Opening Day: Time for The Brooks Robinson Show
by Matthew Taylor
There must've been something about home openers for Brooks Robinson, especially when those openers fell on April 10.
April 10, 1968 - Brooks hits his third straight Opening Day home run in a 3-1 win over Oakland. Brooks finishes the day 1-for-4 with the eighth-inning round tripper being his only hit for the day. Tom Phoebus gets the win for the Birds; he would finish 15-15 during the 1968 season. Eddie Watt records the save, his first of 11 on the year. The streak of opening day homers ends for Brooks in 1969 as he records an o-fer in a 5-4 loss to the Red Sox.
April 10, 1970 - Brooks drives in Frank Robinson in the bottom of the 10th inning for a 3-2 win over the Tigers. The victory is part of a five-game Birds win streak out of the gate that kicks off the 1970 championship season in style. Brooks finishes the day 3-for-4 with a walk and the aforementioned RBI. Thirty-nine-year-old Dick Hall picks up the win after pitching four strong shutout innings that see him give up only two hits, no walks, and strike out four.
The '98 season started with an Opening Day loss, but things got better quickly
by Matthew Taylor
Monday's loss to Tampa Bay ended a seven-game Opening Day win streak for the Birds. In fact, the O's had won eight of their previous 10 openers headed into the 2008 season. The good news is that in the game following those two Opening Day losses since '98 the Orioles recovered with a victory, beating the Cleveland Indians in Game 2 during the 2000 season and Kansas City in the second game of the 1998 season. The latter game, in which the Orioles defeated the Royals 10-1, was an historic one on multiple counts.
Here's what happened on April 1, 1998:
-Scott Erickson's complete game, one-run performance earned him career victory No. 100. Erickson struck out five and walked one.
-Cal hit the eighth grand slam of his career, a first-inning shot, while Lenny "The ball tipped his bat" Webster enjoyed his first-ever two-homer game as a big leaguer.
-And Ray Miller notched his first victory as O's manager, his first overall victory since 1986 when he was with the Minnesota Twins.
By Matthew Taylor
March 18, 1999 - Eddie Clarence Murray joined former GM Frank Cashen as the newest inductees to the Orioles Hall of Fame.
Murray batted .294 with 343 home runs during more than 12 seasons with the Birds. He hit career home run No. 500 at Camden Yards in 1996 after returning to Baltimore in a trade with Cleveland for Kent Mercker.
The switch-hitting Murray was the American League Rookie of the Year with the Birds in 1977, won a World Series with the team in 1983, and made it to the All-Star Game eight times (seven with the O's). Murray hit a home run in his last at-bat as an Oriole, in the 8th inning of the 1996 ALCS.
Murray finished his 21-year career with a .287 batting average, 504 home runs, and 1,917 RBIs. He retired as one of only three players (Willie Mays and Hank Aaron are the others) with 3,000 career hits and 500 career home runs. Rafael Palmeiro has since matched the feat. Murray is the only one of the group to get his 3,000th hit before his 500th home run.
Eddie Murray was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003.
Cashen was with the Orioles from 1966 to 1978. He is perhaps best known as one of the guys who hired Oriole and National Baseball Hall of Famer Earl Weaver.
"It took a lot of guts," Weaver said during his own Cooperstown induction speech. "If they knew how nervous I was, they might have had second thoughts."
