Why Not, Indeed

Looking Back

20 Years Ago, Orioles Took Unforgettable Pennant Race To Wire

The day began 20 years ago with overcast skies and wisps of fog, a Friday.

Despite the fact that the weekend is not expected to brighten, Baltimore baseball fans bask in a warm glow that has been building since April.

Their team, the American League cellar-dweller just a year earlier, has a chance to win the pennant. Just one game back of the Toronto Blue Jays with three to play, the Orioles need a sweep at SkyDome to make everyone forget about the previous season, the one that began with 21 losses and ended with 107.

"From the beginning, everybody figured they didn't have a chance," recalls Peter Angelos, still nearly four years away from becoming the owner. "But before you knew it, they were in the thick of it and almost made it."

Their assets? A legitimate star, Cal Ripken Jr., and a supporting cast of characters with an average salary of $324,000. A manager, Frank Robinson, who as one of the most feared hitters of his era dared pitchers to knock him down. And a region of believers who ask, "Why Not?"

"When an underdog stays in the mix, the longer you keep him in the mix, the more he believes and the more the fan base believes," says Bill Ripken, the second baseman. "I believe everyone on the club believed, 'Somebody's got to win, why not us?' "

After the season, Moss Klein marvels in The Sporting News: "How they managed to go so far is a complete mystery."

Maybe. But on Sept. 29, 1989, the Baltimore players and their fans know their fate boils down to one stark mathematical statement: One-hundred fifty-nine games down, three to go. Snatch all three, and the Orioles secure a place in the playoffs. Win two, and it's back to Baltimore for a one-game showdown at Memorial Stadium.

"I'd rather be in Toronto's position, but I'll take where we are," Robinson says. "I know five other ballclubs who would like to be where we are."

No one can foresee the Birds dropping the first two games, falling three runs short, when their bullpen can't stop Toronto's hitters. Still, the "Why Not?" Orioles end the season with a win - Ben McDonald's first - and remain in this era of diminished expectations one of the most exciting teams in the region's rich sports history.

On that final weekend in Toronto, Jays fans are plenty nervous. Despite wresting first place from the Orioles in early September, the team can't seem to get Baltimore off its rear bumper.

The Birds are loose. They aren't supposed to be here. They are nobodies.

"It just seemed like another two out of three we had to go out and win," Bill Ripken recalls.

"SkyDome had just opened up, and a young group of guys - Curt Schilling, Ben McDonald, Pete Harnisch and Steve Finley - were just trying to get our feet wet all at the same time," McDonald remembers. "I'm just about three months out of college ball and never played before more than about 12,000 people and come from a hometown of 18,000 people. All of the sudden at 21 years old I'm in the big leagues, I'm in the middle of a pennant race and experiencing 50,000 people in SkyDome. I was like a kid in a candy store. My eyes were as big as saucers."

The pitching matchups are Todd Stottlemyre (7-7) vs. Jeff Ballard (18-8), Jimmy Key (13-14) vs. Harnisch (5-9) and Jose Nunez (0-0) vs. Bob Milacki (14-12).

In the first game, the Orioles score one run in the first inning on a Phil Bradley home run, a score that holds until the eighth, when Toronto puts one on the scoreboard. In the 11th inning, Toronto pushes another run across. The Orioles' margin for error is gone.

"Nothing changed. The game was over, and we just said, 'We need to win these next two and we've got it,' " Bill Ripken says. "We actually looked at it like we're going to bring it back to Baltimore and win this."

Walking across railroad tracks on his way back to the hotel Friday night, Harnisch punctures his foot on a nail.

"If Harnisch don't step on that nail, who knows?" says catcher Chris Hoiles, a late-season call-up. "Don't get me wrong, Dave Johnson fills in and pitches a great game, but when something like that happens, it does something to you."

Loser of five straight, Johnson will pitch on three days' rest.

The Jays strike early with a run in the first, but Johnson steadies.

"I was smart enough to realize after about the second inning that you couldn't hit a ball out of that ballpark, with the dome open and the wind swirling, with a cannon. So I was throwing fastball after fastball right down the middle saying, 'Fellas, see how far you can hit it,' and they did, but they couldn't hit it out," says Johnson.

The Orioles answer with two in the third and one in the fourth. Johnson pitches seven innings, giving up two runs on two hits. But Toronto comes up three eighth-inning runs, and the Orioles have no answer in the ninth. Sadly, Baltimore fans have the answer to "Why Not? "

"Our magic dust ran out," says Bill Ripken. "Cinderella's slipper fell off at midnight and hit us."