Maverick Hiker

As bad as the team has been it's quite unlikely Hyde will be retained, unless there is a miraculous turn around for the rest of the season. Hopefully they have someone else in mind who is a good manager and who wants the job. . I didn't like it when they courted Joe Girardi then he turned the job down at the last minute, made the Orioles look foolish. (I still don't like Girardi because of that and I hope he fails with the Phillies)

If Earl Weaver from 1969 was brought back to life and made 2021 Orioles manager he would only have small effect on W-L record. A good manager can't do much with a bad team as Weaver found out when he un-retired in 1985-86 Hyde should be retained until his contract runs out. Unfortunately I don't think he'll ever get. another managerial job as he'll be remembered for the bad years here.

I didn't think either Cal Sr or Frank were very good managers so it wasn't much of an improvement . Six games is too soon to make a change I doubt the O's would have gone 0-21 if they'd retained Cal Sr. I can understand the desire to have a bad record and amiss talent and I agree with that philosophy to some degree. but not to the degree of being an embarrassment , challenging all time losing streaks or even the 1962 Mets losses for losses. Remember too part of the Astros success was due to cheating with stealing signs I would not want to win like that. .

Changing managers in desperation usually doesn't work.. I recall the Orioles firing Cal Ripken Sr after they went 0-6 in 1988 but Frank Robinson then went 0-15. These games are pretty close hopefully they will start hitting again soon like at the beginning of the season. I'm not sure why everyone on the Orioles stopped hitting they are making mediocre opposing pitchers look like Cy Young or Bob Gibson.

Ar least the Orioles don't have the longest streak in MLB history (26). I'm starting to worry a little about the 1962 Mets record (most losses 120 ). but a win will ease my concern.

Means looked like he thought the long fly was gone when it was hit. This is great! Back in 1969 when Palmer threw his no hitter it seemed the Orioles would always have great pitchers and lots of no hitters. Palmer, McNally, Cuellar in the rotation that year. Little did I know I'd wait 52 years until the next one!

I'm one of the few posters on this board old enough to recall the Orioles last no hitter by 1 pitcher (Palmer in '69). It's been quite a long wait, congratulations John Means! It's too bad it wasn't a perfect game and no it's not perfect if any batter reaches base for whatever reason. But a no hitter is still quite an accomplishment! I recall when Mussina was pitching for the Yankees he was 1 strike away from a perfect game and gave up a single to Carl Evert. So he didn't even get a no hitter. The tension is really there especially with two outs in the 9th.

Now I can relax and enjoy the playoffs. No matter who wins now, it won't bother me all winter, like it would have if the Yankees had won the WS. The Yankees lose!

Jim Hardin, I haven't heard that name for a long time. He was one of my favorite Orioles back in 1968 when he won 18 games and he reminded me of another Jim on the pitching staff, Jim Palmer. I don't know what happened to Hardin, he didn't have a long career he was out of baseball by his mid 20's as I recall.

"Didn't perform up to his contract" is putting it mildly. . What did he hit this year .121? He caused a lot of pain and frustration to the Orioles and their fans ever since that contract was signed. He seems to me to care more about keeping the checks coming than his performance or he'd have worked out a deal to retire in exchange for an adjusted contract. One reason to keep him around is just in case Covid19 gets worse and the 2021 season were cancelled then the Orioles may not have to pay his full salary. Chris Davis is a walking argument for the owners standing up for a salary cap even if it means a long strike.

This was a game that Earl should have put a better lineup out there. Boog Powell only 1 AB and 1 hit as a pinch hitter. Mark Belanger 0 for 5 as leadoff man. Come on Earl, Mark (the blade) is your number 8 hitter, get him out of the leadoff spot. Although Earl was known as a stats man, few managers today would start good field -no hit Belanger in the leadoff spot.

Earlier this spring there were threads about Davis putting on 25 LBS of muscle and he looked like his old self in spring training, long HR and being walked by pitchers. And of course speculation that he was on PED. If he was, what happened? Did he go off of the juice? Is he still more muscular or did he lose those 25 LBS during the long break? Just in theory, if a player was on PED then signed a huge contract it would be in his financial interest to stop taking the PED the minute the ink is dry on that contract. I mean the only way the contact could be voided would be if he tested positive and was suspended. From a financial standpoint after signing, it would seem much better to fail and be released, rather than take any chance of that contract being voided and losing millions. I have no idea what's wrong with Chris Davis but I am wondering if it is ever wise to sign someone to a long term contract these days.

The list is flawed. 1968 Tigers VS Cardinals should be near the top of the list, instead of #38 That series had everything, Gibson setting the strikeout record in game 1 (still stands). Brock stealing bases, controversial calls (Cards in 5 if Brock hadn't been called out at home on a call that was probably missed). And game 7 was a classic 0-0 late inning pitchers dual between Gibson and Lolich until the late innings when Curt Flood misplayed a fly ball. In terms of importance and drama, 2001 Diamondbacks Yankees should havre been #1. That 9th inning DB comeback stopped the Yankees from winning 4 WS in a row and the Yankee dynasty was over.

McNally had a hit,, he was a pretty good hitter for a pitcher. Guess we won't be seeing that any longer with the new universal DH. I didn't recall that about the Sunday Sun having all the stats, but I'm sure it's true. I used to subscribe to The Sporting News which had all the stats for each MLB team, pages and pages of stats. However by the time the paper arrived in the mail the stats were already a few days old. I'd never have dreamed we would one day have virtually instant online stats.

The Orioles usually handled the Senators back then. Interesting that Mike Epstein had 8 RBI in the first game and yet the Senators still lost. In 1969 Ted Williams had won manager of the year after he led the Senators to their only winning season,. but his magic was gone by 1970.

That's a game nobody would have predicted, Palmer losing to a 1-7 Milwaukee pitcher Brabender and a poor Milwaukee team in it's second year of existence. I always thought Seattle got a raw deal when the expansion team split after one season in 1969 leaving for Milwaukee. Jim Bouton wrote a famous best-selling book "Ball Four" about that 1969 Seattle Pilots team playing in Sicks Stadium (the name fit the stadium) in Seattle .

I used to listen to all the Baltimore Bullet games in 1968-69, how many times did I hear "Rebound Unseld, off to Monroe (or Loughery). His full court chest passes were unbelievable. That was such an exciting team and the seven game playoff wars they had with the Knicks (Willis Reed, Dave. DeBusschere and Bill Bradley) were unbelievable to watch. Wes Unseld visited my school Johnnycake Junior High school during the '68-'69 season and talked about what he thought was important in life. I recall he said how much he admired his father above everyone else. He was a class act, RIP Wes,. It was a joy to watch you play.

Interesting that Minnesota and Cincinnati both had higher winning percentages. The Orioles however would beat them both in the post season. I recall the Reds got off to a great start that year and Johnny Bench had a career year,

Thanks for posting the 1970 box scores daily. They bring back fond memories of a. great championship season for the Orioles, and also memories of those great Orioles players from my childhood and teenage years.

Having Terry Crowley batting 3rd and going 0 for 4 made it hard in the 2nd game. The King of Swing was a good pinch hitter but not really a number 3 hole hitter. Looking at some of Weaver's lineups I have to think no way a manager would set the lineup that way today now that managers are more statistically oriented.

I'll bet the later stroke was related to Tony C's serious injury in 1967. He had a brother Billy Congiliaro who is now in his 70's. I think they set the record for most HR's by brothers, in 1970, most of them by Tony. Both played for the Red Sox that year. Kind of like Cal and Billy Ripken.

I see Tony Conigliaro was in the Sox lineup. He had perhaps his best year in 1970 with 36 HR and 116 RBi. Yet the Sox must have known his vision was going. He was traded to California after the season and the next year he was done. He never fully recovered from that terrible beaning in 1967. I later read that Ted Williams had sent word to Conigliaro before the game in which he was beaned, telling him he was crowding the plate too much,, back off the plate or he'd get beaned.

.322 with 18 HR in limited playing time, what a year Merv Rettenmund had in 1970. Too bad he couldn't sustain that level of excellence over his career.. Seems odd that there was a Thursday double header early in the year (not a makeup game) but back then was different.

8900 fans at RFK stadium for that game and probably half were Orioles fans who made the trip from Baltimore.

The Orioles pretty much owned the Senators back then, beating them with regularity. Looking at the Senators lineup, I recall every one of their players even their first names. I was such a baseball fan I tried to watch the Senators games if the Orioles were not on TV. Living in Columbia MD as I recall I could pull in the weak Washington TV stations if I adjusted the rabbit ears just right, even though there was a lot of static for the Senators games. The Baltimore Sun used to publish a TV guide with their Sunday paper back then, that showed all of the upcoming Senators and Orioles TV games. It was a good time to be a kid watching baseball in Baltimore.