August 23, 1980: "The Baseball Bunch" Premieres

August 23, 1980: The Baseball Bunch premieres on NBC. Cincinnati Reds superstar (and eventual Hall-of-Famer) Johnny Bench hosts this series, a baseball instructional video that airs before the Saturday NBC Game of the Week.

The series featured several kids being taught in various tactics of the game by Bench and guest players, including future Hall-of-Famers George Brett, Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Joe Morgan, Phil Niekro, Jim Rice, Cal Ripken Jr., Mike Schmidt, Tom Seaver, Ted Simmons, Ozzie Smith, Willie Stargell, Bruce Sutter and Don Sutton.

Other guests included retired Hall-of-Famers Ted Williams and Frank Robinson; major league managers Sparky Anderson (eventually elected to the Hall) and Chuck Tanner (not); former catcher and Hall of Fame broadcaster Joe Garagiola; eventual all-time hits leader, but also eventual lifetime banee, Pete Rose; noted umpire Ron Luciano; and New York 1st basemen Keith Hernandez and Don Mattingly.

The episodes were taped in Tucson, Arizona, during Spring Training, meaning easy access for the guest players. Erik Lee, who played one of the kids, using the name Rick, recalled, "Each 30-minute episode took basically a day, so we would start early in the morning and just go all day... We would film for a couple weeks at a time, and (while filming) we would get out of school for a couple weeks at a time. It was glorious."

"Working" along with the kids was Ted Giannoulas, in costume as the San Diego Chicken (billed here as simply "The Chicken"). Late in every episode, appearing by video -- because his team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, then trained in Florida, specifically at Vero Beach -- was Tommy Lasorda, the Hall of Fame manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, as "The Dugout Wizard," complete with wizard costume.

The series ran until 1985, beyond Bench's retirement as a player in 1983. In his 2007 interview with JustMyShow.com, Giannoulas recalled Major League players also secretly enjoying the show, saying "That was a real highlight, being on that program... During the show's existence, I had professional baseball players tell me that they would sneak a peek at the show and pick up tips, because the information that Johnny and our guests would put on the show was very, very good inside baseball information... So I took that as a real compliment, because it signified how credible and good the advice that Johnny and the players were giving, and that not only were kids picking up good advice, but I can attest that professional ballplayers were also tuned in as well."

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August 23, 1980 was a Saturday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the California Angels, 5-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Rudy May outpitched Dave LaRoche. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-3 with 2 walks, but Bob Watson hit a home run. Rod Carew singled as a pinch-hitter.

* The New York Mets lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-2 at Shea Stadium.

* The Montreal Expos beat the San Diego Padres, 2-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Bill Gullickson pitched a shutout, allowing 7 hits, and Willie Montañez had 3 of them. Dave Winfield went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-2 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-4. Pete Rose went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Willie Stargell did not play. With some irony, given the day, neither did Johnny Bench.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-2 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-5 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Robin Yount went 1-for-5, and Paul Molitor did not play.

* The Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at the Astrodome in Houston. The game went through 16 scoreless innings. Enos Cabell led off the bottom of the 17th with a single. Terry Puhl bunted him over to 2nd. With 1st base open, José Cruz was intentionally walked to set up the double play, but the Cubs could only get a foreeout when Denny Walling grounded to 2nd. Joe Niekro, who had come in to pitch for the 16th inning, made himself the winning pitcher by singling Cabell home.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Dan Graham hit 2 home runs for the O's. Eddie Murray went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. So did rookie Rickey Henderson, and he also stole a base.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-1 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-3 with a walk.

And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal went to the Midlands, and lost 3-1 to Coventry City.

Also, Rex Grossman, who quarterbacked the Chicago Bears into Super Bowl XLI (but lost it), was born.