The 100 Most Significant Dates in Modern Orioles History

[Moshagge3]

Back-to-back Benitez meltdowns on the countdown! Maybe the brawl he started in Yankee Stadium will be next.

[OFFNY]

3 hours ago, Moshagge3 said:

 

Back-to-back Benitez meltdowns on the countdown !!! Maybe the brawl he started in Yankee Stadium will be next.

 

o

 

Game One of the 1996 ALCS was not a Benitez meltdown, it was an umpire meltdown.

 

o

[beervendor]

I attended every game of the '97 ALCS. The whole series was an emotional roller coaster like no other, and no game more than #3 (Lennywebstergate). Dammit, now I need a drink.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

43 minutes ago, beervendor said:

I attended every game of the '97 ALCS. The whole series was an emotional roller coaster like no other, and no game more than #3 (Lennywebstergate). Dammit, now I need a drink.

Same.  I'm still pissed about it 20 years later.  I was at game 2 and when the Orioles blew the game, I sorta knew in the back of my head the O's were doomed.  

[SteveA]

It's 20 days until pitchers and catchers report.   Here is the 20th most significant date in modern Orioles history:

#20 July 1, 1982

The Orioles drafted 17 year old pitcher/infielder Cal Ripken Jr., son and namesake of their longtime coach, out of Aberdeen High School in the 2nd round of the 1978 draft.  The decision was quickly made that he would be an infielder in the Orioles' organization.

In rookie league that year, he played a lot of shortstop, but starting the next year, as he began a rapid progression through the Orioles' minor league system, he played mostly 3rd base.  His tall, sturdy build certainly fit the mold of a ML third baseman more than it did a shortstop.  Third basemen were big power hitters, while shortstops were often quick, small, nimble guys.  When they were tall, they were beanpoles in the mold of Mark Belanger.

In 1980 and 1981, in the upper levels of the Orioles' farm system, he played mostly 3rd, although he did see some action at short.

After the players' strike ended in early August 1981, the Orioles called up their phenom prospect.  He was mostly a backup, starting only a handful of games (at both 3B & SS)  In 39 at-bats over 6 weeks, he hit .128 and OPS'ed .278.  

After the season, the Orioles dealt Doug DeCinces to the Angels for outfielder Dan Ford.  DeCinces often said it was because of his union activities, the Orioles say it was more that he was unreliable due to an oft-injured back.  But the third base job was open, and Cal Ripken opened 1982 as the starting third baseman.  He hit a home run on Opening Day and never stopped, going on to win the AL Rookie of the Year.  The starting shortstop was Lenn Sakata, a 28 year old who had never topped 160 at bats in a season, and would never again after 1982.   Rookie Bobby Bonner also got some starts at short.

That was the lineup for the first three months of the season, Cal only playing 3rd base.  But on July 1, 1982, he showed up at the ballpark and saw that Earl Weaver had put him in the lineup at SHORTSTOP.  

Earl had been planning the move for a long time, he always felt that Ripken would be a shortstop.  Sakata and Bobby Bonner were not doing a great job at shortstop -- Sakata didn't have much range and Bonner couldn't hit.  So without informing anyone in advance, Weaver made the move.

That created a hole at 3rd, which Glenn Gulliver, Floyd Rayford, and even Rich Dauer tried to fill the rest of the season. 

But Earl Weaver had seen the future and made it happen.  Cal Ripken was a prototype for a new type of shortstop.  No longer a skinny guy with quickness and little power.  There had been a few other shortstops who could hit for power, Ernie Banks most notably, but none built like Cal.  He would go on to be a Gold Glove shortstop, rookie of the year, two time MVP, first ballot Hall of Famer, and to this day has more home runs than any other shortstop in the history of baseball.   And he paved the way for two more generations power hitting shortstops such as Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and Manny Machado.  Earl's moving Cal to short revolutionized how the position of shortstop was viewed in baseball, and the days when almost every team had a good-glove, no hit middle infielder hitting 8th or 9th in their order were gone forever.

 

[OFFNY]

5 hours ago, SteveA said:

o

 

It's 20 days until pitchers and catchers report.   Here is the 20th most significant date in modern Orioles history:

 

#20 July 1, 1982

 

The Orioles drafted 17 year old pitcher/infielder Cal Ripken Jr., son and namesake of their longtime coach, out of Aberdeen High School in the 2nd round of the 1978 draft.  The decision was quickly made that he would be an infielder in the Orioles' organization.

In rookie league that year, he played a lot of shortstop, but starting the next year, as he began a rapid progression through the Orioles' minor league system, he played mostly 3rd base.  His tall, sturdy build certainly fit the mold of a ML third baseman more than it did a shortstop.  Third basemen were big power hitters, while shortstops were often quick, small, nimble guys.  When they were tall, they were beanpoles in the mold of Mark Belanger.

In 1980 and 1981, in the upper levels of the Orioles' farm system, he played mostly 3rd, although he did see some action at short.

After the players' strike ended in early August 1981, the Orioles called up their phenom prospect.  He was mostly a backup, starting only a handful of games (at both 3B & SS)  In 39 at-bats over 6 weeks, he hit .128 and OPS'ed .278.  

After the season, the Orioles dealt Doug DeCinces to the Angels for outfielder Dan Ford.  DeCinces often said it was because of his union activities, the Orioles say it was more that he was unreliable due to an oft-injured back.  But the third base job was open, and Cal Ripken opened 1982 as the starting third baseman.  He hit a home run on Opening Day and never stopped, going on to win the AL Rookie of the Year.  The starting shortstop was Lenn Sakata, a 28 year old who had never topped 160 at bats in a season, and would never again after 1982.   Rookie Bobby Bonner also got some starts at short.

That was the lineup for the first three months of the season, Cal only playing 3rd base.  But on July 1, 1982, he showed up at the ballpark and saw that Earl Weaver had put him in the lineup at SHORTSTOP.  

Earl had been planning the move for a long time, he always felt that Ripken would be a shortstop.  Sakata and Bobby Bonner were not doing a great job at shortstop -- Sakata didn't have much range and Bonner couldn't hit.  So without informing anyone in advance, Weaver made the move.

That created a hole at 3rd, which Glenn Gulliver, Floyd Rayford, and even Rich Dauer tried to fill the rest of the season. 

But Earl Weaver had seen the future and made it happen.  Cal Ripken was a prototype for a new type of shortstop.  No longer a skinny guy with quickness and little power.  There had been a few other shortstops who could hit for power, Ernie Banks most notably, but none built like Cal.  He would go on to be a Gold Glove shortstop, rookie of the year, two time MVP, first ballot Hall of Famer, and to this day has more home runs than any other shortstop in the history of baseball.   And he paved the way for two more generations power hitting shortstops such as Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and Manny Machado.  Earl's moving Cal to short revolutionized how the position of shortstop was viewed in baseball, and the days when almost every team had a good-glove, no hit middle infielder hitting 8th or 9th in their order were gone forever.

 

 

o

o

 

I remember when his INNINGS STREAK ended in September of 1987. I was watching the Mets game when it came across the screen on the TV, stating that it had started in May of 1982 ........ hence it was more than 5 years long.

 

I had a cross-country race in New Canaan, CT in September of 1995 when he broke the consecutive games record of 2,130, so I had my girlfriend tape the game. I got home about 10 minutes before he hit the home run into the leftfield stands.

 

o

[SteveA]

It's 19 days until pitchers and catchers report.   Here is the 19th most significant date in modern Orioles history:

#19 February 8, 2008

The Orioles were mired in a decade long losing stretch and first year general manager decided drastic measures were needed to turn it around.

Erik Bedard, a 6th round pick in 1999 out of Canada, had emerged as one of the top lefthanded pitchers in baseball.  Before his 2007 season was cut short by injury, he was 13-5 with a 3.15 ERA and led the AL with 221 strikeouts.  Even missing the end of the season, he still finished 5th in the AL Cy Young voting.

And he had two years of team control left before he could become a free agent.  McPhail decided that he was the ideal piece to deal to get a bunch of young players who could try to turn around the losing.

McPhail negotiated painstakingly for much of January 2008 with the Seattle Mariners until he finally got the deal he wanted.  On February 8, the Orioles traded Bedard to seattle for 6 players:  Tony Butler, George Sherrill, Adam Jones, Chris Tillman, and Kam Mickolio.

It turned out to be one of the best trades in Oriole history, and set the table for turning around 14 years of losing and making the postseason 3 times in 5 years, although it would be 4 years before a winning season actually came to fruition.

For Seattle, Bedard would battle injuries and never have a fully healthy season.  He would never again win more than 7 games in a season.

Adam Jones, a young outfielder who had played in 70 games at ages 20 and 21 with the Mariners, would be the Orioles starting centerfielder for over a decade, winning 4 Gold Gloves and making 5 All Star teams, and would become a team and community leader.  He has truly been the face of the Orioles franchise.

Chris Tillman, a 19 year old starter, would become a workhorse righthander for the Orioes.  From mid 2012 through the end of the 2016 season, he started 143 games.  In 2013, he was an All Star, going 16-7 with a 3.71 ERA.

George Sherrill would be the Orioles closer in 2008 and 2009 before being traded (for a third base prospect who never worked out, Josh Bell, and Steve Johnson, son of former Oriole Dave Johnson who was a significant contributor to the 2012 Orioles' drive for the playoffs).

Butler never made the majors, and Mickolio, a tall reliever, had 38 insignificant innings for the Orioles, and wound up a trade piece in the deal that brought Mark Reynolds to Baltimore.  But getting Jones and Tillman and Sherrill for two years of Bedard was a triumphant success of a deal and it's certainly possible that the losing stretch might still be going on if this deal hadn't been made.

[Pheasants]

We can be glad Seattle didn't have Baltimore's doctors.  They probably would have refused to OK bringing Bedard in.  

[SteveA]

It's 18 days until pitchers and catchers report.   Here is the 18th most significant date in modern Orioles history:

#18  June 22, 1979

The Orioles had broadcast their games on WBAL radio for much of their history.   WBAL was a mixture of talk and news that had stopped playing music in the late 1970s.  It generally appealed to an older demographic, but it did have the strongest signal in Baltimore so Orioles games could be heard up and down the East Coast at night.

Before the 1979 season, WFBR-1300 outbid WBAL for the broadcast rights.  WFBR was a top 40 music station (yes, music was once played on AM radio!).  It had a much younger audience.  The morning DJ, Johnny Walker, was known for his crazy antics and silly bits.  He would be pretty tame today but for his time he was considered quite edgy.

WFBR promoted the heck out of the Orioles.  And their timing was perfect. The 1979 Orioles had a fantastic season, winning 100 games for the first time in 8 years.  And many of those wins came in exciting, come from behind, walkoff fashion.  They reached a new youthful audience that never listened to WBAL.

WFBR afternoon DJ Dave Harrison began wrapping medleys of Orioles radio play by play highlights in the middle of popular songs such as Bachman Turn Overdrive's "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" and America's "You Can Do Magic" and playing them repeatedly throughout his show.  And then each night, more often than not, the Orioles would generate more highlights to be replayed and hyped the next day.  His entire afternoon drivetime show was almost an extra 3-hour pregame show to get fans excited for that night's game.

Soon the phenomenon had a name, Oriole Magic.  And the most memorable Oriole Magic moment came on Friday night, June 22.

That night the Orioles played the Detroit Tigers.  Chuck Thompson and Bill O'Donnell were joined in the broadcast booth by Charlie Eckman, the colorful, irascible former NBA coach and NBA referee who had returned to his hometown of Baltimore and gave his unique, colloquial, and sometimes off-color take on sports each morning on WFBR.

The Tigers took a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the 9th.  Reliever Dave Tobik came out of the pen to try to nail down the save for Detroit.  He retired Kiko Garcia, but Ken Singleton homered to cut it to 5-4.  Eddie Murray singled.  Gary Roenicke popped out, and Doug DeCinces stepped to the plate.

DeCinces put it out of the park!  The Orioles had won 6-5.  Bill O'Donnell's memorable call, with Eckman screaming barely coherently in the background, would be replayed hundreds, probably thousands of times on WFBR the rest of the season.  Chuck Thompson signed off the broadcast with his famous "Ain't the Beer Cold".  

The next night, 45,000 fans showed up for a doubleheader with the Tigers, and the Orioles did it again!  The Orioles trailed in the first game 6-5 with 2 outs and one on in the bottom of the 9th, and Eddie Murray took veteran John Hiller deep for a 3-run homer and an 8-6 walkoff win.  In the second game of the doubleheader, Terry Crowley's RBI single broke a 5-5 tie in the bottom of the 8th and the Orioles had another thrilling win.

1979 was the summer of Oriole Magic, thanks to a great ballclub with a penchant for come from behind victories and a new radio station that went over the top promoting the team and generating fan enthusiasm.

 

[BarclaySouthway]

Man, that was a great time to be an O's fan.

[Frobby]

Not living around Baltimore, I never knew about the radio station angle to this.    

[SteveA]

It's 17 days until pitchers and catchers report to Sarasota.   Here is the 17th most significant date in modern Orioles history:

#17 -- August 3, 2010

The Orioles had gone through 7 managers in twelve and a half years from 1998 to mid 2010, all losing seasons.   Ray Miller, Mike Hargrove, Lee Mazzilli, Sam Perlozzo, Dave Trembley, and Juan Samuel.

Samuel had been hired as interim manager after Dave Trembley had been fired earlier in the season.   The Orioles interviewed 5 guys for the permanent job.   Samuel, Bobby Valentine, Eric Wedge, Rick Dempsey, and Buck Showalter.

On July 29, Andy McPhail made the decision to hire Showalter, and he took over the reins of the team on August 3, 2010.

Showalter had brought the Yankees back to contention after a decade of irrelevance, making the playoffs in 1995 for the first time in 14 years.  But he could not get along with George Steinbrenner and was let go.  (Joe Torre took over and they won the World Series the next year).  He then was involved in the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks, building the team into a winner from nothing, although he was once again gone before the D'backs won the World Series in 2001.   He managed the Rangers and helped build a winner, but for the third time the team reached the World Series only after he was replaced.   He had a reputation as a micromanager who wanted control over everything, a guy who was great at turning a bad team around but who usually could not get along with upper management and eventually would get fired.   He had been broadcasting for ESPN for the last several years.

The Orioles immediately turned around.   They were 32-73 when he took over, and then finished the season 34-23, winning more games in the last 57 than they had in the first 105 under Trembley and Samuel.   There were high hopes for 2011, but it turned out to be the Orioles 14th consecutive losing season.   But the "Showalter turnaround" happened for the 4th team he managed in 2012, as they surprised everyone by making the playoffs.   They would have 4 winning seasons and a .500 season in the 5 years from 2012 through 2016, making the playoffs 3 times, before a losing 2017.

The Showalter era has brought success to a fanbase that was desparate for it.   He is the first Oriole manager to last for more than four years since Earl Weaver's first tenure, and is second all time for Orioles managers behind Weaver in games managed and games won.  In terms of his reputation as a control freak, he seems to have mellowed quite a bit in what he expects to be his last job in the majors.   Andy McPhail hit a home run with this hire, clearly making the right choice.   Three of the other four guys he interviewed never got managerial jobs again, and Wedge had a 3 year stint with a .438 winning percentage with the Mariners.

[Frobby]

I’ve heard it said that MacPhail actually preferred Eric Wedge and it was Angelos who decided on Buck.    But it’s more rumor than actual sources, so I don’t know.   

[SteveA]

It's 16 days until pitchers and catchers report.   Here is the 16th most significant date in modern Orioles history:

#16 May 30, 1982

On Saturday night, May 29, 1982, the Orioles played a doubleheader with the Blue Jays.  Some regulars who had played the first game rested in the 2nd; and Eddie was battling a nagging injury.  The Game 2 starting lineup had Bumbry in CF, Dauer at 2B, Dwyer at 1st, Singleton ad DH, Lowenstein in left, Dan Ford in right, Dempsey catching, Rayford at 3rd, and Bob Bonner at short.  Benny Ayala pinch hit for Lowenstein vs a lefty pitcher and hit a grand slam, Dwyer moved to left and Eddie Murray came in to play first.  Lenn Sakata pinch hit for Bonner at one point and came in to play SS.

Despite Ayala's slam, the Orioles lost 11-10 to Toronto.  Scott McGregor couldn't make it out of the first inning, and Ross Grimsley got hit hard.  Despite 4.1 shutout relief innings by Storm Davis, the Orioles couldn't quite come all the way back.

The next day, May 30, the Orioles played the Blue Jays again, and most of the regulars were in the lineup:  Bumbry, Dauer, Lowenstein, Singleton, Crowley at 1st, Ford in RF, Dempsey, Ripken at 3rd, and Sakata at short.   

That game, another loss (6-0) to the Jays and Jim Gott, turned out to be Game 1 of the longest consecutive games streak in major league history.  Cal Ripken started that game, and then started the next 2,631 games that the Orioles would play.  He would eclipse Lou Gehrig's cherished record and go 502 more games beyond it.   During his streak, other major league players made 5,045 trips to the disabled list.  A child born on the day his streak started would have been old enough to drive for over 3 months when it finally ended.

The 21,632 fans at Memorial Stadium on May 30, 1982 were disappointed seeing the Orioles lose their 2nd straight and fall to 22-24.  They had no idea they were watching the beginning of one of the most famous records in major league history.

[Moose Milligan]

Ok...who was there??