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Going Back in Time

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My mom and I were looking through old photos last weekend and came across a stack of pictures from an Orioles game in 1979. It was a blast looking through them so I thought I'd play show and tell.

When I saw the stamp on the back of the pictures indicating they'd been developed in September 1979 I thought maybe I was at this game. Maybe it was my first Orioles game ever! My mother put the kibosh on that pretty quickly by telling me that no way did they take me to baseball games when I was six months old, they always left me with my grandparents while they were off having their fun.

Once I got home with the pictures I sat down to identify the players in the pictures and when the game took place. Even though I know the names of old Orioles I can only match up faces to the most famous of them, but a quick trip to NumerOlogy and I had ID'd them all, even the first base coach Jim Frey.

After I had that all straightened out, I headed over to baseball-reference.com to figure out when this game occurred. I knew the film had been developed in September 1979 so the game was probably not too long before then, that Steve Stone had been the starting pitcher, they were playing the Brewers, Lee May was at 1B and the Brewers pitcher was number 25. A bit of clicking around and I found it: August 8, 1979.

It was a heck of a game, although sadly the good guys lost in the end. Home runs by Benny Ayala and Ken Singleton weren't enough to overcome a mediocre pitching performance. Still, the O's went into the top of the 9th tied 4-4 when Don "Full Pack" Stanhouse promptly allowed the Brewers to score 4 runs in 2/3 of an inning. The O's went on to lose 8-4, but at the end of the day they were still in first place at 74-38, 5.5 games in front of Boston. Imagine reaching 74 wins by August 9th? Imagine reaching 74 wins at all?

Click Continue Reading to see the photos in all their grainy 1979 glory. 

Star-divide



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It seems that Earl had some problems with the umpires in this game (shocking!). Here he is with first base/hitting coach Jim Frey during an O's at bat.

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Jim Frey keeps up the cause while Earl stalks away. Is the umpire following him?

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Here he is again, now with the O's on the field. It looks like Lee May is right there with Earl while Steve Stone and Doug DeCinces look on. 2nd baseman Rich Dauer pretends like he has no idea what's going on.

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You can tell he's serious now because his hat is backwards. Steve Stone is back on the mound thinking that he might as well get some warm up tosses in because who knows how long this is gonna take.

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I like this picture because of the "Frey's Fans" banner. Is that for the first base coach? That's awesome.

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When we saw this picture my mom grabbed it and said, "Kenny Singleton! I loved him!" He was quite a stud in 1979, hitting 35 home runs and slugging over .500, ending the season with an OPS+ of 155. He finished 2nd in MVP voting in 1979 to the Angel's Don Baylor. Is that Al Bumbry in the background?

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Kenny warming up pre-game with pitching coach Ray Miller in the background. Who is this fellow with the large hair in the foreground?

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Catching that night was the one and only Rick Dempsey. I can't tell which Brewer that is. Any ideas?

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Doug DeCinces pre-game. My question is why does the member of the grounds crew have to wear such a ridiculous uniform? He looks like he just escaped from the nut house.

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And lastly, here is the Don Stanhouse. In my head this is after Earl took him out of the game, since the Milwaukee 3rd base coach is there in the background. Way to ruin everyone's night, Full Pack!

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"Who is this fellow with the large hair in the foreground?"

Kiko Garcia. I’d lay money on it.

"Any guitar solos you hear on the record where it sounds like one note, sounds like Meg White playing guitar -- that's me. Any real guitar solo where a guitar comes in and you go, 'F--k, that sounds awesome!' -- that's not me." - Josh Freese

by duck on Mar 26, 2009 4:32 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Was Lenn Sakata on that team?

Or was he a few years later?

You can't fix stupid. Stupid is forever.

by sluggo 2.0 on Mar 26, 2009 4:45 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Nope, Brewers that year

O’s in ’80.

"Any guitar solos you hear on the record where it sounds like one note, sounds like Meg White playing guitar -- that's me. Any real guitar solo where a guitar comes in and you go, 'F--k, that sounds awesome!' -- that's not me." - Josh Freese

by duck on Mar 26, 2009 4:49 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Awesome

thanks for that. I love old photographs.

On a barely related note I just found the Library of Congress’s Historic American Buildings Survey and saw an old mansion located in what is now Upton. Checking the same address (811 w. lanvale) in Google Maps Streetview is almost depressing.

by Steve. on Mar 26, 2009 6:16 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Thank you

for posting those. I recently stumbled across some photos from around the same time. And my Dad had an envelope of old O’s photos for us to enjoy on our trip to the Yard last season. I always get a kick out the ones taken from outside the stadium because the cars (and beer cans) are funny lookin’.

by brooksflow on Mar 26, 2009 8:43 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

I think it's Sammy Stewart in that pic

Everyone had long hair in the 70s, but IIRC, Sammy was one of the few white guys who outright sported an afro/perm hairstyle. Stanhouse being another one. It might be Kiko as well, but it looks like Sammy to me.

Also, it’s Doug DeCinces, not DiCences. Just FYI.

It's 4 in the morning. Too much to drink. All the girls look hot. So, the Nationals are Jennifer Lopez to me. —Julian Tavarez

by zknower on Mar 26, 2009 9:01 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Thanks, zk. I fixed it.

I looked at that thinking that it didn’t seem right, but I couldn’t figure out what the right thing was. I’m not always so good with the spelling. That’s why I heart the Firefox which tells me when I spell things wrong. But that doesn’t help me with DeCinces :)

I will not rest until America has universal health care and Derek Jeter is seen for the overrated starfucker he truly is! ~2632

by Stacey on Mar 26, 2009 11:49 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

It helps to have heard his name announced at every game when you were 13 years old. :)

It’s pronounced “duh-SIN-say” (or in some quarters, “duh-SIN-says”), so it’s easy for me to remember where the “i” goes.

It's 4 in the morning. Too much to drink. All the girls look hot. So, the Nationals are Jennifer Lopez to me. —Julian Tavarez

by zknower on Mar 27, 2009 12:29 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Reminds me of a story I heard or read a long time ago

It’s DeCinces’ rookie year & he made what the scorekeeper called an error on a very borderline call. The crowd, being accustomed to Brooks Robinson, was not in a generous mood. So poor Doug hears, “Brooksie woulda had it! Brooksie woulda had it!” for the rest of the game.

After the game Earl is giving him the standard, “Don’t worry, kid, you’ll be fine” speech that all rookies hear at some point. And just at the point where he’s starting to feel better about himself Earl finishes with, “just so you know, Brooksie WOULDA had it.”

You can't fix stupid. Stupid is forever.

by sluggo 2.0 on Mar 26, 2009 9:47 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Going Back in Time

Fantastic pictures, I can’t beleive it is 30 years now. All we need is Wild Bill to complete those scenes.

The player next to Singleton warming up is Kiko Garcia, his skin is too dark to be Sammy Stewart. Also, Stewart had a mustache and because he was a pitcher, he probably would not have been warming up in foull ground like that.

The man behind Singleton in the other shot is Elrod Hendricks, not the Bee. Hendricls was a coach by then, and he had those high cheekbones.

by KnowztheOs on Mar 26, 2009 10:51 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Thanks!

Now that you mention it, it does look like Elrod. I honestly couldn’t tell anything by the face, but I thought the number might be a 1. But it could also totally be a 4.

I will not rest until America has universal health care and Derek Jeter is seen for the overrated starfucker he truly is! ~2632

by Stacey on Mar 26, 2009 11:50 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Great pics!

And isn’t it funny how full the stands were. Imagine what a little winning could do for this city.

Mood about O's rotation: Depressed : (

by sickuvitall on Mar 26, 2009 11:51 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Actually,

the paid attendance for this game was 25,260, and the attendance for the season 1.6M. That’s still no excuse for today given how the attendance for baseball has risen over the years, but it wasn’t a full house.

I will not rest until America has universal health care and Derek Jeter is seen for the overrated starfucker he truly is! ~2632

by Stacey on Mar 26, 2009 11:54 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Must just be

the angle and the fact that those seats are primo. Would be nice to see the yard full of us again…I refuse to even go to BOS or NY games anymore.

Mood about O's rotation: Depressed : (

by sickuvitall on Mar 26, 2009 11:56 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Is that Al Bumbry in the background?

Nope – that’s the late Elrod Hendricks, bullpen warmup afficianado

by Towsondespot on Mar 27, 2009 12:15 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

George Bamberger?

Wasn’t he managing the Brewers at this time?

And of course you have Steve Stone. I heard Earl never liked him very much, but he has to be the greatest Jewish Oriole ever.

Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words—"mank" and "ind". What do these words mean? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.
-Jack Handey

by jobe on Mar 27, 2009 1:40 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Stone has talked about the relationship with Weaver. He said that when he first came to the Orioles, he had a difficult time with Weaver’s gruff attitudes. Weaver evidently told Stone something to the effect that he would be the fifth pitcher and he better do the job because he could find another fifth pitcher. Stone said once he realized that Weaver wanted performance and wins, they got along fine. It surely had to help that he had his best year as an Oriole.

by drj on Mar 27, 2009 5:32 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Isn’t that John Lowenstein batting in the first picture?

My first game was a little after this one, when the Angels came to town. Nolan Ryan pitched. Sammy Stewart got the win, Stackhouse the save. The place was a sellout. We were lucky we got tickets.

by mystery tramp on Mar 27, 2009 7:53 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

It may be

that guy was unidentifiable to me but Lowenstein did PH in this game. I noticed when looking back at the box score that the Brewers catcher was none other than our own Buck Martinez.

I will not rest until America has universal health care and Derek Jeter is seen for the overrated starfucker he truly is! ~2632

by Stacey on Mar 27, 2009 8:12 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Lowenstein was a lefty

maybe Gary Roenicke?

It's 4 in the morning. Too much to drink. All the girls look hot. So, the Nationals are Jennifer Lopez to me. —Julian Tavarez

by zknower on Mar 29, 2009 1:22 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Glad my site could be of help!

Those pictures are awesome. FWIW, baseball-almanac.com lists Milwaukee’s #25 as pitcher Bill Travers, which would seem to confirm your August 8 date. I don’t think you mentioned his name in the post.

"The United States is the New York Yankees of countries...powerful and respected until the year 2000." - Homer J. Simpson

by Brotz13 on Mar 27, 2009 9:43 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Oh yes I found him on baseball-almanac

I didn’t mention it, but I found it on google. Sadly there is no brewersnumbers.com

I will not rest until America has universal health care and Derek Jeter is seen for the overrated starfucker he truly is! ~2632

by Stacey on Mar 27, 2009 10:09 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

That is a shame

Every team deserves a uni number archive, but esp. the Brew Crew. Love the old school blue and yellow and these two logos:

"The United States is the New York Yankees of countries...powerful and respected until the year 2000." - Homer J. Simpson

by Brotz13 on Mar 27, 2009 12:46 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

that first logo takes me back

reminds me of Harvey’s Wallbangers, who made the Brewers a powerful force in the early ’80s.

Of course, back in those days, the Brewers were one of the seven teams that made up the AL East. No wild-card either.

It's 4 in the morning. Too much to drink. All the girls look hot. So, the Nationals are Jennifer Lopez to me. —Julian Tavarez

by zknower on Mar 29, 2009 1:32 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Love this post

I recently came across an old photo that I had taken at Memorial Stadium with Gary Roenicke. Sadly, I don’t think my family took many other pictures at Memorial Stadium. What a great find.

by Roarfrom34 on Mar 27, 2009 3:03 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

who are they??

definitely Elrod, definitely Kiko.
for the Brewer i would say either Gorman Thomas or Robin Yount. probably Thomas.
thanks for the flashbacks, Stacey

by albaman on Mar 28, 2009 12:50 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Kiko's chant

Kiko Garcia was the only other Oriole I can think of who had a repetitive chant à la ED-DIE! When he was up in a meaningful AB late in the game, the whole stadium would chant Kee-KO! Kee-KO!

It's 4 in the morning. Too much to drink. All the girls look hot. So, the Nationals are Jennifer Lopez to me. —Julian Tavarez

by zknower on Mar 29, 2009 1:40 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

just fantastic

Loved this stuff. I wasn’t even ALIVE.

Bad Left Hook
Camden Chat

"If they cut my bald head open, they will find one big boxing glove. That's all I am. I live it." -- Marvin Hagler

by SC on Mar 29, 2009 3:31 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

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