The 100 Most Significant Dates in Modern Orioles History

[SteveA]

It's 90 days until pitchers and catchers report to Sarasota, and this is the 90th most significant day in modern Oriole history:

#90 -- October 5, 2012

Nearly 15 years after Roberto Alomar watched a called third strike by Jose Mesa to end the 1997 American League Championship series, the Orioles returned to the postseason on October 5, 2012.

The Orioles and Rangers tied for the two wild card spots.  2012 was the first year that MLB went to a two wildcard per league format, but, ironically, even if the previous year's format had been in place, the Orioles and Rangers would have tied for the sole wildcard and would have had a 1 game playoff.

Texas won the season series from the Orioles 5-2, so they hosted the one game wildcard playoff, the first in AL history.  The Orioles chose Joe Saunders as their starter.  The lefty was a former first round draft pick out of Virginia Tech whom the Orioles had acquired for reliever Matt Lindstrom in late August.  The 31 year old had gone 3-3 with a 3.63 ERA in 7 starts down the stretch for the Orioles.  Texas started Yu Darvish.

Each team scored in the first, the Orioles on an unearned run and Texas on a run scoring double play.  The pitcher's duel continued into the 6th, when singles by Hardy and Davis set up an Adam Jones sac fly.  Nat McClouth's RBI single in the 7th made it 3-1.  Machado and McLouth added RBI signles in the 9th for insurance.

Saunders went 5.2 innings, allowing one run on 6 hits.  O'Day, Matusz, and Johnson pitched 3.1 3-hit shutout innings, and the Orioles had a 5-1 victory in their first postseason action in a decade and a half.

The Orioles went on to play a taut 5 game series with the Yankees, taking a tough loss in the final game, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium.   But they had returned to the postseason, and would return again twice in the next 4 years.  The revival started by Andy McPhail, continued by Dan Duquette and managed by Buck Showalter, had ended the string of losing seasons and the Orioles were once again a postseason participant.

 

[foxfield]

20 hours ago, Frobby said:

This is a very fun thread.    It’s going to be really interesting when you get down to the final 25 or so.   What makes this unique is that it’s not necessarily tied to something that happened on the field, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be something positive.   I’ll be interested to see if and where January 10, 1991 falls on the list.   

A day that will live in infamy.

[bobmc]

4 hours ago, SteveA said:

It's 90 days until pitchers and catchers report to Sarasota, and this is the 90th most significant day in modern Oriole history:

#90 -- October 5, 2012

Nearly 15 years after Roberto Alomar watched a called third strike by Jose Mesa to end the 1997 American League Championship series, the Orioles returned to the postseason on October 5, 2012.

The Orioles and Rangers tied for the two wild card spots.  2012 was the first year that MLB went to a two wildcard per league format, but, ironically, even if the previous year's format had been in place, the Orioles and Rangers would have tied for the sole wildcard and would have had a 1 game playoff.

Texas won the season series from the Orioles 5-2, so they hosted the one game wildcard playoff, the first in AL history.  The Orioles chose Joe Saunders as their starter.  The lefty was a former first round draft pick out of Virginia Tech whom the Orioles had acquired for reliever Matt Lindstrom in late August.  The 31 year old had gone 3-3 with a 3.63 ERA in 7 starts down the stretch for the Orioles.  Texas started Yu Darvish.

Each team scored in the first, the Orioles on an unearned run and Texas on a run scoring double play.  The pitcher's duel continued into the 6th, when singles by Hardy and Davis set up an Adam Jones sac fly.  Nat McClouth's RBI single in the 7th made it 3-1.  Machado and McLouth added RBI signles in the 9th for insurance.

Saunders went 5.2 innings, allowing one run on 6 hits.  O'Day, Matusz, and Johnson pitched 3.1 3-hit shutout innings, and the Orioles had a 5-1 victory in their first postseason action in a decade and a half.

The Orioles went on to play a taut 5 game series with the Yankees, taking a tough loss in the final game, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium.   But they had returned to the postseason, and would return again twice in the next 4 years.  The revival started by Andy McPhail, continued by Dan Duquette and managed by Buck Showalter, had ended the string of losing seasons and the Orioles were once again a postseason participant.

 

"The revival started by Andy McPhail, continued by Dan Duquette and managed by Buck Showalter, had ended the string of losing seasons and the Orioles were once again a postseason participant"!  At first glance I said to myself, why are we looking at Wade Miley......

 

[bobmc]

4 hours ago, foxfield said:

A day that will live in infamy.

...and will Cal and Kelly's split make the list?  Stay tuned.....

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, bobmc said:

...and will Cal and Kelly's split make the list?  Stay tuned.....

I fully expect Ryan signing a minor league deal to make the top 10.

[bobmc]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

I fully expect Ryan signing a minor league deal to make the top 10.

I first thought you were dissing Fenway Flash Flaherty but then realized the Ripken progeny was still amongst us....had a "nice season" and tossed some dirt off the casket.

[SteveA]

3 hours ago, bobmc said:

...and will Cal and Kelly's split make the list?  Stay tuned.....

No but you might enjoy tomorrow's episode.

[SteveA]

It's 89 days until pitchers and catchers report.   Here is the 89th most significant date in modern Oriole history.  (Maybe!)

#89 August 14, 1997

Maybe nothing really happened.  But an urban legend grew out of it.  On this date in 1997, the Orioles cancelled a game with the Mariners because several banks of lights went out and could not be turned on.

There was no problem getting the lights on the next day.  Rumors started to spread that the lights went out on purpose because Cal Ripken could not make it to the game for some reason, and the Orioles wanted to keep his streak alive.

Is it true?  Probably not.  But the juicy rumors never died.  Decades later it still gets brought up.  Some of the rumors involved an alleged affair between Cal's wife Kelly and Kevin Costner, the discovery of which led Cal to be late for the game.

Costner has been asked about it as recently as a few years ago.  He didn't help things much when he answered that he barely knew Kelly Ripken and had spent maybe 10 minutes total with her in his life, even though she sat with him for several games in the Ripken box seats by the first base dugout for games that certianly lasted longer than 10 minutes.

Snopes.com says nothing happened but a transformer accident.  Cal denies it.  Everyone denies it.  But when it's still coming up 20 years later, whether true or not, it has become part of Oriole fan lore

 

 

 

[Frobby]

You should publish these as a book.    They’re that good.  

[SteveA]

It's 88 days until pitchers and catchers report.  Here is the 88th most significant date in modern Oriole history:

#88 April 11, 1955

The Orioles have had the fortune to be run in the front office and on the field by some excellent baseball people, such as Earl Weaver, Hank Peters, Davey Johnson, Andy McPhail, and Buck Showalter.   

The first leader to take on the monumental task of building a winner in Baltimore was Paul Richards.  Richards took over as both manager and general manager of the Orioles, making his field debut on Opening Day 1955.

The St Louis Browns had moved to Baltimore the year before.  By 1955, the Browns/Orioles had had 9 consecutive losing seasons, but that doesn't tell the whole story.  The franchise had 3 winning seasons in 4 yeras while most major leaguers were off fighting World War 2, and those were the ONLY winning seasons for the franchise since 1928.  So Richards had his work cut out for him.

Richards was known as an innovator: he pulled off the biggest trade in major league history in terms of number of players involved; he invented an oversized catchers mitt for catching knuckleballers.  He calculated onbase percentage before it was even known as a statistic, and was the first manager to track pitchers' pitch counts.

And he was the first manager to bring a winner to Baltimore, in 1960.

Paul Richards laid the foundation for the Orioles to become the winningest franchise in baseball for the quarter of a century spanning 1960 to 1984.

 

 

[beervendor]

On 11/14/2017 at 12:11 PM, Frobby said:

This is a very fun thread.    It’s going to be really interesting when you get down to the final 25 or so.   What makes this unique is that it’s not necessarily tied to something that happened on the field, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be something positive.   I’ll be interested to see if and where January 10, 1991 falls on the list.   

Not nearly as infamous, but the following day 1/11/91 O's traded Mickey Tettleton and the 168 HRs he would hit in the next 6 years for Jeff Robinson and the FOUR games he'd win as an Oriole. Little known fact.

[Frobby]

Personally, if 4/11/55 is the only date on the list associated with hiring Paul Richards, I’d put this much higher on the list.   It’s one of the best hires the team ever made and had an impact for decades.    

[murph]

On 11/16/2017 at 7:37 AM, Frobby said:

You should publish these as a book.    They’re that good.  

 I am really enjoying these and the effort put into this thread.  

[OFFNY]

10 hours ago, SteveA said:

 

It's 88 days until Opening Day.  Here is the 88th most significant date in modern Oriole history:

#88 April 11, 1955

The Orioles have had the fortune to be run in the front office and on the field by some excellent baseball people, such as Earl Weaver, Hank Peters, Davey Johnson, Andy McPhail, and Buck Showalter.   

The first leader to take on the monumental task of building a winner in Baltimore was Paul Richards.  Richards took over as both manager and general manager of the Orioles, making his field debut on Opening Day 1955.

The St Louis Browns had moved to Baltimore the year before.  By 1955, the Browns/Orioles had had 9 consecutive losing seasons, but that doesn't tell the whole story.  The franchise had 3 winning seasons in 4 years while most major leaguers were off fighting World War 2, and those were the ONLY winning seasons for the franchise since 1928.  So Richards had his work cut out for him.

Richards was known as an innovator: he pulled off the biggest trade in major league history in terms of number of players involved; he invented an oversized catchers mitt for catching knuckleballers.  He calculated on-base percentage before it was even known as a statistic, and was the first manager to track pitchers' pitch counts.

And he was the first manager to bring a winner to Baltimore, in 1960.

Paul Richards laid the foundation for the Orioles to become the winningest franchise in baseball for the quarter of a century spanning 1960 to 1984.

o

 

 

 

o

 

The reason why Memorial Stadium had the home dugout on the 3rd base side of the stadium was because Paul Richards did not want to sit in the sun for all of the day games.

They switched sides in between the 1954 and 1955 seasons (when Richards took over for Jimmy Dykes), and it stayed that way until the Orioles opened their new stadium in 1992.

 

o

[SteveA]

It's 87 days until pitchers and catchers report.   Here is the 87th most significant date in modern Oriole history:

#87 December 7, 2000

The Orioles farm system had run dry after the 1970s, but it produced one great pitcher in the 1990s.   Mike Mussina, a first round draft pick out of Stanford, played his first 10 years for the Orioles and compilesd a 147-81 record and a 3.53 ERA.  He received Cy Young votes in 8 of those years, made 5 All Star teams and won 4 straight Gold Gloves.

The Oriole had suffered 3 straight losing seasons, and it was unlikely they could turn that around in the new millenium if they didn't retain Mussina.   Orioles owner Peter Angelos had spent quite a bit on free agents in his first few seasons as owner, and made it to two ALCS's.  But he was not crazy about giving long term contracts to pitchers due to their injury frequency.

Mussina had taken a below market deal the last time around, and had allegedly promised the Orioles that he would let them know any offer he got to see if they could match it.  But their efforts to re-sign Mussina after the 2000 season seemed weak at best.

The Yankees, meanwhile, wooed Mussina from the second he hit free agency.   Joe Torre called him the first day of free agency, and Yankee players constantly contacted him.  The Yankees sent presents to his kids and a box of roses to his wife.  On December 7, apparently without any recent contact with the Orioles, Mussina signed a 6 year, $88.5 million contract with the Yankees.

Mussina prospered with the Yankees, going 123-72 with a 3.88 ERA over 8 years.  He never won 20 games or a Cy Young but was the Yankees best pitcher for much of that time.

This was the beginning of the end for Baltimore fans' belief in owner Peter Angelos.   They went from the highest payroll in baseball in 1998, to failing to make a significant effort to retain one of the best pitchers in team history two years later.  It was a key factor in the downward spiral that the Orioles fell into, 14 straight losing seasons and a 5 year stretch where they got worse each year, tying a major league record for decline that was nearly 100 years old.