Orioles and Baltimore's Victory Celebration

This 1969 team has become the darlings of the cyber world. What they couldn't celebrate in real life, they began celebrating on computers everywhere. As in real life this squad was the prohibitive favorite, but opposite of real life they actually won it all. For years, when interviewed, Frank Robinson said, "The Mets didn't win that World Series, we lost it...the better team did not win". From most accounts that would be viewed a sour grapes, but not taken in the context of when it was said and the team that it described.

In 1969 the Orioles won 109 games and viturally cruised to the first ever AL East crown. In the first ever ALCS they made easy work of a powerful Minnesota Twins team in 3 straight. In game 1 of that ill fated World Series Don Buford led off with a homer and the O's never looked back defeating Mets ace Tom Seaver. That's when overconfidence and a nasty slump took over. 4 games later the Miracle Mets were sipping the bubbly and planning for a parade in the canyon of heroes.

Was it over confidence ? Did they take the Mets too lightly ? Did Earl Weaver choke ? Did the God's of baseball smile on the Amazin's ? We'll never know. What we do know is that this team won 3 straight AL pennants and year in year out from the early 60's until the early 80's produced a contender.

From this team 3 Hall of Famer's came. Brooks Robinson did it all with his glove and timely hitting, Frank Robinson won a triple crown, an MVP in both leagues and provided veteran leadership. Jim Palmer ascended to become the dominant pitcher in the AL from the mid 60's well into the early 80's. In fact he is the only player to play on all 3 of their World Championship squads (1966, 1970, 1983).

During this project I gained a real appreciation for the team that Frank Cashen assembled. 4 Gold Glove fielders (Brooks, Belanger, Blair and Johnson) and a pitching staff that had 3 aces (Palmer, Cuellar and McNally). Overlooked was their bullpen, which had three guys with sub 2.00 ERA's (Watt, Hall & Richert).

Common thought is that the 1954 Indians were the best team to lose the World Series. After managing this team for almost 50 games and competing against that Cleveland squad I have to disagree. My honest feeling is that if the Mets didn't pull off the greatest sports miracle of all time, this Baltimore Orioles team would have to be considered the greatest team to have ever played. It was so easy managing them. You couldn't help but make the right moves. Sometimes they won despite my decisions.

I thank them all for allowing me the privilege to stroll down memory lane and to gain a greater appreciation for their history. I can't wait for KOD2 to start so we can create some for Distantreplay memories !!!