Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the most bizarre baseball game i ever attended!

[Journeyman]

Yes its been 20 years ...My gosh it was in the Baltimore Sun yesterday....

This game was between the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto two heated rivals back in 1983, Toronto with Lloyd Moseby, and Jessie Barfield, Dave Collins, George Bell, Cliff Johnson , it was that era of Blue Jays...Baltimore had guys like Singleton, Murray, Ripken , Bumbry, Lowenstein and the likes....Well as alot of games did that year this one ended very dramatically!

The Orioles trailed most of the night, (I believe it was a wednesday night game if I`m not mistaken) me and my brother were in the upperdeck behind homeplate, in the late innings Cal Ripken tied the game , I believe it was the 8th inning...Well in the top of the 9th Cliff Johnson homered to give Toronto back the lead

, then in the bottom of the 9th Len Sakata ( Orioles folklore legend ) homered to tie the game back up....

The game goes into extra innings but at this point the ORioles had used all their position players and were caught in a very peculiar situation....Len Sakata a 2nd baseman ended up catching, John Lowenstien an outfielder was moved to 2nd base , and Gary Roenicke was playing 3rd base...HERE`S WHERE THE GAME GETS BIZARRE, IN THE TOP OF THE 11th ALL 3

BLUEJAYS REACH BASE, AND ALL 3

WERE PICKED OFF BY LEFT HANDED RELIEVER TIPPY
MARTINEZ

, thats right he picked off all 3 runners, trying to steal on Sakata, they were all so anxious to run, they forgot to wait til the ball was pitched!!! Bottom of that inning Len Sakata homers again to win the game for Baltimore....

Does anyone recall hearing of this game

 

[Fishhead]

HARDLY!

 

[Journeyman]

Thanks for the reply Struthead

 

[PatrickMcIrish]

Is this a true story Jman? If so that has got to be a record. No way a pitcher has ever picked off all 3 outs in one inning.

If true that would have been one hell of a game.

 

[LogansRun]

Oh those Jays!!!!! It was the three stooges Bonnell, Collins and Upshaw who got picked off by what I am sure was a balk move J-man.

Cliff Johnson was great managerial material. In one game he was on first when the rain really started to come down so there was a long rain delay. When play resumed, he trots out to second but alas was sent back to first.

 

[Chris@OlympicSports]

Boy do I remember that game, it was bizarre and a great win for Baltimore. Those were the days when Toronto was damm loaded and Baltimore was very competitive, nowdays both teams lucky to be .500

 

[PatrickMcIrish]

I have always been an Oriole fan, through the good and the bad. The championships were nice but wore the hat just as proud through the 0-26 start (or whatever it was) as I did when they were on top.

I believe they won more games than anyone else in the decade of the 80's. I won't swear by it but I think that is correct. Or was it the 70's.....?

 

[Fishhead]

Ottosen Orioles??

 

[Journeyman]

Patrick-

YES! It is TRUE, all three runners were picked off first base....I was there it was 20 years ago sunday...TIPPY MARTINEZ was the pitcher, and Len Sakata was catching! 100% true!

 

[Journeyman]

chris..TORONTO WAS LOADED YES, BUT THE ORIOLES WERE THE BEST TEAM IN THE MONSTER EAST DIVISION!

THE VERY NEXT NIGHT THE ORIOLES SHOCKED TORONTO AGAIN , WITH 2 RUNS IN THE 9TH , I WAS THERE AND THE GAME WAS ON OLD USA NETWORK, MOSEBY MADE A LUNGE IN CENTER AND THE BALL GLANCED OFF HIS GLOVE AS BOTH RUNS CAME AROUND TO SCORE!

 

[jateeluv]

Hey Jman, Luis Matos looks like he is going to be an exciting player, but do you think he makes alot of bonehead plays?

He has had a major role in a couple of games in doing bonehead things. I hope he doesn't do that kinda crap when the O's make the playoffs next year

 

[jdodger]

Not as weird, but I remember the Mets (around 1963) went into a very long extra inning game, maybe even 20 innings before the game was over, and started running out of position players.

Willie Mays had to play short stop.

One of May's few highpoints on the Mets - he was sadly well beyond his prime as a Met.

 

[-Slim-]

Journey, why did you stop going to Oriole games? You have many cool stories about the orange birds but nowadays, it seems like you're never there.

 

[12345678]

yes I do remember it ....I didn't know all the details about the position players being moved, but I can still see the highlights of tippy in my head..