The 2023 high water mark thread

[Sports Guy]

8 hours ago, Baltimorecuse said:

The 1966 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1966 season. The 63rd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Baltimore Orioles and National League (NL) champion (and defending World Series champion) Los Angeles Dodgers. The Orioles swept the series in four games to capture their first championship in franchise history. It was the last World Series played before MLB introduced the Commissioner's Trophy the following year. The Dodgers suffered record low scoring, accumulating just two runs over the course of the series (both of which were in the first game), the lowest number of runs ever scored by any team in a World Series.

 

Lol. Out of curiosity, what was this post supposed to accomplish in this discussion?

[Frobby]

11 hours ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

True, but the Orioles posted team ERA+ of 126 in 1969, 116 in 1970 and  113 in 1971. The 1971 Orioles had four 20 game winners and were objectively the worst pitching staff of the 1969-71 run.

I wasn't even born yet, but when I think about the 1969 Orioles blowing the World Series it crushes me. I can't imagine what it was like for the fans who can rememeber it. The 1969 is one of the best single season teams of all time even without winning it all.

I was 12.   Yes, absolutely crushed.  And it was made infinitely worse by two factors:

1.  The Jets had just beaten the Colts in the Super Bowl the preceding January in an equally monumental upset.   

2.  In both instances, the team that beat us was from New York, and consequently, the media fawning over those wining teams was just non-stop and over the top.  You couldn’t escape it.

My hatred of all New York teams was born then and has never abated for one minute in 54 years since then.   

 

[Baltimorecuse]

14 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Lol. Out of curiosity, what was this post supposed to accomplish in this discussion?

The quality of O's pitching.  I made a simple comment that in the day the O's had "stonewall pitching".  My personal memory of 1966 was colored by the Army's desire to broaden my foreign travel experience.  I made what I thought was an innocuous comment based on memory based on O's pitching of the ERA.  (McNally Palmer)  The O's pitching in the Series will never be matched.  

Edited August 7, 2023 by Baltimorecuse
add info

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, Baltimorecuse said:

The quality of O's pitching.  

That showed how good the pitching was in 4 games. You can find great pitching in any random 4 game sampling no matter the quality of the staff.

The WS history lesson and the idea that they shut them down for 4 games doesn’t disprove anything Drungo said and it doesn’t make your original point better.

[Baltimorecuse]

14 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

That showed how good the pitching was in 4 games. You can find great pitching in any random 4 game sampling no matter the quality of the staff.

The WS history lesson and the idea that they shut them down for 4 games doesn’t disprove anything Drungo said and it doesn’t make your original point better.

You O's pitching wasn't good in '66?  I don't really care that much.  What I'll always remember about that entire era is the O's pitching.  And your assertion about holding the National League Champs to 2 runs in four games as random is beyond ridiculous.  

[DrungoHazewood]

37 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Lol. Out of curiosity, what was this post supposed to accomplish in this discussion?

Hey, it's possible that some people here hadn't read the Encyclopedia Britannica entry on the the 1966 Orioles.

[Sports Guy]

7 minutes ago, Baltimorecuse said:

You O's pitching wasn't good in '66?  I don't really care that much.  What I'll always remember about that entire era is the O's pitching.  And your assertion about holding the National League Champs to 2 runs in four games as random is beyond ridiculous.  

Your reading comprehension is unbelievably awful.

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, Baltimorecuse said:

You O's pitching wasn't good in '66?  I don't really care that much.  What I'll always remember about that entire era is the O's pitching.  And your assertion about holding the National League Champs to 2 runs in four games as random is beyond ridiculous.  

I think the bottom line is the 1966 O’s had solid but not great pitching during the regular season.  They were 4th/10 in ERA, but they were tops in runs scored by 0.68 runs/game, which is a huge margin.  It’s very fair to say that it was the offense, not the pitching, that carried that team to the AL pennant.  

Obviously, the pitching carried them in the World Series.  But I’d have to say that was a case of guys pitching their best at the right time, rather than being a great performance by a great pitching staff. 

It’s also worth mentioning that despite winning the NL pennant, that Dodgers team finished 8th/10 in the NL in runs/game.   It wasn’t a great offense that we shut down.  It was a very mediocre offense that had a bad series.  

 

[Baltimorecuse]

25 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I think the bottom line is the 1966 O’s had solid but not great pitching during the regular season.  They were 4th/10 in ERA, but they were tops in runs scored by 0.68 runs/game, which is a huge margin.  It’s very fair to say that it was the offense, not the pitching, that carried that team to the AL pennant.  

Obviously, the pitching carried them in the World Series.  But I’d have to say that was a case of guys pitching their best at the right time, rather than being a great performance by a great pitching staff. 

It’s also worth mentioning that despite winning the NL pennant, that Dodgers team finished 8th/10 in the NL in runs/game.   It wasn’t a great offense that we shut down.  It was a very mediocre offense that had a bad series.  

 

So you don't think Palmer and McNally were great pitchers?  The O's were 8th in ERA in 66.  But a meaningless two tenths of a point separated them from third.  That's 32 runs over 162 games.

Moreover, I never said anything negative about their offense.  

 

Edited August 7, 2023 by Baltimorecuse

[Frobby]

19 minutes ago, Baltimorecuse said:

So you don't think Palmer and McNally were great pitchers?  The O's were 8th in ERA in 66.  But a meaningless two tenths of a point separated them from third.  That's 32 runs over 162 games.

Moreover, I never said anything negative about their offense.  

 

I never said you said anything negative about the offense.  I’m just pointing out that it was the outstanding offense that played the biggest role in the O’s winning the AL pennant, not the pitching, which was good, not great.  

You say that the 0.20 differential between the O’s ERA and the third-best ERA in the majors was “meaningless.”   That same differential separates the 1966 Orioles from the league average ERA.   Is that “meaningless?”  

Bottom line, the numbers speak for themselves.   The ‘66 staff was a bit above average, not great.  The offense was great.  But the pitchers had a great performance over 4 games in the World Series, against a pretty poor Dodgers offense.   Great job by them. 

 

[Baltimorecuse]

25 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I never said you said anything negative about the offense.  I’m just pointing out that it was the outstanding offense that played the biggest role in the O’s winning the AL pennant, not the pitching, which was good, not great.  

You say that the 0.20 differential between the O’s ERA and the third-best ERA in the majors was “meaningless.”   That same differential separates the 1966 Orioles from the league average ERA.   Is that “meaningless?”  

Bottom line, the numbers speak for themselves.   The ‘66 staff was a bit above average, not great.  The offense was great.  But the pitchers had a great performance over 4 games in the World Series, against a pretty poor Dodgers offense.   Great job by them. 

 

So I made a totally innocuous comment and it ended up in a pissin' contest over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.  

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

August 13th and the Orioles tie their high water mark for the season.

[IllinoisOsFan]

Home: 36–23

Road: 37–22

As a whole, they don’t seem to get rattled. Levelheaded mentality will hopefully translate in the playoffs

 

[Uli2001]

49 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

August 13th and the Orioles tie their high water mark for the season.

I could swear that was B.J. Surhoff.

[SteveA]