It?s been 25 years, but some of them look as if they can still play.
Tito Landrum launched two baseballs into the upper deck from field level behind home plate. Scott McGregor threw the ceremonial first pitch to Rick Dempsey, and it looked like the left-hander could go all nine innings Wednesday night. And then there was Cal Ripken, just seven years removed from calling Oriole Park at Camden Yards home.
As the Orioles celebrated the 25th anniversary of the 1983 World Series Championship Wednesday, two things were apparent: the 22 players in attendance love one another, and they love the game of baseball.
“We all had a mindset that was kind of just, as one,” Ken Singleton said. “Even to this day, let?s play the Phillies again right now. We?d beat them.”
The Oriole Way in 1983 was a business-like approach. The club was built around homegrown talent like Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray, with some trade recipients ? like Dempsey and McGregor ? mixed in.
But the resounding theme on the ?83 club was simple: don?t let the failures of 1982 rob them of their destiny.
“After ?82, we knew we were going to win,” Murray said. “All we had to do was go through the 162, because we were going to be there.”
The Orioles fell one game short in 1982, losing to the Milwaukee Brewers on the final day of the season to narrowly miss the playoffs. Ripken remembers the spring training of his eventual MVP season as being very serious.
“I think going into spring training, it was all a lot more businesslike,” said Ripken, whose catch of a Gary Maddox line drive clinched the series-winning Game 5 at Philadelphia?s Veterans Stadium. “We weren?t going to get off to a bad start, so we got off to a pretty good start and we just kept rolling from that point. We weren?t going to let it go to the last day of the season.”
While the ?83 Champs were honored on the field, the current Orioles prepared to play Toronto, with both teams in throw-back uniforms from the year current Orioles Nick Markakis, Radhames Liz and Garrett Olson were born.
Dempsey ? the World Series MVP ? said if the Orioles have plans to win again soon, it will be done completely differently than it was in 1983.
“You?re never going to see it again,” Dempsey said. “They have to find their own way.”
