THE KIDDIE CORPS | bmoresportsnest

1960 BALTIMORE ORIOLES--THE KIDDIE CORPS

An influx of young talent brings winning baseball to Baltimore

by Rick Benson

The 1960 season was a pivotal one for the Baltimore Orioles. The New York Yankees had a stranglehold on the American League pennant; winning nine of the last eleven. Loaded with stars like Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto made rooting for the Yankees like rooting for Apple. Meanwhile, the Orioles were still trying to shed their previous losing ways that followed them from St. Louis as the Browns prior to their arrival in 1954.

Led by catcher Gus Triandos, the team’s first star player, the Orioles were slowly building a solid team with a group of youngsters who were elevating Baltimore to contender status. In particular were several young pitchers like Milt Pappas, Steve Barber, Chuck Estrada and Jerry Walker who were affectionately dubbed “The Kiddie Corps.” The young guns mixed with veterans Hoyt Wilhelm and Hal “Skinny” Brown to begin building the Orioles tradition of pitching excellence that would continue for the next twenty plus years.

Pappas was considered the ace of the staff and logged a 15-11 mark with a 3.37 ERA. But the big story from the starting staff was Estrada, who led the O’s with an 18-11 record and 144 strikeouts; which earned him The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year honors. Estrada and his blazing fastball made such an impression around the league that the front office was getting several inquiries about possible trades; including one from the San Francisco Giants who were offering their All-Star outfielder Felipe Alou. Four other Baltimore hurlers finished the season with double-digit wins: Jack Fisher (12) Brown (12), Wilhelm (11) and Barber (10). The staff ERA of 3.52 tied the Yankees for tops in the American League and their 48 complete games were a league best.

Triandos described what made the staff effective in John Eisenberg's, "From 33rd Street to Camden Yards: An Oral History of the Baltimore Orioles."
"The young guys didn't spot pitches; they just wound up and threw good stuff," said Triandos. "They didn't work on things. They just called a fastball and zinged it. You knew they'd be somewhere around the plate. They had good stuff, had good control. And then when Wilhelm relieved with the knuckler, it was tough on hitters."

In addition to Triandos, the starting lineup was also bolstered by a mix of veterans like Gene Woodling and Jackie Brandt; along with rookies Ron Hansen and Jim Gentile and an up and coming superstar named Brooks Robinson. Gentile clubbed 21 home runs and led the Orioles with 98 RBIs and a .294 batting average. Robinson drove in 88 runs and flashed his defensive brilliance at third base while finishing third in the league MVP voting. But the big story in Baltimore was Hansen, who led the team with 22 home runs along with 86 RBI to secure the 1960 Rookie of the Year honors. Gentile and Estrada finished tied for second in the rookie honors.

The Orioles finished the season with their first winning record at 89-65. They were within two games of first place late into September, but the Yankees went on a season ending tear to take the pennant by eight games. Baltimore’s breakout success earned Paul Richards the Manager of the Year award. The Orioles were no longer the hapless team formerly known as the St. Louis Browns. The Oriole Way was on its way.

Kiddie Corps of 1960

A season with untested players took the Orioles to the brink of a championship by John Eisenberg

With four starting pitchers aged 22 or younger and rookies playing first base, second base and shortstop, the Orioles were unlikely contenders in 1960, their seventh season in Baltimore. But they had their first winning season and contended for a pennant, chasing the Yankees until the season's final weeks. The Orioles would experience many championship seasons in the coming years, but few were as surprising or enjoyable as the 1960 season.

The club's stable of young pitchers was the talk of the major leagues. Chuck Estrada, a rookie, won 18 games. Milt Pappas won 15; Jack Fisher won 12. Steve Barber, jumping all the way from the Class D minors, won 10. Veterans Skinny Brown and Hoyt Wilhelm backed them up with spot starts and solid relief work, combining for 23 wins. Overall, Orioles pitchers led the American League in complete games and tied for the lowest ERA.

Lee MacPhail (general manager): "It was after the All-Star Game in '59 that we decided we were going to go with younger players. It was a joint decision between myself and [manager] Paul [Richards]. We were going with the kids. It was time. Practically everyone on the team was younger than 30. And so many fine, young pitchers. If they had an arm, Paul was all for bringing them up."

Jerry Walker: "I was the Opening Day starter, but I think I went about eight or 10 starts before I got a decision. I wasn't pitching that well. Fisher and Pappas and Barber and Estrada were. Barber threw a heavy, sinking fastball and was just wild enough to be effective. Estrada threw a high fastball. Pappas threw sinkers. Fisher threw more conventionally, with a big curveball. I was somewhere in between. We had an interesting group of young arms."

Jackie Brandt: "Barber threw a shot put. Estrada threw the hardest. Pappas was slider, slider, slider. Fisher's fastball wasn't too much, but he had a grinding curveball. Walker tricked you."

Ron Hansen: "Barber threw awfully hard and never straight. I mean, he had great movement. Guys hated to hit against him because he was a little bit wild. Guys wouldn't really want to stand in there because he would throw so hard."

Steve Barber: "That spring I got timed as the fastest pitcher in the major leagues. I hadn't even thrown a pitch yet. This [newspaper] Sunday supplement set up the thing for an article. They used a high-speed camera and got a panoramic view and computed it mathematically. They'd already timed Bob Turley, and someone said, `You better go time that new left-hander with the Orioles.' That's how I got included. They did six of us. Turned out I was the fastest at 95.5 mph. Don Drysdale was just behind me, and Sandy Koufax was right after him."

Boog Powell: "Barber was incredible when he was young. He had probably the best stuff of all of them. Very intimidating. No one wanted to stand in there on him. And Pappas was no slouch. When he wanted to pitch, he was one of the best you ever saw. Fastball, slider, bang, bang, inside, outside."

Gus Triandos: "The young guys didn't spot pitches; they just wound up and threw good stuff. They didn't work on things. They just called a fastball and zinged it. You knew they'd be somewhere around the plate. They had good stuff, had good control. And then when Wilhelm relieved with the knuckler, it was tough on the hitters."

The everyday lineup was overhauled almost completely from '59. Jim Gentile, a slugger who had languished in the Dodgers' minor league system for seven years, unable to supplant Gil Hodges, took over for Bob Boyd at first base. Marv Breeding and Ron Hansen, products of the Orioles' minor league system, replaced Billy Gardner, Chico Carrasquel and Willy Miranda in the middle infield. The new centerfielder was Jackie Brandt, a fleet, natural talent acquired from the Giants after he won a Gold Glove in right field in '59. He would become a popular, eccentric fixture; teammates called him "Flakey," for the way things seemed to flake off his mind and disappear.

Jim Gentile: "The Orioles traded for me, and I came to spring training [in '60] on a look-see basis. They paid $50,000 for me and gave up Willy Miranda, and I went to them on a 30-day look-see. If I didn't make it, I went back to the Dodgers and the Dodgers got $25,000 back. I'd run out of options with the Dodgers. It wasn't a good situation, and I wasn't happy about it. I'd been in the minors forever. My [minors] numbers were huge, but I couldn't even get a cup of coffee [in the majors]. When I got to the Orioles, they had a ton of first basemen in camp. And I couldn't hit a beach ball. I don't think I hit .100 that spring."

Boog Powell: "I hit .350 that spring, and Gentile didn't do much. I was just 18, but I said, `Well, maybe they're going to take me.' I was down there working. I mean, I was the first one to get there and the last one to leave. I'd catch ground balls till whoever was hitting 'em just said they couldn't hit any more.

"One day Richards had the great idea of taking the pitching machine out to the outfield corner and aiming the throws in the dirt and having the first basemen scoop the balls out. He got us out there against the concrete wall, and it was dry and dusty, and they racked that thing up with seventy balls and fired 'em at us at, like, eighty-five miles per hour. And the ones you missed would hit the wall and come back and hit you in the [rear] or upside the head. Richards never showed a lot of emotion, but he was smiling that day.

"Near the end of camp Paul called me in and said, `Son, I'd really like to take you with us, but you're too young. You're doing good, but I'm just afraid you'd be in over your head up here on a day-to-day basis.' There wasn't much I could say. It just wasn't quite time yet."

Jim Gentile: "On the last day Richards called me in and sat me down and said, `Son, you can't be as bad as you look. Your stats in the minors are tremendous. I'm going to give you 150 to 200 at-bats. I'm going to bat you against right-handers every chance I get. If you hit for me in the first 30 days, you're my first baseman. I said, `That's all I've ever asked for in seven years.' We went to the team luncheon the day before Opening Day, and everyone was asking what the lineup was, and Richards had me hitting fifth. I think everybody was stunned, even the other players. And then on Opening Day I went one for four against Washington and some guy wrote, `Gentile surprised 45,000 people by getting a hit.' Then we had a day off and went to Washington, and I hit two homers and drove in five runs."

Ron Hansen: "The shortstop job was pretty much mine from the beginning. My job to lose. I'd been up a bit in the prior two years, and Willy Miranda had really helped me a lot. Willy was really good. He showed me some little things. I was there to take his job, but I guess he felt he was at the latter part of his career. He was very good to me. Then, fortunately, I started out the ['60] season real good, hit real well for the first month, and played very well for the whole first half. Made the All-Star team and everything. I kind of slumped in the second half but still played every day."

Holdovers in the lineup included rightfielder Gene Woodling, catcher Gus Triandos, and Brooks Robinson, finally ready at third after five years of seasoning. Joe Ginsberg was the backup catcher early in the season, but with Triandos and Ginsberg struggling to handle Wilhelm's knuckleball, the club traded for Clint "Scrap Iron" Courtney, the Orioles' original catcher in '54, now 33 and near the end of his career. Courtney, another eccentric who used a Cadillac instead of a pickup truck to tend to his Louisiana farm, was an old-school character, who lightened up the mood in the young clubhouse.

Jim Gentile: "Triandos took me under his wing. He was from San Francisco, like I was. I'd wait for him to ask me to go to dinner. He'd take me to Eddie Condon's and the Copa, different places, show me around. A hell of a guy. We didn't go out all the time because Gus was more of a loner. I didn't know anything, and I didn't want to run around that much until I learned how. Then I ran around too much. But Wilhelm was driving Gus nuts. It was tough. He tried, but nobody had a knuckleball like that. So they went and got Clint Courtney. Clint was lower to the ground. Ol' Scrap Iron, he'd get back there with that big glove on, and he'd just pounce on it."

Steve Barber: "Richards loved Courtney. One of Clint's duties was to shag Paul's golf balls. They'd go out wherever the team was, and Paul would hit golf balls, and Clint would shag them. Courtney and Hoyt roomed together. Hoyt liked to go out and have dinner and then come back to the room and go to bed. Courtney stayed out later. So early in the season, Hoyt would come back, turn off the heat, open all the windows, and take all the blankets off Courtney's bed and put them on his. Then Courtney would come in a few hours later and pass out. He'd wake up in the morning and he was freezing."

Jackie Brandt: "Now, Courtney was a goofy guy. They thought I was goofy. One time we were in New York, bases loaded, last inning, and Courtney goes to Richards and says, `Give me a bat and get me in there, Skip; I can get that run in.' Richards says, `That's a left-handed pitcher out there, and you're left-handed.' Courtney goes, `I don't care; I can get that run in for you, Skip.' So Richards goes, `OK, get a bat.' First pitch comes in, and he just sticks his head over the plate and gets whopped. Right on the head. Guy comes in and scores. Clint comes back and says, `I told you I'd get that run in.' "

Ron Hansen: "One day Courtney ordered a Cadillac from Johnnie's Used Cars - a new Cadillac. Went over and picked it up one hot day in July when it was 100 degrees. Brought the car to the ballpark, and when he came in the clubhouse he was soaking wet and water was running off him. Somebody asked him what was the matter. He said, `Well, I went over to pick up my car, and those dummies forgot to put the handles on the windows.' He had electric windows and didn't know it. Had air-conditioning and didn't know it. He was driving around with the windows up."

Although the club hit only .253 overall, there was enough production to keep the Orioles in contention. Gentile was a surprise, delivering 21 homers and 98 RBI in only 384 at-bats, with Richards using him strictly against right-handers. Hansen also delivered more than expected, his 22 homers and 86 RBI serving as a revelation for a team accustomed to minimal production at shortstop. Brandt had 15 homers and 65 RBI, and Woodling hit .283 with 11 homers and 62 RBI. Triandos, fighting a hand injury and Wilhelm's knuckler, produced less than fans were accustomed to seeing, and he drew boos.

The biggest offensive surprise was Robinson, previously overmatched against major league pitching. Playing every day, he hit .294 with 14 homers and 88 RBI, and despite a lack of speed, he was on base enough to lead the club with 74 runs scored. With that production added to his flawless defense, he was "discovered" as one of the game's top young players.

Jim Gentile: "First game I ever played with him at third, the ball was hit a little to his right. I ran to first base, turned around and there [the ball] was. He just fired it. I got in the dugout and said, `Gimme a minute, Brooks; let me get there.' He wasn't fast, but three feet to the right, three feet to the left, there was nobody faster. His reactions were like a cat. I mean, if anything was hit you'd better be there on first base because it was coming."

Ron Hansen: "He didn't have a very good arm. I used to yell `tag up,' because it looked like a sacrifice fly when he threw to first base. He'd laugh. We'd always kid about this or that. But he just had that instinct and those great, quick, soft hands. Nothing ever popped out of his glove. His initial movements were good. Laterally he was good. Below average speed. If I were scouting him today, I'd say, `below average arm, below average speed, not a great body. But great hands and instincts.' Nowadays a lot of people wouldn't sign a kid like that. But it was different then. Teams signed guys more on ability than tools. Today, we get out the radar gun and you have to throw 90 mph or you don't get signed. Or you have to run to first in under four seconds. But how many Brooks Robinsons would you miss if you just signed guys with speed?

"Brooks and myself and Chuck Estrada and Skinny Brown lived together that year. We stayed at a place, a family's house over near the stadium. The four of us lived there with a family that took us in. Skinny was kind of our mentor. Chuck and Brooks and myself were younger, and Chuck and I were new to the major leagues, so this was a new experience. Skinny looked out for us, kept us out of trouble. We'd walk to the park. There was a little place down on Greenmount Avenue called the Run In, just a little hole in the wall, but we'd go down there every morning and eat. Most of the time it was the four of us. We'd eat breakfast or a late lunch, and we'd go to the ballpark. We'd walk. Then after the game we'd walk back."

Fans began to realize something special was happening in early June, when the Orioles swept three games from the Yankees at Memorial Stadium to complete a run of 11 wins in 13 games. A Sunday crowd of 42,755 loosed a roar when Woodling hit an eighth-inning homer to give the Orioles the sweep. It was their thirteenth come-from-behind win of the season, and their eighth winning rally in the last three innings. They were in first place, two games ahead of a pack of contenders.

The euphoria quickly faded with four straight losses to the Tigers, and a later slump dropped them to fourth at the All-Star break. But instead of their usual slow fade, they got hot again. By mid-August they were tied for first with the White Sox. The Kiddie Corps took over after that with a remarkable run of eight complete-game wins in eleven days. The streak culminated with a three-game sweep of the Yankees at Memorial Stadium in early September. Pappas threw a shutout to beat Orioles nemesis Whitey Ford in the opener before 44,518 fans, and then Fisher, in the middle of a run of 29 consecutive scoreless innings, pitched another shutout the next day. Estrada completed the sweep with a 6-2 win in the finale. The Orioles were in first place with 22 games to go.

Ron Hansen: "The Yankees came in to Baltimore in early September, and we beat them three in a row, and the city really went wild for the first time. Everybody was really hyped about us maybe winning the pennant. The hype was more with the people in the city than the team, although we felt good about ourselves. We felt like we had a good team and we could beat [the Yankees] and win the pennant."

A mild stagger (four wins in nine games) ensued, leaving the Orioles .001 percentage points behind the Yankees heading into a showdown in New York. The veteran Yankees, accustomed to such pressures, delivered a knockout punch, sweeping the four games by a total of eight runs. Ford beat Barber 4-2 in the opener, and the Yankees then won on Saturday and swept a Sunday doubleheader in front of 53,000 fans, with Ralph Terry beating Pappas 2-0 in the finale. The Yankees wound up winning the pennant by eight gamess: "We didn't have any doubt that we could go up there and win, but they got us. I pitched the last game, and if I'd pitched any of the other three games, I would have won. We scored two or more runs in all those games except that one. But losing four just destroyed us. I mean, we threw our best at their best. The Yankees were such a dominant team. They'd beat you 2-0; they'd beat you 5-3; they'd beat you 10-9. Whatever it took, they beat you."

Steve Barber: "I pitched the first game. A Friday night. Hung a curveball to Hector Lopez. He inside-outed it right down the right-field line, right at the foul pole, and Jackie Brandt ran over to catch it, and someone grabbed his hands and pulled them back, and the ball went over the fence. If the guy hadn't interfered, Jackie would have caught it. It was a close game. They all were. We just lost 'em."

Jim Gentile: "We thought we had a chance, especially after beating them three in a row in Baltimore. The team was really up. We had good heads on our shoulders. But I don't think we had the kind of leadership that the Orioles got when Frank Robinson got there in 1966. I don't think we had what you'd call a team leader. We didn't have anybody get up in the middle of the dressing room and make speeches or anything like that."

"Skinny" Brown: "It was disappointing. We'd had some success earlier in the season with Wilhelm and myself pitching against the Yankees. But when we went up to New York [Richards] pitched the young blood, and we lost four in a row. You've got to go with your best at the end of the year."

Brooks Robinson: "I guess we were a little nonchalant about the whole thing, figuring, `Well, we can do it.' And the reason I say that is because when the season was all over, we didn't think much about it - at least I didn't. We'd had a real good year, our first good year, and we felt there were more good things to come. And I mean, the Yankees were supposed to win. They were the kings at that time, and we didn't feel bad. We felt like, `Well, you know, there's next year.'"

Ron Hansen: "I was in the service when they called me and told me that I'd been selected Rookie of the Year. That was great. I'd have to say it was my favorite year in my career, because I was young; I was a kid, and everything was exciting. I mean, I was starstruck when we went into Yankee Stadium, the monuments in center field, playing against Mickey Mantle, hitting against Whitey Ford. I was in a world I never imagined I'd be in, so it was great. We had a lot of young guys on the team that year who probably felt the same way."