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

[Uli2001]

On 9/7/2023 at 9:33 AM, Aristotelian said:

This is definitely going to be one of our winningest teams. I love that this team combines the youth and likability of the '89 and '12 teams, with the strength and dominance of '83 and '97. I think the (more) balanced schedule is a factor in the raw win total. This team against the '97 team would be a great matchup!  

Good point. And also look at the Astros win total. The more balanced schedule is fair.

[Uli2001]

4 hours ago, btdart20 said:

1997 Game 2 of the ALCS against Cleveland was my first/only playoff game I've ever been to.  Dad was never really a baseball fan and we didn't go to many games as a kid.  He was pretty aloof and we never had the best relationship.  My dad didn't teach me how to throw/catch.  My mom did.  We rarely tossed a ball as I got older because he said I threw too hard for him (and his old glove).  I remember being excited when they clinched and saying how it would be awesome to go to a playoff game.  Next thing I know Dad surprised me with tickets.  The excitement in OPACY was non-stop from the first pitch...  I wish we'd have won that one as the icing on the cake for my sorta "Field of Dreams" moment with my dad.  Baseball...  "This field, this game: it's a part of our past.  It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again."  Now that I'm a dad, I play catch and coach my boys.  And much more engaged than he was with me.  But I now get the stresses and other things of life that I was just clueless about back then...

 

Then Game 3 with the botched squeeze play that Grissom "stole" home on.  I still think Vizquel fouled it. 

And Game 4 where Rhodes threw a wild pitch and two scored.  

It just wasn't meant to be...

Oh my you had to post the video. Everyone here older than about 33 has nightmares with this.

[Frobby]

With their 100^th win tonight, with 3 games remaining, the 2023 Orioles tied the 1980 Orioles for the fifth-most team wins in franchise history.  But unlike the current team, which clinched the AL East tonight, the 1980 team missed the playoffs despite winning 100 games.

The 1980 team was coming off a heartbreaking loss in the 1979 World Series, 4 games to 3.  The team had won 102 games and the front office didn’t do anything but minor tweaking, letting Don Stanhouse leave in free agency and picking up utility infielder Lenn Sakata and backup catcher Dan Graham in trades.  Not exactly earth-shattering.

In classic Orioles fashion, the team started sluggishly, finishing April at 7-11 and May at 22-24.   At that point, they were 7 games behind.  Despite playing better in June, they fell as far as 9.5 games back on June 20-22, at 34-32 on the latter date.   But from there, they started making up ground, going 5-1 in the remainder of June (17-9 for the month), 16-11 in July, and a torrid 21-9 in August, at one point getting within half a game of first place.   But that was as close as they got, despite closing out the season going 24-10.   As well as they played, the Yankees played even better, going 25-8 in September and early October.  The teams had no head-to-head matchups after mid-August, and the Orioles were simply powerless to stop New York from tearing through their schedule.  The O’s were eliminated on the second to last day of the season, and won a meaningless 100^th game on the final day.   It was the best Orioles team ever to miss the playoffs, beating out the 97-win teams from 1964 and 1977, both of which also lost out narrowly to the Yankees.

The offense was 5^th in runs scored and centered around Eddie Murray, who hit .300/.354/.519 (138 OPS+) with 32 homers and 116 RBI and 100 runs scored, and Ken Singleton, who hit .304/397/.485 (142 OPS+) with 24 homers and 104 RBI.   Al Bumbry did a great job setting the table, scoring 119 runs while hitting .318/.392/.433 (129 OPS+) and stealing 44 bases.  Rick Dempsey actually had one of his best years, posting a 108 OPS+.   It was not one of the better years for the Roenicke/Lowenstein LF platoon, but the DH spot was very productive, with Terry Crowley, Lee May, Benny Ayala and Pat Kelly, plus a few others, combining for 27 homers and 115 RBI.  The team was solid defensively, at +29 Rtot, though for the first time in 21 years, no Oriole brought home a Gold Glove.

The pitching was led by a surprise contributor, Steve Stone, who had been mediocre after being signed by the O’s in 1979 but found the magic formula with his curve ball and went 25-7 with a 3.23 ERA, wining the Cy Young Award, being named to the All-Star team, garnering some MVP votes and leading the league in wins.  Scott McGregor wasn’t too shabby either, going 20-8 with a 3.32 ERA.  Mike Flanagan (16-13, 4.12) and Jim Palmer (16-10, 3.98) were solid too, though Flangan fell off quite a bit from his 1979 Cy Young performance and Palmer was not quite the ace he had been through most of the 1970s.  The bullpen was solid, with Tim Stoddard garnering 26 saves in the closer role with a 2.51 ERA, Tippy Martinez adding 10 saves and a 3.01 ERA, and Sammy Stewart leading the relievers in innings at 118.2 while posting a 3.56 ERA.  Overall, the staff posted a 3.64 ERA, 3^rd best in the league.  The starters had the third best ERA in the league at 3.76, and the relievers were 3^rd best at 3.30, while posting the 4^th best save rate at 80%.  

Overall, the 1980 team had a better record than two Orioles teams that won the World Series and several others that had gone to the playoffs.  But, the hated Yankees were just a little better. As consolation, the Yankees lost in the ALCS to a 97-win Royals team, pleasing Orioles fans everywhere.

[DrungoHazewood]

7 hours ago, Frobby said:

With their 100^th win tonight, with 3 games remaining, the 2023 Orioles tied the 1980 Orioles for the fifth-most team wins in franchise history.  But unlike the current team, which clinched the AL East tonight, the 1980 team missed the playoffs despite winning 100 games.

The 1980 team was coming off a heartbreaking loss in the 1979 World Series, 4 games to 3.

...

Overall, the 1980 team had a better record than two Orioles teams that won the World Series and several others that had gone to the playoffs.  But, the hated Yankees were just a little better. As consolation, the Yankees lost in the ALCS to a 97-win Royals team, pleasing Orioles fans everywhere.

The 1980 Orioles were one of just nine teams to win 100 and not play in the postseason. This list is misleading, as it says there were 13 teams, but the 1800s teams listed didn't have a post-season to go to and the 1904 Giants didn't play in the post-season because John McGraw was in a feud with AL President Ban Johnson and refused to play.

In the lifetimes of anyone still alive there have only been five 100-win teams that missed the playoffs. And with expanded playoffs it's highly unlikely it'll happen again in any of our lifetimes.

Edited September 29, 2023 by DrungoHazewood

[Frobby]

22 hours ago, Uli2001 said:

Good point. And also look at the Astros win total. The more balanced schedule is fair.

The balance between divisional and non-divisional games has changed several times over the years.  
 

Before divisions existed, every team played every other team the same number of times.

When two divisions of 6 teams were created (1969), teams played the 5 other teams in their division 18 times each (90 games), and the 6 teams from the other division 12 times each (72 games).  That persisted through 1976.

In 1977, the league expanded to 14 teams, two divisions of 7.   Teams played their 6 divisional opponents 15 times each (90 games), and the 7 from the other division 10-11 times each (72).  But that was changed two years later, in 2979, to 13 against division rivals (78 games) and 12 against non-division (84).

In 1994, the leagues realigned into 3 divisions, but there were still only 14 teams.  It was still a 13/12 schedule, but teams played 13 against 1 or 2 non division teams.  For the O’s, it was 52 games against divisional rivals, 110 non-division.  

In 1998, the expansion Rays joined the AL, but Milwaukee moved to the NL, so the leagues were divided 14/16 for some dumb reason.  The AL teams played 12 games against their four divisional opponents (48), 10-11 games against their 9 other intra-league  opponents (98), and 3-4 against NL teams (16).    

In 2001, MLB moved to a division-heavy schedule.  Teams played 18-19 against their four division rivals (74), 6-7 against one division’s teams, 9 against the other division’s teams, 18 matches against the NL.

In 2013, MLB finally came to its senses and moved Houston to the AL, giving each league three divisions of five teams.  Now teams played their four division divisional opponents 19 times each (76), other league teams 6-7 times each, and 20 interleague games.  

And finally, this year the schedule was rebalanced so that teams play their division rivals 13 times each (52), other league teams 6-7 times (64), and the teams in the other league 3 times each plus an extra game with one designated rival (46).

Why they jumped from division-heavy to more balanced and then flip flopped two more times (putting aside the other changes) is a mystery.  


 

[SteveA]

17 hours ago, Frobby said:

With their 100^th win tonight, with 3 games remaining, the 2023 Orioles tied the 1980 Orioles for the fifth-most team wins in franchise history.  But unlike the current team, which clinched the AL East tonight, the 1980 team missed the playoffs despite winning 100 games.

The 1980 team was coming off a heartbreaking loss in the 1979 World Series, 4 games to 3.  The team had won 102 games and the front office didn’t do anything but minor tweaking, letting Don Stanhouse leave in free agency and picking up utility infielder Lenn Sakata and backup catcher Dan Graham in trades.  Not exactly earth-shattering.

In classic Orioles fashion, the team started sluggishly, finishing April at 7-11 and May at 22-24.   At that point, they were 7 games behind.  Despite playing better in June, they fell as far as 9.5 games back on June 20-22, at 34-32 on the latter date.   But from there, they started making up ground, going 5-1 in the remainder of June (17-9 for the month), 16-11 in July, and a torrid 21-9 in August, at one point getting within half a game of first place.   But that was as close as they got, despite closing out the season going 24-10.   As well as they played, the Yankees played even better, going 25-8 in September and early October.  The teams had no head-to-head matchups after mid-August, and the Orioles were simply powerless to stop New York from tearing through their schedule.  The O’s were eliminated on the second to last day of the season, and won a meaningless 100^th game on the final day.   It was the best Orioles team ever to miss the playoffs, beating out the 97-win teams from 1964 and 1977, both of which also lost out narrowly to the Yankees.

The offense was 5^th in runs scored and centered around Eddie Murray, who hit .300/.354/.519 (138 OPS+) with 32 homers and 116 RBI and 100 runs scored, and Ken Singleton, who hit .304/397/.485 (142 OPS+) with 24 homers and 104 RBI.   Al Bumbry did a great job setting the table, scoring 119 runs while hitting .318/.392/.433 (129 OPS+) and stealing 44 bases.  Rick Dempsey actually had one of his best years, posting a 108 OPS+.   It was not one of the better years for the Roenicke/Lowenstein LF platoon, but the DH spot was very productive, with Terry Crowley, Lee May, Benny Ayala and Pat Kelly, plus a few others, combining for 27 homers and 115 RBI.  The team was solid defensively, at +29 Rtot, though for the first time in 21 years, no Oriole brought home a Gold Glove.

The pitching was led by a surprise contributor, Steve Stone, who had been mediocre after being signed by the O’s in 1979 but found the magic formula with his curve ball and went 25-7 with a 3.23 ERA, wining the Cy Young Award, being named to the All-Star team, garnering some MVP votes and leading the league in wins.  Scott McGregor wasn’t too shabby either, going 20-8 with a 3.32 ERA.  Mike Flanagan (16-13, 4.12) and Jim Palmer (16-10, 3.98) were solid too, though Flangan fell off quite a bit from his 1979 Cy Young performance and Palmer was not quite the ace he had been through most of the 1970s.  The bullpen was solid, with Tim Stoddard garnering 26 saves in the closer role with a 2.51 ERA, Tippy Martinez adding 10 saves and a 3.01 ERA, and Sammy Stewart leading the relievers in innings at 118.2 while posting a 3.56 ERA.  Overall, the staff posted a 3.64 ERA, 3^rd best in the league.  The starters had the third best ERA in the league at 3.76, and the relievers were 3^rd best at 3.30, while posting the 4^th best save rate at 80%.  

Overall, the 1980 team had a better record than two Orioles teams that won the World Series and several others that had gone to the playoffs.  But, the hated Yankees were just a little better. As consolation, the Yankees lost in the ALCS to a 97-win Royals team, pleasing Orioles fans everywhere.

My big memories of 1980 are:

The massive five game series with the Yankees in August that drew over a quarter million fans to memorial stadium. Just for those five games. Most of the games were tight and I believe we took three out of five.

And watching Steve Stone be totally overmatched battling against JR. Richard in the All-Star game.

This was dictated while driving so apologies for any typos or spelling errors

[DrungoHazewood]

On 9/28/2023 at 1:23 PM, btdart20 said:

1997 Game 2 of the ALCS against Cleveland was my first/only playoff game I've ever been to.  Dad was never really a baseball fan and we didn't go to many games as a kid.  He was pretty aloof and we never had the best relationship.  My dad didn't teach me how to throw/catch.  My mom did.  We rarely tossed a ball as I got older because he said I threw too hard for him (and his old glove).  I remember being excited when they clinched and saying how it would be awesome to go to a playoff game.  Next thing I know Dad surprised me with tickets.  The excitement in OPACY was non-stop from the first pitch...  I wish we'd have won that one as the icing on the cake for my sorta "Field of Dreams" moment with my dad.  Baseball...  "This field, this game: it's a part of our past.  It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again."  Now that I'm a dad, I play catch and coach my boys.  And much more engaged than he was with me.  But I now get the stresses and other things of life that I was just clueless about back then...

 

Then Game 3 with the botched squeeze play that Grissom "stole" home on.  I still think Vizquel fouled it. 

And Game 4 where Rhodes threw a wild pitch and two scored.  

It just wasn't meant to be...

Somehow I blocked that from my memory, have no recollection of it. That was the day we went to the Tech-BC game, which was an afternoon game in Blacksburg. Drove to Cleveland first thing the next morning. We had to have found somewhere to watch the Orioles... but I have no recollection at all.

But it was clearly a foul ball. Webster reacted exactly as if everyone knew it was foul. I say the O's challenge the call, they can just start the game over from that point. Randy Myers is only 61, he can probably still bring it.

Edited September 29, 2023 by DrungoHazewood

[25 Nuggets]

11 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

The 1980 Orioles were one of just nine teams to win 100 and not play in the postseason. This list is misleading, as it says there were 13 teams, but the 1800s teams listed didn't have a post-season to go to and the 1904 Giants didn't play in the post-season because John McGraw was in a feud with AL President Ban Johnson and refused to play.

In the lifetimes of anyone still alive there have only been five 100-win teams that missed the playoffs. And with expanded playoffs it's highly unlikely it'll happen again in any of our lifetimes.

Thank goodness - that is just wrong, winning 100 games and missing the playoffs.  At least it ended on a good note (Yanks losing to KC).  Wonder what the Orioles could've done?

[SteveA]

3 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Somehow I blocked that from my memory, have no recollection of it. That was the day we went to the Tech-BC game, which was an afternoon game in Blacksburg. Drove to Cleveland first thing the next morning. We had to have found somewhere to watch the Orioles... but I have no recollection at all.

But it was clearly a foul ball. Webster reacted exactly as if everyone knew it was foul. I say the O's challenge the call, they can just start the game over from that point. Randy Myers is only 61, he can probably still bring it.

I stayed in Blacksburg after the VT game and watched that game in Champs.  By myself, because my friends had day tripped for the football game and headed home.  I got a hotel for that night so I sat in Champs drinking pitchers of beer and watching that long game.

Was in Champs a couple weeks ago for the first time this millennium.  It hasn't changed a bit (not sure that's a good thing).

[DrungoHazewood]

10 hours ago, SteveA said:

I stayed in Blacksburg after the VT game and watched that game in Champs.  By myself, because my friends had day tripped for the football game and headed home.  I got a hotel for that night so I sat in Champs drinking pitchers of beer and watching that long game.

Was in Champs a couple weeks ago for the first time this millennium.  It hasn't changed a bit (not sure that's a good thing).

We're going down for the Wake game in a few weeks, I haven't been in almost 10 years after having gone to 95% of home games from roughly 1996-2008. Back in the day I had a friend who owns a house in town and we'd stay there. Renting an Air B&B in Christiansburg with a bunch of people this month.

Bringing my boys so they can see a real college campus, they're 16 and 15 and have no idea what they're doing after high school. Probably not Tech, but you never know. My nephew is a freshman and for out-of-staters it's over $50k a year.

[Frobby]

With their 101^st win tonight, with one game remaining, the 2023 Orioles tied the win total of the 1971 Orioles, tied for fourth on the Baltimore all time wins list.

Before I get into my narrative, I need to give a caveat here.  The 1971 Orioles only played 158 games, due to four rainouts that were never made up because they were meaningless in the standings.  So, they reached 101 in fewer games than the 2023 Orioles have played, and they might have won as many as 105 if the whole schedule had been played.  But hey, this thread is about how many games the team won, so it is what it is!

The ’71 team was coming off a 108-win, World Series winning season.   Even so, they had a somewhat active winter, trading Moe Drabowski for Jerry DaVanon, trading Tom Phoebus and others for Pat Dobson and another player, trading highly regarded prospect Roger Freed for Grant Jackson and two other players, and trading Marcelino Lopes for Roric Harrison.  Nevertheless, the position player core and top three starting remained intact.

The team got off to a 10-5 start but then treaded water for a bit, landing at 24-18 and 4 games out of first place on May 28.  But that quickly changed, as the team won 9 straight beginning on May 31 to return to first place, and never looked back.   They went 20-9 in June, 18-10 in July, 16-10 in August and 20-9 in September, winning their final 11 games of the season to finish 101-57.  The were 12 games in front, so no need to worry about those four rainouts they never made up.  

Offensively, it was an extremely balanced attack.  The O’s finished first in runs scored, with Frank Robinson and Don Buford both posting a 153 OPS+, Merv Rettenmund  149, Boog Powell 138, Davey Johnson 125, Brooks Robinson 114.  Even the catching tandem of Andy Etchebarren (112) and Elrod Henricks (105) got into the act.  The only regulars under 100 OPS+ were barely under, Mark Belanger at 99, and Paul Blair at 97.  Even so, those two brought  home Gold Gloves, as did Brooks and Johnson.   Frank Robinson let the team in homers (28) and RBI (99).   Rettenmund actually started more games than Frank, Blair or Burford as the so-called fourth outfielder, and was worth 5.9 rWAR, second only to Brooks’ 6.0.  Brooks finished 4^th in the MVP voting, while Frank finished 3^rd.

But what people will always remember about the 1971 O’s is that their starting rotation featured four 20 game winners: Dave McNally (21-5, 2.89 ERA), Mike Cuellar (20-9, 3.08), Jim Palmer (20-9, 2.68) and newcomer Pat Dobson (20-8, 2.90).   It was a feat that hadn’t been accomplished since the White Sox did it in 1920.   And, it hasn’t been accomplished since then, and probably never will.   It was McNally’s fourth straight 20-win season, Cuellar’s third, Palmer’s second, and Dobson’s first.  McNally accomplished the feat despite missing about 7 starts with an injury in July and August, winning 8 of 9 decisions after he returned.  Together the four pitchers made 143 starts, threw 70 complete games, and threw 1,081 innings out of a staff total of 1,415.1.   The bullpen, which didn’t have much to do, was led by Eddie Watt, who had a 1.82 ERA in 39.1 innings. 

After winning 11 straight to end the season, the O’s faced a young Oakland team that had just won its first AL West title, led by Cy Young Award winner and MVP Vida Blue, who had gone 24-8 with a 1.82 ERA.  But the O’s steamrolled the A’s in three games, winning 5-3 (McNally beating Blue), 5-1 (Cuellar beating Catfish Hunter) and 5-3 (Palmer beating Diegp Segui), with the O’s starting pitchers throwing all but two innings in the series.

In the World Series, the Orioles faced the Pittsburgh Pirates.   For two games, it looked like more of the same, with the O’s winning 5-3 and 11-3 behind McNally and Palmer.  At that point, the Orioles had won 16 games in a row and seemed unstoppable.   But things changed when the Series moved to Pittsburgh, as the Pirates won all three games by scores of 5-1, 4-3 and 4-0.   Back in Baltimore, the O’s won a tense game 6 in the 10^th inning thanks to some aggressive baserunning by Frank Robinson, who at age 36, went first to third on a one-out single and then scored on a shallow fly ball by Brooks Robinson.   But alas, the Pirates won an equally tense Game 7 by a 2-1 score, as an Orioles 8^th inning rally fell short.  The Pirates were the World Champs and, for the second time in three years, the O’s had to settle for an AL pennant.

That winter, the O’s decided that it was time to make room for budding stars Don Baylor and Bobby Grich.  They traded Frank Robinson to the Dodgers and Davey Johnson to the Braves.   That marked the end of the most dominant period in Orioles history, in which they had gone to the World Series four times in six years, winning twice.  Even so, it has always felt as though those teams were even better than that record suggests, and were beaten by lesser teams in both 1969 and 1971.  Still, what those 1966-71 teams accomplished stands as the high point of Orioles history.

[Satyr3206]

32 minutes ago, Frobby said:

With their 101^st win tonight, with one game remaining, the 2023 Orioles tied the win total of the 1971 Orioles, tied for fourth on the Baltimore all time wins list.

Before I get into my narrative, I need to give a caveat here.  The 1971 Orioles only played 158 games, due to four rainouts that were never made up because they were meaningless in the standings.  So, they reached 101 in fewer games than the 2023 Orioles have played, and they might have won as many as 105 if the whole schedule had been played.  But hey, this thread is about how many games the team won, so it is what it is!

The ’71 team was coming off a 108-win, World Series winning season.   Even so, they had a somewhat active winter, trading Moe Drabowski for Jerry DaVanon, trading Tom Phoebus and others for Pat Dobson and another player, trading highly regarded prospect Roger Freed for Grant Jackson and two other players, and trading Marcelino Lopes for Roric Harrison.  Nevertheless, the position player core and top three starting remained intact.

The team got off to a 10-5 start but then treaded water for a bit, landing at 24-18 and 4 games out of first place on May 28.  But that quickly changed, as the team won 9 straight beginning on May 31 to return to first place, and never looked back.   They went 20-9 in June, 18-10 in July, 16-10 in August and 20-9 in September, winning their final 11 games of the season to finish 101-57.  The were 12 games in front, so no need to worry about those four rainouts they never made up.  

Offensively, it was an extremely balanced attack.  The O’s finished first in runs scored, with Frank Robinson and Don Buford both posting a 153 OPS+, Merv Rettenmund  149, Boog Powell 138, Davey Johnson 125, Brooks Robinson 114.  Even the catching tandem of Andy Etchebarren (112) and Elrod Henricks (105) got into the act.  The only regulars under 100 OPS+ were barely under, Mark Belanger at 99, and Paul Blair at 97.  Even so, those two brought  home Gold Gloves, as did Brooks and Johnson.   Frank Robinson let the team in homers (28) and RBI (99).   Rettenmund actually started more games than Frank, Blair or Burford as the so-called fourth outfielder, and was worth 5.9 rWAR, second only to Brooks’ 6.0.  Brooks finished 4^th in the MVP voting, while Frank finished 3^rd.

But what people will always remember about the 1971 O’s is that their starting rotation featured four 20 game winners: Dave McNally (21-5, 2.89 ERA), Mike Cuellar (20-9, 3.08), Jim Palmer (20-9, 2.68) and newcomer Pat Dobson (20-8, 2.90).   It was a feat that hadn’t been accomplished since the White Sox did it in 1920.   And, it hasn’t been accomplished since then, and probably never will.   It was McNally’s fourth straight 20-win season, Cuellar’s third, Palmer’s second, and Dobson’s first.  McNally accomplished the feat despite missing about 7 starts with an injury in July and August, winning 8 of 9 decisions after he returned.  Together the four pitchers made 143 starts, threw 70 complete games, and threw 1,081 innings out of a staff total of 1,415.1.   The bullpen, which didn’t have much to do, was led by Eddie Watt, who had a 1.82 ERA in 39.1 innings. 

After winning 11 straight to end the season, the O’s faced a young Oakland team that had just won its first AL West title, led by Cy Young Award winner and MVP Vida Blue, who had gone 24-8 with a 1.82 ERA.  But the O’s steamrolled the A’s in three games, winning 5-3 (McNally beating Blue), 5-1 (Cuellar beating Catfish Hunter) and 5-3 (Palmer beating Diegp Segui), with the O’s starting pitchers throwing all but two innings in the series.

In the World Series, the Orioles faced the Pittsburgh Pirates.   For two games, it looked like more of the same, with the O’s winning 5-3 and 11-3 behind McNally and Palmer.  At that point, the Orioles had won 16 games in a row and seemed unstoppable.   But things changed when the Series moved to Pittsburgh, as the Pirates won all three games by scores of 5-1, 4-3 and 4-0.   Back in Baltimore, the O’s won a tense game 6 in the 10^th inning thanks to some aggressive baserunning by Frank Robinson, who at age 36, went first to third on a one-out single and then scored on a shallow fly ball by Brooks Robinson.   But alas, the Pirates won an equally tense Game 7 by a 2-1 score, as an Orioles 8^th inning rally fell short.  The Pirates were the World Champs and, for the second time in three years, the O’s had to settle for an AL pennant.

That winter, the O’s decided that it was time to make room for budding stars Don Baylor and Bobby Grich.  They traded Frank Robinson to the Dodgers and Davey Johnson to the Braves.   That marked the end of the most dominant period in Orioles history, in which they had gone to the World Series four times in six years, winning twice.  Even so, it has always felt as though those teams were even better than that record suggests, and were beaten by lesser teams in both 1969 and 1971.  Still, what those 1966-71 teams accomplished stands as the high point of Orioles history.

Great write up. Did anyone predict this many Wins for the O's this year?

[Satyr3206]

At the beginning of the year?

[Frobby]

It’s a wrap.  The 2023 O’s tied with the ‘71 team for the 4th most regular season wins in Orioles’ history.  The only teams that topped them were the teams from 1969 (109 wins), 1970 (108), and 1979 (102), all of which went to the World Series, as did the ‘71 team that this team matched with 101 wins.  Let’s hope this team will at least match that feat, and be at least as fondly remembered as those teams were.  It’s been a great regular season. On to the playoffs!

[Just Regular]

Its interesting to appreciate the 1971 ALCS as a kind of contest between the last and next great teams of the era.

The '72 Pirates had a similar NLCS experience the next year falling to the Reds in Joe Morgan's first season there.    They fell under .500 by '73, tragically bereft of their Roberto Clemente.