The Orioles All Pitched In

But the night belonged to Boddicker, who, if he never does anything else, has at least put Norway on the map. It's 15 miles southwest of Cedar Rapids.

Boddicker's game was the best by a rookie in a World Series since 1919, when Dickie Kerr pitched a three-hitter for the Black Sox. Boddicker threw more fastballs than he had against Chicago, 34 in all, 29 for strikes. He also threw 42 curves (28 for strikes), six sliders and 23 of what the Orioles call a "foshball." That stands for the hybrid between a forkball and a "fish," which is the term Osteen once coined for a changeup.

Oriole Pitching Coach Ray Miller, who calls Boddicker "a righthanded McGregor," says Boddicker set the tone of the game right away, against the Phillies' three future Hall of Famers, Morgan, Pete Rose and Schmidt. "He threw a changeup to strike out Morgan," said Miller. "Rose had seen that, so when he went 3 and 2, he figured he'd get one. But Boddicker threw him a fastball and struck him out." Boddicker then got Schmidt to ground to shortstop.

The Phillies actually scored first, in the fourth, on a single by Morgan, a stolen base, a rare error by Murray and a sacrifice fly by Joe Lefebvre. Boddicker's rival rookie, Hudson, had a shutout going into the fifth. But Lowenstein hit a 2-0 low inside fastball over the centerfield fence to tie the score. Lowenstein, who doubled his first time up, finished with three hits. He is the lefthanded side of the Orioles' leftfield platoon, and over the last two years he has had 39 homers and 126 RBIs in 633 at bats. He also can dry the field with his wit. "I have no desire whatsoever to play every day," he says. "That's too tiring."

Coming up after Lowenstein were the Stooges, Larry (Rich Dauer), Curly (Todd Cruz) and Moe (Dempsey), who had a combined batting average of .228 during the season, and in the postseason had four hits in 52 times up prior to the fifth inning. Dauer, 0 for 18, promptly singled to left. Cruz then laid down a bunt that crossed the Phillies up. Dempsey followed with a run-scoring double down the rightfield line. Then Boddicker, in only his third professional at bat, hit a sacrifice fly to left. After the game Boddicker played down his hitting ability, saying, "Everybody hits in high school," but, in fact, he was a third-team all-Big Ten third baseman at Iowa.

The Stooges got their name from Singleton, who said at the end of the season that he was proud of his 85 RBIs, "especially with the Three Stooges batting behind me." Says Singleton, "At first they took offense, but now they're naming each other."

"I'm Moe because I'm the most intelligent," says Dempsey. "I'm Curly," says Cruz, "because he's my favorite guy. Whoowhoo. I do the backstep good, too, so I told Joe [Manager Altobelli] that the next time he pinch-hits for me, I'm gonna do the backstep into the dugout."

During the game Boddicker asked if he could be Shemp, the Stooge who replaced Curly, because of his RBI. But Singleton quickly nixed the suggestion, saying, "You make too much contact."

There was a frightening note in the game when Phillie Reliever Willie Hernandez hit Ford's batting helmet with a pitch in the fifth. But Ford got up, and in the seventh he singled John Shelby to third to set up an RBI single for Ripken.

For two minutes after the game, the Oriole fans chanted "We want Mike, we want Mike," until Mike came out, wearing his Oriole jacket. He doffed his cap and nodded his head in thanks.