1971 Orioles Tour of Japan

[DrungoHazewood]

 

Edited yesterday at 18:39 by DrungoHazewood

[DrungoHazewood]

 

[Ridgway22]

I was at one of those games in Japan, when the O's played the Tokyo Giants. My Dad was in the Navy, stationed as a small listening post called Kamiseya. We lived there from 1970-1975. The base organized a bus trip to the game, and I went, it was my 9th birthday present.

Loved baseball, played little league, my favorite team at that time was the Dodgers, as my parents were both huge Dodger fans. But it was a tepid connection.

Once the tour was announced, the Stars and Stripes newspaper had an article about the Orioles almost every day, and I ate it up. It was the beginning of my lifelong addiction to the Orange and Black.

When game day came, I remember getting up early and trying to figure out the lineup and starting pitcher they'd use that day. My 9 year old brain was thinking they were going to play this like a world series game.

I don't remember too much of the game, other than they won, but they won most of those games. None of the big 4 started, and the only position player I remember for sure was Frank Robinson played left field because my Dad's friend Tom Holstein would yell "Hey Frank quick picking your nose and get out there" every time Frank would saunter out to left field.

Over the years, I've been fortunate to talk with Boog Powell, Jim Palmer, and Merv Rettenmund about that tour. The one thing they all said is that they were bloody exhausted, having just come off a full season and a 7 game loss in the World Series.