Baltimore Orioles History: The Sports Illustrated Covers

by SC on Jan 22, 2009 9:00 PM EST in O's History Comment 13 comments

Pretty easy to explain, right? A history of Baltimore Orioles Sports Illustrated covers, just for kicks, all courtesy of the SI Vault.

August 31, 1964: Brooks Robinson crossing home plate. "Orioles vs. White Sox" wound up a bit premature. The Yankees (99-63) outdisanced the White Sox (98-64) and the Orioles (97-65) in one of the great pennant races.

October 10, 1966: Printed one day after the Orioles finished off their sweep of the Dodgers for the team's first World Series win.

October 6, 1969: Frank Robinson at 33, helping guide the Orioles to 109 wins and a romp over the Twins in the ALCS. And then came the Miracle Mets.

April 12, 1971: Boog Powell, Power Personified. Graphics!!

July 21, 1975: Jim Palmer and Tom Seaver, Baseball's Toughest Pitchers. This is back when you could get away without doing much research to support claims like this. Not that this one was necessarily untrue.

August 30, 1976: Reggie Jackson and his lone season in Baltimore.

June 18, 1979: No truer words were ever posted on the SI cover.

October 22, 1979: Doug DeCinces tackles Phil Garner. The "We Are Family" Pirates win the World Series anyway.

August 25, 1980: The Orioles do battle back against the powerful Yankees, but fall three games short of a division title at 100-62.

October 24, 1983: The Hero!

March 9, 1987: The Ripken Baseball Family, a brief piece of Americana and baseball royalty. If only anyone had known how disastrously short-lived it would all be.

July 18, 1994: Goofus sticks a baseball in his mouth when the photographer isn't looking. Gallant sits up straight and looks neat.

December 18, 1995: Cal Ripken, Jr., named Sportsmen of the Year after being credited with bringing the greedy world of baseball back into the hearts of America.

June 15, 2007: A commemorative issue celebrating Cal's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Likely to be the only Orioles cover story of the decade.

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Great idea for a post

Enjoyed it immensely. That 1971 cover is ridiculous. I’m glad I missed the ’70s.

by pipkin on Jan 22, 2009 9:58 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

there are more than this...

i dont know if this was meant to be comprehensive, but i remember one in particular with a painting or drawing of cal on one knee. I think it was from 93 maybe.

"I’m sure glad he didn’t try to bunt." - DD on Melmo's game winning double, 6/17

by daveh873 on Jan 22, 2009 10:11 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

definitely not comprehensive

I distinctly remember the cover with Billy Ripken leaning his forehead against a bat looking dejected with the title 0-19(? maybe another number, less than 21) in 1988.

[Guthrie's] president of my heart. ~PhilR8

by Stacey on Jan 22, 2009 11:25 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Here is it

[Guthrie's] president of my heart. ~PhilR8

by Stacey on Jan 22, 2009 11:27 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

not comprehensive

Just some of the notables from each decade.

Bad Left Hook
Camden Chat

"I decided to become a basketball fan this year and it’s not working out so well because the Wizards SUUUCK. So then I shifted to hockey. That’s pretty fun except there are a lot of flashing lights and horns and shit at the game."

by SC on Jan 23, 2009 8:09 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I ran

across the Fleer (?) card of Billy Ripken with the words “fuck face” written on the bat courtesy of SI.com today as well. That’s a pretty funny story that I had forgotten. Or never knew. Or forgot if I ever knew.

Always trust your cape. -Guy Clark

by BPinOK on Jan 22, 2009 10:46 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Man

those are some fucking ugly Pirates uniforms. I always forget how bad they were.

"This world extends way beyond this little field of dreams we're dancing in and I want to see that world"

by exitfare on Jan 23, 2009 2:23 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

The '79 Series

Best WS uniform match ups ever.

"If you know how to cheat, start now." - Earl Weaver

by rebop on Jan 23, 2009 2:42 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Pretty cool

Although I wish SI would have had the foresight to title the Dempsey cover like this:

Rick Dempsey:
Baltimore’s World Series MVP
and Uncle of ZAUN

by Brotz13 on Jan 23, 2009 9:00 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Great post

I saved most of the O’s SI covers for my desktop slideshow. The Goofus and Gallant reference was hilarious. And yes, graphic design was pretty bad at SI for a lot of those covers.

A few more (and only because I still have the mags) are:
“Nonstop Shortstop” – 8/29/91 (good action shot cover)
“Chillin’ with Cal” – 8/7/95
“The Player’s Player” (Baseball ’95) – 5/1/95

And on SI for Kids, too!
“Mr. Everything” – June ’92
“All-Time” (the one with him and Gehrig) – August ’95 (cool photoshop)

I know, worthless w/o pics, but I ain’t figured it out yet.

by brooksflow on Jan 23, 2009 2:58 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Good post

Watch the price of the SI’s rise up steadily, from 30 cents to $2.25. And then they stop printing the price on it.

Well, I'll appreciate for you to keep my zingers outta your mouth!

by BoSox415 on Jan 23, 2009 7:19 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

The SI covers take me back

I was a baseball fan during the 60s. I clearly remember opening the Evening Sun (the Sun then published two papers a day instead of 1/2 of a paper as they do now) and reading that the O’s had traded Milt Pappas (a fine pitcher) for Frank Robinson. We fans were all excited. We had a good team, but Frank, who was a big National League star, made us great. The post-Frank teams were a pleasure to watch, especially Brooks, who was an absolute magician at third, Paul Blair, and the Blade.
The SI covers remind me of the 1964 team, which, regretably, is not remembered much now. 1964 was the O’s first real penant race, and it was a great one. Brooks was the AL MVP, and we dueled the Yanks all the way to the end of the season. All we needed to get over the hump was Frank. By the way, I was in the stands when Frank hit the home run out of the stadium off of a young Luis Tiant, who was then a flame thrower. Frank had great power.
I gave up my season tickets in disgust six years ago. I started following the team again when AF has hired as GM. We may never have another great team, but, at least AF would not sign Albert Belle.

by BaltoBen on Jan 25, 2009 9:14 PM EST reply actions 0 recs