boy

i'm going to see u2 in a couple of weeks.  it will be the 6th or 7th time i've seen them in concert, but only the 3rd time outdoors.  the first time i saw them outside, in 1988, it was almost a religious experience.  the second time, at dodger stadium no less, was somewhat disappointing mostly due to the over-the-top zoo tv and mephisto crap.  this time, they're playing at the bare bones gopher stadium at the u of m.  fingers crossed.  anyway, i'm going to count it down, starting with their first album - boy.

boy was released in october of 1980 and featured 'i will follow', 'the electric co.' and what may be my favorite track, 'shadows and tall trees'.  i'm not going to write about the album or anything - click on the link above if you're interested - instead i am going to find a dodger baseball card correlation.  here it is - the 1981 topps traded fernando valenzuela card.

yes, it's a year after the album was released, but fernando didn't have a 1980 card.  he did, however, make his major league debut in 1980 as a 19 year old, as close to a boy as you can get in the big leagues.  he appeared in 10 games in september/october of 1980, picking up 2 wins, 1 save, 16 strikeouts and allowing just 2 unearned runs giving us all a taste of the 'fernandomania' that was to come in 1981.

fernando pitched 4 scoreless innings in two games against the astros in the dodgers' must win series at the end of the season.  the dodgers won all three games and forced a one-game playoff.  tommy lasorda opted for dave goltz to start game 163 since fernando had thrown 2 innings the day before.  the astros scored two unearned runs in the first inning and never looked back.  lasorda did eventually bring fernando into the game (he threw 2 more scoreless frames) but the game was pretty much over by that point.

it was 'out of control'.