Every successful team boasts at least one jack-of-all-trades utility man – a guy who a manager can feel comfortable penciling in to play multiple positions when one of the regulars was hurt, in a slump of just need a day off. Back in the 1920s, a good utility man was often the difference between the pennant and a second-place finish. Wade Lefler was the 1921 Orioles’ ultimate utility player. […]
Jimmy Lyston had been around the Baltimore Orioles for many years, at times a bat boy and later moving up to peanut vendor and finally part of the groundskeeping crew. When Orioles owner-manager Jack Dunn saw the peppery 18 year-old groundskeeper fielding balls during batting practice, he signed him to a contract for the 1921 season. […]
I was marveling at the staggering records the Baltimore pitching staff racked up during 1919-1925: Grove had seasons of 25, 18, 27 and 26 wins, Jack Ogden had his 31 in ’21, Tommy Thomas won 32 in another, then of course there was Jack Bentley with his .412, Triple Crown season while also leading the league in pitching winning percentage – and then I saw the name Harry Frank. […]
Of all the players on the 1921 Orioles, Jack Bentley was the undisputed favorite. All but forgotten today, back in the early 1920s Baltimore Bentley was a flapper-era rock star. […]
Built along the lines of a football player and the exact opposite of the skinny Lefty Grove, Tommy Thomas was the 1921 Orioles third starter. In his first season with Baltimore, Thomas would win 24 games for the pennant-bound Birds. […]
Before he was the ace of the legendary 1929-31 Philadelphia A’s and one of the most dominating southpaw in major league history, Lefty Grove was a 3-time 20 game winner for Jack Dunn’s Baltimore Orioles. […]
The 1921 edition of the Baltimore Orioles boasted no less than four major league-quality starters, three of which would each post 30-win seasons in Baltimore. All four would go on to pitch in the majors and one would wind up with a plaque in Cooperstown. The undisputed ace of the ’21 club was right-hander Jack Ogden who would re-write the International League record books that summer. […]
Catching was always the weak link in Jack Dunn’s seven consecutive pennant winning teams. The 1921 team had Babe Ruth’s first catcher from 1914, Ben Egan, but he was 37 and injury prone. One of the young prospects recruited by Dunn was Baltimore sandlot star Calvin “Ducky” Davis. […]
Orioles owner-manager Jack Dunn maintained a vast local web of scouts that scoured everywhere from dusty Baltimore sandlots to prestigious Maryland universities. One of the gems that the scouts discovered was Dick Porter, a hard-hitting versatile infielder and outfielder who would spend eight years as one of the Orioles key members. […]
The way a typical Orioles inning went in 1921 was the number one and two hitters, Maisel and Lawry, would get themselves on base, and use their speed to swipe an extra base and get into scoring position. The consummate contact hitter Merwin Jacobson would advance the runner. Then Big Bill would come to bat, ready to slug them all home… […]