Counting down as the ‘23 Orioles match some of the O’s winningest teams

[Frobby]

With their 91^st win, and with 20 games remaining, the 2023 O’s have tied the 1968 and 1974 teams for the 17^th most wins in Orioles history.  But those two seasons were not very similar to each other in their outcome.

1968

The ’68 team was coming off a very disappointing, injury-plagued season in which the 1966 defending champs fell well under .500.  In the 1967-68 offseason, they shook things up, trading Luis Aparicio to the White Sox for Don Buford, opening up the shortstop spot for Mark Belanger.  The team played inconsistent baseball in the first half, including a 6 game winning streak followed immediately by a 7 game losing streak in May, and fell 10.5 games back of the Tigers by the all star break at 43-37.  At that point, the O’s fired their World Series-winning manager, Hank Bauer, and replaced him with the relatively unknown 1B coach Earl Weaver, surprising many observers who had thought that 3B coach Billy Hunter was the heir apparent.   The team initially responded very well to Weaver, going 30-15 in his first 45 games and closing to as close as 5.5 games of the Tigers at times.   But from August 22 on, the O’s 18-19 ball the rest of the way, finishing a distant second, 12 games behind the Tigers at 91-71.  In the Year of the Pitcher in MLB, the O’s offense struggled mightily, as their anchor, Frank Robinson, was still struggling with blurred vision from a concussion he’d suffered in mid-1967.   Though I remember that year as being absolutely horrible for Frank, in the context of pitcher dominance in 1968, he actually had a 151 OPS+ despite hitting only .268 with 15 homers and 52 RBI – nobody had dreamed up OPS or OPS+ in those days.   Boog Powell led the team in homers with 22 and RBI with 85.  Buford proved a nice addition, posting a 143 OPS+ in his first year with the O’s.  The O’s actually scored the 3^rd most runs in the AL, though nobody had numbers that would make you look twice.  On the pitching side, Jim Palmer missed the entire season, having hurt his arm in mid-1967.  Dave McNally, who also had missed time in 1967, started a four-year run of 20-win seasons in 1968, going 22-10 with a 1.95 ERA (150 ERA+) and a league leading 0.842 WHIP (a stat nobody paid attention to in those days) in 273 innings and finishing 5^th in the AL MVP voting.   Of course, in the Year of the Pitcher, those feats paled in comparison to Denny McLain’s 31 wins and Luis Tiant’s 1.60 ERA.  The O’s staff led the league with a 2.66 ERA, as Jim Hardin contributed an 18-13 season with a 2.51 ERA and Tom Phoebus was 15-15 with a 2.62 ERA, tossing a no-hitter on April 27.  Defensively, Brooks Robinson (+27 Rtot) picked up the 9^th of his 16 consecutive Gold Gloves. Overall, 1968 was a good improvement over 1967, and it set the stage for the most dominant period in Orioles history, but it was a pretty forgettable season in and of itself.

1974

The ’74 team, on the other hand, was following the rejuvenated 1973 team that had won the AL East and had lost a hard-fought series with Oakland Athletics for the AL crown.  The ’74 team meandered for a long time, reaching a season-low 3 games under .500 on June 10 at 26-29.   They were under .500 again as late as August 29 at 64-65, 8 games out of first place.  Then all hell broke lose, as the O’s went 27-6 to close out the season, with winning streaks of 10 games and then 9 games at the season’s finish.  That insane streak allowed the O’s to nose out the Yankees for the AL East title by two games, at 91-71.   They fell in the ALCS 3-1 to the two-time defending champion Oakland A’s, winning game 1 but only scoring 1 run over the final three contests, narrowly losing 1-0 and 2-1 in the final two games.   The ’74 team wasn’t much on offense, finishing 9^th in the 12-team AL in runs scored.  Bobby Grich led that team in homers with 19, RBI with 82, and OPS at .807 (not that anyone was paying attention to that stat.   On the pitching side, Mike Cuellar led the staff with a 22-10 record (the last of his 4 2-win seasons with the O’s) and a 3.11 ERA, while Ross Grimsley went 18-13 with a 3.07 ERA, his best season as a pro.   Jim Palmer, who had won the Cy Young award in 1973, was hurt a good bit of the year, finishing 7-12 with a 3.27 ERA, though he finished the year strong enough to land in the playoff rotation, losing Game 3 in a 1-0 complete game heartbreaker to Vida Blue in a classic pitcher’s duel.  The team finished 2^nd in ERA at 3.27, using only 11 pitchers the entire season.  Defensively, Grich (+8 Rtot), Mark Belanger (+21), Brooks Robinson (+15) and Paul Blair (+15) all repeated their Gold Gloves from 1973.   It was a season with a thrilling late-season push that made up for a disappointing first 80% of the season, but in the end, the A’s outpitched the weak-hitting 1974 O’s in the postseason and kept the O’s from the World Series for the second year in a row.  

[SteveA]

On 9/9/2023 at 9:47 PM, Frobby said:

1978

Coming off a surprising 97-win season, the ’78 O’s went 90-71 but were never really relevant, finishing 4^th in the AL East, 9 games behind co-leaders New York and Boston and 2.5 behind the 3^rd place Brewers.   The O’s were never in first place at any point in the season, and never within 5 games of first after April.  The team was under .500 as late as June 1, but rode a 13-game winning streak into mid-June and was over .500 the rest of the season, just never far enough above to get into serious contention.   On the hitting side, Doug DeCinces had a career year, posting an .873 OPS and a team-leading 6.8 rWAR, hitting a team-high 28 homers.   Second year player Eddie Murray, switching roles with Lee May and taking over 1B,  led the team in RBI with 95, finishing second on the team in homers with 27 in a 4.3 rWAR season.   Jim Palmer had his last 20-win season, finishing 3^rd in the Cy Young voting with a 21-12 record, 2.46 ERA, 19 complete games and 6 shutouts while throwing a league-leading 296 innings, while winning his third consecutive Gold Glove.   Mark Belanger also picked up his 8^th and final Gold Glove award that year, putting up +26 Rtot with the glove.  It was a solid but somewhat disappointing season for the O’s, but their fans would not be disappointed for long.

What I remember most about 1978 is that when Al Bumbry broke his leg early in the season and was lost for the year, and Boston was off to the red hot start, it pretty much felt like it was over early.   And that was not a feeling we had very often in those days.

I remember in June or so when the Red Sox had a 14 game lead that I actually rooted for the Yankees to beat them, and I NEVER rooted for the Yankees.   But I felt our only hope was if the Sox were brought back tot he pack.   I didn't hate Boston back then, my grandfather was a lifelong fan who actually remembered when they won it all in '18.

I felt terrible about my rooting when the Yankees actually had the great comeback and caught the Red Sox and beat them in the Bucky Dent game.

1978 was also the year Earl Weaver started the season with a bizarre experiment, moving Murray to 3rd, DeCinces to 2nd, and Dauer to the bench to get his best bats in the lineup.  We opened in Milwaukee and got swept by some ridiculous score of like 30-9 total for the 3 games, and that experiement was mercifully abandoned.

[All of the above is completely from memory, I resisted the temptation to go to baseballreference.com and pollute my memories with mere FACTS],

[OriolesMagic83]

O's are closer to the Braves for best record in baseball, 2.5 games, than they are to Tampa.

[btownoriole]

9 hours ago, SteveA said:

What I remember most about 1978 is that when Al Bumbry broke his leg early in the season and was lost for the year, and Boston was off to the red hot start, it pretty much felt like it was over early.   And that was not a feeling we had very often in those days.

I remember in June or so when the Red Sox had a 14 game lead that I actually rooted for the Yankees to beat them, and I NEVER rooted for the Yankees.   But I felt our only hope was if the Sox were brought back tot he pack.   I didn't hate Boston back then, my grandfather was a lifelong fan who actually remembered when they won it all in '18.

I felt terrible about my rooting when the Yankees actually had the great comeback and caught the Red Sox and beat them in the Bucky Dent game.

1978 was also the year Earl Weaver started the season with a bizarre experiment, moving Murray to 3rd, DeCinces to 2nd, and Dauer to the bench to get his best bats in the lineup.  We opened in Milwaukee and got swept by some ridiculous score of like 30-9 total for the 3 games, and that experiement was mercifully abandoned.

[All of the above is completely from memory, I resisted the temptation to go to baseballreference.com and pollute my memories with mere FACTS],

1978 was my first year as a fan.  I remember one thing about attending my first Orioles game at Memorial Stadium - walking out from the concourse and seeing this beautiful field in front of me.  My lifelong love of the Orioles and visiting MLB parks (I’ve been to 31 current and former as of today) was born that day.

[MCO'sFan]

12 hours ago, SteveA said:

What I remember most about 1978 is that when Al Bumbry broke his leg early in the season and was lost for the year, and Boston was off to the red hot start, it pretty much felt like it was over early.   And that was not a feeling we had very often in those days.

I remember in June or so when the Red Sox had a 14 game lead that I actually rooted for the Yankees to beat them, and I NEVER rooted for the Yankees.   But I felt our only hope was if the Sox were brought back tot he pack.   I didn't hate Boston back then, my grandfather was a lifelong fan who actually remembered when they won it all in '18.

I felt terrible about my rooting when the Yankees actually had the great comeback and caught the Red Sox and beat them in the Bucky Dent game.

1978 was also the year Earl Weaver started the season with a bizarre experiment, moving Murray to 3rd, DeCinces to 2nd, and Dauer to the bench to get his best bats in the lineup.  We opened in Milwaukee and got swept by some ridiculous score of like 30-9 total for the 3 games, and that experiement was mercifully abandoned.

[All of the above is completely from memory, I resisted the temptation to go to baseballreference.com and pollute my memories with mere FACTS],

I had forgotten about this. Wow, Murray was awful at 3B. 

[MCO'sFan]

2 hours ago, btownoriole said:

1978 was my first year as a fan.  I remember one thing about attending my first Orioles game at Memorial Stadium - walking out from the concourse and seeing this beautiful field in front of me.  My lifelong love of the Orioles and visiting MLB parks (I’ve been to 31 current and former as of today) was born that day.

I remember the first time I walked up the ramp at Memorial Stadium and saw the grass. It's one of those moments that I will remember emotionally more than cognitively. A couple years later my dad am I took my grandfather to his first ever MLB game. He was a farmer from SW VA. When he made the same walk up the ramp and saw the field for the first time his face lit up like a 5 year old. I think about that everytime I go to a ball game. 

[btdart20]

2 hours ago, btownoriole said:

1978 was my first year as a fan.  I remember one thing about attending my first Orioles game at Memorial Stadium - walking out from the concourse and seeing this beautiful field in front of me.  My lifelong love of the Orioles and visiting MLB parks (I’ve been to 31 current and former as of today) was born that day.

That first glimpse...  Priceless

[Hank Scorpio]

5 minutes ago, btdart20 said:

That first glimpse...  Priceless

I'll never forget it.

[Jim'sKid26]

Jim Hardin is one Orioles pitcher that no one ever talks about.  He had a rather short career with 1968 being his best year by far. 

@Frobbythanks for mentioning him. 

[Frobby]

There’s a few random things I remember about the 1968 season.  I was 11 years old that summer, really in just my second full year of closely following the team.  

In those days, most games were not broadcast on TV, and certainly Orioles games were not broadcast on any DC-area local station.  So, I rarely got to see Orioles games on TV, and when I did, it was watching a very snowy Baltimore Channel 13 and moving our TV antenna this way and that to try to keep the picture visible.  And that’s how I watched the Tom Phoebus no hitter.   To this day, I’ve never seen another one in its entirety.   And it was thrilling, even though I couldn’t see the ball half the time because the picture was so fuzzy.  Ah, the good old days!  (NOT)

I remember everyone being surprised when Earl Weaver was named to replace Hank Bauer.  First, it was a bit surprising that Bauer was fired in the middle of a winning season, two years removed from winning the World Series.  Second, it seemed like Billy Hunter was the heir apparent, and people were surprised that the relatively low profile (to the public) Weaver was chosen.   Obviously, that turned out to be a great choice.  

The one other regular season game etched in my brain (not entirely accurately) came on July 19, when the O’s were trailing the Tigers by 7.5 games and desperate to cut their lead in some head to head games. I heard this one on radio, which is how I experienced most games in those days. The O’s were leading the Tigers 3-2 in the bottom of the 9th, two outs with a runner on, and light-hitting Tommy Matchick at the plate.  A back-up infielder, hitting .225 with one career homer.  And damned if he didn’t hit a walk-off homer against Moe Drabowski!  I’ve never forgotten that, 55 years later.  I knew then that there was no way we were catching the Tigers that year.  (I say my memory was not entirely accurate because I’d remembered it as a grand slam, but it was merely a 2-run heartbreaker.)

I also watched pretty much every minute of the World Series, as those games were televised and played during the day.  Classic 7 game series that Detroit came from 2 games down to win, with Mickey Lolich, on two days’ rest, outdueling Bob Gibson in Game 7, pitching his third complete game of the Series.   I was rooting for the Cardinals but you had to admire what the Tigers did to win that Series.   And happily, that was the end of the Tigers’ run, with the Orioles beginning their period of utter dominance of the AL the following year. 


 

Edited September 12, 2023 by Frobby

[NCRaven]

My only real clear memory of '66 was that we had my sixth birthday party on the mezzanine level.  Hotdog and a piece of cake for every kid and I got an autographed ball from my favorite player.  My mom had a cow when I said I wanted Boog.  She wanted me to get Brooks, but Boog was a bigger than life character to me.  I still have the ball.  He signed it again 30 years later at fantasy camp in '96.  I hope to get him to sign it again in 2026.  Three signatures, each 30 years apart. (Forgive me if I've told this story before.)

[Frobby]

Todays win (92) put the 2023 O’s in undisputed possession of 17th place all time among Orioles teams.  Lots of great teams still ahead of them but 14 games left to catch a bunch of them.  The “69 and 70 Orioles (109 and 108 wins) are now out of reach.  We’ll see about the rest.  

Edited September 17, 2023 by Frobby

[Mooreisbetter27]

27 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Todays win (92) put the 2023 O’s in undisputed possession of 17th place all time among Orioles teams.  Lots of great teams still ahead of them but 16 games left to catch a bunch of them.  The “69 Orioles (109 wins) are now out of reach, and the ‘70 Orioles (108) won’t be caught.  We’ll see about the rest.  

There are 14 games left. Not 16.

[Frobby]

7 hours ago, Mooreisbetter27 said:

There are 14 games left. Not 16.

You’re right.   I edited the post.  

[Mooreisbetter27]

Over here waiting patiently for Frobby's analysis of the 2012 season.