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1980 Oakland Athletics season

Field	Value
name	Oakland Athletics
season	1980
league	American League
division	West
ballpark	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
city	Oakland, California
record	83–79 (.512)
owners	Charles O. Finley
managers	Billy Martin
television	KPIX-TV
(Monte Moore, Wayne Walker)
radio	KDIA
(Ted Robinson, Red Rush, Dom Valentino)
divisional_place	2nd

(Monte Moore, Wayne Walker) (Ted Robinson, Red Rush, Dom Valentino) ||divisional_place=2nd}}

The 1980 Oakland Athletics season was the team's thirteenth season in Oakland. The A's, under first-year manager Billy Martin, began the season with low expectations following their insipid 1979 campaign. Strong performances from pitchers Mike Norris, Matt Keough, and Rick Langford, along with the brilliant play of breakout star (and future Hall-of-Famer) Rickey Henderson, paved the way for a staggering 29-win increase over the previous year's output. The Athletics, only one year removed from baseball's worst record, swung to a second-place finish behind their 83–79 record.

The season also marked the end of the Charlie Finley ownership era. Finley sold the team to Walter A. Haas, Jr. shortly before the start of the 1981 season. The A's would remain under Haas' ownership until 1995.

Offseason

March 21, 1980: Jim Todd was released by the Athletics.
March 21, 1980: Joe Wallis was released by the Athletics.

Regular season

In 1980, Charlie O. Finley hired Billy Martin to manage the young team. The club was led by new young stars Rickey Henderson, Mike Norris, Tony Armas, and Dwayne Murphy. The starting pitching staff was also notable in that they completed 94 starts, virtually unheard of in the era of the relief pitcher. Rick Langford finished 28 of his 33 starts, totalling 290 innings, and tallying a 19-12 record. Norris went 22-9 with a 2.53 ERA, completed 24 starts, and was runner-up to Steve Stone in the Cy Young Award balloting that year. Martin made believers of his young charges as "Billyball" (characterized as featuring aggressive base running) was used to market the team, and the Athletics finished second in 1980.

Rickey Henderson broke Ty Cobb's American League record for most stolen bases in one season (96) by recording 100 stolen bases.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Notable transactions

April 10, 1980: Randy Elliott was signed as a free agent by the Athletics.

Draft picks

June 3, 1980: Rich Bordi was drafted by the Athletics in the 3rd round of the 1980 Major League Baseball draft.

Roster

1980 Oakland Athletics
Roster
Pitchers

Player stats

	= Indicates team leader

	= Indicates league leader

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; SB = Stolen bases

Pos.	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI	SB
C		87	285	66	.232	5	29	1
1B	Dave Revering	106	376	109	.290	15	62	1
2B	Jeff Cox	59	169	36	.213	0	9	8
SS	Mario Guerrero	116	381	91	.239	2	23	3
3B	Wayne Gross	113	366	103	.281	14	61	5
LF		158	591	179	.303	9	53	100
CF		159	573	157	.274	13	68	26
RF		158	628	175	.279	35	109	5
DH	Mitchell Page	110	348	85	.244	17	51	14

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
	127	438	102	.233	15	56
Mike Heath	92	305	74	.243	1	33
	123	295	72	.244	1	29
Rob Picciolo	95	271	65	.240	5	18
Mickey Klutts	75	197	53	.269	4	21
Mike Davis	51	95	20	.211	1	8
	25	70	17	.243	0	1
	46	59	14	.237	0	3
	14	39	5	.128	0	1
Ray Cosey	9	9	1	.111	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	35	290.0	19	12	3.26	102
	33	284.1	22	9	2.53	180
Matt Keough	34	250.0	16	13	2.92	121
Steve McCatty	33	221.2	14	14	3.86	114
Brian Kingman	32	211.1	8	20	3.83	116

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	7	8.0	0	2	7.88	5

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Bob Lacey	47	3	2	6	2.94	45
	35	1	3	5	2.84	34
Dave Hamilton	21	0	3	0	11.40	23
	13	0	1	1	3.38	12
	5	0	0	0	6.94	9
	5	0	0	0	7.90	5
	5	0	0	0	7.71	2
	2	0	0	0	4.50	1
	1	0	0	0	4.50	0

Awards and honors

Billy Martin, Associated Press AL Manager of the Year

League records

Rickey Henderson, American League record (since broken), Most stolen bases in one season (100)

League leaders

Rickey Henderson, American League leader, stolen bases (100)

Farm system

References

[https://www.baseball-reference.com/t/toddji01.shtml Jim Todd page at Baseball Reference]
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/w/wallijo01.shtml Joe Wallis page at Baseball Reference]
Numbelievable!, p. 46, Michael X. Ferraro and John Venziano, Triumph Books, 2007, Chicago, Illinois, {{ISBN. 978-1-57243-990-0
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/e/elliora01.shtml Randy Elliott page at Baseball Reference]
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/bordiri01.shtml Rich Bordi page at Baseball Reference]

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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