(Sorry I've been slacking. Thanks for Gleckel.)
Of course, the Brewers, having seen their lead vanish and desperate to reclaim the top slot, are not going to just sit around and let the Yankees deploy Scott Gleckel! They've called in some big guns of their own, and have summoned Billy Severns from Vancouver!
Sure, you can say that with the Brewers' starting outfield of Ben Oglivie, Gorman Thomas, and Sixto Lezcano all hitting for higher than .800 OPS (Sixto over .900) and averaging 31 HRs and 85 RBI (and we're only in early September), the Brew Crew doesn't need another OF, but Billy has been having a heck of a season at AAA Vancouver (as he did in OTL, coming off strong years at AA Holyoke and AAA Spokane in previous years.)
IRL, it didn't get him the call (of course) but it did get him invited to Spring Training in 1980, where, as Billy tells it in
this video, George Bamberger actually told him he'd made the team!
And the man from Topps took his picture, resulting in the Topps Vault image displayed in the video. I don't have that image (because I don't have the Vault archived as others do), but you may.
Alas, Harry Dalton soon pointed out to Bambi that returning Rule V draft pick Mark Brouhard would cost them $25,000 for nothing (and Brouhard was also having a good spring), so Billy got a "hey, you really like Vancouver, right?" speech.
Billy sulked, even though you can argue that he should have been glad he didn't get a "did you know you're 27?" speech, since he was. So he had a mediocre 1980 season, aggravated by his tweaking ligaments in his ankle, and got released.
He hooked on for 1981 Spring Training with the Giants and his pal Doyle Alexander tried to encourage him, but San Francisco decided they'd rather try to squeeze another season out of Bill North (who was only 33, and coming off a sizzling .665 OPS in 1980) and sent out Billy, who hung them up.
(They also sent out the young Charles Theodore Davis, which Billy cites as proof they were making a lot of mistakes, but for all I know, at that time Chili wasn't fully cooked.)