Vintage Fridays: Milt Pappas, 1962 Topps #75

Earlier this week the Orioles family lost one of its first prominent young pitchers. Milt Pappas died on Tuesday at age 76. If you're anything less than a diehard baseball fan, you probably know Pappas as the chief outgoing player that the O's sent to Cincinnati in the Frank Robinson trade. But if you dig a little deeper, you'll see that Milt was plenty successful in his own right: in a career that spanned 17 big league seasons, he won 209 games and lost 164 with a 3.40 ERA (110 ERA+). He completed 129 of his 465 starts, including 43 shutouts, and twice made the All-Star Game as an Oriole. Most famously, he no-hit the Padres while pitching for the Cubs on September 2, 1972...but lost his perfect game bid on a full-count offering to pinch hitter Larry Stahl with two outs in the ninth. Home plate umpire Bruce Froemming ruled that Stahl had checked his swing and called it ball four, to Pappas' vociferous objection. The pitcher rallied to retire Garry Jestadt on a popup to seal the no-hitter, but it was of little consolation.

In researching tonight's blog entry, I found a great anecdote relayed by MLB.com writer (and former Orioles beat reporter) Richard Justice. On April 18, 1962, longtime Baltimore sportswriter John Steadman approached Milt prior to the righty's first start of the regular season against Mantle, Maris, and the vaunted Yankees. He asked Pappas, still just 23 years old and already in his sixth season in the majors, "How do you beat the Yankees?". In his own blunt and self-assured manner, the O's young starter replied: "If I pitch a shutout and hit a home run, we'll probably win."

Of course, Pappas couldn't quite finish the job. All he did was hold New York scoreless on two hits over six innings before turning things over to Hoyt Wilhelm. But before he left the game, Milt did hit a solo homer off of Yankee starter Bill Stafford. The O's won, 1-0.

Vintage Fridays: Jack Fisher, 1962 Topps #203

Whoever owned this card before me really wants you to know that "Fat Jack" Fisher was traded to the Giants in December of 1962. He was sent west with Jimmie Coker and Billy Hoeft in exchange for Mike McCormick, Stu Miller, and John Orsino. I almost wish that the card doctor had gone a step further and scrawled an interlocking "SF" on top the bird on Jack's cap. Maybe he or she could've scribbled "GIANTS" over the orange Orioles insignia on his jersey. There's no point in doing anything halfway.

I'm taking a powder for the weekend, but I'll be back on Monday. I always am.

Vintage Fridays: Earl Robinson, 1962 Topps #272

Former Oriole Earl Robinson, who batted .271/.343/.433 in 162 games with the club in 1961-1962 and 1964, passed away this past July 4 at age 77. He had suffered two heart attacks last year. Earl starred in both baseball and basketball at the University of California-Berkeley, and earned a doctorate in education from the school. He was inducted into Cal's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Pacific-10 Conference's Hall of Honor in 2010. After his major league career ended, he became California's first junior college African-American head basketball coach when he was hired at Merritt College. He also held positions at various times as director of special projects for the Oakland Athletics, vice president of the Board of Trustees at the Oakland Zoo, and a member of the Board of Directors for the California Alumni Association. His is not a name that is often mentioned in relation to the Orioles, but Earl Robinson led a long and productive life beyond the diamond. May he rest in peace.

Vintage Fridays: Gus Triandos, 1962 Topps #420

You might have heard by now that Gus Triandos passed away yesterday, dying in his sleep at age 82 after spending the past decade suffering from congestive heart failure. So it is that on the cusp of Opening Day, the Orioles say goodbye to the team's first true star, a slugging, slow-footed catcher who was rescued from the sprawling Yankees farm system by the savvy Paul Richards. He rewarded Richards and the Birds with seven strong seasons as the club's primary backstop, and was a four-time All-Star in his prime (1957-1959; this includes both All-Star Games in the latter year). Gus has already been eulogized quite expertly by Joe Posnanski over at Harball Talk. So I'll keep it simple here. Obviously, I never saw Gus play; his Oriole career had been over for twenty years before I came drooling and bawling into this existence. But I look at the photo on this card, and I see a strong man taking his stance. His bat is gripped tightly in large, calloused hands. His sleeves are roughly half the length of those on the uniforms of today's players, the better to show off his powerful arms. It may not be Ted Kluszewski and his famous vest, but Triandos' brawn must have been intimidating to many pitchers. He knew it, too. You can see the confident calm in his face as he stares out at the mound. The next pitch is leaving the yard on a line to left field.

Vintage Fridays: Brooks Robinson, 1962 Topps #462

So it comes down to this: winner take all, Game Five, do or die. The Orioles kept one streak alive last night (now 8-0 in 13+ inning games in 2012), and snapped another (the Yankees had won their last 10 extra inning games at home). So it's a rematch from Game One, with the rehabilitated Jason Hammel for the underdog O's and the $23 million man CC Sabathia taking the mound for the Yankees. Though I did my best to remain level-headed yet optimistic as I watched the Birds stave off elimination and grind out their four-and-a-half hour win last night, I couldn't help but feel a real sadness when I contemplated the possibility that it could be their last game of the season. Buck Showalter's patches-and-paste Orioles have brought me more joy and thrills than any other club in my 20 years as a fan of the orange and black. I never want this season to end. One more win in the Bronx tonight and it won't, not just yet. They can do it. As the O's have proved time and again in the past week, anything can happen in a single game. Nate McLouth can ignite an offense. Joe Saunders (or Jason Hammel, or Wei-Yin Chen, or Miguel Gonzalez) can shut down a high-scoring opponent. Brian Matusz and Tommy Hunter can throw smoke out of the bullpen. Ryan Flaherty can find his power stroke. Chris Davis can pull the ball to the right side against one of the toughest lefties of the last generation. One game.

And I won't see it. An old friend is getting married at 5:00 sharp. Fingers crossed that there's a TV at the reception!

Vintage Fridays: Jackie Brandt, 1962 Topps #165

I don't have any other ideas on tap, so let's crank up our time machine for This Day in Orioles History. Hold your applause until the end of the blog post. On Friday, June 15, 1962 (that's 50 years ago, you know), the Birds traveled about 40 miles down the road and put a beating on the Washington Senators, winning by a final of 8-3. The visitors tallied 14 hits, including two apiece by each of the first six batters in the lineup.

The Orioles did most of their damage in the fourth inning (four runs) and the seventh (three runs). The big blows were a two-run homer by renowned flake Jackie Brandt (who also had a double and scored twice) and a solo shot by pitcher Milt Pappas, his career-high fourth of the season. Incidentally, Milt would not hit another home run during the 1962 campaign. Pappas also had one of the team's three sacrifice flies, and earned the victory with a complete-game eight-hitter. His defense helped him out by turning three double plays. He improved his record to 7-3, and would go to 8-3 on the year by blanking the White Sox on June 26. However, Milt went into a funk in the second half, finishing on a 4-7 slide with a 4.94 ERA in his final 19 games. The end result for the 23-year-old was a 12-10 record and a 4.03 ERA that was one of the highest of his career.

Vintage Fridays: Russ Snyder, 1962 Topps #64

You know, if I have an Orioles blog and I've written 1,300-plus posts and haven't gotten around to posting a Russ Snyder card, I expect somebody to call me on it. You guys are slacking on the job! Anyways, I'm boogeying up to Northeastern Pennsylvania in a few hours for a holiday weekend of R-and-R at the cottage, but I plucked a few cards from a pile in my living room to tide you over until I return on Monday.

We'll kick it off with a true keeper, the kind of card that is the pure essence of Vintage Fridays. You've got the timeless woodgrain border of 1962 Topps, the elegant home Orioles uniform with thin black piping, orange script and front jersey number, and the early smiling bird sleeve logo, and of course Russ Snyder showing off a classic home run swing. Russ may not have actually hit many longballs in his 7 years in Baltimore (26 total, with a season high of 9 in '62), but he was a solid contact hitter: .280 AVG as an Oriole. He led the club with a .305 mark in 1962.

Oh, I almost forgot the best part of this card! It's the rare vintage card with a photo taken within the lovely environs of 33rd Street. The grand old right-center field scoreboard at Memorial Stadium is visible over Snyder's left shoulder, with its telltale Hamm's Brewing Company advertisement on top. I know much more about this scoreboard than I did a month ago, and it's all thanks to a recent blog post at The Fleer Sticker Project. Fleerfan does a great job of sifting through photo archives and auction sites to unearth beautiful old pictures from Charm City's sporting past. In the post linked above, he offers an illustrated history of the scoreboards at Memorial Stadium. Since I never set foot in the ballpark until the late 1980s, I had no idea how cool that original scoreboard looked looming over the players at field level. You get to see a progression of local beer magnates, from Gunther (my great-grandmother's brew of choice) to Hamm's to Schaefer. Even when budgetary constraints saw the big old scoreboard replaced with a smaller model in left field in 1970, the National and National Bohemian (Natty Boh to you, hon) ads ensured that a Bawlmer flavor remained. As with most aspects of American life and culture, things went to hell in the 1980s. National head Jerry Hoffberger sold the O's, and billboards for Busch, Budweiser, and Toyota settled into place.

Say it with me: ain't the beer cold!

Vintage Fridays: Dick Hall, 1962 Topps #189

As promised earlier this week, here's the fifth and final autograph I grabbed at last Saturday's Orioles FanFest. I've gotten feedback from a couple of former players since I launched my NumerOlogy website (currently on the disabled list) three years ago, but Dick Hall was the first to send me an email. It was within just a few days of the site's launch. His grandson had shown him the link, and he praised both the concept and the breadth of the project. According to the ex-relief pitcher, the members of the O's bullpen used to pass the time on the bench by guessing which players around the league wore which numbers. He told me that Milt Pappas was the best at it. It was a real thrill being noticed and complemented by a former player, especially one as prominent as Hall.

Dick Hall's career trajectory was quite unconventional. A native of St. Louis, he was a graduate of Swarthmore College, a liberal arts institution outside of Philadelphia. At 6'6", he towered over most of his peers on the diamond. The Pirates signed him in 1951 as an outfielder, though he also played some shortstop and second base in the minors. After a few cups of coffee, he played in 112 games with Pittsburgh in 1954, starting 84 of them. The 24-year-old batted .239 with an on-base percentage of .303 and an anemic .311 slugging percentage. He had only 8 doubles, 4 triples, 2 homers, and 27 RBI. Things got worse as the season progressed; his average from August 1 to the end of the year was just .207.

The following season, manager Fred Haney oversaw Dick's conversion to pitcher. He went 6-6 with a 3.91 ERA in 13 starts and 2 relief appearances, but never got a full year to show his stuff in Pittsburgh. From 1955-1959 he totaled 44 games pitched for the Pirates with a pedestrian 4.57 ERA. Before the 1960 season, he found himself heading to Kansas City as one of three players dealt for catcher Hal Smith. Given a chance to start regularly for the cellar-dwelling A's, Hall went 8-13 in 29 games with a league-average 4.05 ERA. He walked a team-low 1.9 batters per 9 innings and completed 9 games, including a 6-hit gem against the Orioles for his first career shutout.

When the 1961 campaign was just a day old, Paul Richards swung a deal to bring Hall to Baltimore along with utility player and future Hall of Fame manager Dick Williams. Something clicked for the righty, as he went 7-5 with 4 saves and a 3.09 ERA in a swing role. He even struck out a career-high 6.8 per 9 innings. He feasted on the Senators, shutting them out twice on a total of six hits with a dozen strikeouts and one walk. A year later, Dick started only six games as he was shifted to a relief role. He proved well-equipped for the job, putting up a 2.28 ERA and 1.02 WHIP while walking only 19 men in 118.1 innings! He also grabbed six saves in support of relief ace Hoyt Wilhelm, and his career was just warming up.

I won't bore you with all of the year-by-year numbers, but there are plenty of stats that stand out. He never led the Orioles in saves, but accumulated 58 in two stints totaling 9 years. His strikeout-to-walk ratio as an Oriole was 3.96:1. He had a 65-40 record and a 2.89 ERA, which includes a 9-1, 1.85 season in 1964. He allowed barely more than one baserunner per inning - 774 in 770 innings, a total that includes 46 intentional walks. Even when you add in his stats from the Pirates, A's, and Phillies, Hall's career WHIP of 1.10 is still 19th-best in major league history. He didn't shy from postseason pressure, either: In five postseason games - all after his 38th birthday - he allowed no earned runs in 8.2 innings with an 0.46 WHIP. He won two ALCS games and saved two World Series contests, and retired after the 1971 season at age 41. Oh, and he finished with a .210 batting average that was buoyed by a .464 mark (13-for-28) with the 1963 O's. Not a bad way to spend two decades of your life.

Dick Hall still calls Baltimore home, and stays busy with accounting work. He celebrated his 80th birthday last September, and looks to be in good shape. When I handed him this 1962 Topps card - his first as an Oriole - I formally introduced myself. When he heard who I was, his face lit up and he shook my hand and restated that he enjoyed the site. Dick even leaned to his right to tell Craig Tatum about it. Frankly, just getting to meet him made the $15 autograph voucher and the morning and afternoon spent at the convention center well worth it.

Vintage Fridays: Boog Powell, 1962 Topps #99

From the "Where the Hell Does the Time Go?" files, tonight is the 10-year reunion of my graduating class from Archbishop Curley High School. More to the point, it's a reunion event for several classes, in increments of five: 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005. This academic year also marks the 50th anniversary of Curley High, the first high school in the Archdiocese of Baltimore established exclusively for the education of young men. (Translation: it's a stag-fest.) The school was founded in 1960, opened in 1961, and was dedicated in April 1962. How long ago was that? Back in those days, it seems that Boog Powell played left field, and some people still called him "John".

I skipped my five-year reunion, so this is my first chance to witness this spectacle first hand. Keep your fingers crossed that I might make it through the evening unscathed.

Vintage Fridays: Billy Hitchcock, 1962 Topps #121

Much like the newly deposed Dave Trembley, Billy Hitchcock was a good and kind man and a baseball lifer who was quickly cashiered when his Orioles club failed to live up to expectations. Hitchock had been a two-sport athlete at Auburn University, an All-American tailback who also played for the baseball team. He went on to play in the majors for nine years in the 1940s and 1950s as a light-hitting infielder. His big league career was interrupted by military service in World War II. After his retirement, he spent seven years coaching with the Tigers before opportunity came calling.

After the 1961 season, Baltimore hired Billy to fill the considerable shoes of Paul Richards, who had built the Orioles from a bottom-dweller to a promising young team in his seven-year tenure as manager and GM. But after winning 95 games under Richards and interim manager Lum Harris, the O's dipped to 77-85 in their first season under Hitchcock, falling from third place to seventh. He was given a second chance and the team improved to 86-76 and a fourth place finish in 1963, but it wasn't enough. The Birds fired their skipper and replaced him with Hank Bauer, who would guide the club to their first World Series title in his third year on the job.

Don't cry for Billy, who solidified his baseball legacy with a short stint at the helm of the Braves later in the decade as well as a successful ten-year run (1971-1980) as president of the Class AA Southern League. On his watch, the league's attendance increased nearly six-fold. He lived a long life, passing away in 2006 at age 89.

Vintage Fridays: Billy Hoeft, 1962 Topps #134

Continued from last week, I'm paying tribute to another Oriole pitcher who has passed away in 2010. Billy Hoeft was only 20 years old when he debuted with the Tigers in 1952, and his learning curve was a bit steep. He went 18-36 with a 4.61 ERA in his first three seasons. However, he did show signs of greater things to come, completing 20 of his 62 starts and even leading the American League in strikeout-to-walk ratio with a 1.93 figure in 1954. The following season would prove to be his greatest, as he was an All-Star on the strength of a 16-7 record and a 2.99 ERA. He led Detroit pitchers in practically every statistical category, including 17 complete games, a 1.19 WHIP, and an A.L.-best seven shutouts. He won 20 games and completed 18 in 1956, but his ERA swelled to 4.06. Within three years he would be shifted to the bullpen, an indignity for a once-great starting pitcher in those days.

Billy spent three-plus years with the Orioles (1959-1962) and wasn't consistently effective, posting an ERA below 4.34 in just one of those seasons. But in that one season (1961) he excelled. Starting a dozen games and relieving in 23 others, he went 7-4 with three saves and a 2.02 ERA and 1.17 WHIP. He posted the best earned run average on the Baltimore staff and allowed only seven homers in 138 innings in a year when balls were flying out of the park at a considerable rate. In a 14-game span from June 27 through August 23, he allowed three earned runs in 37.1 innings - an 0.72 ERA! - and went 3-0 with all three of his saves. Hoeft even one-hit the Senators on August 19; it was the final whitewash of his career.

After the Orioles traded Billy, he bounced around the National League for four more seasons before retiring at age 34. In 15 seasons he was 97-101 with a 3.94 ERA. According to Baseball-Reference.com, he sold printing equipment for over thirty years and succumbed to cancer on March 16 at age 77. He is survived by four children, four grandchildren, two siblings, and his widow Margie, whom he met in Lakeland, FL during Spring Training 54 years ago.

Vintage Fridays: Hank Foiles, 1962 Topps #112

I love that Hank Foiles is posed in his catcher's crouch with his throwing hand balled into a fist. I'd like to think that this was his regular defensive position, and that the Mighty Fist of Foiles served as an unspoken warning and challenge to all comers.

"Hey, ump? You wanna call that a ball? Go ahead, I dare ya!"

"Hey, batter? You think you're gonna peek back at me for the pitch call? Think again, punk."

"Oh, Mr. Baserunner...you look a little antsy down there at second. I might not break for third if I were you."

"You listen to me, Hoyt Wilhelm, and you listen good. If you so much as think about throwing me that dadgum knuckleball, it will be your last."

"Skip, remember when you yanked me for a pinch hitter last night? Won't be doing that again, will ya?"

Hank Foiles is a bad, bad man.

Vintage Fridays: Dick Williams, 1962 Topps #382

Considering the circuitous route of Dick Williams' playing career, I'm sure he never imagined that he would be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008. Before becoming the manager of the Athletics dynasty of the early 1970s, the gruff St. Louis native was a baseball vagabond, a man without a team or a position. He switched teams seven times in an eight-year span from 1956-1963, including three separate stints with the Orioles. He passed through the Houston organization during the 1962-63 offseason, never playing a single game for the then-Colt .45s. The list of players he was traded with and for includes Gene Woodling, Dick Hall, and Larry Doby.

When Williams did get on the field, he had to fill in wherever he was needed. He logged over 100 career games at four different positions: third base, left field, first base, and center field. He hunkered down in right field for 52 games and at second base for another 20. On three occasions he played all six of these positions in a single season. Considering all of this movement, Dick would have been forgiven for being a bit distracted when he came to bat. However, he hit a solid .260 overall with good power: three double-digit home run seasons and two straight years of 30-plus doubles.

Today, no one thinks of Dick Williams as a player. His 1,571 managerial wins dwarf his on-field exploits. But he did plenty of things well with the bat and the glove, which helped him stick around for 13 years. He certainly paid his dues over sixty years in baseball to earn his bronze plaque.

Vintage Fridays: Hal Brown, 1962 Topps #488

Check out the wary look on Hal "Skinny" Brown's face there. He's eyeballing someone to his right, probably some callow rookie who's making faces at him and trying to get him to crack up in front of the camera. Hal's been doing his thing in the big leagues for eleven years; he's thirty-six now. "I'm getting too old for this s#!%."

Hal Brown just got better with age, though. In the three seasons prior to the issue of this card (1959-1961), he ranked in the top ten in the American League in walks and hits per inning pitched. He'd also placed in the top six in earned run average for 1960 and 1961. He was a rock of veteran strength on a team full of fresh-faced young hurlers like Milt Pappas, Steve Barber, Jack Fisher, and Chuck Estrada. But as you can tell from Hal's expression in this photo, he probably wanted to wring their necks now and then.