Blast From the Past: Opening Day 1977, Gary Thomasson's Home Run

1977 was the dawn of the Tommy Lasorda era for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He arrived with about as much hype as any manager in the history of the game. Lasorda was good at promoting baseball, but he was even better at promoting himself. He had been campaigning relentlessly for the job for several years and finally got his wish. The LA media fell in love with him and the stories in the LA times and other media outlets were nauseatingly fawning. The Dodgers lineup of Lopes, Russell, Reggie Smith, Garvey, Cey, Dusty Baker, etc had come of age along with a deep rotation headed by a guy I hated as much as any Dodger who has ever played, Don Sutton. They were loaded for bear, knew it, and proclaimed it to the world.

My parents had moved to Southern California. I was living at home and commuting daily to college in Riverside. As a commuter student, I didn't know too many people on campus. I used to pack a lunch and eat it in my car while I listened to the radio. I had never gotten to listen to an Opening Day game because they were always day games during the week and I was always in school. My afternoon class didn't start until 1:30, so I was excited to catch the first inning or two. That it was Giants vs Dodgers was made it all the more exciting.

The Giants didn't have a terrible team that year. They still had Bill Madlock. Jack Clark was just coming on board. Darrell Evans was an underrated hitter. Willie McCovey was back with the team and would hit 28 HR's that year. The strength of the team was a scrappy pitching staff led by Jim Barr, Ed Halicki and John "The Count" Montfusco. I had a sliver of hope that the Giants would give the Dodgers a run for their money, but deep inside, I knew that the LA sportwriters were right. The Dodgers were just too good!

The Giants also had a scrappy outfielder named Gary Thomasson who was hitting leadoff that Opening Day. He stood in for the first pitch from the hated Don Sutton......and hit it out of the park!! Man, did I ever love it! First pitch from the pitcher I hated more than any other player and bam, gone! Sutton went on to retire the next 3 batters easily and I had to get to class, so I grudgingly turned off the radio and headed off. Well, it turned out I didn't miss much as that was pretty much all the offense the Giants could muster against Sutton that day in losing 5-1.

After the game, a controversy erupted over the home run by Thomasson. Major League Baseball had switched to Rawlings baseballs that year and it seems the plan was to send the game ball to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Someone had told Sutton that Thomasson would take the first pitch so the ball could be saved, or so Sutton claimed. In this scenario, Sutton threw a batting practice fastball down the middle of the plate that Thomasson wasn't supposed to swing at. Thomasson claimed he knew of no such plan, was first ball swinging, and whacked it over the fence. As far as I know, Sutton's claim has never been verified. Whether true or not, I've always thought it was bush league of Sutton to go to that excuse.

The Dodgers went on to run away with the NL West and got to the World Series. They would go on to almost a decade of dominating the Giants until Will Clark came along. 1977 would prove to be Gary Thomasson's best MLB season with a line of .256/.358/.451 with 17 HR's and 16 SB's. He would be traded in the offseason along with several other players to the Oakland A's for Vida Blue. Thomasson actually finished his MLB career with the Dodgers before signing a big contract to play in Japan, where he was a bust. Gary Thomasson is a footnote in the history of Giants baseball, but I will always remember him for the opening day when he showed up the pitcher I hated more than any other.