How I Became an Orioles Fan

This is an excerpt from my new book, Hitting Them All — A Story of Friends and Baseball.

Through his baseball connections, my father, Jim, an ex-minor league player, was hired as a “bird dog” scout by the Baltimore Orioles organization in the early 1960’s.  Going through Dad’s possessions after he died I found his original scouting engagement letter from the Orioles.  As a youngster, I accompanied him on several scouting trips to high school and summer league games to watch prospects he was assigned.

One of the perks to growing up in a baseball family was my father had access to major league equipment, including gloves worn by major league players.  At age 7, my first baseball glove was a well-worn, dark brown fielders mitt, owned by Bobby Richardson, the New York Yankees second-baseman.  It was my most prized possession.

In the early 1960’s, I became a Yankees fan for a few years.  The Yankees played in the American League, and unlike the Phillies, they routinely won championships with marquee players like Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and Roger Maris.  I can still remember their starting line-up in 1960.

That year, my Dad’s friend, Bobby Shantz, was a relief pitcher on the Yankee team that won the American League pennant and played in the World Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The first baseball game I remember watching on a black and white TV set was the seventh game of the 1960 World Series when Pittsburgh’s captain, Bill Mazeroski, launched a dramatic walk-off home run over the left-field fence at Forbes Field in the ninth inning to win the World Series for the Pirates.

In December 1965, a memorable blizzard hammered southeastern Pennsylvania.  It started to snow on Christmas eve and the township called Dad into to work to operate a snowplow.  The winter storm lasted two days and nights and we had to wait until Dad came home to open our Christmas presents.

It was snowing too hard to go outside and play reindeer games and my younger brother, Andrew, and I were bored.  We passed the time playing an electric football game  The game had a vibrating board that made a humming sound while tiny plastic players buzzed around the board helter-skelter like beads of cooking oil on a hot skillet. We put on the new pajamas that Mom gave us for Christmas, pushed the beds together and played tackle football.  I wore blue “Pj’s” so I was the San Diego Chargers and Andrew wore red so he was the Houston Oilers, two of the iconic teams in the old American Football League.  We had fun until I tackled Andrew too hard, he got a bloody nose and Mom had to interrupt her baking to stop the game.

My sister, Mary, completed our family.  She and Andrew were close to the same age and grew up together.  He teased her mercilessly.  We were all together that Christmas.  It finally stopped snowing, my exhausted father came home and we opened the presents. Gift-wrapped and waiting under the tree for me was a catcher’s mitt worn by Andy Etchebarren, a back-up catcher with the Baltimore Orioles.   The glove was a rich, brown-gold color with a smooth, well-worn pocket and it was love at first site.  It would have made a good Christmas baseball movie.

I became an Orioles fan for life during the 1966 baseball season when Frank Robinson won the Triple Crown, and along with Brooks Robinson, led the Orioles to a World Series sweep over Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and the Los Angeles Dodgers.