Remembering the Orioles' dominance in the early days of the AL Championship Series

There was a time in Major League Baseball when there were no divisions – just the American League and National League. The two winners “won the pennant” and went to the World Series.

In MLB, the first “modern” World Series was in 1903 and one team from each league would play in the World Series through the 1968 season.

But that all changed in 1969 – the beginning of divisional play in baseball and now there was an AL East and AL West, same in the National League. Now four teams would make the playoffs. Now for the first time ever there would an American League Championship Series. It was a best-of-five series. That changed when it became best-of-seven in 1985.

The Orioles played in, hosted and won, the first AL Championship Series game on Oct. 4, 1969 at Memorial Stadium. Led by Earl Weaver, they beat manager Billy Martin’s Minnesota Twins 4-3 in 12 innings and went on to a three-game sweep.

In that first-ever ALCS contest, lefty Mike Cuellar (23-11) started for Baltimore and Jim Perry (20-6) for the Twins, who sported a lineup featuring Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva.

The O’s got three solo homers in that game from Frank Robinson, Mark Belanger (who hit a career-high .287 that year) and Boog Powell. Powell connected in the last of the ninth off Perry to tie the game 3-3.

The O’s won it in the 12^th when Belanger led off with a single, moved to second on Andy Etchebarren’s bunt and to third on Don Buford’s groundout. Paul Blair, batting with two outs and in a 4-for-44 slump, eventually laid down a great bunt that was said to surprise everyone as it went about 30 feet. Belanger scored from third and the O’s won the first ALCS game in dramatic fashion.

Click here for a wonderful writeup on that game from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

In Game 2, the Orioles won 1-0 in 11 innings. Dave McNally went the distance – yep, an 11-inning three-hitter. Powell drew a leadoff walk in the 11^th, moved up on a bunt and scored with two outs on pinch-hitter Curt Motton’s single to right.

The O’s swept the series with an 11-2 win in Game 3 at Minnesota as Blair went 5-for-6 with two doubles, a homer and five RBIs.

In the World Series, the Orioles won the first game versus the Mets before losing four in a row as the Mets became champions.

That 1969 season, where the Orioles went 109-53, began an incredible three-year run of 100-win O’s teams. In 1970, the Orioles were 108-54 and won the World Series. In 1971 they went 101-57.

O’s teams have six 100-win seasons (also 1979, 1980 and 2023) and they got their first three consecutively in a stunning run of outstanding baseball by some great teams.

The Orioles would go 9-0 in the first three AL Championship Series.

In the opener of the 1970 ALCS, Cuellar faced Perry again in a matchup of 24-game winners. But Cuellar’s biggest moment came at-bat during the O’s seven-run fourth inning when he hit a grand slam. It was a stunner and later that inning Buford and Powell also homered.

That year there would be no extra inning wins needed. The O’s won by scores of 10-6, 11-3 and 6-1. McNally and Jim Palmer threw complete games in the second and third games. According to the box scores they threw 134 and 136 pitches.

They advanced to the World Series and a five-game win over the Cincinnati Reds – they took down the big Red Machine.

In the 1971 ALCS, the O’s faced the Oakland Athletics. New team, same result. This was also a three-game sweep by scores of 5-3, 5-1 and 5-3.

Get the Athletics while you could. That Oakland organization, swept by the Orioles in 1971, would win the World Series in 1972, 1973 and 1974.

The O’s knocked off an A’s team that featured Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Joe Rudi and Bert Campaneris. Taking the losses in that series for Oakland were Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter and Diego Segui and Rollie Fingers allowed two runs in 2 1/3 innings.

But that ’71 club lost in a seven-game World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates. They won the first two games, lost the next three, took Game 6 but lost Game 7 by 2-1 at Memorial Stadium.

What a time it was for those great O’s teams, going 9-0 in the ALCS in the best three-run in Baltimore Orioles history.

Some video: Via YouTube click here for a video of some 1969 highlights showing the Mets a lot (sorry) but also the O's and Twins ALCS and the Blair bunt in the final minutes of that video. 

Cuellar's ALCS slam is here. 

You can click here for some highlights from the 1971 ALCS. The video is grainy but to hear the voices of Chuck Thompson and Bill O'Donnell is pretty special.