with j.r said he feels fine he's running three or four miles a day he's throwing he's not throwing batting practice yet but he's taking batting practice and he still doesn't know how he's going to react to the ball coming back to the mountain yet but he still has trouble on the left side the vision on the left side is still a little impaired big chopper to garvey he does it himself that's what we continually have been hearing that the big problem is depth perception and for a right-handed pitcher that's a very serious problem because the left side is the side that he actually picks up the plate picks up the target [Music] well it's great to see him back in uniform and we wish him well and i hope that he's pitching in one of these games before 1981 is up and if anybody can do it it's big jr landistoy astro second baseman is in there now [Applause] looks like he was going to try to drag it he took it called strike one i often wonder why fellows with lando story speed didn't try to drag at least once every time they came to the plate because it just puts the pitcher on that much more of the defensive to know the guy with that speed is going to get the ball on the ground you can't throw him out [Music] hey [Applause] if you're scoring with us two down and we'll have a pinch hitter for ander all right he had the right idea but he just burned the ball right back to the pitcher which makes it a little easier to throw him out nullifies the speed right there so pinch heading for anduhar is dave bergman he was acquired as a player to be named later in the 1977 trade that sent much-traveled cliff johnson to the yankees in exchange for mike fishland and randy nieman birdman one of two left-handed hitters off that bench he takes a strike owen one the other would be dennis walling in the dirt one ball and one strike the pitch hitter dave bergman bill burton the only man that i can remember who won the sporting news manager of the year award in both leagues there's a slicing foul back into the crowd he won it last season for the the job he did leading his team to the nls crown is as a national league manager and he also won the award when he managed the the new york yankees some years ago [Music] high pop-up in a shallow right field lopes goes out guerrero comes in and it's guerrero for the catch [Music] breezing along sets the astros down one two three in the seven million the score through six and a half remains dodgers seven astros one [Music] on tv continues to bring you the finest in motion picture entertainment and tomorrow night we are pleased to present angie dickinson and brian de palma's chilling thriller dressed to kill michael kane co-stars of this terrifying murder mystery they shared the same secrets [Music] sorry i shouldn't have been so rude thank you for picking up would you want to sleep with me yes then why don't you but one of them wanted more one of them was a murderer i've already been to the police angie dickinson and michael kane in brian de palma's chilling mystery dress to kill yes a capacity crowd having a lot of fun out here tonight their team the dodgers out in front seven to one there's the man we've been talking about big james rodney richard yes he is well jay's got a very positive frame of mind jeff you know talk to him before the game uh he's just happy that he's able to go out and work hard right now and he's working towards coming back somewhere around the all-star game we have a new picture for the houston astros right-hander frank mccourty last season eight and five with a tremendous earned run average of 2.82 and he really turned in to be quite a pitcher after uh struggling in the atlanta braves organizations well a lot of times what happens to a pitcher jeff like frank was in a brave organization a number of years i remember him and uh he threw very hard but he had very he was very erratic around with his control and i think coming to houston which is more picture oriented he found someone probably mel right who was able to help him with his delivery and able to get him to throw the ball in spike zone more consistently so a change of senior sometimes is all that a player needs in order to get the maximum out of his talent mike sosha will start it off here in the bottom of the seventh building recording fastball strike on the outside [Music] corner one ball and one strike to social [Music] [Applause] well we have another official scorers change that we'll give to you i guess everybody's getting used to the baseball season remember terry poole who got that error you can take it away from him unintentionally fouled up along the first baseline that kicks off to the first baseman he throws it over to the astros dugout manuel geronimo mota who knows one of the greatest guys in baseball third base coach daddy ozark [Music] social hanging top fouls it back so steve garvey would get credit for his second hit and take away the error in the sixth inning on terry poole [Music] social [Music] i don't notice anything different in liberty jeff it's more the fact that he's keeping the ball down in the strike zone now i remember in atlanta he was very erratic with his fastball up and away in the strike zone a lot to the left-hand batters and there he kept the ball down very well on social and away from him bill russell is a very good basketball hitter let's see what he does he takes a strike on the outside corner owen one wrestled tonight one for three has scored a run and has driven in a run here's a good fastball oh and two [Music] the third baseman goes over to heap that'll do it for russell that's the second option off brings up pitcher birdhoot tonight sacrificed in the second flight out to jose cruz in the fourth and struck out in the fifth against anduhar earlier in the show jeff you mentioned burt's batting average last year old 63 i think they said and the show right is not indicative of the type of hitter he is because he's been very productive with men in scoring position he's got some big rbis for them and uh he's turned around completely he makes contact now where he didn't do that four or five years ago he takes a strike and he also uh has has ranked among the national league leaders and sacrificed bunts like three times in the last four years and as a pitcher that is vital very very important i mean that's your your primary responsibility when you come up with a miniscule minnow on base get him over he has led the dodgers in that category for the last five years i can remember a couple of years ago when jim lefevre was the batting coach that hooten worked with lever one entire spring training just on improving his hitting because he he felt he could help himself well i always told him he hit like he was batman in a phone booth everything went straight up well he wasn't successful that time as he strikes out and frank licordi puts the dodgers down one two three at the bottom of the seventh and after seven the score at dodger stadium los angeles seven houston one [Music] the california angels make their 1981 on tv debut this wednesday april 15th as they take on billy martin's oakland days live from anaheim stadium yes the angels have some new faces oh guys like adopt john de aquisto and they are a battling ball club exciting they put a as final lineup of eight guys as anybody in baseball oakland they've got guys like mike norris and tony arvis should be quite a ball game so join big d don drizda we welcome him back to our on tv lineup along with bill rickney all the action wednesday april 15th the angels and the open days then the dodgers return to the on tv sports lineup on monday april 27th as they'll battle their cross state rival san francisco right here from dodger stadium yes the dodgers giants rivalry continues a new skipper in san francisco frank robinson anus cabell traded from houston to the giants joe morgan is now part of san francisco so it should be exciting hal and i will be here to bring you the exact uh action monday april 27th the dodgers and san francisco giants right here on tv tommy lasorda in the middle of your screen with glasses on monty bascom one of the coaches and the new pitching coach on the right of your screen ron paranosky taking the place of brett adams who is retired and doing well and we hope he's really enjoyed his retirement birdhood has really done a job tonight allowing one run on seven hits well i think what's encouraging jeff is to see the rapport that bert and social have with one another because mike didn't really catch him that much last year and uh you know starting off a new year of course they were in spring training together but you know you start the season it's a whole different ball game and yet they seem to work very well together they were a little shaky at the beginning but now they've gotten their feet on the ground and they seem to be working together very well we go to the eighth inning terry poole starts things off he'll be followed by craig reynolds and cesar cedano 7-1 dodgers poole has had a perfect night three for three has scored a run and has a stolen base two singles and a double he takes a strike seeing coach monty vascon a moment ago reminds me that i want to wish his wife the speediest of recoveries anita vasco is recuperating from a fractured cheek and left foot in an automobile accident that she and bonnie had at dodger stadium last sunday there's a sharp two hopper to lopes the gloves blows him out oh well this fast didn't feel that that could be a very tricky play uh hit very sharply off the left-hand bat but davey stayed down right with it made the good play on so so anita vasco get well in a hurry your hubby says you got great care at glendale memorial hospital craig reynolds coming up now [Music] reynolds is over three [Music] strikes i think uh i think bert's on top of this game but i think the windows is having a little bit of trouble no matter what season threw up there he just can't seem to follow it for some reason when he's looking for the fast while bird throws a curveball when you're looking for the third boy he throws the fastball there's a tough play and it goes over lope's head so he finally gets a pitch that he can handle and loops it into right field for hit number eight off birdhoot and he got the fastball that time but burt cracked his bat and a lot of pitchers often say jeff they'd rather you hit the ball hard and hit it where somebody can catch it rather than break the bat and hit one of those bloopers [Music] cesar cedano steps in castro's center fielder tonight one for three started tonight hitting 250. he finds it down the lefty alarm but he pulled it too much back into the crowd cesar cedano has always been able to do everything hit hit with power runs well an outstanding defensive center fielder well leo derosa said he was the most exciting ball player he had seen since willie mays when he first came up in 1951 but he's never seemed to play up to those expectations fouled away by cesar i talked to him about that i can recall last spring training he told me he had always felt that that was very unfair that there was only one willie mays and as a kid he felt undue pressure and it had an effect on he was only 19 or 20 years old and that's a lot of pressure to put on a youngster not only that who you can never tell what a player's potential is the clown of the dodger is having some fun jay johnstone he's not bored face hit the right field off the bat of cedano stopping at second is craig reynolds as guerrero gets it into davey lopes [Music] so back-to-back singles was won out by reynolds and zedano cesar with the right field like he did earlier in the game he got a pitch out over the plate he had that hole there and he took advantage of it but you notice that reynolds very wisely known he's down by six runs there's no place to go hold up at second base don't get thrown out of third warming up in the dodger bullpen behind hooton is right-hander bobo castillo half swing by cruz russell's got it he goes to look for one [Applause] so reynolds is safe at third and on the fielder's choice cruz beats the play at first he beat it and he was moving he was moving out because that's a tough play here you take a half swing usually the batter doesn't get a good jump out of the box and russell made a good feed to lopes but jose just turned on the afterburners there he's in there here's danny heap with runners at first and third and two down 8th inning 7-1 dodgers putin trying to paint the outside corner had the wrong brush one ball and no strikes [Applause] heap one for three tonight wrong brush [Music] [Applause] struck out in the first had a single to right in the sixth inning and then he was he hit a ball that hit him out of the batter's box back in the fourth inning grounds it down to garvey [Applause] jerry dale signaling foul at the last moment first base on fire paul rangi hasn't moved yet well it's not his play jeff until the ball passes the bag it's the home plate umpires play until the ball passes the first base bag and uh well garvey caught the ball south territory but it's hard to tell where the it's where the ball bounces where the ball where the ball bounced on the last bounce before he caught it [Music] there's a drive to left field baker is right there in the eighth inning for houston no runs on a couple of hits and two men left on and the score through seven and one-half innings of play dodgers seven astros one [Music] one week from tomorrow april 19th on tv sports will present a great double bill of outstanding sports entertainment first at two o'clock it's championship tennis as we present the men's singles final of the 75 thousand dollar jack kramer open live from the la tennis club defending u.s open champion john mcenroe and 1980 australian open champ bryan teacher head the list of tennis superstars who are entered in this tournament other returns include raul ramirez roscoe tanner stan smith it should be a dandy join mike walden at ted grade for some great tennis action that's sunday the 19th at two o'clock then following the jack kramer open we'll take you live to santa anita park for the 42nd running of the 200 000 san juan capistrano handicap 1980 eclipse award winner john henry is expected to lead the field in this challenging mile and three quarters turf race be sure to join us sunday april 19th the great double bill of sports action the jack kramer open at two o'clock followed by the san juan capistrano handicap at five all coming your way right here on tv [Music] coming in to pitch now the bottom of the eight building for houston their ace left-hander joe sambido also we have a new first baseman dennis walnut has taken over at first base jenny walling at first base for houston this is an unusual move jeff he's used his two best relief pitchers here in a ballgame where he's down 6-1 and he has a day game tomorrow you would think that he'd almost bring in anybody to finish out this ball game and hope that tomorrow if he's close he can use these two fellas that they're strong [Music] joe samvito who always gets off to very slow starts and i was talking to him prior to tonight's ball game and he said this one no exception he doesn't do very well numbers-wise during the spring and he says he just builds his arm up and then all of a sudden in fact he says he really doesn't start getting going till about the latter part of may or early june could be a number of reasons for that i think that uh [Applause] primarily he's more mature now he told me that he felt that he was pitching better now than he has in the last four or five years even though he might not be throwing as hard but a lot of the reasons maybe he doesn't work on the winter time that's a good point because he he said that he doesn't throw in the winter time he works out but he says because he he doesn't throw his knees stretched out that takes a long time to pitch an arm one ball no strikes to dodger lead lead-off man davey lopes davey one for four tonight right down the middle called strike one and one i always felt you know going into minor league camp i always felt the kids from california had an advantage because they played all winter and you were in the east coast you didn't play you didn't throw all winter therefore it took you two or three months to catch up to them as far as stretching your arm out and getting your body acclimated to playing every day but once the hot weather came in the talent [Music] surface [Applause] [Music] two and one to count the lopes outside three and one [Music] bounce that one back into the crowd full count to davey lopes bottom of the a building the dodgers leading houston 7-1 7 runs 11 hits no errors the astros one run nine hits and no errors we have had two changes in official scoring rulings one on say one on garvey where errors were given initially and then taken back later on away again sambita looks like he's dropped down a little in his delivery jeff i remember him being a little more three-quarter last year and now he looks like he's brought down a little bit more [Music] down to uh three o'clock [Applause] [Music] [Applause] in an attempt to have the umpires have more uniformity in both leagues they're trying to have the umpires all give the same signs now i don't like the the winds up the hands up i would rather right a point immediately that it's foul it can be very confusing i guess that the american league they they've waved one way or the other foul affair in the american league yes and nationally you put hands up i think it used to be the other way around you just feel the more natural ways to wave foul better you know exactly what it is of course sometimes your car might get confused i mean this way you know just put your hands straight and he has more time to make the call sure also if the ball's right at him he can jump get out of the way too hopes back up full count sam vito fourth pitcher used by burton tonight he pops it up foul groud dennis walling coming over by the railing runs out of road i think where i'd like to see more uniformity in the empire is behind the plate where the american league umpires will take the inside chest protector i think they have the option to do that now right i think what they have done now is veteran umpires who have been around can still wear that balloon protector but otherwise they're starting the younger ones out with the inside protection well then you get a more uniform strike zone also the hitters don't have to make a drastic change whenever you play in a playoff game or even in exhibition games or spring training [Applause] [Music] so three of the last four dodgers have gone down on strikes sosha putin and now lopes [Music] ken landro tonight grounded out to second glide out to crews popped up to reynolds in the fourth and then had his double in the sixth inning that was a breaking ball now deacon jones and i were talking before the game and deacon was a tremendous hitter but he just never got a chance to play very much in the big leagues he's a bad instructor for houston we were mentioning how left-handed pitchers always had a tendency to throw that breaking ball first pitch to left-hand batters one-on-one delandro why is that he couldn't figure it out and i couldn't figure it out i guess you're a left-hander because i never pitched like that i i'd make him hit the fastball you know you got the curveball when i get ahead of you he said he thinks left-handers had a tendency to try to make the left-handed batter look bad landro takes inside and down low 2-1 don sutton started he went four plus gave up six runs eight hits had three strikeouts walked three high three-in-one delandro he was followed by joaquin and duhar who went two innings allowed one run on three hits had two strikeouts walked one man licordi had one inning of work had two strikeouts and allowed the dodgers zilch now sambitto full count to ken landro [Music] slices it down to left field coming over for it is cruz but it's well back into the crowd [Music] kenny landro started out of the california angels organization he was traded to minnesota along with infielder dave engel pitchers paul hartzell and brad havens for ron carew back in february of 1979. just before that pitch just bill verdin repositioned his outfit as he moved pool over to right center and he told uh so they need to move the left center and cruise to move toward the line as a hitter the first thing you would think is they're gonna throw me hard stuff you don't think breaking ball because you know they're not gonna throw your breaking ball and try to hit the opposite way so baker steps in with landro at first who runs well with one out here in the bottom of the eighth inning the dodgers up by six seven to one the score spike bakery tonight hopped up to land this door in shallow center in the first crowded out to craig reynolds in the third tripled and scored a run in the fifth and it's singled driving in iran in the sixth [Music] so johnny b is two for four with an rbi and a run score they pitch out landra not going anywhere 1-1 to faker well you know that pitch out right there sam beetle gave it away he deviated from his normal pitching motion and i think maybe if there was something or landrieu could have picked it throw up first back on his hands and knees goes kenny landrieu well the pitch out would you like to teach the pitcher is use your normal motion but just speed up your delivery to the plate uh don't speed up your release of the ball because they'll pick up something different on you if you're wondering about landro and his base running he he runs fast but he has never stolen a lot of bases as they drive him back again he had 10 with minnesota in 1979 and that's his career high but well that could be misleading jeff perhaps they didn't have a running type ball club but then again that's a good point because minnesota has not and his role uh was he was kind of stifled yeah you don't know you know you don't know how you fit in but uh here i'm sure he'll get every opportunity to run here this is a running league walling holding lander on at first base with one out one ball two strikes to count to dusty baker 7-1 dodgers bottom of the eight building the first of 15 dodger telecast here on tv i'm jeff witcher without doubting hope you enjoyed it popped up second baseman land destroyer right on the edge of the outfield grass takes care of that two down here comes garvey often you see a runner a ball player has excess speed but he doesn't know how to run he doesn't have to steal bases maybe he can't read pitching i think bill russell is a prime example he's got excellent speed but he has never been well he's not aggressive he's not aggressive that's what he'll defend whereas lopes probably is not maybe as fast as uh russell but he's quicker than russell and very very aggressive very aggressive he's gonna make you make mistakes out there [Music] steve garvey two for two and he has sandwiched in a couple of walks scored twice back in time the astros scored one run in the first that's the last time they were able to punch anything across the dodgers came up with four in the second two in the fifth one on the sixth they're batting now the bottom of the eight only garvey takes outside [Music] [Applause] [Music] tomorrow afternoon the series finale and the final game of this brief homestand then the dodgers will fly up to san francisco and open up with the giants monday night tomorrow's pitching matchup vern rule and rick sutcliffe [Music] outside call 2. nolan ryan was originally scheduled to pitch tomorrow's game as lander leads off first and while he holds him on however he has the same problem as jerry royce the sprained the strained cat muscle but not nearly as serious high fly ball slicing back into the crowd down the right field eye so garvey stays up there two and one to count i think uh you know ryan's injury and royce's injury i think the thing that probably caused those you know you're in florida the ground's very hard and you're running constantly every day on hard ground your muscles become accustomed to it and it's very warm you have a tendency to get stretched out now you come back here you have a little different regimen and you're playing on softer ground actually and move susceptible to pulse and it happens quite frequently in the spring of the year with players making that transition the hot weather and the hard rounds to the cooler weather in the softer room to second is garvey there's nobody there he's got himself a stand-up double that is the third hit of the night for garvey hit number 12 for los angeles well that's what makes steve such a good hitter he gets a good fast ball out of the plate and he doesn't try to pull it he just goes the other way with it hits it right back from winter cave right up the right center field gap also makes it very difficult to pitch to him so with first base open runners at second and third and two down here in the bottom of the eighth inning and the dodgers leading by six trying for more here is ron say the penguin singled scored and has driven in a run tonight and he has three hits two singles and a double struck out last time up in the sixth inning that was against joaquin anduhar low ball one don sutton joaquin anduhar frank licordi and now joe sambito for houston bert hooten has gone all the way for los angeles [Music] landrieu at third garvey standing right on top of the second base back and the penguin who recorded a a 45 a few seasons ago and i i think it had something to do with the third base back playing the third base bag was the title i believe as he fouls that one back out of the crowd you didn't know the pentagon could sing did you ace i still don't i won't i won't tell him you said that i think penguin might have gone out and brought up all the available copies he didn't want anybody to find out i had one but i left it in the uh in the heat one day and it's warped so sam vito rubbing up a new baseball takes a walk behind the mound and says stands in well this situation right here sam vito knows he you know he's down six runs penguin's going to air it out he's trying to hit one out of here he's two outs and he doesn't want just a base hit he wants a home run and he's going for the down and he's waiting for the pitch that he can drive out of here and he takes that one two and one [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] there's a flying ball on the center field charging his cedano he's got it in the bottom of the eighth only for the dodgers no runs one hit two men left on the score through eight remains dodgers seven astros one just a reminder that immediately following tonight's game we'll be presenting santa anita replay with dave johnson be sure to stay tuned for all the highlights of today's races from magnificent santa anita park that's santa anita replay coming on right after the dodgers and the astros we'll update the on tv scoreboard for you in the national league montreal and pittsburgh reigned up the cubs knocked off the bets 3-1 in philadelphia over saint louis 5-2 the reds over the braves 3-2 and san francisco shutting out san diego 2-0 in the american league the yankees defeated texas 5-1 milwaukee victorious over the indians 5-3 detroit over toronto by a 6-2 count oakland shut out minnesota up with the kingdom in seattle sixth selling the angels lead by a trey six three oakland pitcher staff is very impressive very impressive they have an outstanding pitching staff i still say i don't think there's another manager around who could have done it with oakland what billy martin did last season he just did a tremendous job with that ball club no and uh i think he instilled a lot of pride in the organization and he had some ball players that have a lot of talent they just needed someone to make them believe that they could play in the big leagues and they believe it now and then with the pitching they have and the type of game that they play that running game they could cause a lot of problems in the western division we go to the top of the ninth inning bird hooton in his first outing trying to go all the way and he only had four complete games in 33 starts last season the line score 7-1 dodgers well that's a good sign for tommy lasorda you know burke coming off the bad shoulder and everything first spying out you'll be able to go into the ninth inning [Music] because it starts things off followed by alan ashby and raphael landau story how takes outside ball one howe tonight called out on strikes in the second single to center field in the fourth and hit into a force play in the sixth senate so he's one for three just outside 2-0 what's happening to hooton right now he's falling behind 3-0 you know he has a big lead it's the ninth inning and he's going to go out there loosey goosey and just throw strikes and sometimes you just lose your coordination just become too loose [Music] three and one [Music] [Music] foul back full count to art howe behind hooton and the dodger bullpen right-hander bobo castillo and left-hander steve howe that is the first walk given up by bird hooton tonight so he's had outstanding control perhaps tiring in the night and opens the ending by walking how that brings up alan ashby ashby takes ball one i don't think he's tired jeff i think that on the first hit he just wasn't concentrating because he was just trying to get ahead of him and he lost his rhythm for a moment i think right here he should pick it back up again because he was throwing pretty good to the first interview there's a shot into the hole right field will stop at second on the base hit by ashby and the astros try to make some noise here in the ninth inning and coming up to pitch it for landistoy former dodger jeff leonard so jeff leonard who was the second player to be named later in the joe ferguson deal and here comes tommy lasorda out of the dugout he's going out to the mound so let's see about putin's fate right now left-handed steve howe right-handed bobo castillo heating up in the dodger bullpen castillo on the left of your screen how on the right of your screen there's the skipper reaching putin and social [Music] you know one of the uh knocks on jeff leonard was the fact that he didn't hit for power for a big man and uh yet he had a very productive years in the minor league hit 385 390 but some reason somebody wanted to hit for power he never did last year in 88 games and 216 advance he had 213 three home runs and 20 runs better than but in 79 he had a super year 290 and for albuquerque in 1978 he hit 365. he just but he didn't hit for power and i think that's one of the things they expected of but occasionally you'll find big guys like that they just go hit for the power either so birdhooton will come out as lasorda has decided to go to his bullpen and it will be [Music] the left-hander steve howe i believe castillo the right-hander so the right-hander castillo gets the call at bird hooton well you couldn't pitch too much better in your first timeout you know the first start of the season [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] from a lot of the fans right behind the dodger dugout and he gets the handshakes from his teammates a great outing first time out for burton bobo castillo who had a outstanding spring he went down to work on a couple of things one was a curveball and he couldn't have picked a better tutor sandy koufax and he worked on control and now he reports that he accomplished both of those things and he feels very confident coming in well he also told me before the game he feels he's thrown with better velocity [Music] he's thrown with better velocity and that could be because he's kind of like you get more compact in your delivery you don't jump around so much on the mound and you keep your body moving towards home plate consequently you stop wasting a lot of energy out there i want to remind you for this upcoming 1981 season we also will renew the dodger mailbag al downing loves to answer your questions so if you can stuff him please do so on a serious note if you have any baseball questions in general or specifically about the dodgers write the question and send it in to dodger's mailbag here of on tv 1139 grand central avenue glendale california zip code 91201. so bobo castillo warms up he throws that screw ball he was 8-6 last year with a fine earned run average of 2.76 [Music] i want to repeat our on tv sports quiz answer just in case you missed it earlier only three players compiled career batting average of 300 or better for the la dodgers manny mota 315 steve garvey and tommy davis 304 and if you got that congratulations at second base is hart howe allen ashby not being held on at first base and leonard hits a shot down the left-hand line here comes how around third he will score and also being waved in here comes alan ashby he scores and it's now 7-3 los angeles on a double by jeff leonard jeff didn't waste any time and that's one of the uh watchwords of the pinch hitter jump up and unbutton that top button on the first pitch and he did he hammered it down the left field line and you notice dusty was playing way off alignment that's because the dodgers scouting for having known jeff is that he's not going to pull the ball much but he pulled that one dennis walling is the batter for houston he came in as a defensive replacement for danny heap last inning it's a high fly ball in the right field playable coming in on his guerrero he makes a catch and holding it second is jeff winter so that's the first down here in the ninth [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] they finally got him in the eighth inning as he grounded out to davey lopes two singles a double and he scored a rock also has a stolen base that came back in the third seven three los angeles top of the nine donate one out leonard at second there's a strike to pool jeff hunter taking a pretty good sized lead there at second base [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] don leopard the astros third base coach bob lewis around at first there's a lot of hoppers backhands for gunnery off the play hunters takes third two down well that was one of those self-defense players right there davey knew it was going to be a tough one hopper he just backhands it kept his eye on it all the way good play i think you know davey's getting a little older jeff he's 34 35 now but i think uh he might have lost a half a step or so but i think he makes it up because he knows the hitters in the league and he knows his pictures and therefore he knows how to position himself in just situations such as that one so he'll be right in the right spot to make the play [Music] craig reynolds the astros shortstop and he hits a chopper and eats garvey up and it goes into shallow right field leonard scores and it's 7-4 los angeles well that was a peep garvey had the same play earlier but it wasn't hit quite as sharply and he tried to get in front of it and block it with his left leg but he went off the palm of his glove [Music] that's the type of ball garvey will go into tucker steel take a little bit of the sting out of it for him garvey takes the cat out of the glove maybe it smarts here's cesar cedano so all of a sudden the dodgers six run lead is now three during the night well what happened to castillo he came into the ball game and he had a situation where he he knew he had to get three out so he has to go in and throw strikes and the hitters are jumping on the first pitch on him [Applause] is two for four tonight he's singled in the first and he's singled in the eighth out and missed two and one want to remind you immediately following the ball game stay tuned for the santa anita replay and then following that a motion picture entitled the island starring michael kane right here on tv [Music] there's a shot foul down the third baseline so cedano hit it good but he pulled it too much the count evens at two and two back to first clade reynolds seven runs 12 hits no errors for the dodgers four runs a dozen hits no errors for the astros and they have picked up a big three so far here in the night so bill verdin cap off hoping that his club has a little bit left to keep things going here in the ninth inning half-swing unintentionally fouled over to the astros dugout well i think what's more important is that he's aware of the fact that you know his ball club was down out of the ball game and they're fighting back and i think that's a very important sign because they do have a tremendous pitching staff and he knows you're not going to go to every game down six months in the ninth inning they do have the capacity to come back next pitch is chopped up along third foul don leopard cannot make the play [Music] [Applause] count stays at two and two castillo rubbing up a new baseball [Applause] [Music] joining left-hander steve howe and the dodger bullpen is right-hander dave goats foul again down the left line golds who was bitten by the flu bug in spring training he's on the left of your screen how is on the right of your screen has been pitching very well in recent outings bob welch who had bone spurs in his pitching elbow is happy to report that in the last four times out he's had no pain and he is due to make his opening start against the giants in candlestick on monday night well that's an encouraging sign for tommy with goats you're having a slow recovery and with the voice out now with a bad leg they need that other starter sedan wanting the pine tar and cruz throws it to him cesar just wants a little more time to kind of guess along with castile figure out what he's going to throw me he's kept the ball in on him the last couple pitches and he's trying to figure out well will he go away with a slider or a fastball this time will he come back inside on me craig reynolds the runner at first two down top of the ninth inning the astros have scored three they're trying for more two and two the count to cedeno castillo works him outside full count [Applause] reynolds not being held on by garvey outfield is deep and swung around towards left field jose cruz waits his turn on deck goes the pitch fouled away [Applause] so craig has to turn around and head back to first base this is the man baba wants because the next bear is a tie and run he doesn't want to get sedan on the base if he can possibly help it [Applause] there's a high fly ball in the deep left center field orlando going back he's to the wall he's got it [Applause] so cedano gave it a ride but landro had room and he made the catch in front of the sign in deep left center field so in the ninth the astros score three runs on three hits leave a man and the final score the dodgers seven and the astros four the winning pitcher he's one to know and the loser don sutton he's on one and how your evaluation of bert hoot's performance tonight i thought it was very encouraging for burton also for tommy lasorda because he has a shortage of starting pitchers but i think roberto feel well about it because having struggled last year with a bad shoulder he knows he starts the season he went into the ninth inning he was strong in the ninth anybody just got a little behind on his control so that'll wrap it up from dodger stadium a sellout crowd and they were treated to a dandy ball game the final line score the dodgers to win it seven runs 12 hits no errors 10 men left on the astros four runs 12 hits no errors and seven men left on so the final score once again the dodger seven and the astros we'll join you again on the 27th the dodgers will battle the san francisco giants for al downing i'm jeff witcher bringing you all a very pleasant good night live from dodger stadium on tv sports has presented exciting major league baseball action between the los angeles dodgers and the houston astros the executive producer of on tv sports is john moore tonight's telecast was produced by jerry romano and directed by mark wolfson

Channel: Phenia Films the MLB archives Original Broadcasts

Views: 3,800

Keywords: 1981 Houston Astros, 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers, World Champs, Tommy Lasorda, Don Sutton returns to LA, Burt Hooton, Steve Garvey, ON TV, Subscription Television, STV, Los Angeles, Geoff Witcher, Al Downing, Dodger Stadium, Dusty Baker, Strike Season, Terry Puhl, Bill Virdon, Craig Reynolds, Cesar Cedeno, Mike Scioscia, Davey Lopes, Ron Cey, Jeffrey Leonard, Alan Ashby, Pedro Guerrero, Bobby Castillo, Joaquin Andujar, Frank LaCorte, Joe Sambito, Ken Landreaux, MLB 81

Id: N8HIaLGCJEo

Length: 187min 6sec (11226 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 31 2021