Jun 15 2006 08:33 PM
Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jun 15 2006 09:08 PM
So its time for the Charm City Nine to play ball here in New York.
Baltimore, or [url=http://www.ci.baltimore.md.us/]Bawlmer[/url] as they say down there. The home of Edgar Allen Poe, the home of a truly underrated TV Cop dramas of the 1990’s, [url=http://www.tv.com/homicide-life-on-the-street/show/110/summary.html?q=HOMICIDE&tag=search_results;title;3]Homicide: Life On The Street (NBC)[/url] which was filmed in Baltimore.
The home of the NFL’s [url=http://baltimoreravens.com]Baltimore Ravens[/url], and the home of the Baltimore Orioles.
A year ago the O’s were the surprise story of the first half. Even led the AL East for a while, and were making a strong case for the AL East to FINALLY be a three-way battle as opposed to the two way Yankee-Red Sox tango it’s been since 1998, ironically the year things fell apart for the Davey Johnson Orioles who went Back-to-Back postseason appearances and were the last non-Yankee team to win the AL East (1997), and the last time a non-Yankee or Red Sox team made the postseason out of the AL East.
But the Palmerio scandal, some bad pitching and zero help from Sammy Sosa led the 2005 Orioles to end rather badly, nearly losing 90 games, and they created a situation where the Toronto Blue Jays have taken the mantle of the third team going up against the Big Two in the AL East!
2006 has continued that slide, even the hiring of Leo Mazzone from the Braves has not helped the Oriole staff. While the Blue Jays are in fact nipping at the Yankees and Red Sox, the O’s are very glad the Devil Rays are as bad as they are. Nothing like being a middle of the road team, not good enough to hang with the Big Dogs of the division and not bad enough to challenge 100 losses. The O’s now stand at 30-38, after being swept in Toronto and are about 9 games off of the pace, sitting in fourth in the AL East. 3-7 in their last ten, and 11-21 on the road this year.
And who are the 2006 Baltimore Orioles? They are Managed and General Managed by former Mets, ex coach
(Sam Perlozzo
1987-1989) and former GM Jim Duquette (6/12/2003-9/30/04) respectively and the current roster is:
Offensive stats are Batting Average, HR and RBI and pitching is just Win-Loss and ERA
1B Kevin Millar
(.247 6 30)
Continuing to try to find the magic he had during his Cowboy Up years with the Red Sox
2B Brian Roberts
(.308 0 22)
Becoming one of the brightest stars in the game
3B Melvin Mora
(.285 8 32)
One of the more recent ones that got away and while David Wright and Jose Reyes have softened that particular blow, it still is a major blight on the record of Steve Phillips and that particular era
SS Miguel Tejada
(.333 16 52)
Fingered by Canseco as being “interested” and ratted by Palmerio, still is producing and considered one of the best in the game
LF Jeff Conine
(.236 5 18)
Mr. Marlin who was a part of both Marlin championship clubs in his second tour of duty as an Oriole. Also was a Royal twice! Wonder how many players can say they played two or more stints (not counting being on the farm or DL for an entire season) with 2 or more teams. Starting in place of Jay Gibbons who is on the DL
CF Corey Patterson
(.289 7 24)
Ex-Cub rising star, is doing better than the last ex-Cub outfielder that the O’s acquired!
RF Nick Markakis
(.221 2 16)
Rookie up with the big club.
C Ramon Hernandez
(.292 10 49)
One of the two guys we were looking into if we didn’t decide to make the Lo Duca deal.
DH Javier Lopez
(.273 5 22)
Ex Brave, is DHing and catching as the Jay Gibbons injury has the O’s lineup a bit chaotic with Millar at First and Conine in Left
On the Bench, INFs
Brandon Fahey
(.255 2 13) and
Ed Rogers
(.231 0 1) along with
Outfielder Luis Matos.
(.196 2 5)
Injured positioners are
Gibbons
(.274 10 29) on the 15, OF/DH, who believe it or not REINJURED his knee the day he came OFF the DL on Tuesday night!
David Newhan
(.265 2 7) on the 60, and back up Utility guy
Chris Gomez
(.222 1 4) also on the 60 day.
Starting Rotation is:
Erik Bedard
(5-6 5.69) who goes Friday night against Alay Soler
Kris Benson
(7-5 4.63) who returns to Shea Saturday against Pedro Martinez
Adam Loewen
(0-1 7.84) who may pitch Sunday against Tom Glavine, but because he has spit the bit this year, might be pulled.
Rodrigo Lopez
(4-7 6.85)
Daniel Cabrera
(4-3 4.17)
The Bullpen Corps:
Chris Ray
(1-2 3.29), the official closer of the O’s with 16 saves
Kurt Birkins
(2-0 0.86)
Chris Britton
(0-1 2.95)
Bruce Chen
(0-6 7.33)
LaTroy Hawkins
(1-1 3.82)
John Halama
(3-1 6.14)
Sandy Rleal
(1-1 3.23)
Todd Williams
(1-2 4.21)
Injured O Hurlers are
Reliever
Tim Byrdak
(1-0 18.00) on the 60, and three guys who haven’t hurled a 2006 pitch yet:
John Parrish (15 day)
Hayden Penn (15 day)
Aaron Rakers (60 day)
Ex-Factor:
Ex Mets of course are Melvin Mora, 
Kris Benson 
and Bruce Chen 
Ex Orioles are the injured John Maine
and the newest Met Eli Marrero
Histrionics:
We start the Mets-O’s History lesson with the 1966 Birds. Led by the Baby Birds, young hurlers up from the system, the Orioles swept the Dodgers in the World Series. It looked like the start of a dynasty in the making, but the O’s fell to 7th the next year, and finished 2nd behind the Tigers in 1968.
Enter Earl Weaver!
All that changed with the start of Divisional Play, the Orioles under Weaver were a fine oiled machine. Within the next 9 years the Orioles won the AL East 6 times, with a championship crescendo coming in the Orioles’ Tom Seaver, Jim Palmer’s final full season of 1983. In that stretch (1969-1983) they wound up second 6 other times. While like the Tony LaRussa A’s and the Davey Johnson Mets these O’s come up short with total rings, but 3 (66, 70 and 83) championships, 6 AL (66, 69-71, 79, 83) pennants, 7 (66, 69-71, 73-74, 79 and 83) first place finishes and 7 (68, 75-77, 80, 81 first half, 82) runner up finishes should put those O’s in the conversation of dominant teams of all time.
However 1969 just was not their year.
109 wins and a sweep of the Twins in the very first ALCS made them the prohibitive favorite in the World Series against the upstart Mets. They even drew first blood against the Mets’ stud ace pitcher Tom Seaver in Game 1.
Of course if you are reading this, you should know the rest of the story! Long story short; Clendenon homer wins Game 2 in Baltimore, Mets get to Palmer early in Game 3 and some great defensive gems save the Mets bacon in Game 3, Seaver wins his only WS game in Game 4 on J.C. Martin’s sac bunt, and Jerry Koosman hurls a 5 hit 3 run complete game to win the World Series. Donn Clendenon’s 3 homers and 4 RBIs earned him the MVP.
For more on that World Series, here is the links to the Ultimate Mets Database pages on that series:
BoxScore10/11/69 L Baltimore Orioles 4, Mets 1 Seaver (L, 0-1) .
BoxScore10/12/69 W Mets 2, Baltimore Orioles 1 Koosman (W, 1-0) .
BoxScore10/14/69 W Mets 5, Baltimore Orioles 0 Gentry (W, 1-0) .
BoxScore10/15/69 W Mets 2, Baltimore Orioles 1 Seaver (W, 1-1) 10 innings
BoxScore10/16/69 W Mets 5, Baltimore Orioles 3 Koosman (W, 2-0) .
Since then, the Mets-Orioles history has been only tenuously intertwined. The only “rivalry” to speak of could be the Franchise vs Franchise, Tom Seaver vs Jim Palmer argument as the pair racked up great years throughout the 1970’s including 3 Cy Young awards each, (Seaver in 69, 73 and 75, Palmer in 73, 75 and 76) and even shared a Sports Illustrated cover! 
In 1973 and 1975 the pair became the first to win the CYs in two separate years, since duplicated by Roger Clemens and Tom Glavine (1991 and 1998) and Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson (1999 and 2000).
Mets have had an interesting trading history with the Orioles, here thanks to Ultimate Mets Database
New York Mets traded Hobie Landrith to the Baltimore Orioles for Marv Throneberry on May 9, 1962.
Mets trade their first player ever selected for essentially the first Met personality.
New York Mets purchased Bob Johnson and John Miller from the Baltimore Orioles on May 10, 1967
New York Mets signed free agent Elliott Maddox of the Baltimore Orioles on November 30, 1977.
Baltimore Orioles signed Ray Knight of the New York Mets as a free agent on February 12, 1987.
While I’ll take what Howard Johnson would give us over a declining Ray Knight, this really was not a well received transaction.
New York Mets traded Doug Sisk to the Baltimore Orioles for Blaine Beatty and Greg Talmantez on December 7, 1987.
Heh, I guess the Mets have a long history of trading away unwanted and unloved short relievers for warm bodies! How do they do it?
New York Mets signed free agent Jeff McKnight of the Baltimore Orioles on December 20, 1991.
JD and MBTN crew have the O’s to thank for being the team we McKnight-mare bounced back to us from!
Baltimore Orioles signed Sid Fernandez of the New York Mets as a free agent on November 22, 1993
New York Mets traded Kevin Baez and Tom Wegmann to the Baltimore Orioles for David Segui on March 27, 1994.
New York Mets traded Bobby Bonilla and Jimmy Williams to the Baltimore Orioles for Alex Ochoa and Damon Buford on July 28, 1995.
Ugh. Bonilla for a “5 Tool” guy and the son of Don Buford. Ochoa was involved in the three way that gave us Jeromy Burnitz Part II and sent Benny Agbayani and Todd Zeile on their way.
New York Mets traded Hector Ramirez to the Baltimore Orioles for Manny Alexander and Scott McClain on March 22, 1997.
Baltimore Orioles claimed Charlie Greene of the New York Mets on waivers on September 11, 1997.
Baltimore Orioles claimed Rich Becker of the New York Mets on waivers on June 16, 1998.
New York Mets traded Charles Johnson to the Baltimore Orioles for Armando Benitez on December 1, 1998.
Part of the mega Todd Hundley trade. As “bad” in the clutch as Armando was, the Mets really never had a lights out regular closer (Myers was part of a tandem) until Billy Wagner. Autumn baseball failures aside, hard to say this was anything but one of the great trades in team history.
New York Mets traded Chuck McElroy to the Baltimore Orioles for Jesse Orosco on December 10, 1999.
Jesse was turned around for Joe McEwing. Kind of got pissed at the organization because of it, and we assigned McEwing 47, guess he’s over it now as he threw out the Opening Day pitch this year, I guess also having a Hall of Famer to be as the current 47 is also part of that as well!
New York Mets traded Melvin Mora, Mike Kinkade, Pat Gorman and Lesli Brea to the Baltimore Orioles for Mike Bordick on July 28, 2000
Baltimore Orioles signed Mike Bordick of the New York Mets as a free agent on December 20, 2000.
Easily the one of the worst time frames in Met history in terms of a bad deal gone horribly wrong. Should also add the date Alex Rodriguez signed with the Texas Rangers as that was pretty much why the trade was done. The Mets need a quick end of year stop gap, they did not want Rey Ordonez back period, Bordick was awful but teams have made the World Series with worse shortstops (Rafael Santana for example) The Mets were going to go after Alex Rodriguez and try to resign Mike Hampton. None of those things happen and we end up with Steve Traschel and Kevin Appier. (who turned into Mo Vaughn) Oh yeah, and Melvin Mora becomes one of the best hitters in the AL!
New York Mets traded Gary Matthews to the Baltimore Orioles for John Bale on April 3, 2002.
New York Mets traded Karim Garcia to the Baltimore Orioles for Mike DeJean on July 19, 2004.
New York Mets traded Kris Benson to the Baltimore Orioles for Jorge Julio and John Maine on January 21, 2006.
And finally Benson for Julio that now looks like Benson for El Duque. I’d wait a long while to put a final verdict on this one.
Now, who have played for both the Mets and O’s? Well here we go also thanks to Ultimate Mets Database:
Player Mets Orioles
Don Aase 1989 1985 - 1988
For a short while one of the top relievers in the game
Manny Alexander 1997 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996
Roberto Alomar 2002, 2003 1996 - 1998
With the O’s continued his run as the games best 2Bmen, as a Met started decline
Benny Ayala 1974, 1976 1979 -1984
Bob Bailor 1981 – 1983 1975, 1976
James Baldwin 2004 2005
Kevin Bass 1992 1995
Rich Becker 1998 1998
Armando Benitez 1999 - 2003 1994 - 1998
Kris Benson 2004 - 2005 2006
Bobby Bonilla 1992 - 1995, 1999 1995, 1996
Mike Bordick 2000 1997 - 2000, 2001, 2002
Damon Buford 1995 1993 -1995
Bruce Chen 2001, 2002 2004 -2006
Tommy Davis 1967 1972 – 1975
Mike DeJean 2004, 2005 2004
Jim Dwyer 1976 1981 -1988
Scott Erickson 2004 1995 - 2002
Chuck Estrada 1967 1960 -1964
Sid Fernandez 1984 - 1993 1994, 1995
Jack Fisher 1964 - 1967 1959 - 1962
Brook Fordyce 1995 2001 - 2003
Dave Gallagher 1992, 1993 1990
Karim Garcia 2004 2000, 2004
Joe Ginsberg 1962 1956 - 1960
Charlie Greene 1996 1997, 1998
Pete Harnisch 1995 - 1997 1988 - 1990
Keith Hughes 1990 1988
Stan Jefferson 1986 1989, 1990
Bob Johnson 1967 1963 - 1967
Jorge Julio 2006 2001 - 2005
Mike Kinkade 1998 - 2000 2000, 2001
Ray Knight 1984 - 1986 1987
Hobie Landrith 1962 1962, 1963
Aaron Ledesma 1995 1997
Luis Lopez 1997 - 1999 2002, 2004
Elliott Maddox 1978 - 1980 1977
John Maine 2006 2004, 2005
Jim Marshall 1962 1958
Gary Matthews 2002 2002,-2003
Roger McDowell 1985 - 1989 1996
Chuck McElroy 1999 2000, 2001
Ryan McGuire 2000 2002
Jeff McKnight 1989, 1992 - 1994 1990, 1991
Dyar Miller 1980, 1981 1975 – 1977
Randy Milligan 1987 1989 - 1992
John Mitchell 1986 - 1989 1990
Melvin Mora 1999, 2000 2000 - 2006
Eddie Murray 1992, 1993 1977 - 1988, 1996
One of the underrated greats in the games history. Was a productive Met despite being a symbol of the “Worst Team Money Can Buy’s” attitude towards others
Randy Myers 1985 - 1989 1996, 1997
Joe Nolan 1972 1982 - 1985
Tom O'Malley 1989, 1990 1985, 1986
Jesse Orosco 1979, 1981 - 1987 1995 - 1999
Can you believe that the Davey Johnson led Baltimore Orioles of 1996-1997 had a bullpen featuring 3 ex-Mets (McDowell, Myers, Orosco) and 1 future Met (Benitez)? Weird.
Joe Orsulak 1993 - 1995 1988 - 1992
John Pacella 1977, 1979, 1980 1984
Steve Reed 2002 2005
David Segui 1994, 1995 1990 - 1993, 2001 - 2004
Bill Short 1968 1962, 1966
Ken Singleton 1970, 1971 1975 - 1984
Probably along with Amos Otis and Nolan Ryan the three biggest “Ones that got away” that Met fans STILL agonize over
Doug Sisk 1982 - 1987 1988
Pete Smith 1994 1998
Tony Tarasco 2002 1996, 1997
Forever known for being the guy that Jeffrey Maier robbed on Derek Jeter’s homer, off of Armando Benitez!
Marv Throneberry 1962, 1963 1961, 1962
Mike Torrez 1983, 1984 1975
Mickey Weston 1993 1989, 1990
Gene Woodling 1962 1955, 1958 - 1960
Todd Zeile 2000, 2001, 2004 1996
Since InterLeague play began in 1997, the Mets and Orioles have played 16 times, and almost as if the Baseball Karma Gods are keeping the Mets nearly spotless against the O’s since winning the final 4 games of the 1969 World Series. 11-5 with the last series being in 2001. That includes a 4 and 1 record at Shea, 8 and 1 if you want to add Games 3, 4 and 5 of the 1969 World Series!
1997 in Baltimore:
BoxScore08/29/97 L Baltimore Orioles 4, Mets 3 Franco (L, 4-2) 12 innings
BoxScore08/30/97 W Mets 13, Baltimore Orioles 6 Bohanon (W, 4-3) .
BoxScore08/31/97 W Mets 4, Baltimore Orioles 1 Reed (W, 11-8) .
1998 in Baltimore
BoxScore06/22/98 L Baltimore Orioles 7, Mets 2 Jones (L, 6-4) .
BoxScore06/23/98 W Mets 6, Baltimore Orioles 3 Hudek (W, 1-4) .
1998 at Shea, first games for the O’s at Shea since October of 1969
BoxScore06/24/98 W Mets 6, Baltimore Orioles 3 Reed (W, 9-4) .
BoxScore06/25/98 W Mets 3, Baltimore Orioles 2 Cook (W, 3-2)
1999 in Baltimore
BoxScore07/18/99 W Mets 8, Baltimore Orioles 6 Yoshii (W, 7-7) .
BoxScore07/19/99 W Mets 4, Baltimore Orioles 1 Dotel (W, 2-1) .
BoxScore07/20/99 L Baltimore Orioles 4, Mets 1 Leiter (L, 8-7)
2000 back at Shea
BoxScore06/05/00 L Baltimore Orioles 4, Mets 2 Hampton (L, 6-5) .
BoxScore06/07/00 W Mets 11, Baltimore Orioles 3 Mahomes (W, 2-1) .
BoxScore06/08/00 W Mets 8, Baltimore Orioles 7 Cook (W, 5-2)
2001 in Baltimore
BoxScore06/12/01 W Mets 10, Baltimore Orioles 3 Reed (W, 7-2) .
BoxScore06/13/01 W Mets 7, Baltimore Orioles 6 Franco (W, 3-1) 10 innings
BoxScore06/14/01 L Baltimore Orioles 5, Mets 2 Trachsel (L, 1-8)
Now to wrap up this edition of KTE, lets go back to the 1969 series, and what better way than to do it with a song parody…
We got our first Series ring
Got it just before we turned nine
Shea rocked till fan’s ears bled
It was summer of '69
Buddy, Cleon, Grote and Kranepool
Hit well and played real hard
Seaver never quit and Koosman was steady
We should have known we'd go pretty far
Oh when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Ya I'd always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life
We did some good ball playin'
A lot better than it was in ‘62
Spent that October in celebration
And we beat the mighty Orioles too!
It was like watching the moon launch
Mets fans thought this feeling would last forever
Oh and as soon as the ball fell in Cleon’s hand
Thanks to the Franchise Seaver
Those were the best days of my life
Back in Summer of '69
Man they were a great nine
We were young and restless
But teams tend to unwind
I guess nothin' can last forever, forever no
And now the times are changin'
Look at everything that's come and gone
Sometimes when see that old ring
I think about and wonder what went wrong
It was like watching the moon launch
Mets fans thought this feeling would last forever
Oh but as soon as the ball fell in Cleon’s hand
Thanks to the Franchise Seaver 
Those were the best days of my life
Back in summer of '69
Sorry about the mess, something is wrong with the table code that I am using
