1973 Baltimore Orioles: 97-65, 8 up

The O’s won 97 games in 1973 and took the AL East crown by a hearty 8 games.  By mid May the team was 17-19 languishing in the middle of the pack.  Then like all Earl Weaver teams, they hit there stride and never looked back.  By mid September the had a double digit lead with neither Boston, nor Detroit able to muster up any challenge.  This was not your typical “sit back and wait for the 3 run homer” Earl Weaver team.  Instead they relied on the stolen base as 8 players finished in double figures for theft.  What might shock most folks was the fact that Don Baylor (32) had the most on the team.  Even 34 year old DH Tommy Davis swiped 11.  As usual the pitching was stellar.  Jim Palmer (22-9, 2.40) won his first of 3 Cy Young awards in 1973.  Mike Cuellar (18-13, 3.27) and Dave McNally (17-17, 3.21) were coming to the end of their great run, but they still had enough left in the tank to back up Palmer in the rotation.  22 year old Doyle Alexander (12-8, 3.86) won in double digits for the first time in his young career.  No one saved more than 9 games for Weaver, who relied heavily on his starters.  Grant Jackson was 8-0 with a 1.90 ERA as Weaver’s lefty closer.  Bob Reynolds (7-5, 1.95) was the righty closer.

The O’s had the misfortune of running into the defending champion A’s in the ALCS.  Oakland was in the midst of 3 straight World Championships, but they still needed all 5 games to get by Baltimore, who some felt was a stronger team on paper despite the fact that the A’s had three 20 game winners (Hunter, Blue & Holtzman).

Mark Nixon, a resident of Charm City and a lifelong O’s fan will return to pilot the team.  Mark is hot off his runner up finish in the 2014-15 sixty four team Holiday Festival Tournament.

There were 15 useable cards from the original set.  I replaced the Earl Williams, which was a horrible airbrush job and the Palmer (grainy).  I added 20 new cards (see below) to finish off the set.  Many of the pictures came from Jeff D’s (Kraveheart) 1973 series.  I modified his format into the traditional 1973 format.