Game of the Day (9/30/84)

Angels 1, Rangers 0. California's Mike Witt was 23 and good. Texas's Charlie Hough was 36 and also good. Despite the 13-year age difference, Hough had more time left in the majors. Knuckleball!

Game of the Day (9/29/84)

Blue Jays 5, Brewers 4. Toronto's excellent Dave Stieb, who would lead the AL in ERA the next season, took on Milwaukee's mediocre Bob McClure, who would move to the bullpen at the end of the year.

Game of the Day (9/28/84)

Brewers 4, Blue Jays 3 (11). A pair of franchise stalwarts faced off, as Toronto's Jim Clancy opposed Milwaukee's Moose Haas.

Game of the Day (9/27/84)

Red Sox 4, Orioles 3. Baltimore sent 23-year-old right-hander Ken Dixon to the mound for the second start of what would be a fairly brief career. Boston countered with Bob Ojeda, who was 26 -the same age that Dixon would be in his last season - and still had a decade left.

Game of the Day (9/26/84)

Brewers 7, Tigers 5. Detroit's Milt Wilcox, who was 34 and rapidly nearing the end of his career, faced Milwaukee's Don Sutton, who was 5 years older than Wilcox but still had considerably more left. Normally, this would be a pitching mismatch - but the teams behind them evened things out nicely.

Game of the Day (9/25/84)

Royals 6, Angels 5 (12). California's Mike Witt and KC's Mark Gubicza were both young right-handers (Gubicza a 21-year-old rookie, Witt a fourth-year pitcher but only 23) who would go on to 2000-inning careers that were spent mostly but not entirely with their current teams and resulted in career records very close to .500. Witt was better in 1984; Gubicza would be better over the course of their full careers.

Game of the Day (9/24/84)

A's 10, Rangers 6. The starters were Oakland's Bill Krueger and Texas's Frank Tanana, both of whom prove (in very different ways) that if you're left-handed, you can pitch forever.

Game of the Day (9/23/84)

Brewers 8, Blue Jays 5. Milwaukee's Bob McClure was 32, and had not posted an ERA+ above 90 in more than 10 innings since 1980. Toronto's Luis Leal was 27 and finishing off his third straight 200-inning campaign with an ERA+ of 100 or better.

This game would be the third-to-last start of McClure's career - but only because he transitioned into a full-time relief role, which he maintained for nearly a decade. Leal, meanwhile, would be finished in the majors by the end of 1985.

It would seem to be a fair statement that pitchers can be unpredictable at times.

Game of the Day (9/22/84)

Pirates 2, Phillies 1 (12). Pittsburgh's Rick Rhoden, a veteran having a to-date career year, faced Philly's Charles Hudson, a second-year pitcher whose most notable feat to this point was allowing a colossal number of unearned runs in the '84 season.

Game of the Day (9/21/84)

Angels 5, Rangers 4. Texas's Danny Darwin was 28 and had been in the majors for 6 years, but was still in the early stages of what ended up being a productive career. California's Ron Romanick was also a relative neophyte in the majors (he was a rookie in '84), but his career would end up being considerably shorter than Darwin's.

Game of the Day (9/20/84)

Twins 5, White Sox 4. Minnesota's Frank Viola was approaching the end of a terrific 1984 season, one that would begin a decade in which Viola was frequently (though not always) one of the best pitchers in baseball. Over the next 7 years, Viola would lead the league in wins once, starts twice, and innings once, win a Cy Young award, and throw a shutout in a World Series Game 7. Not a bad list of accomplishments at all.

He was opposed by Chicago's Tom Seaver, whose career already included three Cy Youngs and an equal number of ERA titles, and would eventually include to 311 wins and the to-date highest Hall of Fame vote percentage ever. Viola's career isn't outclassed by a huge number of pitchers, but Seaver was worth approximately two of him.

Game of the Day (9/19/84)

Padres 5, Giants 4 (10). San Francisco's Jeff Robinson was approaching the end of a pretty rough rookie season. He took on San Diego's Eric Show, who was establishing himself as the ace of the eventual pennant winner (albeit in part because no other Padre exceeded 200 innings).

Game of the Day (9/18/84)

Astros 5, Giants 4 (10). San Francisco's George Riley was making the third of his five career starts (he made more appearances as a reliever, but not exactly a massive number). Houston's Mike LaCoss, meanwhile, was smack in the middle of a 14-year career that was at least reasonably productive at times.

Game of the Day (9/17/84)

Padres 3, Reds 2 (11). San Diego's Ed Whitson was an established veteran having what was a career year at the time; he would go on to pitch for a total of five teams (returning to the Padres again later and having his actual best seasons) and is best known (arguably) for getting into a fight with his manager (the manager in question was Billy Martin, which explains a lot). Cincinnati's Tom Browning, was making his second big league start; he would pitch for the Reds for the next decade and is almost certainly best known for throwing a perfect game.

Game of the Day (9/16/84)

Dodgers 7, Reds 5 (10). LA's Fernando Valenzuela and Cincy's Mario Soto were both ace-level starters at times in the early '80s, and both would break down within the next three years.

Game of the Day (9/15/84)

Red Sox 4, Yankees 3. Boston's Al Nipper, who was 25 and solid, but not destined for marked improvement, faced New York's John Montefusco, who at 25 had been better than Nipper ever was, but who was now 34 and had four starts (and a few relief appearances) left in his career.

Game of the Day (9/13/84)

Yankees 6, Blue Jays 1. New York's Ray Fontenot and Toronto's Luis Leal were both in their mid-20's at the time of this game, and both had solid 1984 seasons; it was the fourth such campaign in a row for Leal, and Fontenot had another one coming the next year.

Leal was out of the majors one year later; Fontenot lasted two. So it goes with pitchers.

Game of the Day (9/12/84)

Phillies 6, Cardinals 5. Philadelphia's Kevin Gross took on St. Louis's Bob Forsch. The two men would end up with pretty similar careers (between 2400 and 2800 innings, ERA+ figures not far below 100), but were at very different stages in them. Gross was 23 and was not fully established in the rotation, while Forsch was 34, missed significant time in '84, and would soon be on the downslope of his career.

Game of the Day (9/11/84)

Mariners 4, Rangers 3. Seattle's Salome Barojas and Texas's Dave Stewart were both 27-year-old right-handers who had rough seasons in 1984. Stewart would turn things around a couple years later, eventually pitching for another decade and having several fine seasons with Oakland. Barojas, on the other hand, had less than 100 innings left in his career.

Game of the Day (9/10/84)

Expos 8, Pirates 5. Montreal's David Palmer, age 26 and still trying to establish himself after missing two of the previous three seasons, faced Pittsburgh's John Candelaria, a former ERA champ who threw his last 200-inning season in 1980, but would pitch until 1993.