The Sun Remembers this week in Baltimore Sports: July 3-9
Baltimore Orioles pitcher Sidney Ponson exits a game after allowing seven runs during a loss to the New York Yankees. (David Hobby/The Baltimore Sun)
July 6, 2000: Staked to a 7-0 lead, pitcher Sidney Ponson walks four straight batters and the Orioles unravel, losing 13-9 to the Yankees in New York. “I was mentally prepared. I just didn’t throw strikes,” said Ponson who, the night before, had returned to Baltimore — without telling team officials — to attend a Metallica concert at PSINet Stadium.
July 8, 1969: In a 10-3 rout of the visiting Yankees, the Orioles set three team records: most hits (nine) and runs (10) in one inning, and most consecutive hits (seven). The fourth-inning barrage features a three-run home run by Boog Powell and two hits each by Frank Robinson and Davey Johnson.
July 9, 1960: Navy’s eight-oared varsity crew wins the U.S. Olympic rowing trails with a one-length victory over California on Onondaga Lake in Syracuse, N.Y. At the Summer Games in Rome, coach Lou Lindsey’s Midshipmen will place a disappointing fifth, 11 seconds behind Germany.
July 3, 1955: The Colts acquire Jack Scarbath, a former Maryland All-America quarterback, from the Washington Redskins for a second-round draft pick. Scarbath (Poly), who led the Terps to a 1952 Sugar Bowl win over Tennessee, practices with the Colts in training camp but is returned to the Redskins in September, negating the trade.
July 6, 1937: At Carlin’s Park, wrestler Nick Campofreda, onetime football star at Loyola High and Western Maryland (now McDaniel) College, wins his match in painful fashion. His opponent, Rob Russell, is disqualified after slamming Campofreda’s head into the iron upright of the ring.
July 8, 1919: Eddie Rommel, a 21-year-old knuckleball pitcher from Baltimore, pitches the Newark Bears to an 11-5 win over the first-place Orioles in an International League game. Rommel will win 171 games in the majors for the Philadelphia Athletics and twice lead the American League in victories. He later becomes a big league umpire.
July 4, 1908: Joe Gans of Baltimore, the world’s lightweight boxing champion since 1902, loses his title on a 17th-round knockout by Oscar “Battling” Nelson of Denmark before an announced 10,000 fans in an open-air arena in San Francisco. “Old age will tell and that is all I have to say,” says Gans, 33. Two years later, he’ll die of tuberculosis.
July 9, 1896: Cy Young pitches the National League-leading Cleveland Spiders to a 7-0 victory over the visiting Orioles, defending champions. Young “had perfect control, and his balls went whizzing across the plate as if shot out of a cannon,” The Sun reports.
Birthday
July5, 1931: Arnie Portocarrero, Orioles right-hander who, in 1958, pitched back-to-back shutouts and won 15 games, then a club record. Portocarrero played here three years and died in 1986 at age 54.
- Mike Klingaman ([email protected])