Friday, September 22, 2006

The Day that Bumblebee Went for Three

On this date in Orioles history, courtesy of my handy desk calendar ...

Sept. 22, 1973

"American League Rookie of the Year Al Bumbry joins roughly three dozen major leaguers in the 20th century who have hit three triples in a game, leading the Orioles to a 7-1 win over Milwaukee as they clinch the AL East title. In a strange coincidence, Bumbry is the fourth player to accomplish the feat on this exact date, following Mike Donlin of the Reds in 1903, Les Bell of the Cardinals in 1926 and Earle Combs of the Yankees in 1927."


More on Al Bumbry

This from Baseball Reference, including one erroneous statistic about the O's club record for steals. George Sisler (St. Louis Browns) and Brady Anderson stole more bases than Bumbry during their respective careers:

"The speedy Bumbry stole 254 bases during his career and set the Orioles' record with 252 lifetime. With 1403 Oriole hits, he left among the Birds' top five all-time. In 1973, he was the AL Rookie of the Year as he batted .337, and in 1980 became the first Oriole to get 200 hits in a season. The good defensive outfielder won a Bronze Star in Vietnam."

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