Phinally!

A lot happened in baseball in 1980. After being stabbed with a penknife in Mexico during spring training, the Indians’ “Super Joe” Charboneau captured Cleveland’s heart—and Rookie of the Year. Nolan Ryan became baseball’s first Million Dollar Man, Reggie Jackson twice found himself looking down the wrong end of a gun, and George Brett posted the highest single-season batting average since 1941. The Phillies and Expos battled up to the season’s final weekend while the Dodgers tilted against the Astros in a one-game playoff for the division title. In the American League, Brett led Kansas City past the mighty Yankees and into the Series, where slugger Mike Schmidt and the Phillies awaited. This book covers it all.

J. Daniel has spent more than 20 years working in sports television. He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana and works for Indiana University.

J. Daniel

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 220
Bibliographic Info: 13 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2019
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7088-1
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3398-5
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vi
Preface 1
Introduction 3
1. Spring Training: Dollars, Dallas and Dissension 11
2. April: Richard, RBIs and Rockin’ Robin 32
3. May: Fear, Fights and Fergie 48
4. June: Richard, Reggie and Reuss 65
5. July: Stretch, Strikeouts and a Stroke 80
6. August: Streaks, Suspensions and Spittle 100
7. September: Rookies, Royals and Racism 124
8. October: Bitterness, Bashing and Breakthroughs 141
9. The Postseason: Goose, Garry and Georges 161
Epilogue 189
Chapter Notes 191
Bibliography 203
Index 205

• “Well researched and entertaining…Daniel provides a behind-the-scenes story that transforms a straightforward historical account into an extremely detailed yet quick-moving read for die-hard baseball fans…recommended”—Choice

• “Packed full of information about a remarkable season and time in our society.”—Panorama Community Magazine

• “Great teams in baseball are never really forgotten, but this book brings one of them to life. There are memories on these pages that will remind you just how great this team was, bringing back the joy and smiles of an era and a team we’ve sadly overlooked. These Phillies were, perhaps, the first great modern team, built through both the draft, trades, and free agency. Daniel has weaved together a reminder and a lesson worth reading.”—Will Carroll, author of The Juice

• “Daniel does a masterful job of bringing back all the fun and drama of the 1980 season, along with insight into the men who made it memorable. Well written and entertaining, this is a great read for any baseball fan.”—Doug Wilson, author of The Bird: The Life and Legacy of Mark Fidrych

• “1980s baseball is the next wave of baseball research and writing. Jon Daniel’s Phinally! is a fun look back at the teams and players that made that year, and the decade to come, such a joy for baseball fans.”—Jeff Katz, author, Split Season: 1981—Fernandomania, the Bronx Zoo and the Strike that Saved Baseball

• “Phinally! brings back fond memories of a special season. A must for anyone’s bucket list of reading.”—Larry Shenk, vice president of public relations, Phillies, 1964–2007

• “Phinally! is a must read for fans, Gen-X’ers, and those nostalgic for the era of polyester uniforms, This Week In Baseball, and astroturf.”—Bijan Bayne, author, Elgin Baylor: The Man Who Changed Basketball

•“J. Daniel pulls off some baseball time travel in Phinally!, adeptly guiding readers through the beanball fights, salary squabbles , and the truly epic hardball moments of an amazing season.”—Joe Cox, author of The Immaculate Inning: Unassisted Triple Plays, 40/40 Seasons, and the Stories Behind Baseball’s Rarest Feats

• “Phinally! covers the 80s like the infield tarp!”—Jerry Reuss

• “In Phinally! The Phillies, the Royals and the 1980 Baseball Season That Almost Wasn’t, J. Daniel makes me glad the season was—and that he wrote a book about it. A fun season and a fun read.”—Chris Lamb, author, Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography

• “A meticulously researched and totally engrossing book about the 1980 baseball season. J. Daniel covers it all—the teams, the pennant races, the complete cast of characters, the big games, the brawls, the triumphs and tragedies—right down to the final strike. A great read for both longtime baseball fans and newer fans interested in the history of the game.”—Bill Gutman, author of The Giants Win the Pennant! The Giants Win the Pennant!

• “The title may allude to the 1980 World Series champion Phillies, but Jonathan Daniel also does a superb job of bringing the reader back to the riveting Summer of Brett, the Resurgence of Reggie and the Yankees, and The Earl of Baltimore’s epic argument with Bill Haller. Tirelessly and meticulously researched, this is an important book about an extraordinary season.”—Erik Sherman, New York Times best-selling author

• “As the nation left the grim ’70s behind and woke up to Morning in America, the 1980 World Series foreshadowed the anxiety, hope, and can-do spirit of the new decade. Jonathan Daniel transports us to those spill-your-Cracker Jacks moments when you leap out of the bleachers to cheer—and reminds us that there are great sports stories to be told in every team, in every market.”—Dean Karayanis, host, The History Author Show

Review Fix chats with Phinally! author Jonathan Daniel, who details his reporting trail and explains why the 1980 Phillies are a special team.

Review Fix: What inspired this book?

Jonathan Daniel: I grew up in Southwest Ohio during the heyday of the Big Red Machine but I was a big Phillies fan and the 1980 team was always special to me. It was the first team I rooted for that won a championship and I was at just the right age (12 when the World Series was going on) that those players were larger than life to me. I read a few books about different seasons and thought I’d like to do one, too. I was initially going to do a book about the entire decade of the 1980s but synthesizing a season down to about 25 pages wasn’t something I was interested in doing. I’d found too much cool stuff so I decided to focus on 1980 and hopefully do more books on subsequent 1980s seasons.

Review Fix: What was the writing and editing experience like for you?

Daniel: It was a frustrating and, at the same time, tremendously rewarding experience. I really dove into the research process and fell down a lot of rabbit holes but it was a lot of fun. I lived about an hour from Cincinnati when I was a kid so I would get an early edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer. At that time it wasn’t unusual to get the morning paper and only see a few box scores because many games ended after the Enquirer went to press. I didn’t get cable-tv until I was a sophomore in high school so not seeing scores of Monday games until Wednesday in the “late box scores” wasn’t that unusual. It was just a different era. Along those lines, growing up in Ohio I didn’t get a lot of news about teams in the west or many American League teams except what I read in Baseball Digest and The Sporting News. Add to that the fact that there were only a handful of games on per week and information was tough to get. There was no interleague play so the only chance I had to see great players like Rod Carew was either in the playoffs, all-star games, or when they happened to be on the Saturday Game of the Week or Monday Night Baseball, which used to be a huge deal.

Once I started diving into some of these stories through online newspaper archives and athlete biographies I found some really cool stories I’d never heard before. I’m a pretty big baseball fan and I’ve stayed really close to the game for my entire life so I figured if I hadn’t heard a lot of these stories before there’s a chance many other people hadn’t either. One of the cool things is that I often post things on one of my social media profiles and get responses from people saying, “Wow. I had no idea!” I also get responses saying, “I was at that game!” which I think is great.

As far as the writing process, it was all learning on the fly. I remember when my editor asked me when I could deliver a finished manuscript and my first thought was, “How the hell am I supposed to know? I’ve never done this before.” I figured that wasn’t the answer he was looking for so I just picked a date and delivered on time, thankfully. It was a lesson in discipline and taught me that I could really stick with something if I wanted to. I started researching in early 2013, got a publishing deal in late 2016 and delivered the finished book in late 2017 but the idea was actually hatched in 2010 so it’s something I’d been wanting to do for a long time.

Review Fix: What makes it different from other baseball books?

Daniel: I think one of the things that separates this book from many baseball books is that I tried to weave in some pop culture and world events throughout the book. Nineteen-Eighty was the Who Shot J.R.? summer, Mt. St. Helens erupted that summer and movies like The Shining, Friday the 13th, The Blues Brothers, and Airplane! came out that year so I addressed those in an attempt to kind of anchor the book in the time. I’ve gotten some really nice feedback from readers saying they enjoyed that aspect of the book and in some cases I was able to tie some of those things back to baseball. There’s a baseball-related Easter egg in The Shining, for example, and the part of the co-pilot played by Kareem in Airplane! was originally written with Pete Rose in mind. Those were things I really enjoyed working into the book.

Review Fix: Did you learn anything you weren’t expecting?

Daniel: Lots. Again, I thought I knew a lot about that year but I kept finding things that were new to me. I was really surprised to read about Ozzie Smith taking out an ad in the paper basically looking for a part-time job during the season. I’ve heard different stories about what actually happened in that situation but it was really interesting and not something you’d see today for sure.

One of the biggest challenges was deciding what to keep and what to omit. It was all interesting to me but I knew I couldn’t include every little thing in the finished book. I wanted to keep the narrative flowing and including lots of little tidbits would likely bog things down. Having said that, I still tried to get as much in as I could.

Review Fix: What else makes the two teams featured here so special?

Daniel: There were a lot of similarities between the Phillies and the Royals that season. Each of them had won division titles in 1976, 77, and ’78 but hadn’t broken through. Both teams had first-year managers (Dallas Green took over in Philadelphia in late 1979) and both had star third basemen who would become the MVPs of their respective leagues. I think this World Series bonded Mike Schmidt and George Brett forever. Similar to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in a way. It was the national coming out party for both of them.

The other thing that was great about the season was that three of the four division races came down to the final weekend of the season. The Royals ran away with the A.L. West, but the Yankees were challenged by the defending A.L. East champion Orioles, who won 100 games that season and didn’t make the playoffs. In the National League, the Phillies and Expos faced each other on the final weekend to decide the N.L. East while the Dodgers and Astros had a one-game playoff to decided who won that division. It was a fun season.

Review Fix: How do you think they’d fare in today’s MLB?

Daniel: It’s tough to say because the game has changed so much. Guys like Nolan Ryan, Goose Gossage and J.R. Richard were special because they threw so hard. Now every team in the big leagues has 5 guys in their bullpen who throw harder than those guys. The approach to hitting is entirely different now than it was then and, of course, people stole bases during that era. That said, the greats could play in any era. I’m sure Schmidt, Brett, Steve Carlton, Rickey Henderson, and guys like that would be just fine in today’s game.

Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy this book the most?

Daniel: Fans of the Phillies and the Royals will definitely enjoy the book but it isn’t just about those two teams. My hope was to write something that any baseball fan of that era could enjoy. I imagined people sitting down to read and saying, “Oh, I remember that!” No matter who you rooted for there’s something in the book for you and I would hope that it is a good primer for anyone looking to learn more about that era.

Review Fix: What are your goals for this book?

Daniel: I feel like the ’80s kinda get overlooked and one of the goals to point out there there was some great baseball played during that time. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on my Facebook page from people who have fond memories of that era, which has been really great. Before I wrote the book I felt like me and a small group of my friends were about the only ones who cared about that era but I’ve found a large group who really like what I do and that has been tremendously rewarding.

Review Fix: What’s next for you?

Daniel: I’m hoping to do another one soon!

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Daniel: If you’d like to come along with the nostalgia train with me you can follow me on Twitter @jdaniel2033 and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/80sbaseball.