Solo Shots: Bob Hale homers off a Hall of Famer

Last week I wrote my first entry for "Solo Shots," an effort to tell the stories of Orioles players since 1954 who finished their careers with one home run while wearing orange and black. Jim Brideweser (1954, 1957) was up first. This week Bob Hale is the focus.

Robert Houston Hale played for the Orioles nearly 20 years before the designated hitter rule went into effect in the American League. Hale is therefore remembered as a pinch hitter and part-time first baseman. He batted in 376 games, but played the field in just 120.

In seven major league seasons with the Orioles, Indians, and Yankees Hale compiled a .273 career average. He batted most in 1956 when he dug in next to home plate 223 times. It was the same year he hit his only home run for the Birds, the first of two career long balls in 670 plate appearances.

Hale homered on July 21, 1956, in a 4-3 loss to the Cleveland Indians at Memorial Stadium. Hale's third-inning solo shot off Hall of Famer Bob Lemon extended an early Orioles lead to 2-0. Nevertheless, Lemon stuck around for all nine innings in Baltimore and earned the 12th of his 20 victories during the 1956 season. It was the seventh and final time in his career that Lemon won 20 or more games. Lemon also led the league in complete games for the fifth and final time of his career.

Lemon allowed an average of 0.6 home runs throughout his 13-year career. Players to never homer off him included Hall of Famers Nellie Fox (150 plate appearances), Enos Slaughter (43), Bobby Doer (41), and Joe DiMaggio (24) as well as All Stars Billy Goodman (109), Harvey Kuenn (78), Dom DiMaggio (68), and Johnny Pesky (65).

Clearly Hale wasn't intimidated by a Hall of Famer, perhaps because he came up with one. Hale played on the 1955 York White Roses team with 18-year-old rookie third baseman Brooks Robinson.

Robinson made his major league debut on Sept. 17, 1955, after batting .331 with 11 home runs in 354 at-bats with York. Hale, 21, got the call earlier in the season after hitting .355 with 12 home runs and eight triples in 248 at-bats. He debuted with the Orioles on July 4, going 1-4 with a walk. Hale recorded his first major league hit off Dean Stone in a 6-2 Orioles victory over the Washington Senators.

Hale's second of two career home runs came in his final season on Sept. 6, 1961. Playing for the Yankees, Hale homered off Baltimore native and University of Maryland graduate Roy Heiser. Heiser, a 19-year-old righty, played three games for the Washington Nationals in 1961.

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Baltimore Orioles

Interesting baseball reading

A few baseball-related items caught my eye today. Each would qualify for the traditional "Thought You Might be Interested in This" e-mail subject line.

-First, b's Matt Vensel looks outside the spotlight - well done - for the story of Orioles bullpen catcher Ronnie Deck. Says Deck: “This is an unreal opportunity. I just want to enjoy every day in the big leagues, work as hard as I can and let that take me where it may.”

With all the griping and bad Orioles news that's out there this summer, it's refreshing to read about a guy who's paid his dues and is relishing a rare opportunity.


-More well-known than Deck is former Voice of the Orioles Jon Miller, who will receive the Ford C. Frick Award during Sunday's Hall of Fame ceremony in Cooperstown. USA Today has the write-up.

The anecdote about Miller asking his wife if she's ever slept with a Hall of Famer is good for a laugh. Meanwhile, this line is good for a sullen sigh:

"Miller's reputation and his knowledge of the game have earned him the right, fans say, to criticize the performance of a player or team — oftentimes his own — even though he never played professionally."

Unfortunately, criticizing a player or team (i.e. doing his job) didn't work out so well for Miller in Baltimore.


-Finally, The Boston Globe has a story on the sale of the Field of Dreams location and its $5.4 million asking price.

If you haven't made the pilgrimage to Dyersville yet - thanks to some awesome planning by my wife, I have - The Voice has some advice for you: "Go the distance."

Done any good baseball-related reading lately? If so, share a link in the Comments section.

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Baltimore Orioles

More bobbleheads, fewer T-Shirts equals Orioles victories

The Orioles defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 11-10 in 13 innings on Tuesday night. Every Orioles win in 2010 is significant, but this one was especially so given that it was the team's first victory on T-Shirt Tuesday.

So far in 2010 the Birds are 1-3 on T-Shirt Tuesdays, 2-1 on Bobblehead Nights, and 1-1 during 2110 Eutaw Street games.

With apologies to my stat-conscience baseball friends for the small sample size, the Orioles clearly need to give away more Bobbleheads at the ballpark. And as you'll see in a moment, the Birds should feature Adam Jones in promotions more often.

The splits for players look like this:

-On T-Shirt Tuesdays, featured batters have gone 1-8 at the plate while featured pitchers have a blown save and no wins.

-On Bobblehead Nights, featured batters not named Nolan Reimold have gone 4-9 at the plate with a home run and 2 RBI.

-During 2110 Eutaw Street games, Nick Markakis and Adam Jones are a combined 2-14.

Adam Jones' struggles during 2110 Eutaw Street games are inconsistent with his otherwise sterling performances on nights when he's the featured player in a promotion. Perhaps he just hates sharing the spotlight.

Jones went 3-5 with a home run and 2 RBI on Adam Jones Mini Bobblehead Night on June 24. Meanwhile, he went 1-2 with a home run on Adam Jones T-Shirt Tuesday on April 15, 2008.

Here's the full promotional rundown:

T-shirt Tuesdays

Matt Wieters - April 13
Rays 8 - Orioles 6
Wieters 0-4, RBI, BB

Brian Matusz - May 11
Mariners 5 - Orioles 1
Matusz (DNP)
Next start - May 15, 7 IP, 7 hits, 6 SO, 4 BB, ND (O's lose 8 -2)

Ty Wiggington - June 22
Marlins 10 - Orioles 4
Wiggington 1-4, R, K

Jason Berken - July 20
Orioles 11 - Rays 10
Berken (BS) IP, H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, K


Bobblehead Nightss

Nolan Reimold Mini Bobblehead - May 26 
A's 6 - Orioles 1
Reimold (DNP, Triple-A Norfolk)

Adam Jones Mini Bobblehead - June 24
Orioles 11 - Marlins 5
Jones 3-5, HR, 2 RBI, 2 K

Matt Wieters Bobblehead - June 30
Orioles 9 - A's 6
Wieters 1-4, K


2110 Eutaw Street

May 16
Indians 5 - Orioles 1
Markakis 0-4, K
Jones 1-4, K

June 27
Orioles 4 - Nationals 3
Markakis 0-3, BB
Jones 1-3, 2B, RBI, R

Upcoming Promotions

Aug. 5  - Nick Markakis Mini Bobblehead

Aug. 7 - Matt Wieters Kids Chest Protector Backpack

Aug. 8 - 2110 Eutaw Street

Sept. 4 - 2110 Eutaw Street

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Markakis leads majors in doubles, ahead of pace for team record

With his two doubles against the Blue Jays on Sunday Nick Markakis took sole possession of the major league lead in the category. Markakis' 31 doubles are two better than the season totals posted thus far by Josh Hamilton and Evan Longoria.

Markakis, one of the Orioles' lone bright spots during a dismal 2010 season, is currently on pace to top Brian Roberts' club record 56 doubles in 2009. Roberts had 30 doubles through 91 games; Markakis has 31 doubles in 91 games.

Roberts has three of the Orioles' highest single-season totals for doubles (50, 51, and 56). Meanwhile, Markakis' career-high 48 doubles in 2008 tie him with Aubrey Huff for the team's seventh-highest single-season total. Teammate Miguel Tejada's 50 doubles in 2005 are tied with Roberts for fourth all-time. 

Cal Ripken Jr.  is the franchise's career leader in doubles with 603 in 21 seasons.

Markakis, 26, currently has 190 career doubles and counting. Roberts had his breakout season for doubles at age 26, hitting 50 to up his career total at the time to 90. Ripken had 211 doubles by age 26.

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Baltimore Orioles

Solo Shots: Saving the best for last - Brideweser swats first home run in final big league season

Cal, Eddie, Boog, Brooks; most Orioles fans recognize the names that sit atop the Orioles' career home run list. Less familiar are Grady, Arnie, Albie, and Vic, four of the 65 players to have hit just one home run during their time in Baltimore.

Fridays are typically reserved for Orioles history on Roar from 34. This week I'm using the occasion to start a new project that shares the stories of those players who, since 1954, made just one trot around the bases for the Birds. These are "Solo Shots."


Jim Brideweser
(1954, 1957)

James Ehrenfeld Brideweser played seven major league seasons, two of them in Baltimore. The six-foot tall shortstop hit one home run in 697 career plate appearances. It happened during his final season in a May 24, 1957 game against the Boston Red Sox at Memorial Stadium.

Batting eighth, Brideweser deposited a fifth-inning offering from Boston starter Frank Sullivan into the stands to give the Orioles a 3-2 lead. Brideweser's three-run shot scored George Kell and Dick Williams and provided Baltimore its only runs of the day. An eighth-inning Red Sox rally gave the visitors a 4-3 victory before 15,970 fans on 33rd Street.

While the newspapers did report Brideweser's first career home run the next day, the real story was Ted Williams, who went 3-for-4 to raise his league-leading average to .417. (Visit the Google News Archive for the May 25, 1957, newspaper report.) Williams held the lead throughout the 1957 season, finishing the year with a .388 average. He lost a tightly contested MVP race to Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees.

Brideweser batted .252 for his career with one home run and 50 RBI. He tallied a .949 career fielding percentage at shortstop (217 games), second base (57 games), and third base (11 games).  His strikeout percentage of 11.2 percent was in line with the MLB average. He put the ball in play 78 percent of the time.

Brideweser is one of four Orioles in the University of Southern California Hall of Fame. Don Buford, Rich Dauer, and Fred Lynn are the others.

[Image source: Baseball Almanac.]

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Baltimore Orioles