Saturday August 6 vs the Brewers

Opponent: Milwaukee Brewers
Outcome: W
Score: 7-2
Streak: W1
Record: 37-72
Rank: 7th
GB: 29

The Brewers took an early lead this evening on a two RBI single from BJ Surhoff in the second inning but that was all the runs they would score.  The Orioles tied the game in the third on a two run home run from Brady Anderson, his first career home run and the first of the 209 he would hit as an Oriole*.  The Birds took the lead in the sixth on an RBI double from Jim Traber and extended the lead in the seventh on a three run home run from Eddie Murray, his 20th of the season.  They got one more run in the eighth on a Joe Orsulak RBI double.

*Of those 209 home runs, nearly a quarter of them came when he hit 50 in 1996.  That 50 was more than twice his second highest total - 24 in 1999.  

I spent this evening in Hagerstown, Maryland, home of the Orioles Single A Carolina League affiliate the Suns.  It was only the fourth minor league game I'd ever been to.  Previously I had gone to a San Jose Bees-Fresno Giants double header in 1976 when I lived in Cupertino, California and was 11 years old and I had gone to a Charlotte O's game the previous year in 1987 when I had visited one of my sisters who lived in Charlotte.  Hagerstown was taking on the Lynchburg Red Sox that evening and I had a great time at the game, enjoying the closeness to the game at very inexpensive prices.  I don't remember a lot from the game itself.  I know I spent a while talking to a reporter for a newspaper in Georgia - he wasn't writing a story, he just happened to be in town.  I do remember that I saw Don Buford, Jr - son of former Oriole Don Buford Sr and brother of future Oriole Damon Buford - steal two bases - one on a pick off and the other on a pitch out.  Don Jr. never made the majors.  The Orioles GM Roland Hemond was at the game that night to check out Gregg Olson, Baltimore's number one pick in June's amateur draft.  Olson got the save by pitching a perfect ninth so I do remember that the Suns won the game.  The Orioles would be moving their Carolina League team to Frederick and moving their Double A team to Hagerstown and the Eastern League for the 1989 season.  For me this was ideal as from my apartment in Ellicott City just west of Baltimore I could be in Frederick almost as quickly as I could get to Memorial Stadium.  I started going to a lot of minor league games over the next few years.