For Surprising Orioles, the Kids Are All Right

At the moment, the Baltimore Orioles have four recognized starting pitchers. Three of them are rookies and the other is in his first full major-league season.

In the bullpen, their closing reliever is another rookie who is only 14 months removed from the Southeastern Conference. Has any team since Abner Doubleday first hollered “Play Ball” ever employed so many inexperienced arms in the midst of a pennant race?

“Not in my time,” said Sparky Anderson, the Detroit manager who goes back a few decades and has been through a few of these things before. “Anybody that had that many rookies had at least two big guys at the top. I mean two hammers.”

Frank Robinson, Anderson’s counterpart with the Orioles who goes back almost as far, can’t think of a comparison either. “I can’t remember anybody starting three rookies and bringing another one out of the bullpen,” he admitted.

Does he give it any thought? “Not until somebody brings it up,” he said.

Tuesday night was a good night to bring it up, because Bob Milacki, one of the three rookie starters along with Pete Harnisch and Dave Johnson, had just pitched a magnificent three-hitter to beat the Tigers, 2-0.

“You can’t even get mad over that game,” said Anderson, who was visibly disturbed over his team’s 4-1 loss in 10 innings the night before. “For us to win that game (Tuesday night) it was going to take luck. He (Milacki) would have had to be an awfully unfortunate kid to lose that one.”

During the last few months Milacki has, at times, been very unfortunate. At other times he’s been, well, he’s been a rookie. Nobody understands it better than Robinson.

“He’s pitched a lot of games like that one that we haven’t won, either because we didn’t get him out in time, or because we let them get away,” said Robinson. “Other times we’ve gotten him some runs and he hasn’t been able to make them hold up.”

Those things don’t necessarily happen just to rookies, but they get magnified whenever they do. And that the Orioles will be relying on young pitchers down the stretch is going to be a heavily debated subject until the race is decided.

Whether the Orioles can survive is the unfinished part of the drama that 1989 has produced. As far as Anderson is concerned, the final result is academic.

“I think, personally, it is great for baseball,” Anderson said of the Orioles’ unprecedented turnaround from last year. “It proves to all of us that we shouldn’t be afraid of kids. They’re better than we give them credit for being.

“You could even say that goes for life itself,” said Anderson. “Kids are marvelous -- we just don’t give them enough credit.

“You can’t pull for anybody in something like this (the division race), because that’s all you’d need is to get somebody mad at you. But, if you can’t have some feeling for people who have come from where they’ve been, then I don’t know.

“The thing is, they are having fun playing the game. If they don’t win it, who in the hell will care?” asked Anderson, realizing that isn’t a sentiment to be shared in the opposite clubhouse. “They’ve already had a great experience. It’s been a great experience for the city of Baltimore, after what they’ve been through the last five years.”

Sparky won’t hazard a guess as to whether the Orioles can win the American League East, but he says there is more to the team that is leading the chase than most people realize. “They have two great leaders on the field,” said Anderson, “and you’re going to laugh when I tell you one of them.

“The shortstop (Cal Ripken) everybody knows is a great leader,” said Anderson. “He controls everything that goes on out there. He controls all of the action.

“But, do you know who the other leader is?” asked Anderson, who didn’t wait for a reply. “The second baseman (Bill Ripken).

“Did you see him in the ninth inning (after Dave Bergman’s two-out single brought the tying run to the plate)? He went in to the pitcher, banged him on the butt with his glove, and I guarantee you he was telling him ‘get this guy out.’

“Did you see the double play he made (in the seventh inning, with runners on first and third and one out)? He might be the best defensive second baseman in the American League. He’s a tough little ... , and he’s a leader.

“They may have three rookie starters and a rookie in the bullpen (Gregg Olson), but they have people out there who can make plays,” said Anderson. “They’ve got an outstanding third baseman (Craig Worthington), I like Bob Melvin behind the plate because he catches a good game and he’s a good thrower, and I really like their outfield now.

“Realistically, when you have two teams within 2 1/2 games, that’s a 1-out-of-3 chance,” Anderson said of the Orioles and their possibilities for survival. “But think about it -- 107 losses one year and 1-out-of-3 the next. Isn’t that something? It could end right now, and they’ve had a great year.”

However, it isn’t going to end for another 6 1/2 weeks. And the three rookie starters, plus the one in the bullpen, are writing their own intriguing saga.

Right now it is the story within The Story.