Earl loved the big inning. I always thought Earl was the best Manager in baseball. I used to love to watch him kick dirt on the Umps. That was always entertaining.
When I lived in Texas in the 80’s, I’d get seats behind the Orioles bullpen down the left field line (old Texas Stadium). We’s talk baseball with Elrod or Tim Stoddard. Tim was this huge guy who had a way with hecklers.
Once the O’s were getting shelled by the Rangers, and this Ranger fan kept hollaring, “What’s the Score?”. Constantly. Tim came out of the bullpen dugout, looked this guy right in the eye, and said, “There’s a scoreboard up there; USE IT!”
My favorite all time Oriole story was John Lowenstein. He was being interviewed by some Texas reporter, who hit him with the following question: “I see you like to catch the ball one-handed. Who was the first major leaguer to popularize the one-handed catch?” John said, “That would be Pete Gray.” So this reporter goes off and writes a story about Pete Gray popularizing the one-handed catch; not realizing that Pete Gray only had one arm (he played for the St Louis Browns in 1940’s).