Baltimore Orioles – Hansen, Adair and Breeding, Spring Training 1960
Orioles in spring training March 1960 (l-r) Ron Hansen, Jerry Adair, Marv Breeding
Three Baltimore Orioles show off their sliding skills at spring training in 1960, Ron Hansen, Jerry Adair and Marv Breeding.
Hansen didn’t need to practice his sliding – he stole only nine bases in a 15 year career, but led the Orioles in home runs in 1960 with 22 and won the Rookie of the Year Award. When he was playing for the Washington Senators, Hansen turned an unassisted triple play on July 29, 1968 against the Cleveland Indians. It was the first unassisted triple play in the major leagues in 41 years.
I love those vintage flannel uniforms the Orioles are wearing. Marv Breeding may never have been a star player batting .250 over a four year major league career. But that didn’t stop his uniform from being worth a lot of money. Marv Breeding’s 1961 Orioles home uniform jersey recently was sold at auction for $2,032 including the buyers premium.
Jerry Adair was known for his impeccable fielding setting the major league record with 89 consecutive games without an error for a second baseman. He fielded 458 straight chances without a miscue from July 22, 1964 until May 6, 1965. Adair also had one phenomenal day at the plate against the Yankees on August 24, 1962 in a twi-night doubleheader in Baltimore. Adair went 3-for-4 in the first game and 5-for-6 including a double and a triple in the second game as the Orioles swept the Yankees 6-2 and 14-2. That didn’t matter to the Yankees who would go on to win the 1962 pennant and World Series.
What is it like to be a real Orioles fan and appreciate all those old time players? Ryan at The Great Orioles Autograph Project is a huge O’s fan and describes the baseball card project he undertook.
“So as a life long Orioles fan and baseball card/autograph collector, I decided that the logical collection for me would be Orioles autographs on baseball cards. I specifically like having the player sign a card of himself in an Orioles Uniform, but sometimes that isn’t possible, so any card of the player has to do. My eventual goal is to have an autograph of every player to ever wear there Oriole Uniform from 1954-now.”
As of 2015 Ryan has 986 out of a possible 986 Orioles autographs on baseball cards. With new players playing on the Orioles the quest will continue.
