Originally Posted by MS Fowler

The great O's teams were based on 2 rather simple premises, -1 "Pitching and Defense". You don't need to score a ton of runs if the other teams can't score any. ( Come to think of it--that works in football, too...) and 2- develop a good farm system and teach one way to perform every fundamental. Paul Richards, the first manager 1954-, came up with that winning formula; it just took over a decade to fully implement and then see the results. It was called "The Oriole Way".

Then the O's got stupid and figured scoring a lot of runs was easier and cheaper than "The Oriole Way". Years of frustration for the fans and poor performance by the Birds of Baltimore resulted from that mental error. A return to the old ways is finally showing some results, but the Owner is a real miser, and the O's now operate like an NFL team with a salary cap.

Gus Triandos also died this year. I pass by his old neighborhood, where they named his street in his honor decades ago almost every day. Gus first used the giant mitt to try and corral Hoyt Wilhelm's knuckle ball. No one knew where that was going once it left his hand. The big mitt gave Gus at least a chance to swat the ball to the ground.
Boog, Brooks, Apparicio, Belanger, and a few good pitchers. Has any other team team ever had 4 pitchers with 20+ wins each in the same season? They will all be passing on soon.
Baseball on the radio on a summer afternoon, or evening while lying on the grass in the shade of some big trees. It was a good childhood.
Thank You Paul Blair, and all the others.