Orioles Card "O" the Day

An intersection of two of my passions: baseball cards and the Baltimore Orioles. Updated daily?

Friday, May 22, 2009

Vintage Fridays: Hoyt Wilhelm, 1963 Topps #108

This Day in Orioles History: May 22, 1959

Orioles 5, Yankees 0
at Memorial Stadium, Baltimore, MD

The upstart Orioles (21-15) and the dynastic Yankees (12-20) each continued their surprising starts, as 36-year-old Hoyt Wilhelm improved to 6-0 with a one-hit masterpiece. Wilhelm, who would go on to lead the American League with his 2.19 ERA that season, continued his mastery of the Bronx Bombers. Since joining the O's in a midseason trade the previous year, Hoyt was undefeated against New York, no-hitting them in his first try and winning three decisions in five tries. As an Oriole, he had allowed three runs on 15 hits in 43 innings, with 33 strikeouts and 18 walks. That's a 0.63 ERA and 0.77 WHIP, folks. He would shut the Yanks out again in his next start (a four-hitter!) before the pinstripers finally bested him 4-1 at the end of June. Talk about your Yankee Killers!

On offense, the Birds jumped on former Oriole Bob Turley early, knocking him out of the box in the first inning. "Bullet Bob" got two outs and then fell apart. A Gene Woodling RBI single was followed by a Gus Triandos two-run homer. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases before Wilhelm walked to drive in the fourth Baltimore run. That's when Casey Stengel finally gave his starter the hook. A fifth-inning walk by Billy Klaus capped the day's scoring. The sole Yankee hit was a Jerry Lumpe leadoff single to left field to lead off the eighth inning, but pinch hitter Johnny Blanchard immediately wiped him out with a double-play grounder.

If you think this game choice on my part was a bit of retribution for the just-completed Yankee sweep, I'm not going to argue.

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