BaltimoreBaseball.com is delighted to be partnering with John Eisenberg, the author and longtime Baltimore sports columnist, whose latest venture is an Orioles history project called The Bird Tapes. Available via subscription at birdtapes.substack.com/subscribe, the Bird Tapes is built around a set of vintage interviews with Orioles legends that Eisenberg recorded a quarter-century ago while writing a book about the team. Eisenberg also is writing new columns and articles about Orioles history at the Bird Tapes. Paid subscribers gain access to the vintage interviews, which have been digitized to make them easily consumable. In this post, Eisenberg is unlocking the first part of his three-part interview with the late Paul Blair, the Orioles’ magnificent centerfielder from their glory years. If you like what you hear, please consider a paid subscription, which would give you access to the rest of the interview as well as Eisenberg’s entire archive of interviews with Brooks Robinson, Earl Weaver, Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, Cal Ripken Jr., Eddie Murray, Harry Dalton and, in the end, more than three dozen other key figures from the Orioles’ first half-century in Baltimore.
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For my book about Orioles history, published a quarter-century ago, I traveled all over the country, from Florida to Arizona, interviewing former players, managers and executives. But to sit down with Paul Blair, the Orioles’ signature centerfielder from their glory days in the 1960s and 1970s, all I had to do was take the North Avenue exit off the Jones Falls Expressway.
Blair was Coppin State’s head baseball coach.
Fifty-five years old at the time, he was enjoying being a college coach even though his team had gone 1-44 in his first season. Talk about a rebuild.
Still, he made it clear that he’d really wanted to become a professional coach, manager or scout in his post-playing years — and also made it clear why, in his opinion, that hadn’t happened.
“When you’re Black, you don’t have the same opportunities,” Blair told me.
His frank comment was typical of his approach to our long conversation in Coppin’s baseball office. In recounting the story of his life in baseball, which began when he signed with the New York Mets after his graduation from a California high school in 1961, Blair pulled no punches. He was honest and opinionated, as bold as he’d been on the field when he was tracking down balls that other outfielders couldn’t reach.
Among the gems he delivered during our interview:
+ No one, not even Earl Weaver, dared tell him how to play his position.
+ Trading Frank Robinson after the 1971 season was a colossal blunder by the Orioles that resonated for years.
+ Reggie Jackson didn’t fit in during his one season with the team in 1976.
Blair was 21 years old when he became the Orioles’ starting centerfielder in 1965. Jackie Brandt had held the job for six years and was a solid performer, a career .262 hitter who won a Gold Glove and made an All-Star Game appearance. But Blair represented a step up in terms of speed and potential.
Once he became the starter, he held the job for more than a decade, ultimately playing in 1,700 games as an Oriole. Not coincidentally, they made the playoffs in most of his seasons. Blair in center, Brooks Robinson at third base and Luis Aparicio followed by Mark Belanger at shortstop formed the backbone of a defense that played a central role in the Orioles’ dominance.
I posted my interview with Blair at my Bird Tapes site on Substack four months ago. But the project was just getting going then, and my subscriber base has since tripled as word has spread through the Orioles’ fan base that this unique history project was available. A paid subscription is required to gain access to the vintage interviews, but with this post on BaltimoreBaseball.com, which has been a terrific partner for the Bird Tapes, I’m unlocking the first part of my interview with Blair for everyone to hear. My hope is to make sure the more recent subscribers are aware that this content exists.
In the portion of his interview available in this post below, Blair talks about his journey from high school to the major leagues, Frank Robinson’s arrival and impact, and the stunning sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1966 World Series, in which Blair played a pivotal role, hitting a home run that produced the only run in Game 3. He also comments on what he called his biggest mistake, deciding not to become a switch-hitter.
In Part 2, available via a paid subscription, Blair reflects on the beaning that sidelined him for three weeks in 1970, a setback from which, many believe, he never entirely recovered as a hitter. He covers the Orioles’ World Series loss in 1969 and the victory in 1970, during which he hit a team-high .474. He goes deep into explaining how the Orioles’ defense was developed and maintained. He eviscerates the decision to trade Frank Robinson.
In Part 3, also available via a paid subscription, Blair discusses Reggie Jackson’s one season in Baltimore. He delves into what he experienced as one of the Orioles’ first Black stars, and then, what it was like to be a Black former player. He recalls his time at the Orioles’ minor league camp in Thomasville, Georgia, and goes on a rant about how players learned HOW to play the game and also play as a team in his era, as opposed to what he was seeing in the late 1990s.
My interview with Blair, who died in 2013, is what the Bird Tapes are all about — a dive into Orioles history that leaves out none of the big names but also goes “beyond the statues” and into the nooks and crannies of the franchise’s first five decades.
If you like what you hear, please consider a paid subscription.
Subscribe to The Bird Tapes here: birdtapes.substack.com/subscribe
You’ll receive instant access to vintage audio interviews with Orioles legends, including:
Mike Flanagan
Eddie Murray
Ken Singleton
Brooks Robinson
Frank Robinson
Boog Powell
Cal Ripken, Jr.
Paul Blair
And many more to come, added weekly