Eddie Murray, 1987 Donruss Opening Day #136

For several years I've labored under the delusion that the first Orioles game I ever attended was a 1987 day game against the Brewers. But there was another game that year that apparently escaped my memory. I've been holding on to ticket stubs for practically every game I've attended in the last 18 years, and in going through those tickets, I found the following:

A phone call to my father was inconclusive, but he assumes that we went to both games. What he knows for sure is that any games we attended just shy of my fifth birthday resulted in an early exit. I had no interest in baseball as a tyke, and once I'd gotten my fill of yummy stadium wares, I was ready to go.

Considering the way this game played out, my dad was more amenable to leaving than he might have been otherwise. Mike Flanagan got the start for the O's, and he just didn't have it. Carlton Fisk doubled in two runs in the first, and a Ron Karkovice RBI grounder and a Gary Redus homer an inning later put the home team in a 4-0 hole. Things got exciting for a minute in the third, as Larry Sheets and Rene Gonzales hit back-to-back solo home runs off of Chicago starter Jose DeLeon. Flanny seemed to settle down until the White Sox chased him with a walk and a double to lead off the sixth. Reliever Mark Williamson allowed the fifth Sox run to score on an Ozzie Guillen single but escaped the inning without further damage.

An Eddie Murray home run in the bottom of the inning (the 277th of his career, if you're keeping count) brought the Birds within 5-3, but that's as close as they would get. Chicago tacked on insurance runs via an Ivan Calderon homer in the eighth and a Williamson wild pitch in the ninth. 7-3 White Sox, drive safely folks. Aside from their three solo home runs, the Orioles scraped up only three other hits - a pair of singles by DH Alan Wiggins and a single by John Shelby. The O's failed to capitalize on six walks by Pale Hose pitchers. I guess it's no wonder that I haven't retained any impressions from that game, though it would be cool to be able to say that my first baseball memory was an Eddie Murray homer.