Exactly 30 years ago today, the Baltimore Orioles played a day game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Memorial Stadium, in front of 35,804 depressed fans. Why were they depressed? Jim Palmer, then 37 years old, was terrible that day, giving up seven runs (six earned) in just over one inning. His performance was absolutely abysmal, facing 12 batters and only getting 4 outs (plus, he made an error).
The Brewers lineup was pretty stacked, especially at the top, with Paul Molitor, Jim Gantner, Robin Yount, Cecil Cooper and Ted Simmons. Lucky for Baltimore, Dan Morogiello came in for 6 2/3 solid innings of relief, holding the Brew Crew to five hits and no runs.
By the bottom of the seventh, things didn’t look good, as the O’s were still down 7-2. Probably half the stadium had already left, many heading back to their homes outside Washington to beat the traffic. But, sadly, they missed one of the greatest comebacks of that year.
In the bottom of the 8th, the O’s scored six runs to put us on top 9-7 after a grand-slam by Eddie Murray. An amazing comeback! Except, in the top of the ninth, the Brewers scored, to make it 9-8. Closer, Tippy Martinez took the mound from Tim Stoddard to shut them down, when light-hitting pinch hitter Mark Brouhard hit a game-tying home run. We went into the bottom of the 9th with the score 9-9.
Pete Ladd was on the hill for Milwaukee facing hometown boy, rookie catcher John Stefero. Glenn Gulliver was on second when Stefero lined one to right fielder Charlie Moore. The lead-footed Gulliver chugged his way around third to score the winning run. O’s win!
Also, that happened to be the day when the Orioles set an attendance record of 1,811,520 fans (crazy that was a record right?).
Stefero is still in the area, working at Brown’s Automotive Group in Glen Burnie.
I’d like to thank GoDCer Marty for tipping me off to this day in history. Check out the box score here. Today, we play the Red Sox … WILD CARD! Let’s go O’s!
