YouTube still has the undated video, of Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver’s expletive-filled rant directed towards an umpire, after the ump called a balk on the O’s pitcher.
Clues in the video, and Baseball Reference’s archives, make it possible to date this video.
The first base coach — the name and number TRACEWSKI 53 on the back of his Detroit Tigers road uniform — stands watching Weaver. The Orioles are wearing home whites. As the camera pans, following Weaver, the Memorial Stadium scoreboard comes into view.
That old board, that offered a minimum of information, provides several key details.
The time of day, 7:39 (PM) can be seen, and night has fallen.
So they’re playing the Tigers, in either early April or late September when darkness arrives that early in North America.
There’s no line score. Not even a zero for the Tigers in the top of the first inning. That means they’re still hitting in the top first.
Next to AT BAT on the board is the number 10, and the name COWENS.
The Orioles are playing the Tigers in Baltimore, either early or late in the season, and Al Cowens is up. That’s more information than needed to place a date on the video with the help of Baseball Reference’s archives.
Cowens came to the Tigers on May 27, 1980, from the California Angels for Jason Thompson. He played for the Tigers through the 1981 season.
This game, then, must be happening either late in the 1980 baseball season, or early or late in 1981.
Early 1980, when Cowens was an Angel, can be ruled out.
Baseball Reference’s 1980 Orioles game log has a Tigers-Orioles series in Baltimore, played between September 16 and 18.
Clicking on the box score links reveals that the game of September 17 is the one.
“The box score is the catechism of baseball, ready to surrender its truth to the knowing eye,” wrote Stanley Cohen in his 1981 novel “The Man In The Crowd.” This box score is no exception.
It reveals that Mike Flanagan started for the Orioles, and that the game began at 7:34 PM. (Five minutes in, and Weaver had already exploded.) Al Cowens hit third for the Tigers. Alan Trammell singled ahead of him, in the first inning (scroll down for the play-by-play), and was the runner balked to second. Bill Haller is the first base umpire.
“You’re here for one reason – to (bleep) us good!” Weaver barks at Haller, waving his finger in the ump’s face. “And you’ll have your chance tomorra,” he shrieks, pointing towards home plate. Where Haller will work the next night, as the umpires rotate clockwise with each game.
The Orioles won 9-3, with Weaver watching all but the first three Tigers hitters on TV in the manager’s office.
Baseball Reference’s archives make it possible to date any photograph or saved Web image of a ball park that includes a corner of the scoreboard, or the smallest video snip with an identifiable hitter and pitcher.
The Chicago Cubs game Ferris Bueller attended on his day off, that his principal saw on TV, has been dated with Baseball Reference’s help, from only the TV play-by-play that appears in the background of a scene in the movie.
Patient research will lead you to the box score that can open a window on an entire season.
On the night Flanagan balked and Weaver lost it, the defending American League champion Orioles owned a respectable 86-58 record with eighteen games remaining, but were in second place in the American League Eastern Division, six games behind the New York Yankees. Only 9,915 fans attended the game.
Today, ten times than many might say that they were there.