My First Cards

Besides looking like he’s hiding tweety bird in his mouth and hoping you don’t notice, Scott McGregor looks like he couldn’t care what happens, as if success comes so easy to him that nothing bothers him.

The hair underneath the bill of his cap is sweaty, so he obviously was just throwing a few pitches, but still, he looks so carefree and content. I always imagine him thinking that no matter how bad things get, he’s fortunate enough to be one of the few in the major leagues, and be one of the fewer to pitch for a playoff contender and even fewer to pitch himself into the league’s elite hurlers.

Maybe he kept himself grounded that way. Maybe he constantly reminded himself that he’s one of the fortunate few to play in the major leagues and that life could always be much worse.

After all, he was pitching for a team that nearly won the 1979 World Series, finished 2nd in the AL East in 1980 even though they won 100 games, possibly would’ve made the playoffs in 1981 if the strike didn’t hit, and still had all the pieces of the puzzle together. His offense provided him 4.55 runs per 9 innings when he pitched. So even on a bad day, like May 31, 1981, when he gave up 5 runs to the Tigers in 6 IP and loses, life couldn’t be all that bad being Scott McGregor. There was still hope for the next start.

That hope kept the Oriole on the cap happy too. See him smiling? It always smiled back in those days. There were lots of things to smile about, including a young prospect named Cal Ripken Jr making his major league debut. In fact, nice little trivia here… Ripken’s first major league start was during a Scott McGregor start, the 2nd game of a double header on August 12, ’81. The future was starting to look just as bright as the past few years, maybe even brighter.

So when 1982 started, Scott McGregor was poised to be the next great Oriole pitcher in a long line of great Orioles pitchers. The year before, he’d been selected to the American League All-Star team, and had the best ERA among Orioles starters while leading the team in shutouts. Two of those shutouts coming against the AL Champion Yankees on September 25 & October 3.

To be continued…….