Orioles Continue Slide, but Rookie Manager Ripken Not Giving Up

In short, the Baltimore Orioles’ demise this season has been a team effort.

Even Cal Ripken Jr. isn’t helping Cal Ripken Sr. much lately.

Only the Cleveland Indians are a more futile American League team than the Orioles this season. And the Orioles are sinking fast. They carried a seven-game losing streak into Thursday night’s home game against the Toronto Blue Jays, leaders in the AL East.

The once-proud Orioles franchise that produced six pennants in 18 years has fallen on hard times.

The last-place finish of 1986, the first in the club’s 33-year-old history, no longer seems like an aberration.

After bouncing back from an earlier 4-14 slump, the Orioles had also lost 11 of their last 12 and stood in sixth place in the AL East--10 games out of first place and 7 out of last place.

Ripken Sr., in his rookie season as manager, insists that things will be turned around. But even he is aware that he is beginning to sound like a broken record.

“I know the people are getting tired of hearing me say that,” he said after the Orioles were crushed, 15-4, by Boston Wednesday night. “Before long, somebody is going to say, ‘Why don’t you check him to see if he is sane.’ ”

Ripken opened the season with optimism after installing what he said was a new attitude with a revamped roster.

After much shuffling, the current roster includes 13 players who were not on the team at all, or very much last year, including five rookies.

The Orioles have not been able to get a starting pitcher in a trade, and the reliance on young players has exhausted immediate help from the minors. In short, they’re stuck with what they have.

Compounding the problem, from a public relations standpoint, is the club’s woeful 9-19 record at home, worst in the American League.

Fans at Memorial Stadium are becoming impatient and testy. Booing, once a rarity, is becoming more commonplace.

The pitching staff, once the class of baseball, has a 4.76 earned-run average. The bullpen has lost 11 leads, 10 in the seventh inning or later.

Rookie Eric Bell, in his last three starts, has allowed 19 hits and 16 runs in 11 innings.

Ken Dixon has yielded 23 hits and 18 runs in his last 14 innings of relief, Jack O’Connor 12 hits and 11 runs in his last 7, and Tom Niedenfuer has allowed 20 runners in 8 innings.

The Orioles lead the major leagues with 89 homers, accounting for 48% of their runs.

Incredibly, though, the Orioles have gone only 16 for 92 with men in scoring position during their current 12-game slide.

The middle of the batting order, where run-producing punch is expected, has failed miserably of late.

Ripken Jr., despite being among the league leaders in homers and RBIs, has one hit in his last 16 tries with men in scoring position.

Eddie Murray, 3 for 18 in that department, is 4 for 28 overall with one extra base hit in 17 games and has gone nine games without an RBI.

Fred Lynn is 11 for 63 in his last 16 games, including 1 for 9 with men in scoring position. Like Murray, he hasn’t hit a homer since May 22.

Other slumps include Larry Sheets at 3 for 25, Rick Burleson 1 for 15, Alan Wiggins 4 for 39, and Ken Gerhart 13 for 70.

Attendance is down only 20,000 from last year, when a disastrous 14-42 finish kept the total under 2 million for the first time in four seasons.

The real test will come in the next 10 games against AL East opponents Toronto, New York and Detroit.

“When we’re not playing well,” said Lou Michaelson, the club’s executive director of sales and tickets, “it can cost us 6,000 to 8,000 a game in walkup sales. We’ve got lumps in our throats.”

The Orioles are only 72-120 against AL East teams since Sept. 14, 1984, the year the long slide to the bottom began following a World Series championship in 1983.