Vintage Fridays: Boog Powell, 1970 Topps #200

Two Boogs for the price of one this week! This is a fantastic photo, and I'd never seen it up until a few weeks ago. While Ed and I were driving to a card show, I flipped through his 1985 copy of Topps Baseball Cards: A Complete Picture Collection. It was then that I came across this classic. I was surprised that I didn't have it already, since I owned all but four Orioles cards from the 1970 set. Sure enough, Ed tracked down a copy of it at the show and I was able to mark it off my checklist.

As the heading indicates, this action took place in Game Two of the first-ever American League Championship Series, on Sunday, October 5, 1969 in Baltimore. The 109-win Eastern Division Champion Orioles had squeaked by the 97-win Western Champ Twins in twelve innings in Game One, 4-3. The second game was a tense pitchers' duel between the Orioles' Dave McNally and Minnesota's Dave Boswell. The O's squandered an early opportunity, failing to score after loading the bases with nobody out in the second inning. The bottom third of the O's order went 1-2-3, popout, shallow fly to left, strikeout. The following inning, Frank Robinson popped out with runners on the corners. But there were no other serious threats by either team, and the game moved to extra innings with no score.

In the top of the tenth, McNally struck out the side to give him 11 K's on the day. Boswell showed no signs of fatigue either, setting the Birds down in order in the home half. On to the eleventh, and both starters hung in. McNally retired the first two batters before issuing back-to-back walks to Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva, but manager Earl Weaver stuck with the 20-game winner and he rewarded him by coaxing Bob Allison to line out to Don Buford. Boswell was not so lucky. Boog Powell led off with a walk, and Brooks Robinson bunted him to second base. Davey Johnson was intentionally walked to get to Mark Belanger, who popped out for the second out. Twins manager Billy Martin flinched, calling lefty fireman Ron Perranoski in from the bullpen to face Elrod Hendricks. The chess game continued with Weaver sending righthanded batter Curt Motton in to pinch hit. Motton delivered a single to right, and Boog rumbled home ahead of Tony Oliva's throw. As you can see above, Minny catcher George Mitterwald made a futile lunge as the burly Baltimore first baseman scored the only run of the game to give the O's a walkoff win in a crisp 3 hours, 17 minutes. The Birds would close out the three-game sweep with an 11-2 romp the following day.