Happy 65th Birthday, Jim Palmer!
by Stacey on Oct 15, 2010 2:06 PM EDT
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On this day in 1945, James Alvin Palmer was born. Twenty years and eleven months later he became the youngest pitcher to win a World Series game with a complete game shutout of the Dodgers. Forty-one years after that, he met his soulmate when Gary Thorne became his broadcasting partner at MASN. In between he was on every single Orioles World Series team, he won 278 games (including eight 20 win seasons), threw a no-hitter, won three Cy Young Awards, made many ladies and some men swoon by prancing around in his underwear on television, and got elected into the Hall of Fame. If you've ever heard him talk you know that he never surrendered a grand slam, but did you also know that he never gave up back-to-back home runs?
Here's to you, Jim!
On a related note, if you need another reason to hope the Yankees don't make the World Series, consider this: if Andy Pettitte wins a WS game he'll join Jim Palmer as the only player in baseball history with a WS win in three different decades.
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Palmer the Player and Palmer the Broadcaster -- apples and oranges, 'o course.
P the B takes considerable flak for being extremely knowledgeable — about himself — and seeing no reason to hide it. But credit where it’s due, he also knows a lot about the game, and viewers often benefit from that.
Plus, he’s not Ferd Manfraud. (And try imagining that body selling jockey shorts. Actually, please try to imagine that body behind a microphone in Bowie.)
Anyway, congrats to both Palmers and many hap-hap-happy returns o’ the day, with or without a sober Gary.
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Churchill,1942-- a rebuilding year.
You forgot about Palmer the underwear model.
"When you use those words, `mystique’ and `aura,’ those are dancers in a night club. Those are not things we concern ourselves on the ball field." - Curt Schilling on if the Yankees mystique and aura would affect the Diamondbacks in the 2001 World Series.
by BaltimoreSportsFan on Oct 15, 2010 3:14 PM EDT up reply actions
:)
"When you use those words, `mystique’ and `aura,’ those are dancers in a night club. Those are not things we concern ourselves on the ball field." - Curt Schilling on if the Yankees mystique and aura would affect the Diamondbacks in the 2001 World Series.
by BaltimoreSportsFan on Oct 15, 2010 3:27 PM EDT up reply actions
Happy birthday, Jim!
I’m always learning stuff from his broadcasts, so I’m rarely annoyed by his self-references. Plus he remembers the times he got bombed, hitters who killed him, etc just as vividly as he remembers his successes and talks about both sides of the coin openly. My favorite moment was when he had a graphic done putting some of his numbers next to Mussina’s to answer the question of whether Mike M should be a HoFer. Only the ERA was higher on Mussina’s side, if I remember, and Palmer was quick to point out the different eras and that the numbers were comparable in historical context. Whether you like Mussina or not, I thought that was pretty classy.
Of course, I watch his broadcasts through the rosy shades of my childhood memories. My mental picture of Memorial Stadium always has Palmer on the mound. In my memory of walking down the beer soaked ramps after a game, we’re always leaving after a Palmer complete game W.
Has there ever been a cooler Oriole than Eddie Murray? I mean, just straight up cool. Like a bad, suave dude. You know what I'm sayin'. COOL. SC 7/24/08
I'm certain I've shared this here before
but it’s my favorite example of why I love Jim Palmer. I never saw him pitch so my entire experience with him is as a broadcaster, and I’m continually impressed by how sharp his mind is.
I was in the audience at Fan Fest in January for the panel of players from the 1970 World Series, and Paul Blair was talking about 1969 when he hit the most home runs he’s ever had in a year. He said something like, “I think I hit 27 HR that year,” and Palmer immediately said, “No, it was 26. You hit 26 HR in 1969.” I looked it up on BR when I got home and he was exactly right. Jim Palmer remembers off the top of his head how many HR Paul Blair hit in 1969.
You never know when someone is gonna sneak up on ya at the dolphin show! -wrb1990
I loved his back and forth...
with Brady during the Angels series this year. They were both giving it to eachother and it was totally great.
"No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." - H.L. Mencken
by TerroristFistJab on Oct 15, 2010 4:01 PM EDT up reply actions
but the next decade doesn't start until next year!
"See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony's not really a, a high priority. We haven't had any irony here since about, uh, '83, when I was the only practitioner of it. And I stopped because I was tired of being stared at."
So 1980 isn't part of the Eighties?
You never know when someone is gonna sneak up on ya at the dolphin show! -wrb1990
Technically a decade starts at year 1
But i think if you referred specifically to “the eighties” it would imply starting at 1980
It's just a technicality.
When someone says, “Nuh, uh, it’s not a new decade yet,” they’re usually being pretentious. Yes, technically a decade starts in the year 1, but for practical purposes, a decade starts at 0.
As a much younger, drunker man
I would heckle you, Jim Palmer.
Shouting straight up from below the press box between innings.
You hung your head over the edge, scanning downward to locate just who or what could be so obnoxious.
I said you were like needles in my eyes. I called you christmas cakes and many other more profane but equally sophmoric permutations of your nickname. I said that you couldn’t carry Lowenstein’s jock. And if I recall correctly, I also said some truly decrepit and sadistic things about the moneystore.
Well Jim, I didn’t mean those things. I was young and looking for attention at your expense. We both know, especially you know that you are actually quite pleasant upon the eyes. And as for Lowenstein’s jock; I am sure you could carry it and probably do many other things at the same time. Quite frankly, I don’t even know what the moneystore is. But I imagine they provide loans and exactly none of those things that I had mentioned them providing. or doing. or you doing to it. or in it or with any of phil rizzuto’s wrinkled body parts. all that.
So I am truly sorry and happy birthday. The stats say that you were one of the greatest pitchers of all time. And I can definitively say you are not the worst announcer of all time.
A Happy B-Day to Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) as well!
"Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man." ~ The Dude
Just note
how Seaver bows before His Radiant Cakeness in that photo. Tells you all you need to know.
Has there ever been a cooler Oriole than Eddie Murray? I mean, just straight up cool. Like a bad, suave dude. You know what I'm sayin'. COOL. SC 7/24/08
And you wanna know something funny? Who d’ya think had a better career ERA? Check it out. I was surprised — both at how low they both were and then, well, at the other thing. The bowing is prolly a two-way street.
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Churchill,1942-- a rebuilding year.
Talk about the 'Old days"
It’s May 1965 in Baltimore and an off day for the Orioles. I’m driving John Orsino ( Oriole catcher) back from a round of golf at nearby Forest Park . As I pull into a parking space at the “Wakefield” apartments, a young couple who like like movie stars are walking by pushing a stroller and Orsino says " That kid caused me to add padding to my mitt because his fastball hurts like shi* ". That was the first time I saw Jim Palmer.
by aintthebeercold on Oct 20, 2010 4:59 AM EDT reply actions
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