More importantly, O's inducting Rich Dauer into the Hall of Fame Saturday!

[Nigel Tufnel]

As well they might have. He hit something like .330 his last year in Rochester.

Also not mentioned yet here (though probably in the PR material), is that his single season 86 straight errorless games and 425 straight errorless chances are both still AL records.

Didn't Mike Flanagan have a funny line when Manny Trillo broke Dauer's ML record? I think Dauer and the O's were mildly annoyed about it, because they felt like playing on Astroturf gave Manny an advantage, so to cheer Dauer up Flanagan said something like "Just think, Rich, it took three guys to beat your record.... you know, a Trillo."

[Frobby]

Didn't Mike Flanagan have a funny line when Manny Trillo broke Dauer's ML record? I think Dauer and the O's were mildly annoyed about it, because they felt like playing on Astroturf gave Manny an advantage, so to cheer Dauer up Flanagan said something like "Just think, Rich, it took three guys to beat your record.... you know, a Trillo."

Typical Flanny. I'm a bit surprised to leard that Dauer's AL record still stands.

[Nigel Tufnel]

I think Earl Weaver liked to playfully give Dauer a hard time because Rich had played for Rod Dedeaux at USC. I remember reading a story about a time when Dauer was going to be interviewed on the TV pregame show. Weaver went to the interviewer in advance and got her to add a question like "you've said that Rod Dedeaux is a better baseball man than Earl Weaver. Would you like to tell everyone why?" Then Earl made sure he was standing about 10 feet away when that question was asked. Cracked everybody up.

[CA-ORIOLE]

Was a pretty huge Bobby Grich fan so I geneally found Dauer to be a pretty disappointing player. My memeory seems to recall him being hyped up to be a lot better than what he turned out to be. I also recall him being pretty slow and hitting into DP's which always aggravated me. Pretty sound defender though as I recall. I recall Billy Smith giving him a run for his money for awhile, but Billy kinda dropped off the table with injuries I guess.

[Tony-OH]

I agree. Let's keep this about Dauer.

One thing I remember about him that was pretty distinctive, was that he often would get down on one knee to field a ground ball. There was absolutely no way he was going to let a grounder get through his legs.

I always felt comfortable when Dauer was up with a runner on 3B and less than 2 out, because he rarely struck out or popped up. However, in looking at his career numbers, he was very effective in those situations in the middle part of his career (64% success rate from 1978-82; 51% is average), but not so good at the beginning or the end. His career success rate of 54% was just a little bit above average.

And here is a pretty impressive stat -- Dauer was successful on 44 of 45 sacrifice bunts in his career. If you're going to bunt, at least do it right.

It's funny sometimes how you remember a guy then you look up the stats on baseball reference and get proven kinda wrong. As a kid, I always thought Dauer was a defensive wiz, but his defensive metrics would say he was a little above average. I do rmember hoping he would hit his 10th home run in 1979 because back then I thought anyone who hit 10 or more homers had power (I was nine).

[Tony-OH]

I think Earl Weaver liked to playfully give Dauer a hard time because Rich had played for Rod Dedeaux at USC. I remember reading a story about a time when Dauer was going to be interviewed on the TV pregame show. Weaver went to the interviewer in advance and got her to add a question like "you've said that Rod Dedeaux is a better baseball man than Earl Weaver. Would you like to tell everyone why?" Then Earl made sure he was standing about 10 feet away when that question was asked. Cracked everybody up.

Hilarious stuff.

[CA-ORIOLE]

It's funny sometimes how you remember a guy then you look up the stats on baseball reference and get proven kinda wrong. As a kid, I always thought Dauer was a defensive wiz, but his defensive metrics would say he was a little above average.

Strat-o-matic baseball typically had him between a 2-3 on their 4 point scale (good-average). Grich was typically a 1 (best possible). I have no idea what Strat-o-matic did back in the day before advanced metrics, but they didn't just look at fielding percentage.

[OFFNY]

o

Will you still need him, will you still feed him, when he's 64 ???

[Redskins Rick]

It's funny sometimes how you remember a guy then you look up the stats on baseball reference and get proven kinda wrong. As a kid, I always thought Dauer was a defensive wiz, but his defensive metrics would say he was a little above average. I do rmember hoping he would hit his 10th home run in 1979 because back then I thought anyone who hit 10 or more homers had power (I was nine).

That was a lot of power, when the Blade hit 20 in 18 years of pro ball.

[OFFNY]

That was a lot of power, when the Blade hit 20 in 18 years of pro ball.

Dauer had "modest" power, with 43 career round-trippers in 9 seasons between 1977 and 1985.

[Redskins Rick]

Dauer had "modest" power, with 43 career round-trippers in 9 seasons between 1977 and 1985.

That was tongue in cheek, and on what Tony-OH thought as a 9 year old.

[OFFNY]

That was tongue in cheek, and on what Tony-OH thought as a 9 year old.

I know.

I think that "modest" power is a good description of someone like Dauer, as opposed to "No power" players such as Mark Belanger, and bona fide power hitters, such as Lee May and Eddie Murray.

[InsideCoroner]

Dauer had "modest" power, with 43 career round-trippers in 9 seasons between 1977 and 1985.

I have a lot of respect for Dauer. I remember when I was like 10 or 11 years old, he hit two homers in a game in Seattle which shocked everyone. I remember he made a pretty funny quote in the paper the next day, so I had to look it up just now. "This is a nice small ballpark. If I played here all year, I'll bet I could hit five homers."

[OFFNY]

I have a lot of respect for Dauer. I remember when I was like 10 or 11 years old, he hit two homers in a game in Seattle which shocked everyone. I remember he made a pretty funny quote in the paper the next day, so I had to look it up just now. "This is a nice small ballpark. If I played here all year, I'll bet I could hit five homers."

I remember when Dauer set the all-time Major League record for consecutive errorless games AND consecutive errorless chances in 1978.

He also hit a home run to give the Orioles the lead in Game Seven of the 1979 World Series. It almost held up, as Scott McGregor was cruising into the 6th inning with a shutout. Willie Stargell's home run to straightaway centerfield that inning was just out of the reach of a leaping Al Bumbry.

[atomic]

I liked Dauer a lot when he played, but by today's metrics, he was pretty mediocre. 83 OPS+, 12.4 rWAR for his career. Davey Johnson, Bobby Grich, Roberto Alomar and Brian Roberts certainly were all significantly better than Dauer. Still, I don't begrudge him a spot in the Orioles Hall of Fame, as he was a regular contributor on some great teams.

I see 14.4 WAR career. Not bad for a short career. Definitely belong in the Orioles Hall of Fame. Bobby Grich and Alomar put Baseball Hall of Fame Numbers but Dauer was a career Oriole. The others played elsewhere and Alomar only played 3 years on the team and wasn't the best of people. I woudn't put him in Orioles Hall of Fame.