1937 Baltimore Orioles and History

It has often been said that history repeats itself. What has happened will happen again.

The 1937 Baltimore Orioles played in the Triple A International League consisting of eight teams. The cream of the league, the Newark Bears, the top farm club of the New York Yankees (who else), won the championship year after year by an overwhelming margin. There was a good reason for this. During this period, players were permitted to be kept in the minor leagues indefinitely as opposed to today when they must be advanced to the major leagues within a definite period or be lost to the parent club. How could the Newark Bears’ catchers, Buddy Rosar and Willard Hershberger, oust a future Hall of Famer like Bill Dickey? So they remained with the Newark Bears whose roster contained many such players.

On July 4, 1937, the Baltimore Orioles languished in last place. The manager, Guy Sturdy was fired and Bucky Crouse, the catcher, was appointed manager. The Orioles caught fire! By the end of the season, they had risen to fourth place. The post season in the International league consisted of seven game series between the first place and fourth place teams, and between the second place and third place teams. The winners of these series would play a seven game series for the championship. The Orioles played the Bears.

I wish that I could write a Cinderella ending, but it didn’t happen. The Bears beat the Orioles, four games to three and went on to win the championship.

In 2010, the Baltimore Orioles are in last place. They have just fired their manager and installed Juan Samuels as their new manager. Suddenly they have caught fire, winning five out of the last seven games. Could history repeat itself seventy-three years later? Scary, isn’t it?