Tippy Martinez, 1984 Fleer #12

As the Orioles prepare for Friday's ALCS opener against the Royals, today is the anniversary of the game in which Baltimore clinched its last trip to the World Series.

It was 31 years ago - October 8, 1983 - that the Orioles outlasted the White Sox in a 3-0, ten-inning nailbiter to capture the American League pennant, three games to one. Storm Davis tossed six scoreless innings, and winning pitcher Tippy Martinez kept the Pale Hose off the board for the final four frames. Chicago starter Britt Burns carried his shutout bid into the top of the tenth inning before role player Tito Landrum blasted a go-ahead solo home run to chase him from the game with one out. Reliever Salome Barojas failed to retire a batter, yielding three straight singles. Gary Roenicke had the third of those hits, driving in a second run. Benny Ayala's sac fly against Juan Agosto capped the scoring, and once Martinez got those last three outs, the Birds had a date with the Phillies in the Fall Classic.

Tippy Martinez, 1983 Topps #631

The Orioles pretty well had their way with the Yankees in 1976. Aside from pilfering Tippy Martinez, Scott McGregor, and Rick Dempsey from New York in a single trade, Baltimore also won the season series between the two teams, 13-5. The O's hadn't done so much damage to the Yanks in any season since, but today's 9-5 win was their 13th in 18 meetings in 2014. What's more, it officially eliminated Derek Jeter and company from postseason contention. For the second straight October, the Yankees will be spectators. That hasn't happened since 1992-1993, back when Buck Showalter was still toiling to restore winning baseball in the Bronx. (We'll forgive him for his youthful indiscretions.)

As you might remember, the Yankees knocked the Orioles out of the playoffs in 1996 and in 2012. The successes of 2014 don't quite make up for that, but we'll just see where October takes us.

Tippy Martinez, 1982 Fleer #171

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite people in the whole world. She also happens to be the woman that I'm going to marry in...53 days?! Can it really be that soon? Yes it can, as the increasingly urgent items on my to-do list remind me on a daily basis.

I wasn't able to find any Orioles past or present who were born on July 23, which just proves that Janet is one-of-a-kind. But I can tell you what the O's were doing on her birthday, at the risk of divulging a lady's age. It was the summer of 1980, and Baltimore was looking for a four-game series win at Minnesota. They squeaked out an 8-7 victory in a back-and-forth contest. Ken Singleton was 4-for-5 with a pair of RBI, and Dan Graham drove in three runs on a pair of sacrifice flies and a single. Scott McGregor gutted it out into the seventh inning without his best stuff, as he yielded six runs (five earned) on nine hits and two walks. However, the Birds gave him enough run support that he exited with a 7-5 lead. Sammy Stewart yielded the sixth run, but stranded the tying run at first base. Singleton delivered an insurance run in the top of the eighth, and it proved necessary. Stewart allowed a single and a walk in the ninth, and Earl Weaver called upon Tippy Martinez to put out the fire. The lefty did just that, giving up a sacrifice fly to Roy Smalley but ending the game with a ground ball to second base off the bat of Ken Landreaux.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some wedding invitations to address.

Tippy Martinez, 1981 Donruss #354

It always seemed like it would be hard to take an unflattering picture of Tippy Martinez, but here we stand. When you take a look at the cards that Donruss churned out in their inaugural 1981 set, it's hard to believe that they ever had a second set. The drab borders and Local-Eyewitness-News fonts don't seem like the kinds of things that would grab the imaginations of young collectors. The photos are washed-out, blurry, and/or yellowed as if they were taken by your nearsighted Aunt Melba with her Polaroid.

The Orioles are clinging to a shortening lead against the Yankees in the late innings. I wish they could turn the ball over to Tippy Martinez, who had 9 wins, 17 saves, and 66 appearances against New York in his career, his highest totals against any team. His 3.13 ERA vs. the Bronx Bombers was lower than his overall mark of 3.45. Having debuted in the major leagues with the Yankees, Tippy certainly wasn't intimidated by the guys in pinstripes.

Vintage Fridays: Tippy Martinez, 1980 Topps #706

With several inches of snow on the ground and only one football game remaining (no, the Pro Bowl DOESN'T count), baseball season cannot arrive soon enough. Thankfully, there is the 2011 Orioles FanFest to tide me over. Big thanks to out to reader and coworker Jeff (a.k.a. FreeTheBirds), a season ticket holder who gifted me his complimentary tickets for the event. Tomorrow morning I'll get up earlier than usual for a Saturday, but it's a good cause in my book. I'll round up my sister at 9:00, with hopes that we're two of the first 250 people through the door at the 10:00 entry time for season ticket folks. That group will be privy to a free autograph session with Brad Bergesen, Al Bumbry, and new O's infielders Mark Reynolds and Brendan Harris. You might have heard some grumbling about the decision to charge $15 for vouchers per regularly scheduled autograph sessions throughout the rest of the day, but I gladly paid for one. Here's my rationale:

1) Demand at past free autograph sessions was just too high. The line for each session began forming an hour prior to the session. In effect, you could lose up to two hours of the seven-hour event just getting signatures from a single three-or-four-person booth.

2) All of the proceeds from the vouchers will reportedly go to the OriolesREACH childrens' charities. Jeff reports that a ticket representative told him that the $15 voucher fee would not be tax-deductible, but I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

3) Kids from 4-14 can still get free autographs at a separate booth throughout the day, and that's what matters.

4) Adults will just have to put a price on the autographs. Is it worth it to you to get three or four player signatures for $15? That's better than you'll do at a memorabilia show. I'm willing to buy one, but I'll stop there. It's not so hard.

Anyway, I'll be lining up for the 11:20 AM session with Matt Wieters, Craig Tatum, and Dick Hall. I've been keen on meeting Hall ever since we exchanged a few emails about my NumerOlogy website shortly after its February 2008 launch. (Note: the site got hacked several months ago, and I'm still puzzling out a fix for it. I appreciate your patience!)

My sister wants to get her Brian Matusz jersey signed, so she bought into the 3:20 session with Matusz, Jason Berken, and Mike Bordick. She's only interested in the young lefty's autograph, so she's going to get the other two to sign cards for me. I told her it will be an acceptable trade for my chaffeur duties.

If you look at the entire autograph lineup, you'll see a fair representation of players from bygone days. In addition to Bumbry, Hall, and Bordick, there are sessions featuring Larry Sheets, Boog Powell, Jim Palmer, Ross Grimsley, Rick Dempsey, Scott McGregor, Joe Orsulak, Tippy Martinez, and Mike Flanagan. As of this writing, all but a pair of the 15 sessions have sold out. So I guess there wasn't too much outrage over the new policy. As for me, I'm looking forward to showing off some autographs throughout the coming week!

Vintage Fridays: Tippy Martinez, 1977 Topps #238

Earlier this week, there was a friendly debate on Camden Chat about which player was the best to wear #23 in Orioles history: catcher Chris Hoiles or reliever Tippy Martinez. It's a good question, and not necessarily one with any "right" answer; comparing a position player to a pitcher is an apples and oranges situation. Though Hoiles is one of my favorite Orioles, and was in his prime during my early years as a fan, I had to cast my vote for Tippy.

Many fans who were not around for the glory years may look at Tippy's modest save totals (115 for his career, single-season high of 21 in 1983) and yawn. I had a vague knowledge that the lefty had been a jack-of-all-trades out of the O's bullpen, so I pulled up the his game logs from 1979 - a very good year for both him and the Orioles. What I saw was just incredible.

Earl Weaver used Tippy every which way he could without starting him or inserting him as a pinch hitter. He was called upon in each and every inning possible, from the first through the eleventh. He was used to get one out, but would also be asked to throw an inning or two or three or four or...seven and two-thirds, as was the case in a no-hit, one-walk gem against Oakland on July 23. On that day, he bailed out a struggling Mike Flanagan in the second inning and stayed on for the rest of the game, turning a 4-2 deficit into a 7-4 win. Believe it or not, that was the second time Tippy had stifled Oakland in that manner in '79. On April 29, he replaced an ailing Jim Palmer four batters into the game and permitted only four A's baserunners in six and one-third innings. He struck out five batters before Tim Stoddard polished off a 13-1 victory with a couple shutout innings.

So did all of that shuffling around and stretching out have any negative effect on Tippy? Did his arm fall off, or did the lack of a defined role fluster him and cause him to lose his pitching mechanics? Not hardly. At year's end, Martinez had a 10-3 record with three saves, four holds and a 2.88 ERA. He allowed 59 hits and 31 walks in 78 innings, while striking out 61.

Sorry Chris, Tippy wins. He was a bullpen ace in the truest sense: he pitched when the team needed him the most.

By the way, Earl did start him once, in 1980...at designated hitter. Benny Ayala pinch-hit for him in the first inning. It was part of an ongoing strategy by Earl Weaver to create a favorable hitting matchup in the event that the opposing starter was knocked out of the game early, and it gave him a slight tactictal advantage; the other team couldn't prepare for the DH slot in the Baltimore lineup. Eventual Cy Young winner Steve Stone was "DH" in a dozen games. Tippy wasn't even with the team on the day in question, having flown to Colorado for his grandmother's funeral. Unsurprisingly, the American League soon amended the rules to require the starting DH to bat at least once before being removed. Read more about it here (scroll down to question #3).

Wow, this was more like two blog posts in one. Talk about versatility.

Tippy Martinez, 1987 Topps #728

According to reader and Atlantic League devotee Alan, York Revolution pitching coach Tippy Martinez is pretty accommodating when it comes to autograph requests, save for one quirk. He will not sign a baseball card if it depicts him with a mustache on his face, which would apply to some 1986 and 1987 issues. I can certainly understand his reticence; in my reasonably heterosexual opinion, he was (and still is) a handsome guy, but that cookie duster just did not do him any favors. Drink in that photo up top, just for a minute. He looks less like Tippy, and more like Edward James Olmos. Eek.

Tippy Martinez, 1991 Crown/Coca-Cola All Time Orioles #281

I've talked in the past about my misadventures in Little League. But an early highlight of my amateur career was the day I got to meet Tippy Martinez. It was our season-opening parade in Spring 1994, and he was the guest of honor. Things got off to a rough start when the smallest member of our team, a second baseman/pitcher named Dave, came limping over to the rest of us and told us that the car that was transporting Tippy had just run over his foot. Yes, this actually happened. Thankfully, he wasn't seriously injured and didn't miss any games.

The rest of the day went better. Tippy made some remarks at the post-parade picnic, nothing that I can remember nearly fifteen years after the fact. Then he stayed put and signed autographs until everyone who wanted his signature had gotten it. Most of the other kids just had him sign their hats, but I wasn't about to do that. As you'll see a little later in this entry, those hats were a cheap eyesore. Besides, I was a member of the Yankees. Though Martinez started his career in the Bronx, it just wouldn't have been right to have him sign a Yankee hat. I only had one of his cards in my still-nascent collection, so that made my decision easy. The card you see above became my first autographed card.

The story doesn't end there. As the day's events wound to a close, my mother, my younger sister, and myself headed to the parking lot. On our way, we happened upon Tippy, who was on his way out as well and was by himself. My mom took the initiative and asked the Orioles Hall of Famer if he'd mind posing for a few pictures with us. He couldn't have been more polite, as he quickly agreed and stood alongside both my sister and myself for individual photos. My sister couldn't have cared less, as her half-bored, half-anugished expression showed. Though I still didn't have a complete grasp of just how important Martinez had been as the go-to reliever for the Orioles from the mid-1970's through the mid-1980's, it was still something of a thrill to me.
Though the giant puffy hat and recycled polyester uniform didn't do any favors to a kid in the midst of an awkward phase, I think you'll agree that Tippy Martinez looked pretty good for a guy who'd been retired for six years and was nearly forty-four at the time.

For the purpose of soothing my own bruised ego after sharing this picture with you, I'd like to state for the record that baseball-reference.com lists Tippy's height as 5'10", which means that in the ensuing years, I've surpassed him in stature. So there's that.