The Royals enjoyed the first of two days off before the ALCS. The first two games of the best-of-five series were scheduled for October 8 and 9 in Kansas City, with the final three games in New York on October 10-12. That’s right, no travel days in this one.

1980 news: Independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson got some good news, as he won a court case in Georgia that meant his name would be on ballots in all 50 states. Anderson was trailing badly in polls, most of which showed Republican challenger Ronald Reagan with a healthy lead over Democrat President Jimmy Carter.

1980 baseball news: There was one game in the majors–the tiebreaker in the NL West between Houston and Los Angeles. The Astros earned the first division title in team history the hard way, blowing a three-game lead over the weekend as the Dodgers swept them in Los Angeles but winning the tiebreaker (also in L.A.). The Astros scored seven runs in the first four innings and Joe Niekro held the Dodgers to six hits as Houston won, 7-1. The victors had little time to enjoy it, though, as they had to fly to Philadelphia for the beginning of the NLCS on Tuesday.

Today’s birthdays: Jerry Grote (1942), Jay Baller (1960), Ed Pierce (1968)