Been thinking about the great baseball trip of 1992 that my friend Eric and I took, starting 33 years ago today. Previously posted, here is an epilogue recapping the trip...
What a trip it was! Looking back over the entire trip, it really is amazing the things we experienced (links included below). Over the course of those two weeks in June of 1992, we saw...
Unfortunately, we also had some crazy bad luck when it came to seeing Hall of Famers. In our leadoff game, we missed out on seeing the greatest leadoff hitter ever, because Rickey Henderson was injured. We also missed out on a trio of Hall of Fame middle infielders, because Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell, and Roberto Alomar were all out with injuries when we saw their teams play, as was the Indians' young third baseman, Jim Thome.
With one game left in our trip, we were off to Baltimore. We met up with Eric's friend from Northwestern, Corey. Corey's family lived in Baltimore and graciously offered to host us the evening we were there. We picked up Corey and headed toward the stadium.
Before we got to the ballpark, we took in some of the other sights. We had a nice visit to the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum, which housed artifacts not just about the Babe, but about the Orioles as well. We went on from there to the nearby inner harbor, and after grabbing a bite to eat, we headed to the ballpark.
Oriole Park at Camden Yards had just opened that season and was absolutely beautiful, marking a new era for baseball stadiums. I can hardly believe that it is now one of the ten oldest ballparks in MLB. The new Comiskey Park had opened in Chicago a year earlier (Eric and I attended the second game ever played there) and was fairly non-descript. Camden Yards, on the other hand, had a retro design that hearkened to the days of yesteryear when baseball truly was America's national pastime. It's widespread acclaim changed the way ballparks were designed, as most ballparks now have more of a retro feel to them.
Terry Cashman, who most famously wrote and sang Talkin' Baseball (Willie, Mickey and the Duke), recorded a song that attempts to communicate the charm and feel that we felt in the shadows of the B&O Warehouse, directly across Eutaw Street from the Oriole Park.
We got to the ballgame early for batting practice, and what with our
seats being in the right field bleachers, I not only was wearing my new St. Louis Browns cap, this also was the one game on our
trip to which I brought my glove. It turned out to be a good thing,
because during BP, Mell Hall hit one directly to me. I stuck up my glove
and (thump!) I had a souvenir! Coincidentally, Hall was the same player that hit the foul ball in Boston that I narrowly missed getting. Even more coincidentally, twenty years later (to the day!) I took my family to a Cardinals game in Detroit and bullpen catcher Jamie Pogue tossed my then eight-year-old daughter a ball.
The Orioles failed to score in the first, but tallied runs in the next five innings, including four in the second and two each in the third and fourth. They got home runs from Mike Devereaux, Randy Milligan, and (much to our joy) future Hall of Famer, Cal Ripken Jr. The Yankees managed to put up seven runs of their own, including five in the third, powered by a Danny Tartabull three-run dinger. Everybody in the Yankees lineup got at least one hit except for none other than (you guessed it) Mel Hall.
Forty-year-old Mike Flanagan, who won the 1979 Cy Young Award and was a member of a number of Earl Weaver's great Baltimore pitching staffs, retired the only batter he faced in the eighth before yielding to closer Gregg Olson. Olson retired all four batters he faced (including three on strikes) in securing his 19th save of the season.
With that, we had seen the final game of our trip. But the trip was still not over; there were adventures yet to be had in the next couple days...
Miles driven today: 257 miles
Total miles driven: 2,639 miles
Click here for the next day's post. Click here for the previous day's post. Click here to see an index of posts in this series.
At the home of Eric's friend from Northwestern, Corey Perman.
Part of our pre-game prep was a trip to the Inner Harbor.
HR:
R Milligan (7, off S Hillegas; 6th inn, 0 on, 0 outs to Deep LF-CF);
C Ripken (8, off S Hillegas; 5th inn, 0 on, 2 outs to Deep LF);
M Devereaux (10, off J Johnson; 2nd inn, 3 on, 2 outs to Deep LF).
HBP:
B Ripken (3, by J Johnson).
TB: M Devereaux 6;
C Ripken 6; R Milligan 4; B Anderson 2;
C Hoiles; L Gomez; B Ripken; D Segui; G Davis.
GIDP: D Segui (2).
RBI: M Devereaux 4 (40);
D Segui 2 (11); B Anderson (43);
C Ripken (34); R Milligan (28); B Ripken (15).
2-out RBI: M Devereaux 4;
D Segui 2; B Ripken; C Ripken; B Anderson.
Team LOB: 8.
With RISP: 4 for 12.
FIELDING
DP: 1. M Devereaux-B Ripken-R Milligan.
E: M Devereaux (2); L Gomez (3).
BASERUNNING
PO: B Anderson (1st base by S Hillegas).
PITCHING
New York YankeesIPHRERBBSOHRERABFPit-StrGB-FBGmScIR-IS
