Aug. 14, 1964 - The Orioles came from behind again to beat the Yankees today at Memorial Stadium, 5-4, and underneath the outward claim of “We’ll play them one at a time,” the Baltimore players were nursing forbidden thoughts of a pennant. Of course, that feeling was there before the Orioles won the game. It’s been that kind of season for them.
In today’s contest, Brooks Robinson hit a three-run homer that turned a 2-1 Yankee advantage into a 4-2 Baltimore lead in the sixth, and the Birds held on to win.
In the locker room afterward, Robin Roberts was thinking about the kick it would be if he could pitch in another World Series in Philadelphia after 13 seasons. “Wonderful,” he said. “Wouldn’t that be something?”
A few feet away, Harvey Haddix, who had stopped the Yankees with the bases loaded in relief of Steve Barber in the seventh, was comparing the fastball with which he struck out Tom Tresh with the best he’d every thrown — and he’s 37. He was even thinking how he would have liked to pitch to Mickey Mantle with two on in the seventh before manager Hank Bauer ordered the intentional walk. That with 47,424, the largest Baltimore crowd ever, in the house.
“A relief pitcher wants to pitch to all of them,” said Bauer afterward. “They think it’s a challenge. I played with Mickey too damn long.”
The fantasy in the Yankee clubhouse was all cold reality. It may have been the most important defeat they’ve suffered since 1959, and there was a collection of players in the trainers’ room nursing various aches and pains.
Manager Yogi Berra sat with a dab of shaving cream on his left ear lobe, another on his left temple, and a line of cream down his right cheek. “What you want to know? Five to four,” he said. That was about all he could say. He had made one important move, the logical one, and the game had come apart under his hand.
Berra had called for tall, recently sore-armed lefty Steve Hamilton to relieve Roland Sheldon in the sixth with two out and the Yanks a run ahead. Sheldon had walked Norm Siebern, and then Hamilton had walked Boog Powell and threw the wrong slider to Robinson with two balls and no strikes.
“That’s the longest I ever stared at a man running out a home run,” said the Yankee pitcher. “It seemed like an hour.”
It seemed like more than that to Robinson. “I have those [pennant] fantasies all the time,” he admitted. “It would be a great thing for this town. It’d be the greatest thing for me.”
“I don’t think about the pennant,” Bauer insisted. “Not yet. It’s too far away. I think we got a good chance. Better than last week.”
Then he smiled.
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