Matthew Monday: The 40th Anniversary of the 1983 World Series Champions

On August 5^th, Matthew and I traveled down to Baltimore to an Orioles game.  I specifically wanted to go on this day for two reasons. 

First, it was famed Orioles player and inductee of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Eddie Murray’s bobble head doll night.  I wanted one!  After Brooks Robinson, Eddie Murray is my all-time favorite Orioles.  I remember him as a rookie in 1977, when he won American League Rookie of the Year award, and he went on to have an incredible career.  He was the backbone of the team from that 1977 season to their World Series win in 1983 to his ultimately being traded in 1988.  Steady Eddie, quiet Eddie Murray, he was humble, hardworking and unassuming.  Besides his great baseball statistics, it was his quiet strength that always appealed to me the most.

The second reason for going to that particular game was because it was a commemoration for the 40^th anniversary of the Orioles last World Series win in 1983.  That was the last of a great series of years for the Orioles that spanned my youth.  I became an Orioles fan as an seven year old in 1970.  In 1983 I was 21 during the baseball season, and it was the most glorious of Orioles seasons.  After 1983, the team fell apart, management was horrible, and except for a couple of notable years where they made the playoffs, the Orioles were mostly not a competitive team.  (Until this year, but that is for the future to work out still.)  With the culmination of the World Series win in 1983, baseball for me would never quite be the same. 

So on August 5^th, with every living player who was announced at the anniversary, tears would quell in my eyes until they actually streamed down.  I loved those players.  They were like family. 

Here’s a news clip from CBS News, Baltimore.

 

In that 1983 World Series, in the final game, Eddie hit two homers, and here are clips of them.

 

Here are some pictures I took from the 40^th anniversary ceremony.  I’ve got pictures of everyone, but I’ll spare you to just a couple.  Eddie Murray being introduced.

Rick Dempsey, the team’s catcher, the MVP of that World Series, and team clown here leading the fans in the Orioles chant from that year, a bodily representation of each letter of O-R-I-O-L-E-S.  I think he is spelling “R” here.

And here is the entire team.

A picture of Matthew and me with the beautiful Camden Yards ballpark in the background.

And finally a picture of the Eddie Murray bobble head doll.