Jump to content

On This Day In 1970: May 2


cboemmeljr

Recommended Posts

#50THANNIVERSARY

The Orioles lost to the Minnesota Twins by a score of 4-2 on this day in 1970.  Jim Perry (7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R) out-dueled Mike Cuellar (7.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R) for his 4th win of the season.

Boog Powell hit his 6th homerun of the season while going 2 for 3 with a run scored and 1 RBI.  Additionally, Frank Robinson had a 2 for 3 day.

BOX SCORE

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Maverick Hiker said:

Earl shouldn't have batted good field-no hit Belanger leadoff, his 0 for 4 didn't help the offense that day.   

26K attendance at Memorial Stadium not bad for a Minnesota game. 

 

One thing to keep in mind this was early in the 1970 season and Belanger was coming off a 1969 season where he hit .287 with a .351 OBP. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

One thing to keep in mind this was early in the 1970 season and Belanger was coming off a 1969 season where he hit .287 with a .351 OBP. 

But in that 1969 season, he batted eighth most of the time. In the preceding 1968 season (his first as a full-time starter), when Belanger went .208/.271/.248/.519 (59 OPS+), he split most of his plate appearances between second in the lineup (224 PAs) and eighth (299 PAs). The good bunter explanation of Mark's turn in the lineup doesn't really hold up either because it's not until 1973-75 that he notches a lot of SHs (15, 20, 23, leading the league twice). Managers in that era just seemed to have been confused about what to do with lightweight singles hitters who nevertheless had to be played because of their reliable D at an important position. Many also seem to have undervalued the second slot in the lineup, unless they had the equivalent of two dynamic leadoff hitters on the roster, as the Cardinals often did and the O's did in '73 with Bumbry and Coggins.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice wedding photo.

 As I recall in 1973 the Orioles considered Rich Coggins to have a brighter future than Al Bumbry.  

However something went wrong with Coggins and he went downhill after '73.  The Orioles gave up on him and traded him away and then he was out of baseball by his mid-20's. Always puzzled me why Coggins stopped hitting.  Bumbry of course turned out to be much better in the long run.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, LA2 said:

But in that 1969 season, he batted eighth most of the time. In the preceding 1968 season (his first as a full-time starter), when Belanger went .208/.271/.248/.519 (59 OPS+), he split most of his plate appearances between second in the lineup (224 PAs) and eighth (299 PAs). The good bunter explanation of Mark's turn in the lineup doesn't really hold up either because it's not until 1973-75 that he notches a lot of SHs (15, 20, 23, leading the league twice). Managers in that era just seemed to have been confused about what to do with lightweight singles hitters who nevertheless had to be played because of their reliable D at an important position. Many also seem to have undervalued the second slot in the lineup, unless they had the equivalent of two dynamic leadoff hitters on the roster, as the Cardinals often did and the O's did in '73 with Bumbry and Coggins.

Thanks, I wasn't alive at the time and was taking a guess based on the statistics. It just seems odd with the Orioles being a juggernaut at the time that Belanger would bat at the top of the lineup. 

I recall Davey Johnson tried to make a case to Earl that he should be batting second, and had computer analysis to backup his opinion and Earl threw it right into the trash. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is my buddy Wayne Henderson, master luthier and flat picker, and the Jeff Little trio with a little pregame music....or maybe for the seventh inning stretch....and pardon Wayne's Red Sox hat....what are you going to do?...lol. 

 

 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Thanks, I wasn't alive at the time and was taking a guess based on the statistics. It just seems odd with the Orioles being a juggernaut at the time that Belanger would bat at the top of the lineup. 

I recall Davey Johnson tried to make a case to Earl that he should be batting second, and had computer analysis to backup his opinion and Earl threw it right into the trash. 

Yes, especially when the O's had Buford to lead off. But looking at more stats, I see that actually the unusual thing is that (1) Buford had only 128 starts in 1970 (must have been an injury since his stats were good), all of them leading off, but (2) Belanger was scorching hot in the leadoff spot: .313/.411/.479/.890 in 12 starts and 58 PAs!

It's not an effect that shows up in his career stats, which were pretty similarly weak whatever his spot in the lineup was. But, as was typical of Weaver, he found a way to get Belanger leading off to pay off for at least a while--and also somehow to hit .361/.405/.458/.863 in his 81 September/October PAs!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, LA2 said:

Yes, especially when the O's had Buford to lead off. But looking at more stats, I see that actually the unusual thing is that (1) Buford had only 128 starts in 1970 (must have been an injury since his stats were good), all of them leading off, but (2) Belanger was scorching hot in the leadoff spot: .313/.411/.479/.890 in 12 starts and 58 PAs!

It's not an effect that shows up in his career stats, which were pretty similarly weak whatever his spot in the lineup was. But, as was typical of Weaver, he found a way to get Belanger leading off to pay off for at least a while--and also somehow to hit .361/.405/.458/.863 in his 81 September/October PAs!

Buford only hit .220 when he started against LH pitching in 1970.  That would explain why he didn't play close to 162 games. Also the Orioles had 4 excellent outfielders in 1970, Rettenmund (who had a career year)  Blair, Frank Robinson, and Buford, so that cut into Buford's playing time. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Maverick Hiker said:

Nice wedding photo.

 As I recall in 1973 the Orioles considered Rich Coggins to have a brighter future than Al Bumbry.  

However something went wrong with Coggins and he went downhill after '73.  The Orioles gave up on him and traded him away and then he was out of baseball by his mid-20's. Always puzzled me why Coggins stopped hitting.  Bumbry of course turned out to be much better in the long run.  

I don’t know if I’d say Coggins was thought to have a brighter future than Bumbry.    Both were drafted in 1968, Bumbry in the 11th round out of college, Coggins in the 21st round as a 17-year old high schooler.

Their minor league careers took very different paths.    Bumbry didn’t play the year he was drafted and played only 35 games in 1969 before going off to Vietnam, not returning until mid-1971.    Coggins, meanwhile, played 68 games in 1968, 98 in 1969, and 129 games in 1970.   He was very young at every level, splitting his age 19 season between AA and AAA.

In ‘72, Bumbry rocketed through the upper minors, posting a .900+ OPS in both AA and AAA and in a brief call-up to end the season.   Altogether, Bumbry played only 235 games in the minors, posting a .918 OPS along the way.    Coggins spent all of 1971-72 at Rochester, posting an .809 OPS there, and also got a late ‘72 call-up in which he posted a .786 OPS and actually played a bit more than Bumbry.   Coggins was a lot younger than Bumbry when he reached the majors, but he also had a lot more minor league experience (526 games to Bumbry’s 235) due to Bumbry’s combat service.   

They were both terrific in 1973.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Maverick Hiker said:

Buford only hit .220 when he started against LH pitching in 1970.  That would explain why he didn't play close to 162 games. Also the Orioles had 4 excellent outfielders in 1970, Rettenmund (who had a career year)  Blair, Frank Robinson, and Buford, so that cut into Buford's playing time. 

That makes sense and Earl Weaver was all about playing matchups to maximize his team's chances of winning. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Maverick Hiker said:

Buford only hit .220 when he started against LH pitching in 1970.  That would explain why he didn't play close to 162 games. Also the Orioles had 4 excellent outfielders in 1970, Rettenmund (who had a career year)  Blair, Frank Robinson, and Buford, so that cut into Buford's playing time. 

In 1970, Buford actually hit much better against lefthanders (.313/.435/.438/.872 in 140 PAs--BA vs. righties was only .260). So I dismissed the idea that the fewer number of starts was due to platooning. With such a strong slash line, it didn't occur to me that he could have had weak stats when starting vs LHP. I think the Rettenmund explanation holds water. He was one of my favorite players then and I see that he had about a fifth of his PAs while playing LF, usually Buford's domain. He had the leadoff slot in the lineup 17 times.

Nonetheless, Rettenmund got into less than 2/3 of the Orioles' games that year despite powerful stats and little fall-off according to pitcher's handedness. It was frequently said by reporters and announcers that he would be a starter on many other teams.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/2/2020 at 6:34 PM, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Thanks, I wasn't alive at the time and was taking a guess based on the statistics. It just seems odd with the Orioles being a juggernaut at the time that Belanger would bat at the top of the lineup. 

I recall Davey Johnson tried to make a case to Earl that he should be batting second, and had computer analysis to backup his opinion and Earl threw it right into the trash. 

I wonder if it was this kind of computer.

 

7bf16cfa24d3421534b62ed24a99ff35.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Frobby said:

I don’t know if I’d say Coggins was thought to have a brighter future than Bumbry.    Both were drafted in 1968, Bumbry in the 11th round out of college, Coggins in the 21st round as a 17-year old high schooler.

Their minor league careers took very different paths.    Bumbry didn’t play the year he was drafted and played only 35 games in 1969 before going off to Vietnam, not returning until mid-1971.    Coggins, meanwhile, played 68 games in 1968, 98 in 1969, and 129 games in 1970.   He was very young at every level, splitting his age 19 season between AA and AAA.

In ‘72, Bumbry rocketed through the upper minors, posting a .900+ OPS in both AA and AAA and in a brief call-up to end the season.   Altogether, Bumbry played only 235 games in the minors, posting a .918 OPS along the way.    Coggins spent all of 1971-72 at Rochester, posting an .809 OPS there, and also got a late ‘72 call-up in which he posted a .786 OPS and actually played a bit more than Bumbry.   Coggins was a lot younger than Bumbry when he reached the majors, but he also had a lot more minor league experience (526 games to Bumbry’s 235) due to Bumbry’s combat service.   

They were both terrific in 1973.

Is that the year Bumbry took a home run away from an A (Joe Rudi, maybe?) in the playoffs?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Posts

    • Thanks for the detailed explanation of all of the issues.  Sounds like a mess.
    • Yeah the amenities are pretty outdated at the yard and they seem to do nothing year over year to improve them. The touchscreens have been banged on to death to the point they barely function, so you can't accurately fill out your order at the kiosks, and they don't have a way for the people behind the counter to ring you up at many of the food places. The sound is low to non-existent in certain sections of the club level, like around 218. Seems like there should be speakers that reach there but they might have been damaged by rain, etc. and they are too lazy to fix them. If you go to a game that's even slightly busy, you will wait forever to get into the bathroom, and the sink will be an absolute mess with no soap or paper towels. It's even worse on the club level where they have one sink that's right by the door. Nearby businesses don't care, either. The Hilton parking garage reeks of decay, pot and human waste. They don't turn on the air circulation fans, even if cars are waiting for an hour and a half to exit from P3, filling up the air with carbon monoxide. They only let you enter the stadium with one 20 oz bottle of water. It's so expensive to buy a drink or water in the stadium, but with all the salty food, 20 oz of water isn't enough, especially on a hot day. Vegetarian food options are poor to none, other than things like chips, fries, hot pretzels and the occasional pizza. Vida Taco is better, but at an inconvenient location for many seats. The doors on the club level are not accessible. They're anti-accessible. Big, heavy doors you have to go through to get to/from the escalators, and big, heavy doors to get to your seats, none of them automatic (or even with the option to be automatic with a button press). Makes it hard to carry food out to your seats even if not handicapped. The furniture in the lounges on the club level seem designed to allow as few people as possible to sit down. Not great when we have so many rain delays during the season. Should put more, smaller chairs in and allow more of the club level ticket holders to have a seat while waiting for thunderstorms to pass. They keep a lot of the entrance/exit gates closed except for playoff/sellout games, which means people have to slowly "mooooo" all the way down Eutaw St to get to parking. They are too cheap to staff all the gates, so they make people exit by the warehouse, even though it would be a lot more convenient for many fans to open all the gates. Taking Light Rail would be super convenient, except that if there's at least 20k fans in attendance, it's common to have to wait 90-120 minutes to be able to board a non-full train heading toward Glen Burnie. A few trains might come by, but they are already full, or fill up fast when folks walk up to the Convention Center stop to pre-empt the folks trying to board at Camden Station. None of the garages in the area are set up to require pre-payment on entry (reservation, or give them your card / digital payment at the entrance till). If they were, emptying out the garage would be very quick, as they wouldn't need to ticket anyone on the way out: if you can't get in without paying, you can always just leave without having to stop and scan your phone or put a ticket in the machine. They shut down the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Station in 2015 because the Maryland Stadium Authority was too greedy. That place was a fun distraction if you were in the area when a game wasn't about to start, like if you show up super early on Opening Day or a playoff day. Superbook's restaurant on Eutaw is a huge downgrade from Dempsey's in terms of menu and service quality. Dempsey's used to be well-staffed, you could reserve a table online, and they had all kinds of great selection for every diet. Superbook seems like just another bar serving the same swill that the rest of the park serves, with extremely minimal and low-quality food. For that matter, most of the food at the stadium is very low quality these days. A lot of things we used to love are made to a lower standard now if they are served at all. These are gripes about the stadium and the area that haven't changed my entire adult life. Going to an O's game requires one to tolerate many small inconveniences and several major inconveniences, any number of which could easily be fixed by the relevant authorities if they gave a damn about the people who pay to come see the team play. You would think a mid-market team would be able to afford to invest in the fan experience. You would think the city and partnering organizations like garages, the Stadium Authority and MTA would at least try to do their part to make the experience enjoyable and free of kinks. You would think they would put some thought into handling the "growing pains" of the fanbase due to recent renewed interest after the dark years. Instead, all we get is the same indifference and the same annoyances year in and year out. The whole area is overdue for a revamp. Not sure if $600 mil will get it done, but at least it's a start. Hopefully they can start to patch up some of the many holes in the fan experience. If you're not going to invest in Burnes, at least make it so paying customers have an easier, more enjoyable time getting to/from the stadium and having some food while we're there.
    • Elias has only been in rebuild mode with the O's so there's not much to speculate on there.  Houston, where he spent his formative years, doesn't seem to like to be on the hook for more than a couple of big long-term contracts at any given time.  I can see that as being Elias' choice as well, albeit with a lower overall cost - Houston runs a big payroll.  But it's all guesswork.  I really don't know. If Elias takes the 2025 payroll to $150 million it will creep up to $200 million or so by 2028 just from keeping the core together.  That's where I start to wonder about sustainability due to market size, economic forces, etc., etc., etc... If it were up to me, I would add a couple of free agents this offseason even if the contracts were longer than ideal and be conservative about extensions elsewhere until the prospects establish themselves a little better.  I think there's a competitive opportunity that the team is already into that's worth exploiting. I think ownership is very happy to have Elias on board and they're not inclined to force him to do anything.  I also think Rubenstein's demonstrated business prowess is great enough to assume that he has had plenty enough time to come to a mutual understanding with Elias as to goals.
    • We need a RH O’hearn…in addition to Westburg. At least 3 batters that will push up the pitch count and cause damage in the top 5 of the lineup.
    • Boy,  that Jackson Merrill is a good young player that is playing his best ball down the season stretch and in the playoffs.   He's only 21.  I guess some young guys are able to play up to the pressure.   Who could have guessed that?
    • I’m aware.   You are arguing something im Not.
    • What agreement? The agreement you are talking about happened as a result of the move.  The MASN agreement would not have existed if Angelos had gone to court to block the move.
  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...