The Very Interesting career of Dyar Miller

[Tony-OH]

This post is probably for our 50 and over crowd since most others probably don't remember the right-handed reliever Dyar Miller. I really don't have any strong memories of him since I was 5-7 years old when he pitched for the Orioles, but I remember his baseball card and remember his good ERAs in 1975 and 1976.

What I didn't know was his interesting career that saw him stay in baseball for half a century. 

Here's his great SABR Bio.

 

[George Zuverink]

Great story! I thought I knew all the old timers, but I only vaguely remember him.

[Tony-OH]

20 hours ago, George Zuverink said:

Great story! I thought I knew all the old timers, but I only vaguely remember him.

I'm always surprised by how little reaction "Historical" posts get. I find a lot of these stories fascinating. I love the SABR bios of players I only knew from baseball cards or my OOTP game.

[DrungoHazewood]

I love the SABR bios, too.  I'll often catch myself asking something about a player (Eddie Joost was a recent example) and then remember that the answer is probably in his SABR bio.  Although in the Joost case I still don't have a solid answer as to why his power doubled or tripled after the war when he was in his 30s...

Miller was before my time as an Oriole, but I know somewhere I have an '81 Topps card of him on the Mets. 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

26 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

I'm always surprised by how little reaction "Historical" posts get. I find a lot of these stories fascinating. I love the SABR bios of players I only knew from baseball cards or my OOTP game.

The SABR bios are really good and much more in depth than your average Wikipedia page. I usually try to avoid them because it's a rabbit hole where I can spend an hour reading player bios in the blink of an eye. And it's not even baseball players I care about or even watched much. 

[Tony-OH]

14 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

The SABR bios are really good and much more in depth than your average Wikipedia page. I usually try to avoid them because it's a rabbit hole where I can spend an hour reading player bios in the blink of an eye. And it's not even baseball players I care about or even watched much. 

I've been here, trust me. I belong to the Baseball 197o-79 Facebook page and trust me, almost every day they get me to start looking someone up. I find it fascinating to see the behind the scenes on some of these guys. There really are some interesting stories. Like Dyar's bio. I had no idea that he was first signed as a catcher and released quickly. It was interesting how he just called up a scout the family knew and got signed. Then, actually earned his way up the chain until he finally broke through in his late 20's. 

 

[Frobby]

All I remember about Miller is that my friends and I would joke when he entered a game that it must be “a Dyar situation.”

[HbgOsFan]

I blame you, Tony.  Was supposed to watch the triplets this afternoon, instead loved reading the Dyar Miller SABR biography, and down the rabbit hole I descended.  Learned much about Dyar from SABR, learned much about better husbanding skills from my wife.  Educational afternoon, all around.

[InsideCoroner]

Thanks for the heads-up. I have just as much difficulty pulling myself away from SABR bios as I did when sitting down with the printed version of The Baseball Encyclopedia years ago.

[RZNJ]

Here's what I remember and I'm not using the internet to refresh my memory.  My friend in HS, Jim Reuter alerted me to something called the Sporting News probably around our sophomore year in 74/75.  What a revelation!  You could see minor league leader boards!  That stats were always 2 weeks behind but who cared.  I believe the leader board for end of season included starting pitchers Dyar Miller, Paul Mitchell, and I can't remember the 3rd.  Tim Nordbrook was the SS and was on the leaderboard for average.  I loved the name Dyar Miller because it sounds cool and who the heck else was ever named Dyar.  I remember him pitching as a reliever for the Orioles but for some reason think he had his best season as a closer for the Angel's.  Now it's time to see how bad my memory is.