Gary Redus Knew How to Start a Season!
Thrills, surprises, and unsurprises, all in one game
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1984 Donruss Action All-Star Gary Redus (#16) - Card of the Day
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Happy Opening Day!
Yeah, I know the Cubs and Dodgers already played games that count. But I’m an old crust, so I’ll probably never celebrate any “Opening Day” that doesn’t happen in one of the MLB stadiums. Well, maybe if it happens on the Field of Dreams or my local Little League diamond, but otherwise…
So today is Opening Day in my world. And also in that world (and in my heart) Opening Day always begins on the Riverfront, just like it did on the first Opening Day that had my full attention.
On Monday, April 2, 1984, my Cincinnati Reds hosted the New York Mets in the big spaceship on the riverbank…and I couldn’t wait to watch the highlights on the nightly local news or get my hands on the box score the next day.
What I found out thrilled me and left me both surprised and unsurprised.
It was thrilling to see that the Reds had downed the Mets and 1983’s hot rookie, Darryl Strawberry, by a score of 8-1.
That was a big score, which was surprising, but the Mets were the Mets (so I thought), so if the Reds couldn’t beat them, well, it would be a long season.
And yet, Cincinnati was a bad team, too (like the Mets).
It was also thrilling to learn that Mario Soto had gone the distance, striking out eight and giving up a home run. To Strawberry (boo).
Thrilling, but not surprising. Mario was the staff ace, after all, one of the best in the game. True to form, Soto struck out two (Wally Backman and Keith Hernandez) in the first inning and also plunked Jose Oquendo before George Foster grounded out to bring up the good guys.
Probably most thrilling, and surprising, was the firepower the Reds displayed in their offensive outburst:
Gary Redus doubled to lead off the game for the Reds.
Eddie Milner singled to move Redus to third.
Milner stole second with Dave Concepcion at the plate.
Concepcion walked.
Dave Parker singled home Redus and Milner.
Dan Driessen grounded out to score Concepcion.
Just like that, the Reds were up 3-0, with Mario on the hill. Strawberry’s big fly started the second with a bang, but then the Mets went down 1-2-3.
And Cincy wasn’t done yet, either. Catcher Dann Bilardello doubled to lead off the bottom of the second second, and Soto bunt-singled him to third (both of which were surprising and thrilling). After Redus flied out, Milner hit a three-run bomb.
That was the end of Mets starter Mike Torrez, replace by Ed Lynch…who gave up an RBI double to Nick Esasky before the inning ended.
Things settled down from there, but Concepcion did take reliever Craig Swan deep to lead off the bottom of the seventh. Call it a generational insurance run.
So it all added up to a bright, promising start to a new season on the first Opening Day without Johnny Bench on the Reds roster since 1967. Thrilling.
Dave Parker, the Reds first big-name free agent signing, delivered the go-ahead runs before there was even an out. Thrilling and unsurprising. But also surprising — weren’t people writing Cobra off? Could the Reds’ big splash really pay off?
Mario Soto was still Mario Soto. Unsurprising.
Firepower from Milner, Concepcion, Bilardello. More or less surprising. All had a bit of pop, but who could have expected the convergence?
It was all great, wonderful stuff. But the most encouraging, unsurprising, and now mostly forgotten thing of all from this game? That the Reds’ biggest star from 1983, their brightest hope for the future (on the then-current roster, at least) was the catalyst for the whole romp.
Redus had finally stuck with the Reds in 1983 after a cup of coffee in 1982 following a half-decade in the minors. Taking over the left field job, he hit just .247 but with 17 home runs, 51 RBI, and 39 stolen bases.
The Reds were bad in 1983, my first year following them, and I figured they’d be bad in 1984. But I also knew they’d been even worse in 1982, and things were looking up…hey, we had Gary Redus, a guy who might go 20-20 or even 30-30 someday.
And a guy who finished fourth in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 1983, behind Strawberry, Craig McMurtry, and Mel Hall (and ahead of Bill Doran).
So, while it was thrilling to learn that Redus had sparked the Little Red Jalopy on Opening Day, it wasn’t surprising. I expected big things from the man, after all, and so did a lot of others.
That’s also one of the reasons I was so excited for the new baseball cards that spring — after a long winter of waiting, I’d finally have a chance at some Redus rookie cards (his 1983 Topps Traded notwithstanding).
What I didn’t necessarily expect was that Donruss would jump on the Redus-as-star bandwagon so early. But there he was later in the season, on card #16 in the second rendition of Donruss Action All-Stars. Considering there were just 60 cards in the set, that was pretty heady territory for the sophomore — imagine sharing a cardboard neighborhood with John Castino!
It was both thrilling and surprising to find Redus in such a lofty perch. Not so surprising?
Finding out — like, yesterday — that Donruss used the same photo for Redus’ base rookie card, #184:
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Also not so surprising was the three-game losing streak that followed Soto’s win, or the general ick that ensued from there forward. By the end of the season, Cincy lost four more games than they had in 1983, but at least they moved up a slot in the standings.
And, of course, Pete Rose also came home by the end of the season.
As for Redus, he never quite reached the heights of his rookie season again, though he did steal 48 bases twice and 52 once. And he also played a part in Cincinnati’s 1990 World Series run…as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who lost the NLCS to the Reds in six games.
For a 1984 version of me, that would have been a surprising turn of events. But of course, the end result was pretty thrilling.
Did you know that the three batters tied for the most Opening Day home runs ever all spent a big chunk of their careers with the Reds? You probably did, but did you also know that Clayton Kershaw hit an Opening Day home run and then went on to win a Cy Young Award that same season (2013)? And that that was the only homer of his career (so far, at least)?
Those are just a few of the little nuggets I uncovered going down my latest rabbit hole — digging into the history of Opening Day home runs.
I wrote it all up in a quick eBook, free on Amazon the next two days:
