Vintage Fridays: Hank Bauer, 1964 Topps #178

I headed to Oriole Park at Camden Yards tonight expecting the worst. It was hot and muggy, the Yankees (and by extension their fans) were in town, and the pitching matchup was Ubaldo Jimenez vs. Michael Pineda. Sometimes I love being proven wrong. Jimenez gutted out five innings of three-run ball, the Yanks stranded the bases loaded twice, and the O's hammered out 16 hits en route to an 11-3 win. Chris Davis had a game-breaking three-run homer among his three hits, and Caleb Joseph also had a homer and three hits. New York didn't look much like a first-place team; they had two errors, two more misplays that were generously scored as hits, and a wild pitch. It was fun to watch.

This was a pretty significant win for Baltimore. It's their fifth in a row, their most runs scored since April 26's 18-7 beatdown of the Red Sox, and it draws them even at 30-30. The Birds hadn't seen the .500 mark since May 5. It was also Buck Showalter's 407th win as the O's manager, tying him with Hank Bauer for third-most in team history behind Earl Weaver and Paul Richards. Pretty good for one night's work.

Vintage Fridays: Norm Siebern, 1964 Topps #145

Three days until the baseball games count. In the meantime, here's some food for thought: Is that a palm tree behind Norm Siebern, or a giant tentacled beast preparing to devour an unsuspecting cluster of baseball fans?

Vintage Fridays: Steve Barber, 1964 Topps #450

A lot can happen in ten years. In 1954, the Orioles were the new kids in the American League, but they were also bottom-feeders. For the most part, they were just the also-ran St. Louis Browns in a new city with new uniforms. By 1964, Paul Richards had built the foundation of a team that would become the class of the league for the next two decades. There was a pitching staff full of strong young arms: Steve Barber, Milt Pappas, Dave McNally, Wally Bunker. Brooks Robinson had developed from a raw teenager into the best third baseman in the majors. Boog Powell was just beginning a career as a dangerous power hitter. The O's were on the cusp of greatness.

Somehow, it's been ten years since I graduated from college. Today I'm returning to the Eastern Shore for a reunion weekend. I'm looking forward to spending time with a handful of folks with whom I've kept close over the years, but I'm even more excited to reconnect with others whom I haven't seen since 2004. I'm even going to shake off the rust and perform in an improv comedy show with some fellow drama alumni tomorrow evening. I'm sure you can get along without me for 48 hours.

Vintage Fridays: Stu Miller, 1964 Topps #565

I'm back from the ballpark, where the O's made it out with their fourth straight win, a 4-3 squeaker over  the Astros in a brisk two and a half hours. As always, Tommy Hunter did his best to give me and 28,000-plus other fans palpitations, putting the first two runners on the corners before getting a run-scoring double play grounder and a strikeout of George Springer to nail down the save. That's a league-leading 11 saves for Hunter, but he's yet to have a 1-2-3 inning this year. It's enough to make you long for a Stu Miller type; the 5'11" veteran righty posted consecutive seasons with a sub-1.00 WHIP in 1965 and 1966 as Baltimore's relief ace. One baserunner per inning just isn't enough excitement for Tommy, I guess.

Vintage Fridays: Joe Gaines, 1964 Topps #364

It has been exactly 50 years since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. That day also happened to be the 27th birthday of Orioles outfielder Joe Gaines; I can't imagine that he felt much like celebrating.

Gaines is the type of player that falls through the cracks of baseball history. His major league career spanned the years 1960 through 1966, but in three of those seasons he received little more than a cup of coffee. He played his best ball with the O's in 1963, when he appeared in 66 games as a fifth outfielder and pinch hitter. That year, Joe batted .286 with a .381 on-base percentage and .476 slugging percentage, and had six home runs and 20 RBI. But he started slow in 1964, and was dispatched to the fledgling Astros. By 1965, young Rusty Staub had replaced Gaines in the starting lineup. He prolonged his career by jumping to Japan in 1969, spending one season with the Hanshin Tigers. He's still alive and presumably well at 77 years of age.

Vintage Fridays: Willie Kirkland, 1964 Topps #17

Willie Kirkland looks dubious. He knows that he's got the Indians' wishbone "C" and Chief Wahoo (sigh) on his cap, and he's gazing up at the blue block letters that spell out "Orioles" at the top of the card and wondering what gives. Here's what gives, Willie: Cleveland traded you to the O's for Al Smith and $25,000 in December of 1963. But don't get comfortable just yet. You'll only be in Baltimore until August 12, when the Birds sell your contract to the Senators. Your final stat line as an Oriole: .200/.281/.293 in 66 games, with three homers and 22 RBI. I guess Charm City just wasn't your kinda place.

Vintage Fridays: Boog Powell, 1964 Topps #89

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to respond to yesterday's blog post. I wasn't fishing for compliments, but you were all very forthcoming with them anyhow. I can certainly identify with GCA's sentiment; I know that when I read something that I enjoy, I don't often go out of my way to comment if I don't have much more to say than "nice job". I just wanted to make sure that I was still giving you something that you wanted to read. I'll do my best to keep it that way.

Moving on, I think there's no finer way to start the weekend than by checking in with Boog Powell. I once read an anecdote about the Orioles' scouting and signing of Boog as an amateur. According to Rob Neyer and Eddie Epstein in Baseball Dynasties: The Greatest Teams of All Time, both the Orioles and the Cardinals were very interested in procuring the services of the teenaged Booger back in 1959. Of course, baseball scouts and executives have always looked to cut costs wherever they can, especially in the days before the players' union. So the scouts for the O's and Redbirds made a gentleman's agreement to avoid a bidding war for Boog's rights. Instead, they settled matters the old-fashioned way...with a coin flip. Baltimore came out on top, and probably resisted the Cards' pleas of "best two outta three!". When building a winning team, it doesn't hurt to be lucky.

Vintage Fridays: George Brunet, 1964 Topps #322

There are three Birdland Birthdays being celebrated today. The first two are Lenn Sakata (58 years old) and the late Mark Belanger (would have been 68). The third player, born 77 years ago today, might be the most interesting pitcher that you never knew. George Brunet was an Oriole for 16 unremarkable relief appearances in late 1963, but that's only scratching the surface of his story.

George Brunet, a native of Houghton, MI, began his pro career as a teenager with the independent Shelby (NC) Clippers in 1953. Two years later he signed with the Kansas City Athletics, the first of nine major league organizations to employ him. He didn't have an easy road to the big leagues: despite debuting with the A's at age 21 in 1956, he bounced up and down for a decade before the Angels finally gave him a full season in 1965 to show them what he could do. In the meantime, he pitched in fabulous locales such as Seminole, OK; Alexandria, LA; Hot Springs, AR; Crowley, LA; Abilene, TX; and Columbia, SC. There were also stops in Little Rock, Portland, Louisville, Vancouver, Oklahoma City, Honolulu (OK, that probably wasn't too bad), Rochester, and Eugene, OR. It makes me tired just to type it all out. Little Rock may have been George's least favorite destination: while pitching for the Travelers (then the AA affiliate of the Athletics) in 1957, the southpaw pitched 52.3 consecutive innings without receiving a single run of support from his team's hitters. The drought lasted from June 21 to August 3 and it helps explain how the Southern Association's leading strikeout pitcher (235K in 213 IP) went 14-15 with a 3.42 ERA!

Brunet's aforementioned 1965 season with the Angels was the best of his career. At age 30, he whiffed 141 batters in 197 innings over 41 games (26 starts). Despite a 9-11 record, his earned run average was a career-low and team-best 2.56, and he also paced the team with a 1.1 WHIP and 131 ERA+. That was enough to keep him with the Halos for four full seasons and parts of two more, representing the closest thing to stability that George would find in his career in the U.S. Yet he couldn't shake his tough luck, leading the American League in losses in both 1967 and 1968 despite ERAs of 3.31 and 2.86, respectively. He had a 3.13 ERA overall in 194 games for California, but just a 54-69 won-lost record.

In addition to the A's, O's, and Angels, George also wore the big-league uniforms of the Braves, Colt .45s, Pilots, Senators (Mark II), Pirates, and Cardinals. Former Seattle teammate Jim Bouton claimed that Brunet admitted to never wearing underwear because he didn't want to worry about losing it. Despite his travels, the lefty never appeared in a postseason game in the majors. He was a September pickup for the NL East-winning Pirates in 1970, but was ineligible for the playoffs due to his late acquisition. After throwing his last big league pitch for St. Louis in 1971, Brunet continued to ply his trade in AAA until 1973. Records are incomplete, but he is believed to hold a minor league record with 3,175 career strikeouts.

But the then-38-year-old didn't call it quits in 1973. At the suggestion of former shortstop Chico Carrasquel, he took his equipment south of the border and continued pitching in the Mexican League up through the 1980s! Add it all up and George Brunet logged 37 years as an active professional athlete. He was 54 when he made his last game appearance on the mound - 5 years older than Jamie Moyer is now, incidentally. His 55 career shutouts were a Mexican League record. He stayed in Mexico and helped teach the game to younger men and children up until a heart attack brought his life to a premature end on October 25, 1991. He was posthumously elected to the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.

Here's to George Brunet, who proved that age is just a number.

Vintage Fridays: Dave McNally, 1964 Topps #161

Here we are: the final Vintage Friday of 2011. I've provided this crooked scan of Dave McNally's first solo Topps card as a reminder that we're all imperfect but we have the power to improve...not tomorrow, but today. The Orioles learned their lesson quickly in the mid-1960s, dumping these so-so black caps with the orange block "B" a year after debuting them as their home caps in 1963. New Year's resolutions are all well and good, but we shouldn't have to resort to gimmicks to reach our goals.

Also, I was too lazy to rescan the card in perfectly centered form. Shh.

Vintage Fridays: Lou Jackson, 1964 Topps #511

Still doing the long-distance relationship thing, which means that I'm going to be away from my cards and scanner this weekend. Just choosing one card at a time is a challenge for someone as indecisive as me, so picking out three in advance is always a challenge. I figured I'd make it easier on myself by cooking up a theme. There are plenty of cards out there of guys who barely played for the Orioles (or in the case of prospects, never made it at all), so welcome to my "Who In Blazes?" weekend.

I'm kicking things off with Lou Jackson because he was the first unfamiliar face I happened upon when I opened up my vintage Orioles binder. I surfed on over to Baseball Reference and things got interesting, and more than a little tragic.

Lou played college ball at Grambling State University and signed with the Cubs in 1957. He started off in Class C ball, flashing power (40 extra-base hits in 112 games) and hitting .310 for the Magic Valley (ID) Cowboys. He was promoted to the Class A Western League the following year and was even better, hitting .320 and slugging .596 for the Pueblo Dodgers. His performance earned him a pair of callups to the majors, once in July and once more in September. He played sparingly and struggled, with only 6 hits in 35 at-bats (.171). His first - and last - career home run was a two-run blast off of Ray Semproch of the Phillies on August 3, 1958. The following year he returned to A ball, this time with the Lancaster Red Roses of the Eastern League, and was again impressive (.339 AVG, 54 XBH), but this time merited only four big league at-bats in September. He was then passed around like public property, going from the Cubs to the Reds to the independent Toronto Maple Leafs to the Braves to the Orioles.

When the O's nabbed him from the Braves in the December 1963 Rule V draft, he hadn't been in the majors in nearly five years. At 28 years old he still had a lot of baseball left in him, and he'd hit .315 with 31 homers in the previous season at AAA. Baltimore saw enough in him to put him on the major league roster on Opening Day, but used him in only four games. He went 3-for-5 in his only start, May 10, 1964. The Birds won 7-1 that day. The next day, he pinch hit for Stu Miller in the ninth inning and struck out. It was his final major league game.

Jackson spent the rest of the 1964 and 1965 seasons at AAA Rochester, then signed with the Sankei Atoms of the Japanese League. He played for them for three years, including an All-Star effort in 1967: .296/.351/.554 with 28 home runs. The following season, his power plummeted and his average dipped 77 points. He also collapsed at home plate one day, apparently suffering from years of alcohol abuse. By May 1969, he was dead of pancreatitis at age 33. Sadly, there's not much more information about his life available online.

Vintage Fridays: John Orsino, 1964 Topps #63

Today, May 21, is a momentous day. It is the 24th anniversary of the birth of the otherworldly being who will someday deliver all of Birdland from apathy, ennui, and suffering. Happy Wietersmas, everyone!

As coincidence would have it, two other (much less prominent) O's catchers also blow out the candles today: Chris Widger, who ended his career with a forgettable nine-game stint in Baltimore in 2006, is 39 today. Tommy Davis, a 2nd-round draft pick in 1994 whose entire career consisted of five games in mid-1999, hits the big 3-7.

As long as we're talking about catchers, let me throw a little love in the direction of John Orsino. "Horse" didn't have a particularly long career; he played in the majors for parts of seven years, but topped 25 games played only thrice. But he became a cult hero in Charm City in 1963, his only season as a primary starter. It was the Orioles' first season post-Triandos, and the 25-year-old Orsino had just arrived in a six-player trade with the Giants that was most notable for bringing veteran reliever Stu Miller to Baltimore. The new catcher grabbed some headlines in spring training by homering in each of his first five exhibition at-bats. He kept it going with a two-run home run in his first regular-season game, a 5-4 win over the Red Sox. The longballs just kept coming for John, as he finished the season with 19 of them. He posted a strong 133 OPS+ that led the team and ranked third among American League starting catchers, trailing only All-Stars Elston Howard and Earl Battey. He was also something of a Yankee killer, hitting three homers and driving in nine runs while batting .294 with a .940 OPS against the Bronx Bombers. The only team he did more damage against was the Senators (.353 AVG, 1.020 OPS, 3 HR, 11 RBI).

As I said, John wasn't long for this town. After slumping to .227 with 17 home runs over the next two seasons combined, he was traded to Washington and played only 15 games in two seasons to wrap up his big league career. But he's still a household name among longtime O's fans.

Vintage Fridays: Robin Roberts, 1964 Topps #285

I've talked about some of my quirks as a collector. I take special notice of "cameo players" who appear on another player's card, I don't mind (and often enjoy) vintage cards that are in poor shape, and every couple of years I get bored and reorganize my cards: by team, by year and brand, or even alphabetically by player. But one of my biggest interests in the hobby is accruing cards of each player in all of the different uniforms he's worn (or as many as possible). It's an entertaining way to visually catalogue a player's career. In the case of Robin Roberts, so far I only have him with the Orioles and the Phillies but not the Astros. Still, I can say that I've got multiple cards of a Hall of Fame pitcher, and that's pretty good.

When I open a pack of cards, the major thing that holds my attention (besides scanning for Orioles or especially unique photos) is whether I've gotten any players on a new team. I finally picked up a few jumbo packs of 2009 Topps Series 2 last Sunday, and they were pretty productive on that front: Edgar Renteria in Giants colors, Trevor Hoffman as a Brewer, John Smoltz with the Red Sox. I have to do some significant compilation of want lists; non-Topps Orioles are a priority. But it might be a good side project to check my card inventory (I put together an Excel database with all 26,000 or so cards in my collection) and figure out which player-team combos I need to make things a little more complete in my own eyes. There's still a fairly big gap from 1996 through the middle of this decade, when I was largely out of the hobby. Heck, at some point I might be sufficiently bored to rearrange my cards by player name and thereby to refill my binders with my various player movement tableaus.

Now that I reread that last sentence...I sure hope I'm never that bored.

Vintage Fridays: Harvey Haddix, 1964 Topps #439

Last week, I was profiling one-and-done pitcher Dave Vineyard on my 1965 Topps blog. Despite turning in a respectable rookie season at age 23 (4.17 ERA, 50 K in 54 IP in 1964), he never pitched in the major leagues again, for Baltimore or for anyone else. There wasn't much information to be found on him, so I found myself wondering how his major league aspirations got tossed to the wayside. Arm troubles seemed to be a major culprit, but I also had a sense that a stronger O's pitching staff in 1965 could have accounted for his more immediate exclusion from the roster. After reader Mmayes chipped in with a similar comment, I decided to look up the Birds' 1965 pitching statistics. I had no idea how right I had been. Only two Oriole pitchers (Darold Knowles and Frank Bertaina) had higher ERAs in 1965 than Vineyard's serviceable 4.17 the year prior, and that pair combined to throw just 20 and two-thirds innings all year. Talk about a tough staff to crack. How tough? I'm glad you asked...

The 1965 Orioles had one of the most impressive combinations of young and veteran pitching talent ever assembled, leading the American League with a 2.98 ERA (beating runner-up Chicago by .01) and 15 shutouts. They allowed 120 home runs in 162 games, second only to the Angels. With an offense that hit a mere .238 and finished in the middle of the pack in most categories, it's plain to see that this team won 94 games on the strength of its collection of gifted arms.

Though Steve Barber led the way with just 15 wins, there was a good balance; six pitchers were double-digit winners. The only pitcher with more than five decisions to post a losing record was fifth (or sixth) starter Robin Roberts, who went 5-7 with a 3.38 ERA in 15 starts. If you're putting together a back-end of the rotation, a 38-year-old future Hall of Famer with something left in the tank is a pretty nice luxury! The superlatives go on. The five pitchers who had more starts than Roberts were all 27 years old or younger: Milt Pappas, Barber, Dave McNally, Wally Bunker, and John Miller. All had earned run averages between 2.60 and 3.38. The league average was 3.46. How about the bullpen?

Among Baltimore relievers, the conversation begins with closer Stu Miller, who had a jaw-dropping career year at age 37. The vet went 14-7 with 24 saves (second in the AL to Ron Kline), a 1.89 ERA, and a 0.997 WHIP. That's less than a runner per inning allowed. He was supported by fellow graybeards Dick "Turkey" Hall (an 11-game winner in relief), Don Larsen (the famous architect of the only perfect game in World Series history), and Harvey Haddix (who had famously thrown 12 perfect innings against the Braves in 1959, only to lose it all in the 13th). Serving an apprenticeship with the old guys in the bullpen was the only pitching staff regular to post a higher-than-league-average ERA (though at 3.72, he was no slouch): 19-year-old Jim Palmer. Palmer was less than half the age of fellow Oriole moundsman Haddix, and was two and one-half years old when Robin Roberts made his big league debut in 1948!

So yeah, if you're giving me my pick of all-time single-season pitching staffs, Hank Bauer's bunch might just give Earl Weaver's 1971 group a run for their money. While the latter boasted four 20-game winners, the bullpen wasn't as strong as the former. Then again, with a rotation like that, who needs relievers? For the sake of argument, let's start the weekend by opening up the floor. Who else is in the running for best pitching staff ever, from top to bottom?

Vintage Fridays: Milt Pappas, 1964 Topps #45

10 Fun Facts About Milt Pappas:

1. His birth name is Miltiades Stergios Pappastediodis.

2. Milt is from Detroit. As a high school senior, he took the advice of former Tigers pitcher (and Orioles scout) Hal Newhouser and signed with the O's. Thirty-five years later, Newhouser became enchanted with another local high schooler named Derek Jeter. When the Astros ignored Hal's advice and drafted Phil Nevin instead, Newhouser retired.

3. To protest commissioner Ford Frick's "ridiculous" ruling that Roger Maris would have an asterisk by his name in the record books if he took more than 154 games to break Babe Ruth's home run record (the regular season having been expanded from 154 to 162 games since Ruth set the record of 60 in 1920), Pappas threw Maris nothing but fastballs in an O's-Yankees game - game 154, to be exact. Maris just missed a homer in his first at-bat, but bashed #59 in his second at-bat. Pappas was removed in the third inning.

4. Milt lost a no-hitter in the eighth inning against Minnesota on September 2, 1964, when Zoilo Versalles singled with two out. Eight years later (as a Cub), he no-hit the Padres. In that game, he lost a perfect game with one out to go by throwing four straight balls with an 0-2 count on pinch hitter Larry Stahl. Home plate umpire Bruce Froemming has received a lot of scrutiny for squeezing the strike zone in that at-bat, especially from Pappas.

5. On September 24, 1971, he became the 16th pitcher in major league history (and the 10th in the NL) to strike out the side while throwing the minimum nine pitches. The Philly batters were Greg Luzinski, Don Money, and future Oriole Mike Anderson.

6. Milt collaborated with Wayne Mausser and Larry Names on a memoir entitled Out at Home.

7. His brother Perry was a minor league pitcher in the Yankee organization.

8. Milt hit 20 home runs in his career, including a two-run shot off of Hall-of-Famer Gaylord Perry. He also victimized Perry's brother Jim for a two-run home run.

9. Speaking of Jim Perry, according to Baseball Reference, Pappas' career statistics are most similar to those of Perry, with Don Drysdale, Orel Hershiser, Catfish Hunter, and Bob Welch rounding out the Top Five.

10. His son Steve has his own website, which contains several more interesting facts and photos of Milt, as well as material relating to one of Steve's own passions, the APBA baseball board game.