Vintage Fridays: Moe Drabowsky, 1966 Topps #291

Speaking of notable Orioles from yesteryear that I have yet to feature on this blog, we have one of the favorites of the gals over at Dinged Corners. Undoubtedly you've heard some of the choicest stories about reliever Moe Drabowsky's legendary pranks, but there may be a few you've missed. There are some amusing recollections in John Eisenberg's team history From 33rd Street to Camden Yards, but I want to keep this somewhat brief, so I'll share some of them now and save the rest for later. It also goes without saying that you absolutely should track down a copy of this book; you won't be sorry. Without further ado:

DICK HALL (on the topic of the hot foot): "...After a while we said, 'Hey, no more players'. The poor sportswriters really paid for that. Guys would set 'em up, giving real serious, earnest answers while Moe was creeping up behind them with a match. By the time you felt it, it was too late."

BILLY HUNTER: "Moe would do things that other people would get punched in the nose for, and he'd get away with them."

BOOG POWELL: "Obviously, Moe's parents never let him have toys when he was little, so he had a lot of catching up to do. He sat around and dreamed up things. He'd tie string to dollar bills and leave them on the floor in the airport, then yank them away when people reached down to pick the bill up. He was basically insane."

STEVE BARBER: "Moe was fine when he was sober. When he started drinking, he did some crazy stuff. We had an off-day in spring training and Charlie Lau and I were going out on this big boat out in the water. Took a runabout out there. We were just getting on, and another runabout comes pulling up, and there's Moe standing bare-assed on the thing shooting at us with a target pistol. Once we got to land we spent an hour trying to get the gun away from him. I have no idea what that was about."