Jump to content

35 YEARS AGO: The Sporting News Article on the Orioles' New 3rd Baseman


OFFNY

Recommended Posts

And he was terrible the rest of the season.

His performance night even have cost us a playoff spot. We became the first team in MLB history to not make the playoffs when a team in our division with a worse record did.

The 77-83 teams were probably about 10 wins away from 2 WS titles and 6 playoff berths. Was born in 75 and remember 82 and 83.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The 77-83 teams we probably about 10 wins away from 2 WS titles and 6 playoff berths. Was born in 75 and remember 82 and 83.

Yep, those were great teams to root for. So many near misses. 77 eliminated the final weekend. 79 blow a 3-1 lead in the World Series. 80 we are one of a small handful of teams in ML history to win 100 he's and miss the postseason. 81 we are the first team ever to miss the playoffs when a division rival with a worse record makes it. 82 eliminated on the last day of the season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep, those were great teams to root for. So many near misses. 77 eliminated the final weekend. 79 blow a 3-1 lead in the World Series. 80 we are one of a small handful of teams in ML history to win 100 he's and miss the postseason. 81 we are the first team ever to miss the playoffs when a division rival with a worse record makes it. 82 eliminated on the last day of the season.

Had they not struggled right before the strike they would have won the 1st half in 81. Was there talk about a split season before the strike at all or just after it was over ? Always wondered that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One more thing since we are talking about the old days. The Orioles played an exhibition game at home vs the Phillies after the strike ended. I have a scorecard from that game. I never knew of that until my mom bought some stuff for me for Xmas the other year and it was in the lot. I will try to find it. If I could figure out how to post pictures I will take a picture of it. I never knew of the details once the strike ended until games started again. I know the All Star game was before games started back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had they not struggled right before the strike they would have won the 1st half in 81. Was there talk about a split season before the strike at all or just after it was over ? Always wondered that.

No, because most figures that the strike would either be brief like others had been, or it would wipe out the season. It took a perfect set of circumstances to settle the strike just in time to do the split season thing. A week or two sooner, or a week or two later, and the two halves would have been too uneven to do that. They probably would have done a regular full season.

I thought the split season was stupid. Four teams had nothing to play for in the second half. I guess it was to generate more interest, every team was "in it" until early to mid September. I think only one team in baseball was more than 9 or 10 games out of first at the end of the year.

They re-started the season with an All Star Game. Ken Singleton homered. A week or so later I was over at a friend's basement and he was the first person I knew that had this new fangled device called a video cassette recorder. He put in a tape and hit a fast forward button until a timer hit a certain number and we got to watch Singleton's home run all over Again! And we rewound it and watched it again!!! Amazing technology.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He's about a year and two months older than me. When he was at Charlotte, I had played on the same field a few times. We won the state title a couple of years before on the same field, Crockett Park, where the Charlotte Orioles played. I always felt a bit of a connection to him due to that. Just looked it up. He played 144 games in Charlotte that year and had his first real power year with 25 HRs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And he was terrible the rest of the season.

His performance night even have cost us a playoff spot. We became the first team in MLB history to not make the playoffs when a team in our division with a worse record did.

Wrong.

That very same year, the Cincinnati Reds had the best record in all of baseball, and did not make the playoffs.

So if they had the best record in all of baseball, that would mean that any team in their division also had a worse record than they did.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

o

When I was in 2nd grade in 1972, I remember being puzzled when I read the final standings in the newspaper that we got at the time (the Danbury News-Times), and that the Tigers won the A.L. East division by half a game.

"How was that possible?", I thought to myself.

My older brother later explained to me that 1972 was a strike-shortened season, and that the commissioner (Bowie Kuhn) decided to let the final standings play out as was, with no make-up dates ...... even if the final margin was less than a full game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Steve, I got a little defensive about the Reds in my previous post.

Sorry.

Don't worry, I wasn't upset.

I had forgotten about the Reds until you mentioned it. The injustice done to my Orioles is all that lingers in my mind from 1981 (well, Singy's ASG HR and the Yankees losing a World Series).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...