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

[O's84]

4 hours ago, Pickles said:

I'm almost certain the Mark Reynolds meme thread was from 2011.

I could have sworn it was from 2012 but you're right, my bad.  Well at least we got a laugh out of it.

Edited September 19, 2023 by O's84

[yayterps]

On 9/12/2023 at 12:58 PM, Frobby said:

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. 


 

That game is etched in my memory as was the Sun headline "Matchick Strikes, Orioles Burn"

[Frobby]

Last night, with 12 games remaining in the season, the Orioles won their 94^th game, tying the win totals of the 1965 and 1982 Orioles for 14^th place among all-time winningest Orioles teams.  In the pre-wild card era, neither of those teams made the playoffs, but there was way more drama in the 1982 season than in 1965.

1965

The ’65 Orioles were coming off a 97-win season where they had been in first place a good chunk of the time but had faded in the stretch run.   They more or less stood pat over the winter, except for trading away Mike McCormick and Bob Saverine and acquiring Don Larsen.  That strategy didn’t work, as the O’s  played good not great baseball pretty much all year.   They never were in first place for a single day, and though they got as close as 1 game out as late as June 26, it was downhill after that, and they never were closer than 5 games out after July 30, falling as far as 10.5 games behind in late August and early September, before finishing in 3^rd place, 8 games behind the 102-win Minnesota Twins.  They never had any long losing streaks, but they just didn’t have enough sustained hot spells either.  The highlights of that year were the influx of some young talent.  Curt Blefary won Rookie of the Year, hitting .260 with 22 homers and 70 RBI (and a 139 OPS+, not that anyone knew what that meant).   Paul Blair, who had briefly debuted in 1964, became a regular in ’65.  Mark Belanger made his debut towards the end of the year.  And 19-year old Jim Palmer made his debut, throwing 92 inning to a 3.72 ERA but walking 5.5 batters per 9.  On offense, a lot of the mainstays had mediocre years, including Brooks Robinson, league MVP in 1964, who did have a solid season (and of course won a Gold Glove) but significantly down from his superb ’64 campaign.  The same was true of Boog Powell.  Overall, the offense finished 6^th in runs scored, muting the excellent pitching, which was tops in the league in ERA at 2.98, though no pitcher won more than 15 games (Steve Barber) and the second-winningest pitcher was reliever Stu Miller (14). Overall, the season was a disappointing half-step back from 1964, and O’s management probably realized that it had been a mistake to stand pat the prior winter and that they needed to add an offensive catalyst.  Hmmmm, who could they get to improve the team for 1966?

1982

By contrast, the 1982 season was a thriller that went down to the final day of the season.   Coming off a strike-shortened 1981 campaign in which the O’s never really got up a head of steam, the O’s parted ways with the aging Mark Belanger and traded 3B Doug DeCinces to the Angels for OF Disco Dan Ford, planning to replace DeCinces at 3B with rookie Cal Ripken.  The O’s got off to a painfully slow start, losing 9 games in a row beginning with the 4^th game of the year to quickly fall to 2-10, 6.5 games out of first place by April 23.  It took the O’s until June 8 to dig out of that hole and finally climb over .500 at 27-26, but they were 7 games back by then.  During that stretch, Earl Weaver gave 3b Cal Ripken a game off in the 2^nd game of a May 31 doubleheader, the last game Cal would miss for the next 17 years. On July 1, Weaver made another big decision involving Ripken, moving him to shortstop in place of Lenn Sakata and Bobby Bonner and shuttling other players to cover 3B.  From there to mid-August the O’s played a little better but fell to a season worst 8 games behind the division leading Brewers on August 13, when their record stood at 59-53, and deteriorated to only 4 games over .500 at 61-57 as of August 19.   That’s when the team finally got going.  The O’s went on a rampage, winning 17 of their next 18 games and suddenly they were 20 games over .500, only 3 behind the Brewers as of Sept. 7 at 78-58.  From there, they more or less kept pace with the Brewers for the next three weeks, going 13-9, remaining 3 games out, and heading home to Baltimore for a season ending 4 games with the league-leading Brewers, and needing to sweep them to overtake them for first place.   And, they came tantalizingly close.   They won the first three games, including a Saturday doubleheader, to tie the Brewers with one game left to play.  With that win, the Orioles had won 33 of their last 43 games.  But, with their aging ace Jim Palmer on the mound, Milwaukee had all the answers on the final day, sending Palmer to the showers after allowing 4 runs in 5 innings, and piling on the bullpen to win going away, 10-2.   The game marked the intended last game of Earl Weaver’s career, and the crowd stayed behind after the loss to cheer Earl and the team in an amazing show of love and appreciation in front of a national TV audience.  It was a painful loss, but set the stage for the team to come back loaded for bear in 1983, determined not to be denied again.

The ’82 O’s outplayed their Pythagorean record by 4 games, finishing 5^th in runs acored and 7^th in ERA, in a 12 team league.  Outstanding offensive performers included Eddie Murray, who hit .316 with 32 homers and 110 RBI, was an all star, won a Gold Glove, and finished 2^nd in the MVP voting.  Rookie Cal Ripken won Rookie of the Year by hitting .264 with 28 homers and 93 RBI.  The Lowenstein/Roenicke platoon monster produced 36 homers and 104 RBI in left field, and Earl Weaver used his bench as only he could, milking them for 15 homers and 78 RBI in 219 pinch hit at bats.   On the pitching side, the big story was Jim Palmer, who at age 36 after three years of declining numbers, summoned his inner Cy one more time, throwing 227 innings to a 3.13 ERA (3^rd in the league), finishing 15-5 and 2^nd in the Cy Young voting.  If he had been able to summon his magic one more time on the last day of the season and pitch the O’s to the AL East crown, I suspect he would have won his 4^th Cy Young.  But alas, he and the team fell just short, and that was Palmer’s last year as a front-line starter.  It was an amazing run.

[SteveA]

37 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Last night, with 12 games remaining in the season, the Orioles won their 94^th game, tying the win totals of the 1965 and 1982 Orioles for 14^th place among all-time winningest Orioles teams.  In the pre-wild card era, neither of those teams made the playoffs, but there was way more drama in the 1982 season than in 1965.

1965

The ’65 Orioles were coming off a 97-win season where they had been in first place a good chunk of the time but had faded in the stretch run.   They more or less stood pat over the winter, except for trading away Mike McCormick and Bob Saverine and acquiring Don Larsen.  That strategy didn’t work, as the O’s  played good not great baseball pretty much all year.   They never were in first place for a single day, and though they got as close as 1 game out as late as June 26, it was downhill after that, and they never were closer than 5 games out after July 30, falling as far as 10.5 games behind in late August and early September, before finishing in 3^rd place, 8 games behind the 102-win Minnesota Twins.  They never had any long losing streaks, but they just didn’t have enough sustained hot spells either.  The highlights of that year were the influx of some young talent.  Curt Blefary won Rookie of the Year, hitting .260 with 22 homers and 70 RBI (and a 139 OPS+, not that anyone knew what that meant).   Paul Blair, who had briefly debuted in 1964, became a regular in ’65.  Mark Belanger made his debut towards the end of the year.  And 19-year old Jim Palmer made his debut, throwing 92 inning to a 3.72 ERA but walking 5.5 batters per 9.  On offense, a lot of the mainstays had mediocre years, including Brooks Robinson, league MVP in 1964, who did have a solid season (and of course won a Gold Glove) but significantly down from his superb ’64 campaign.  The same was true of Boog Powell.  Overall, the offense finished 6^th in runs scored, muting the excellent pitching, which was tops in the league in ERA at 2.98, though no pitcher won more than 15 games (Steve Barber) and the second-winningest pitcher was reliever Stu Miller (14). Overall, the season was a disappointing half-step back from 1964, and O’s management probably realized that it had been a mistake to stand pat the prior winter and that they needed to add an offensive catalyst.  Hmmmm, who could they get to improve the team for 1966?

1982

By contrast, the 1982 season was a thriller that went down to the final day of the season.   Coming off a strike-shortened 1981 campaign in which the O’s never really got up a head of steam, the O’s parted ways with the aging Mark Belanger and traded 3B Doug DeCinces to the Angels for OF Disco Dan Ford, planning to replace DeCinces at 3B with rookie Cal Ripken.  The O’s got off to a painfully slow start, losing 9 games in a row beginning with the 4^th game of the year to quickly fall to 2-10, 6.5 games out of first place by April 23.  It took the O’s until June 8 to dig out of that hole and finally climb over .500 at 27-26, but they were 7 games back by then.  During that stretch, Earl Weaver gave 3b Cal Ripken a game off in the 2^nd game of a May 31 doubleheader, the last game Cal would miss for the next 17 years. On July 1, Weaver made another big decision involving Ripken, moving him to shortstop in place of Lenn Sakata and Bobby Bonner and shuttling other players to cover 3B.  From there to mid-August the O’s played a little better but fell to a season worst 8 games behind the division leading Brewers on August 13, when their record stood at 59-53, and deteriorated to only 4 games over .500 at 61-57 as of August 19.   That’s when the team finally got going.  The O’s went on a rampage, winning 17 of their next 18 games and suddenly they were 20 games over .500, only 3 behind the Brewers as of Sept. 7 at 78-58.  From there, they more or less kept pace with the Brewers for the next three weeks, going 13-9, remaining 3 games out, and heading home to Baltimore for a season ending 4 games with the league-leading Brewers, and needing to sweep them to overtake them for first place.   And, they came tantalizingly close.   They won the first three games, including a Saturday doubleheader, to tie the Brewers with one game left to play.  With that win, the Orioles had won 33 of their last 43 games.  But, with their aging ace Jim Palmer on the mound, Milwaukee had all the answers on the final day, sending Palmer to the showers after allowing 4 runs in 5 innings, and piling on the bullpen to win going away, 10-2.   The game marked the intended last game of Earl Weaver’s career, and the crowd stayed behind after the loss to cheer Earl and the team in an amazing show of love and appreciation in front of a national TV audience.  It was a painful loss, but set the stage for the team to come back loaded for bear in 1983, determined not to be denied again.

The ’82 O’s outplayed their Pythagorean record by 4 games, finishing 5^th in runs acored and 7^th in ERA, in a 12 team league.  Outstanding offensive performers included Eddie Murray, who hit .316 with 32 homers and 110 RBI, was an all star, won a Gold Glove, and finished 2^nd in the MVP voting.  Rookie Cal Ripken won Rookie of the Year by hitting .264 with 28 homers and 93 RBI.  The Lowenstein/Roenicke platoon monster produced 36 homers and 104 RBI in left field, and Earl Weaver used his bench as only he could, milking them for 15 homers and 78 RBI in 219 pinch hit at bats.   On the pitching side, the big story was Jim Palmer, who at age 36 after three years of declining numbers, summoned his inner Cy one more time, throwing 227 innings to a 3.13 ERA (3^rd in the league), finishing 15-5 and 2^nd in the Cy Young voting.  If he had been able to summon his magic one more time on the last day of the season and pitch the O’s to the AL East crown, I suspect he would have won his 4^th Cy Young.  But alas, he and the team fell just short, and that was Palmer’s last year as a front-line starter.  It was an amazing run.

Possiblly my all time favorite season.  I graduated high school and while I had had my license for a year or two, this was the first baseball season I had access to a car.   Went to a lot of games, maybe 20ish, after growing up and going to 1 or 2 games a year at most, at least until high school when I started going to a few more games with friends as opposed to just with my family.   But I really ramped it up in '82.

I believe I personally witnessed 6 or 7 grand slams that year by Oriole hitters, which is pretty amazing.  I remember sneaking out of school with a bunch of friends to go to Opening Day and the Orioles blasted about 5 home runs including a slam on an unseasonably beautiful April day in the left field bleachers.

The Orioles finished 32-10 that year, like many Earl Weaver teams they saved the best for August and September.

I went to college in September,  Virginia Tech was on a late trimester system so school didn't start until mid-September, so I was only out of town for  the last two weeks of the season, but of course they were an incredible two weeks as the Orioles and Brewers stormed to the finish.   I lived on the first floor of a dorm and I had to go up to the 5th or 6th floor and perch my radio in a hallway window to get decent enough reception to listen to that Friday night doubleheader sweep of the Brewers.   (The Saturday and Sunday games were on national TV).

The last day was heartbreaking but the season still ranks as possibly my favorite ever.

[btdart20]

@Babkins - Awesome!  Always good when A-Rod k's!

@SteveA - Thanks for sharing!  I was picturing the walk to Memorial Stadium from Lake Montebello.

[Frobby]

By winning their 95^th game tonight, with 11 games remaining the 2023 O’s tied the 1961 team for the 13^th most wins in team history.   But at the time the ’61 team accomplished it, 95 was the new Orioles record for wins in a season, and only the second winning season the team ever had, after winning 89 games in 1960.  After the ’60 season, the O’s made two major trades, including trading 5 players to the Kansas City A’s for Whitey Herzog and Russ Snyder, and trading Jerry Walker in a deal that brought Dick Hall and Dick Williams.  So, the O’s acquired two future Hall of Fame managers (Herzog and Williams) that winter.  Too bad they weren’t Hall of Fame players as well! 

As many of the best Orioles teams seemed to do in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, the 1961 team got off to a slow start, and as of June 21, they were still a .500 club at 33-33, and already 9 games out of first place.  And though they played 62-34 ball the rest of the way, they never got any closer than 6.5 games and finished 14 games behind the 109-win Yankees, one of the greatest Yankee teams of all time, led by Rober Maris’ 61 homers and Mickey Mantle’s 54.  The O’s also finished far behind the second-place Tigers, who won 101 games that year. For that Orioles team, it was all about the pitching: the team finished 8^th/10 in runs scored, but tops in ERA at 3.22 in a very hitter-friendly year.   The standout offensive performer was Jim Gentile, who in his second full year in the majors, clubbed 46 homers and knocked in 141 runs, while hitting .302.  Gentile was an All-Star and finished 3^rd in the MVP voting behind Maris and Mantle.  Nobody else really made a lot of noise, although Brooks Robinson received his second straight All=Star nod and second straight Gold Glove (+16 Rtot), while having a so-so (.730 OPS) offensive year.  On the pitching side, though, five starters threw enough innings to qualify and each won 10+ games, led by Steve Barber (18-12, 3.33 ERA in 248 IP), Chuck Estrada (15-9, 3.69 ERA in 212 IP), and Milt Pappas (13-9, 3.04 ERA in 196 IP, good for 4^th in the AL in ERA), at ages 23, 23 and 22.  The team had both the best starter ERA in the majors (3.37), and the best bullpen ERA (2.73), led by Hoyt Wilhelm (2.30) and Billy Hoeft (2.02).  It was an excellent team, but far outdistanced by a supernova Yankees team that was in the second year of winning 5 straight pennants.  

[Frobby]

With their 96^th win last night, with 7 games remaining, the 2023 O’s tied the 2014 AL East Champion Orioles for the 12^th most wins in Orioles history.   And, that means they are tied for the most wins any Orioles team has had in the last 26 years.

Coming on the heels of a slightly disappointing 85-win 2013 season in which the O’s had not played well down the stretch, the Orioles were quiet most of the 2013-14 winter, to the consternation of their fans.  Small moves that proved important later were trading minor leaguer Devin Jones for reliever Brad Brach in December and signing Demon Young as a reserve in January.   Bigger moves came after spring training already was underway.  First the O’s signed Ubaldo Jimenez to a 4-year, $50 mm contract, and then they signed Nelson Cruz to a one year, $8 mm deal.  Nevertheless, the team got off to a slow start.  Manny Machado missed all of April while recovering from 2013 knee surgery, and Matt Wieters’ season ended on May 10 when he tore his UCL, requiring TJ surgery.   The O’s installed rookie Caleb Joseph as the primary catcher and traded for Nick Hundley in late May to solidify the position.   By the end of May, the O’s were still treading water at 27-27.  But in June, they began playing a bit better, reaching 46-39 and tying for the division lead on July 3.   They took sole possession of first place while sweeping a July 5 doubleheader, and never relinquished it the remainder of the season, going 17-8 in July, 19-9 in August, and 17-10 in September, running away with the AL East title at 96-66, 12 games ahead of the second-place Yankees.  Along the way, they won the season series with all four of their AL East rivals, in  what  as a relatively weak year for the division.

There were many key contributors to the 2014 Orioles.  Nelson Cruz, on a “prove it” contract after a PED suspension, certainly proved it, hitting 40 homers with 108 RBI.  Adam Jones had his third straight All Star/Gold Glove year, smacking 29 homers and knocking in 96.  JJ Hardy won his third straight Gold Glove, and Nick Markakis won his first.  Steve Pearce, picked up off the waiver wire in 2013, released in late April and then re-signed two days later, had a 5.8 rWAR season and a .930 OPS, seeing time at DH, 1B and both corner OF spots.   The team succeeded even though Wieters missed the final 4.5 months with his TJ surgery, Manny missed half the season (including the first month and the last two) with knee surgeries, and Chris Davis, who was having a down season anyway, suspended through the end of the season in mid-September for using Adderall medication without an exemption.  And the main reason the O’s were able to overcome all that was the pitching.   The starting pitchers were incredibly healthy all year, with 6 starters making all but one start, and the one was the second game of a doubleheader.  Chris Tillman (13-6, 3.34 ERA), Wei Yin Chen (16-6, 3.54), Bud Norris (15-8, 3.65), Miguel Gonzalez (10-9, 3.23) and second-pitcher Kevin Gausman (7-7, 3.57) all were excellent, and only expensive free agent Ubaldo Jimenez (6-9, 4.81) disappointed.   Good as the starters were, the bullpen was even better.  Zach Britton was installed as the closer in May and finished the year with 37 saves in 41 opportunities and a 1.65 ERA, Darren O’Day posted a 1.70 ERA, Tommy Hunter lost the closer job after some early hiccups but finished with A 2.97 ERA, and newcomer Brad Brach became a mainstay at 3.18.  What was already a very good bullpen became utterly dominant when the O’s added Andrew Miller at the trade deadline; he added 20 innings at a 1.35 ERA down the stretch.  Overall, the pitching staff finished 3^rd in the AL with a 3.43 ERA, 3.61 for the starters (5^th) and 3.10 for the relievers (3^rd), and the bullpen had a 74% save rate, 3^rd best in the league.

Going into the playoffs, the O’s were first-round underdogs to the Tigers and their intimidating Big Three of Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and David Price, but the O’s swept them in three games, with the signature moment being a three-run pinch hit double by Delmon Young in the 8^th inning of Game 2 off a hapless Detroit bullpen, as the Orioles came back from a capping off a rally in which the O's came back from a 6-3 deficit and prevailed 7-6.   With surprising wild card Kansas City knocking off the Angels, who had the best record in the AL that year, the O’s path to the World Series seemed clear.  But alas, the Royals were a team of destiny, and swept the Orioles in 4 games, ending a fantastic season in ignominy that rankles many Orioles fans to this day.

After that season, the O’s parted ways with longtime star Nick Markakis, and big 2014 contributors Nelson Cruz and Andrew Miller.   Dan Duquette flirted with a job with the Blue Jays, and his relationship with ownership never seemed the same after that.   There was a little more run left in the Duquette/Showalter O’s, but 2014 was the apex of that regime.

Edited September 24, 2023 by Frobby

[Frobby]

With their 97^th win today, the 2023 Orioles have matched the accomplishment of four past Orioles teams, putting them in a tie for the 8^th-best record in Orioles history, with 6 games remaining.   One of those prior teams, the 1966 club, won the World Series, while another, the 1973 team, won the AL East.  The 1964 and 1977 teams narrowly missed postseason play.  I’ll break this up into four posts, just for ease of reading.

1964

The ’64 team followed a good-not-great ’63 team that had won 86 games and finished 18.5 games behind the Yankees, who had won their 4^th straight AL pennant.  Over that winter, the O’s traded slugging 1B Jim Gentile to the Kansas City A’s for Norm Siebern, and traded Richard Yenka to Cleveland for Harvey Haddix.

It took the team a few weeks to get going, as they began 9-9, but then they took off, tying for first place on May 20 at 19-12.   They hovered in or around first place through June 21 at 39-25, but then took command, winning 7 in a row and leading by as much as 4.5 games.   They played good baseball throughout the summer, and still had a share of the lead as late as September 18 at 89-61.   But despite going 8-4 the rest of the way, they lost out to the hated Yankees, who finished their season on a 15-4 run, winning 99 games to finish 2 games ahead of the Birds.  It was close but no cigar. 

The ’64 O’s were led by an MVP performance from Brooks Robinson, who batted .317 with 28 homers and 118 RBI in the  finest offensive season of his career, and of course winning a Gold Glove with a +17 Rtot performance.  22-year old left fielder (!) Boog Powell had a huge breakout year, hitting .290 with 39 homers and 99 RBI.  But overall, as was typical for the 1960-65 squads, the offense was nothing special, finishing 6^th of 10 teams in runs scored.   It was pitching that carried the O’s, with the team posting a 3.16 ERA, 4^th in the league.  19-year old rookie Wally Bunker went 19-5 with a 2.69 ERA, Milt Pappas went 16-7 with a 2.97 ERA, and future Hall of Famer Robin Roberts went 13-7 with a 2.97 ERA.  Stu Miller (3.06 ERA in 97 relief innings, Dick Hall (1.85 in 87.2 innings and Harvey Haddix (2.31 in 89.2 IP) anchored an excellent bullpen that led the league with a 2.79 ERA.  

The team’s 97-65 record was the best in team history to that point, but it wasn’t quite enough.

[Frobby]

1966

Frank.  Robinson.  Need I say more?

The 1960-65 O’s included some very good teams that won 94, 95 and 97 games, but they were always a little light on offense.  So on December 9, the Orioles traded star pitcher Milt Pappas, Dick Simpson and Jack Baldschun to the Cincinnati Reds and received outfielder Frank Robinson in exchange.   The rest is history. 

The 1966 O’s wasted no time, beginning the season winning 12 of their first 13 games.  They scuffled a bit after their hot start, reaching their low point of 24-17 on May 30, at one point dropping to 4.5 games out of first place.  But then the Orioles turned on the jets in June, and never looked back.  They won 56 of their next 81 games to reach 80-42, a season-high 13.5 games ahead.   They coasted in from there, to a final 97-63 record. 

Frank Robinson was everything the team possibly could have hoped for, not only winning the MVP and the Triple Crown (BA/HR/RBI), but also leading the league in runs, OBP, SLG and total bases, in addition to bringing a fiery style of play and leadership that lit a fuse under everyone around him.  Several teammates also had great years.  Brooks Robinson had 100 RBI, won a Gold Glove and was 2^nd in the MVP voting.  Boog Powell had 34 homers and 109 RBI and finished 3^rd in the MVP voting.  Luis Aparicio joined Brooks as a Gold Glove winner, his 7^th such award and 2^nd as an Oriole.   The offense, which had finished 6^th in runs scored in 1965, let the AL in that category in 1966.  The pitching remained excellent, finishing 4^th in ERA at 3.32.  20-year old Jim Palmer was inserted into Pappas’ slot and went 15-10 with a 3.46 ERA; 23-year old Dave McNally went 13-6 with a 3.17 ERA; 21-year old Wally Bunker went 10-6 with a 4.29 ERA, and 28-year old grizzled vet Steve Barber went 10-5 with a 2.30.  The bullpen also was stellar, led by Stu Miller (9-4, 2.25 ERA) and Moe Drabowski (6-0, 2.81). 

Despite finishing with the best record in the majors, the ’66 O’s were heavy underdogs going into the World Series against the defending champion Dodgers, led by all-world Sandy Koufax (27-9, 1.73 ERA).   But the O’s shocked the baseball world, sweeping the Dodgers in four games and shutting them out in the final three, with Bunker, Palmer and McNally all tossing shutouts.  Frank Robinson’s solo homer stood up as the winning margin in a 1-0 finale, and Frank capped off his dream season by winning the World Series MVP.   It was the first pennant and World Series Championship for the Orioles.

[Frobby]

1973

Just as trading for Frank Robinson had energized the Orioles’ offense, trading him away before the 1972 season had short-circuited it, as the ’72 O’s had finished 80-74 and were 8^th of 12 teams in runs scored.  So in 1973, Earl Weaver went a different directions from his usual 3-run homer philosophy, and went with youth and speed in the form of Al Bumbry and Rich Coggins.  

The ’73 O’s got off to a 7-2 start but then slumped, falling 3 games under .500 and still mired at .500 on June 13 at 26-26.  They began playing a little better after that, going 11-5 the rest of June and 18-14 in July.   They reclaimed first place on August 1 and played excellent baseball from there, going 21-9 in August and 21-11 in September, to finish at 97-65, 8.5 games in front.  

There were no obvious superstar performances among the position players, as catcher Earl Williams topped the team with 22 homers and Tommy Davis, in the first year of the DH, leading with 83 RBI.  But as mentioned, Earl Weaver shifted to an aggressive style of play, with the O’s stealing 146 bases, led by Don Baylor (32), and rookie of the year Al Bumbry (23), with 6 other players stealing 10+. Bumbry hit .337/.398/.500 in his ROY campaign, and fellow rookie Coggiins hit .319/.363/.468.  Defensively, the team was superb, with Brooks Robinson (+18 Rtot), Mark Belanger (+26), Bobby Grich (+29) and Paul Blair (+19) all taking home Gold Gloves. I would peg the 1973 team as the best Orioles defensive team ever, at +119 Rtot, and quite arguably the best defensive team ever in MLB.

The pitching also was in top form, leading the AL in ERA at 3.07.   Jim Palmer somehow did not make the all-star team, but won his first Cy Young Award, going 22-9 with a league-leading 2.40 ERA in 296.1 IP while tossing 19 complete games and 6 shutouts.  Mike Cuellar (18-13, .327 ERA) and Dave McNally (17-17, 3.21 ERA) provided their usual support.  The bullpen was quite good that year with Bob Reynolds tossing 111 innings at a 1.95 ERA and Grant Jackson adding 80.1 at 1.90.  

In the ALCS the O’s faced the defending World Champion Oakland A’s, who had gone 94-68 (3.5 game worse than the O’s) during the regular season.   The A’s won a hard-fought 5 game series in which the O’s had taken the opener in a Jim Palmer shutout, lost the next two (including an 11-inning heartbreaker in game 3 in which Mike Cuellar lost 2-1 to Ken Holtzman, both throwing complete games), came back from 4-0 down to win game 4 5-4, but were shut out in the finale by Catfish Hunter 3-0 .   It was a great series between two excellent teams, but the O’s had to be satisfied with an AL East title that year, as Oakland went on to win their second straight World Series. 

By Pythagorean record, the ’73 O’s were one of the strongest Orioles teams ever, at 102-60, even better than the ’66 squad.  In fact, only the 1969-71 teams exceeded their +193 run differential, among all Orioles teams.  But, the A’s had their number.

[Frobby]

1977

The 1976-77 offseason seemed like a gloomy one that might mark the end of a winning era for the Orioles, as their 88-74 team, which had finished 10.5 games behind the Yankees in ’76, lost Reggie Jackson, Bobby Grich and 20-game winner Wayne Garland in the very first winter of full-scale free agency.  That winter also saw the departure of two mainstays of the great Orioles teams, Paul Blair in a trade for Pat Kelly and the release of Mike Cuellar.  But instead of an end to Oriole excellence, 1977 marked the beginning of a renewed era of Orioles excellence, centered around rookie Eddie Murray, other young players like Rich Dauer and Dennis Martinez, and players who had been acquired midseason ’76 in a blockbuster trade with the Yankees, including Scott McGregor, Rick Dempsey, Tippy Martinez and Rudy May.  

The ’77 O’s hovered around .500 in April, then went 17-10 in May to take the division lead.   They faltered badly in June, going 13-18 and at one point losing 6 in a row to fall 6.5 games out of first.   But the team played better and better during the second half, going 20-8 in July, 16-11 in August, and a furious 22-9 in September/October.  Despite being tied for the division lead on July 31 and going 36-19 the rest of the way, the O’s finished 2 games behind the Yankees, who went 49-18 to close out there season.   And there was nothing the O’s could do about it, because their season series with the Yankees had concluded in late July, with the O’s taking 8 of the 15 matchups.   The ’77 Orioles offense, which was middle-of-the pack, was anchored by Ken Singleton, who hit .328 with 24 homers and 99 RBI and walked 107 times, posting a 165 OPS+, finishing 3^rd in the MVP voting and being named to the All-Star team.  Lee May led the team in homers with 27 and matched Singlton’s 99 RBI, all while posting a pedestrian 100 OPS+.   Rookie of the Year Eddie Murray was the key new ingredient, hitting 2.83 with 27 homers and 88 RBI in his debut season.  Murray was an incredible contributor down the stretch, posting a .294/.345/.529 line over the final 64 games with 14 homers and 42 RBI.  Al Bumbry (119 OPS+), Doug DeCinces (115) and Pat Kelly (105) all made big contributions as well.  Defensively, Mark Belanger won the Gold Glove and was joined by Jim Palmer.   Palmer also anchored the pitching, finishing second in the Cy Young voting with a 20-11 record and a 2.91 ERA, tossing a league leading 22 complete games.  The other rotation regulars were Rudy May (18-14, 3.61 ERA), Mike Flanagan (15-10, 3.64 ERA), and Ross Grimsley (14-10, 3.96 ERA), with Dennis Martinez (13 starts) and Scott McGregor (5) filling in while working mainly out of the bullpen, throwing 166.2 and 114 innings in their hybrid roles.  All the other pitchers combined threw under 150 innings, led by Tippy Martinez, who went 5-1 with a 2.70 ERA in 50 innings.  The ’77 O’s led the AL with 65 complete games, and were 5^th in ERA at 3.74. 

They finished 9 games better than their Pythagorean record, outscoring their opponents by only 66 runs yet finishing 33 games over .500, going 33-19 in one-run games.  Sound familiar?

* * * *

Anyway, the 2023 O’s are now the equal of those four excellent teams, at least in the win column.   We’ll see if they can get further while they strive to stay ahead of the Rays.

[Uli2001]

Wow, good job.

[btownoriole]

I look forward to reading Frobby’s updated post(s) after every win.  It either brings back great memories or teaches me something new (or both) every time.  Thanks!

[dystopia]

This team is officially the best Orioles team of the 21st century, surpassing 2014. 

[Satyr3206]

65 complete games. That might be more than everyone in MLB today.