Baltimore Sports Then and Now

Mark Belanger

The Baltimore Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Week for this week is a former member of the Baltimore Orioles who may not have given the team a significant amount of offensive production, but was one of the best ever at fielding his position.

Mark Belanger was such a valuable player for the Orioles in the late 1960s and 1970s that he knocked a future Hall of Famer out of the Baltimore lineup and twice finished in the top 30 in the American League MVP despite hitting below .230 for the season.
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Gus Triandos

This week’s Baltimore Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Week is the only catcher in Baltimore Orioles history to appear in more than one All-Star game.

Baltimore faithful are hopeful that phenom Matt Wieters will one-day exceed the total of four All-Star selections totaled by Gus Triandos during his tenure with the Orioles.

But for now, Triandos is the most decorated catcher in the history of the Orioles.

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Lee May

Our selection for the Baltimore Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Week is one of the forgotten sluggers of baseball history.

For more than a decade, including six seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, Lee May was one of the most feared sluggers in baseball.

He blasted 20 or more home runs and drove in 80 or more runs for 11 straight seasons while playing for the Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros and then the Orioles. His best season was in 1969 when he hit 38 home runs and drove home 110.

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Jim Parker

In recognition of the Baltimore Ravens signing first round pick Michael Oher to help protect quarterback Joe Flacco, the Baltimore Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Week is a player who spent a decade protecting quarterback Johnny Unitas.

Jim Parker did not miss a game for 10 straight seasons as he helped turn the Baltimore Colts into a perennial NFL Championship contender. The Colts did not have a losing record during his career and claimed back-to-back NFL Championships in 1958 and 1959.

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Dave McNally

Forty years ago this week, our selection for the Baltimore Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Week was completing an amazing run of perfection as a hurler for the Baltimore Orioles.

On July 30, 1969, Dave McNally allowed only two runs in eight innings to improve his record to 15-0 on the season.

He suffered his first loss in a 5-2 game against Minnesota on August 3rd and went on to finish the season with a 20-7 record.

Throughout his entire career with the Orioles, McNally was a steady performer, but never seemed able to firmly grasp the spotlight on a team filled with stars.
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Boog Powell

Each week we will recall the career of a former sports standout for one of the sports teams in Baltimore as the Baltimore Vintage Athlete of the Week. Our first weekly pick is one of the “larger than life” heroes of the great Baltimore Orioles teams of the 1960s and 1970s.

Given the super-sizing of professional baseball players in recent years, a 6-4, 240 pound player may not seem all that special, but in the 1960s and 1970 when most players were shaped like string beans, Boog Powell was hard to miss. With tree trunks for arms that looked even larger when wearing the Orioles tight fitting gray uniform top, Boog Powell spent more than a decade launching mammoth home runs and playing first base for the Baltimore Orioles.
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