WillyM

Darold Knowles is somebody I haven't thought about in quite a while. He had a couple of good years as the Senators' closer in 1969-70. He started his big league career with the Orioles in 1965, pitching in five games, all of them blowout losses. But he is significant in Oriole history for being part of a three-way trade. The Orioles first traded Norm Siebern to the California Angels for Dick Simpson. Next, they traded Knowles and Jackie Brandt to the Phillies for Jack Baldschun. Finally, they traded Simpson, Baldschun, and Milt Pappas to Cincinnati in the deal that made Frank Robinson an Oriole.

I think I remember hearing that there is a rule that any time a ball is touched by more than two players, it must be thrown out of play for safety reasons. Of course, if anybody brings the coronavirus into the ballpark, it's going to be there all day. It's not going to wait for the umpire to yell "Play ball" before it's ready to infect someone. I'm wondering how this rule will affect pregame batting practice. I used to go to games at Memorial Stadium early to watch batting practice. The batting practice pitcher had a supply of baseballs in a grocery cart next to the mound. He would get a ball out of the cart, throw a pitch, and the batter would hit it. Guys would hit the ball all over the field. The balls would be retrieved and thrown in to an area behind second base, where someone would catch them and put them in a basket. Then he would periodically take the basket to the center of the diamond and dump them into the grocery cart, so the batting practice pitcher wouldn't run out of baseballs. The same balls got used over and over again, and got handled by different guys all over the field. Is a batting practice pitcher in 2020 going to have to use a new ball for every pitch?

Deleting post.

It's quite true that Elrod did not tag the runner with the ball. It is also true that the runner, Carbo, slid wide of the plate and did not touch it on his way past. The proper thing for the umpire to have done would have been to make no call, and wait to see whether the runner could make it back to the plate before the catcher could tag him. It always appeared to me that Elrod knew darn good and well that he hadn't made a legal tag, so he immediately started to roll over and get back to the plate. I believe that he would have been in position to block the plate and tag Carbo before he could get back. But when the umpire yelled "You're out!" Elrod realized he no longer needed to tag Carbo. What he needed to do was check and make sure the other runners weren't trying to advance, which is what he did. Then he just flipped the ball to Palmer. Reds apologists have noted that Carbo eventually touched the plate while he and Sparky Anderson were stomping around and arguing the decision, but time had been called, so the run could not possibly count.

The 60-game schedule hasn't come out yet, but I understand that AL East teams are each supposed to play 40 games against AL East opponents and 20 games against NL East opponents. No games against any teams in the Central or West divisions. Similarly, Central division teams will play only Central division opponents and West division teams will play only West division opponents. I guess that could work, but then I read that MLB is still determined to have the Yankees play the White Sox in a game at or near the site used in the "Field of Dreams" movie. When is MLB going to figure out that the Yankees and White Sox are not in the same division?

I can fairly easily work up a 60-game schedule in which each AL East team plays four three-game series against each other AL East team (48 games), plus one three-game series against each of four NL East teams (12 games). A 70-game schedule would be possible by having each AL East team play four three-game series and one two-game series against each other AL East team (56 games), plus one three-game series against each of four NL East teams and one two-game series against the other NL East team (14 games). Some teams would get a couple more home games than other teams, though I'm not sure how much the home field advantage matters if there are no fans. For a 65-game schedule, you'd need to have each AL East team play three three-game series and two two-game series against each other AL East team (52 games), plus one three-game series against each of three NL East teams and one two-game series against each of two NL East teams (13 games). 60, 65, or 70, they're all doable. Play ball!

I might be OK with being in the ballpark with groups six feet apart. The problem would be getting to and from the ballpark. In normal times, I drive down from York on I-83 and take the Timonium exit, then catch the light rail to Camden Yards. Under normal circumstances, I'm willing to put up with the crush of humanity on the light rail. But I don't expect the threat of the coronavirus to be over before the end of the 2020 baseball season. I don't feel all that sure that the threat is going to be over before the end of the 2021 baseball season. Considering I'm in the high-risk age bracket, I think as long as that threat exists, I'm going to have to forego trips to Camden Yards.

The Bird, to be precise. In a virtual ceremony, the Mascot Hall of Fame in Whiting, Indiana, inducted four new honored members today. Oriole fans can be happy to know that the Oriole Bird was one of the four. Boomer (the Indiana Pacers' mascot) and Youppi (formerly the Montreal Expos' mascot, who changed sports and became the Canadiens' mascot after the Expos left for Washington) were two of the other three. The fourth (somewhat bittersweet for Baltimore fans) was Blue, the mascot of the Indianapolis Colts.

With an abbreviated schedule, MLB could have a major headache trying to get rained out games made up before the end of the season. Add ties into the mix and there would be even more makeup games to worry about.

Although the thread title seems to be asking about the Orioles' last 5 tool player regardless of who drafted him, the original question in post # 1 asked about the last 5 tool player the Orioles drafted. On that basis, guys like Adam Jones and Felix Pie would not figure into the discussion.

Tony Tarasco, seeing that he was going to be able to catch Jeter's ball just in front of the wall, made no effort to jump for it. Such an effort would have been totally unnecessary if not for Maier's interference, which Tarasco wasn't anticipating. I have a dim recollection that a former Yankee (Dave Winfield, maybe) who was noted for making spectacular leaping efforts to catch fly balls near or above the top of the wall, commented afterwards that Tarasco should have jumped for the ball, since by doing so he might have contacted Maier's hand and made the interference more apparent. Tarasco had just entered the game as a defensive replacement for Bobby Bonilla. Bonilla probably didn't cover as much ground as Tarasco, but he was three inches taller and might have been able to jump a little higher. I guess we can speculate forever whether Bonilla would have jumped for the ball if he had been left in the game.

The Orioles' website currently has an article on the best third basemen in Orioles' history. Fourth on the list is Doug DeCinces, who had the misfortune of being the guy who had to follow Brooks Robinson's act. While DeCinces didn't have Brooks' longevity, he was good enough to play 15 seasons in the major leagues. He had some power, hitting 237 major league homers. I remember two plays in particular from DeCinces' career. One was a night game at Yankee Stadium. I don't remember the date or the year. But DeCinces hit perhaps the hardest ball I have ever seen hit that wasn't a home run. It was a line shot to deepest left center. The ball hit the padded wall right at the distance marker (which, as I remember, read 433 ft.) with a BOOM! that could be heard all over the stadium. It rebounded off the wall so hard that the Yankee center fielder didn't have to go very far to get it. DeCinces wound up with a double, and he actually had to hustle a little bit to beat the throw to second base. The other play came in the fifth inning of Game 4 of the 1979 ALCS. The Orioles had taken the first two games of the series but had blown a lead and lost Game 3 the night before. Entering the bottom of the fifth, the Orioles held a 3-0 lead, but the Angels' first three batters reached base and all of a sudden there was a real possibility that the lead was about to go up in smoke. Scott McGregor got one out on a fly ball too shallow to allow anyone to score. The next batter, Jim Anderson, hit a hard one-hopper over third base. If it had gone down the line and into the left field corner, at least two and maybe all three runners would have scored. DeCinces dove to his right and made a backhanded grab. While still on the ground, he reached over and touched third base to get the out on the runner coming from second. Then he got to his feet and fired to first, in time for an inning-ending double play. The Angels had a real chance to turn the game around, and DeCinces took it away from them, just like that. The demoralized Angel bullpen gave up five runs after two were out in the seventh, and the Orioles were on to the World Series. One last memory about DeCinces. I remember sitting in Section 34 for a game when Wild Bill Hagy was in his heyday. Everyone knows how Wild Bill would spell out O-R-I-O-L-E-S with body language, but you had to sit in his section to know that he had special cheers for certain players. When Ken Singleton came up, Bill would lead the section in a chorus of "Come on, Ken - put it in the bullpen!" He also had a special cheer for DeCinces, though it involved ignoring the French pronunciation of DeCinces' name. It was "Over the fences, Doug DeSenses!" Of course, Bill's best cheer was for Rich Dauer. "Come on Rich - you son of a - gun!" ?

I lived in Philadelphia or its suburbs for many years and still live in Pennsylvania, so I root for the Phillies as a second team. But as a general rule, if an Orioles game and a Phillies game are on TV at the same time, I'll watch the Orioles, regardless of which team has the better record.

I grew up in upstate New York but have been an Oriole fan since I was about seven years old. There weren’t a lot of other Oriole fans in the area. The highlight of my ballplaying career came between my junior and senior years in high school, while I was attending a summer program at Cornell University. A couple of intramural softball games were organized for the summer students, with the teams organized according to the dorms in which we lived. Before the first game, the captain asked what position everyone would like to play. I said I’d prefer first base, but another fellow also said he’d prefer first base. Turned out he was the All-Star first baseman for his high school league in Maryland. I couldn’t match those credentials, so the captain put me at second base. I’d never played much second base, but at least I had some idea of the fundamental things a second baseman should do. There came a situation where the other team had a runner on first with one out and a weak hitter at the plate. The hitter swung and produced a dinky little popup in front of the plate, not very high. The pitcher charged in, the catcher charged out, and I realized there was a possibility that they could collide and the ball could drop. But I also realized that the runner couldn’t leave first until he saw whether the ball was going to be caught or not. I moved to cover second, because if the ball was dropped, we could still have a chance for a force play. The pitcher and catcher collided and the ball dropped. The runner started from first and I hollered “Second! Second!” The pitcher heard me, grabbed the ball, and made a hurried throw. The throw was on line and in plenty of time, but it was low, and I could see it was going to get to me on the short hop. I got down on one knee, so that if I didn’t catch the ball, I could at least block it and keep it on the infield. But I kept my toe on the base in case I did catch it. Well, I caught it. The runner was out. The pitcher and catcher congratulated me on a good play. So did the third baseman and shortstop. But the compliment I will always treasure came from the first baseman – the guy from Maryland. He looked at me and said, “Man – you played that one like an Oriole.”

Have the Orioles played in St. Louis since 2003? As I recall, they played a three-game series there in that year. The Cards asked the Orioles to wear St. Louis Browns replica uniforms for the middle game of the three-game set. The Orioles/Browns, with Sir Sidney Ponson pitching a complete game and being backed by home runs from Melvin Mora, Jeff Conine, and two from Deivi Cruz, beat the Cardinals, 8-1.

Hansen broke in with the Orioles and was the Rookie of the Year for them in 1960. However, he did not execute his unassisted triple play until 1968, by which time he was playing for the Washington Senators. Interestingly, the man he tagged for the third out of that triple play was Russ Snyder. Snyder by then was playing for Cleveland, but he will forever hold the distinction of being the man who scored the first World Series run in Orioles history, riding home on Frank Robinson's homer after Snyder walked in the first inning of Game 1 in 1966.

I remember going to Opening Day in 1973, Orioles vs. Brewers, an absolutely picture-perfect Friday afternoon. I lived in Philadelphia at the time. I took the train to Baltimore and headed up to Memorial Stadium from the train station. I can remember that a lot of the trees along 33rd St. were decorated with posters made by local elementary school kids, all on the theme of "Welcome home, Orioles." It was a day when everything went right for the Orioles. They jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning and ended up winning, 10-0. Dave McNally pitched a complete-game shutout, allowing only three hits, with no walks and one strikeout. Don Baylor went 4-for-4 with three RBIs and was a single short of hitting for the cycle - he had two doubles, a triple, and a home run in the game. The attendance was 26,543. I remember hearing that the Orioles' management was thrilled with the turnout. They had been expecting about 15,000.

I was under the impression that Chris Davis was having a pretty darn good spring this year - showing good patience on pitches outside of the strike zone and generally making good contact when he swung, with nowhere near the strikeout rate he's displayed in recent seasons. The simulation seems to have given no credence at all to his offensive numbers in spring training this year. On the other hand, I can't find this year's spring training statistics on the Orioles' website. So I guess it's not surprising that the simulation gave little credence to statistics that weren't available.

Here's some matchup information. The pitcher Toronto had in the game was Francisco Liriano, who had faced five batters and gotten them all out. In his last previous outing on Sept. 28, Liriano had pitched six scoreless innings against the Orioles. He was matching up really well against the Orioles' offense. Ubaldo Jimenez' last outing had been on Sept. 29 against the Blue Jays, and he had matched up really well against them, pitching six scoreless innings and allowing only one hit. Buck took the chance that Jimenez might be ready to match up well against the Blue Jays again, just like Liriano was matching up against the Orioles. Obviously, it didn't work. The last Oriole batter in that playoff game was Nolan Reimold, who pinch-hit for Hyun-Soo Kim. Liriano struck Reimold out. I suppose the imaginative thing for Buck to do would have been to send a different pinch-hitter up there instead of Reimold. After all, he had a guy on the roster with a career major league batting average of .625, with five hits, including a homer and a double, in eight at-bats. I am speaking, of course, of Zach (as he was then known) Britton. (Never mind the fact that he was a left-handed hitter and would have been facing a left-handed pitcher.) Think of it. Britton could have had the chance to hit a game-winning home run and then record a save in the same game.

Ken Holtzman, though he had pitched fairly well for the Orioles in the early part of the '76 season, was getting near the end of his career (and besides that, his teammates couldn't stand him). He pitched OK for the Yankees in the balance of the '76 season, but only lasted another three years in the big leagues and was never that effective again. Grant Jackson went 6-0 for the Yankees in the rest of '76, but then was taken by Seattle in the expansion draft. He never played for the Mariners, as he was traded to Pittsburgh, but lasted another six years in the majors. Doyle Alexander had a lot left in the tank. He went 10-5 for the Yankees in the rest of '76, but was signed by the Rangers as a free agent during the offseason. I guess if his asking price was too high for the Yankees, it would have been too high for the Orioles. He continued to pitch in the major leagues until 1989. I knew a Yankee fan who was delighted with the trade, simply because it got Dave Pagan out of a Yankee uniform. Pagan went 1-4 for the Orioles in '76. Like Jackson, he was taken by Seattle in the expansion draft. He was out of the major leagues after one more season. Scott McGregor, Tippy Martinez, and Rick Dempsey were, of course, hugely instrumental in the Orioles' winning the World Championship in 1983. On balance, I'd have to say it was a trade that worked out well for the Orioles.

I'll watch an occasional re-broadcast of an Orioles game from the past, although it seems that some games get re-broadcast over and over again. Back in 2018, my brother, who lives in Pittsfield, MA, told me that someone who lives up there had produced a documentary on the life of Mark Belanger, who was originally from Pittsfield. He had offered it to MASN but hadn't gotten any response. If MASN ever showed it during either the 2018-19 or 2019-20 offseason, it escaped my notice. I wonder, now that it may be quite a while before we have live baseball again, whether MASN might want to take another look at doing something other than re-broadcasts of games that have already been re-broadcast on numerous occasions.

I remember going to a game at Memorial Stadium and getting a seat on one end of the first row, just to the left of the screen behind home plate. As infield practice was going on, Elrod Hendricks came over and started signing autographs for kids who were lined up in the aisle next to me. I didn't think it would be appropriate for me to ask for an autograph and make some kid wait while he signed for me, so I just let the kids get theirs. The first few kids brought their own pens, but then one just handed Elrod a sheet of paper. Elrod looked at him and said, "Did you think I brought a pen out to the field with me?" I had a pen in my pocket, so I said "Here, you can use my pen." He signed using my pen for a while, then said to me, "This is a nice pen. It fits my hand real nice. Would you trade it for a baseball?" I said that I would, but he laughed and said he was just kidding. Eventually the time came for practice to end, so he told the kids in the aisle that he was sorry, but he had to go back to the clubhouse now, so he couldn't sign any more autographs. And as the kids turned to go, he pulled a baseball out of his hip pocket, signed it, and gave it to me. He gave my pen back to me, too.

I remember seeing Aaron collect the final extra-base hit and score the final run of his career. He was a youngster of 42 at the time. The Orioles' final home game of the 1976 season, on Wednesday night, Sept. 29, was against the Brewers, with whom Aaron concluded his career. A few days before the game, Brooks Robinson made a comment to the effect that he wasn't sure he would come back for the 1977 season. With the possibility that the Wednesday night game might be Brooks' final home game suddenly staring them in the face, the Orioles hastily announced that that game would be "Thanks, Brooks" night and encouraged fans to come out and give the Oriole legend what might be his last hurrah. The promotion wasn't terribly successful, as only 8,119 of us showed up at Memorial Stadium that night (thought that was a good bit better than the 4,598 who had attended the night before). Brooks played in the game and had an eighth-inning single, after which he was removed for pinch-runner Bob Bailor. Aaron had a sixth-inning double and came around to score the Brewers' fourth run of what wound up as a 6-3 Milwaukee victory. Bad Henry played one more major league game, that in the Brewers' home finale on Sunday, Oct. 3. He went 1-for-3, with a sixth-inning RBI single, after which he was removed for pinch-runner Jim Gantner. Hard to believe, but the attendance at County Stadium for Aaron's last game was a mere 6,858, fewer than had been at Memorial Stadium four nights previous.

Perhaps the spring training caps are MLB's effort to help fans forget how awful last year's Players' Weekend uniforms were. ?

The Harrisburg Patriot-News reported today that Billy Gardner Jr. will manage the Harrisburg Senators in 2020. His father played ten seasons in the major leagues, four of those with the Orioles. He won the award for Most Valuable Oriole in 1957, when he led the American League in doubles. Retrosheet and Baseball Reference refer to him simply as Billy rather than Billy Sr., perhaps because his major league playing career ended in 1963 and Billy Jr. wasn't born until 1966. I can still remember watching on TV as Billy settled under Hank Bauer's popup in shallow right-center to make the final putout that secured Hoyt Wilhelm's no-hitter on Sept. 20, 1958.