MLB: Hal Smith Started His "Revenge" Against the New York Yankees in 1955

The Baltimore Orioles started the 1955 season by dropping their first six games, but their seventh game was the charm.

After New York Yankees ace Whitey Ford shut them out at Memorial Stadium, the teams moved to Yankee Stadium for the next two games. Erv Palica, whom the Birds obtained from the Brooklyn Dodgers, held the Yankees to three runs in seven innings. Ray Moore, another former Brooklyn Dodger, finished up with a pair of scoreless innings to seal the 6-3 win.

Catcher Hal Smith, who was among the 18 players that exchanged teams in the enormous winter trade between the Orioles and Yankees, drove in three runs to lead the Baltimore attack against a struggling Bob Grim.

Baseball trades sometimes produces strange results.

Bob Turley and Don Larsen, the two main players the Yankees obtained from the Birds helped the Yankees greatly, especially in the World Series, but Hal Smith, who had a decent career, hurt them as much as Johnny Podres did in 1955, Lew Burdette did in 1957 and Bill Mazeroski did in 1960.

Smith was not happy being traded from the Yankees, but considering that the Yankees had Yogi Berra as their catcher with Elston Howard waiting in the wings, he was not surprised. He took great joy in beating them.

It was Hal Smith who hit a three-run home run in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series that gave the Pittsburgh Pirates a 9-7 lead. The Yankees tied the game the next inning, but everyone knows what happened when Bill Mazeroski swung at Ralph Terry's second pitch of the ninth inning.

Smith did the bulk of the catching in 1955. He batted .271/.318/.373 with four home runs. The only Oriole to reach double figures in home runs was Gus Triandos, who led the Birds with 12.

The Orioles depended too much on other teams' players their first two seasons after leaving St. Louis.. In the win against the Yankees, seven Orioles' players had played for either the Yankees or Brooklyn Dodgers.

Billy Cox, Cal Abrams, Palica and Moore played for Brooklyn while Gene Woodling, Smith, Triandos, and Willie Miranda were former Yankees.

1955 was not a good year for the Orioles. They finished seventh, as they had the previous season, which was their first in Baltimore.

Joe Coleman led the staff with 12 wins, but he led the league with 18 losses. Ray Moore, who started 14 games but pitched primarily out of the bullpen, was 10-10 with a 3.92 ERA. No other pitcher was in double figures in wins.

But the Orioles would improve with time. Before the start of the 1955 season, the Birds drafted an 18-year-old free agent who played third base. He appeared in only six games in 1955, managing a pair of hits in 22 at-bats, but he developed into the greatest defensive third baseman of all time.

Brooks Robinson played for the Orioles until 1977.

Reference:

Yankees lose to orioles. (1955, Apr 21). New York Times (1923-Current File), pp. 38-38. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/113452111?accountid=46260