Rating Baseball’s Best of ‘80s

Think of the 1980s today, tomorrow or years from now: which baseball player will you immediately identify with the decade? Don Mattingly or Dwight Gooden? They didn’t become full-time players until 1984. Eddie Murray? He drove in more runs than anybody else in the decade but never had a most valuable player season. Robin Yount? Nobody had more hits in the ‘80s -- or seemed to be more overlooked.

Mike Schmidt? Yes, that’s it. Beginning with 1980, when he was voted the MVP awards of the National League and the World Series, right up to his emotional and classy retirement this year, nobody made more of an impact on the decade than Schmidt. He is the player of the decade.

In the ‘80s, Schmidt was named to eight All-Star teams, won five Gold Glove Awards, won three National League MVP awards and hit a major-league-high 313 homers. He led or tied the National League in homers five times in the decade. No one comes close to those honors.

Schmidt was an easy pick as the third baseman for my Team of the Decade. Before I present the rest of the lineup card, let’s establish the ground rules.

These are not necessarily the best players to appear in the decade. Rather, these are the best players. That’s an important distinction. Put it this way: Mattingly is my choice for the best first baseman right now, but the first baseman who accomplished the most in the ‘80s is Murray -- easily. So here is the Team of the Decade. The numbers after each player’s name denote his average season in the ‘80s.

C: Gary Carter (.264, 21 HR, 80 RBI). As Johnny Bench was the catcher of the ‘70s, Carter unquestionably established himself as the catcher of the ‘80s. He drove in 100 runs four times in the decade and 97 runs one other time. Lance Parrish might have hit 18 more homers than Carter, but no one handled pitchers better or blocked the pitch in the dirt better than Carter. He was named to every National League Al -Star team this decade but the last.

1B: Eddie Murray (.293, 27, 100). He has the best numbers across the board of any player in the decade. Yet Murray never won the MVP award, never led his league in any offensive category other than in the strike season and was traded by the Baltimore Orioles for three unproven players in large part because he was deemed a poor influence on their young players.

2B: Ryne Sandberg (.285, 14, 55). The only player on the team who did not make his major-league debut until 1981 -- and that year he batted only six times. Despite only eight full seasons in the decade, Sandberg had 69 more hits than Willie Randolph, 94 more RBI than Steve Sax and a glove that nobody matched, not even the slick Frank White.

3B: Mike Schmidt (.277, 31, 93). He might be the best third baseman of all time, not just this decade.

SS: Robin Yount (.305, 17, 82). OK, nobody played the position like Ozzie Smith. But Yount, who played the first five years of the decade at shortstop and the last five in the outfield, cannot be left off this team. Remember, he won the MVP award as a shortstop and was named an All-Star at that position three times.

LF: Rickey Henderson (.291, 14, 54). The man who stole 838 bases in the decade also hit as many as 28 homers in a season for the New York Yankees. Nobody comes close to Henderson in runs scored, stolen bases or pitchers distracted.

CF: Dale Murphy (.273, 31, 93). He won five Gold Gloves and two MVP awards, hit more homers than everybody but Schmidt, drove in more runs than everybody but Murray and missed only 23 games the entire decade. Enough said.

RF: Dwight Evans (.280, 26, 90). What’s he doing here? He made only two All-Star teams in the decade. But check out the numbers. Evans was too consistent and too productive to ignore. And remember, nobody played right field like Evans for the first six years of the decade. Dave Winfield, because of his back injury, and Andre Dawson, because of two off years, just missed this spot.

DH: Harold Baines (.288, 19, 84). Without much speed, Baines ranks fifth in hits over the decade. He was remarkably consistent and one of the most feared hitters in the clutch.

Right-handed starting pitcher: Jack Morris (16-12, 3.66 ERA). Even with his 6-14 disaster this year, Morris won 22 more games and threw 114 more innings than any other pitcher in the decade. Bob Welch deserves a special mention. Only Morris and Dave Stieb won more games than Welch, and they can’t match his .596 winning percentage. And yet Welch made only one All-Star team.

Left-handed starting pitcher: Fernando Valenzuela (13-10, 3.19). Not much to choose from here. So Valenzuela, despite a 29-35 record in the past three years, gets the nod for his run from 1981 to 1986 in which he was 97-68 and made the All-Star team every year. John Tudor had a fine record but won more than 13 games only once in the decade. And Ron Guidry, another left-hander with a sterling winning percentage, won 17 fewer games and threw 504 fewer innings than Valenzuela.

Right-handed reliever: Jeff Reardon (6-6, 2.75, 26 saves). He saved 25 more games than anyone else in the decade and yet was traded twice. Reardon saved at least 21 games in each of the past eight years and at least 31 games in the past five.

Lefthanded reliever: Dave Righetti (7-6, 2.91, 31 saves). His average season is based only on his six years in the bullpen. For all the complaining from Yankees fans about him, Righetti set the major-league save record (46) and saved more games in the ‘80s than any other left-hander -- by far. John Franco trailed him by 40.

Manager: Whitey Herzog (87-75). The Cardinals never finished higher than third in the five years before he was hired midway through the ’80 season. Since then, they have won three National League pennants and one world championship while compiling a 789-681 record. No manager gets more respect from opposing players than Herzog.