1951 O's-Dodgers Scorecard

One of the biggest chunks of my memorabilia stash consists of publications, the vast majority of which are Orioles related. I've got every yearbook, most of their media guides and a couple hundred game programs from 1954 through the 2012 season. But I also have a couple of programs from the 'old' International League Orioles.

This 1951 program comes from the days of the Orioles' incarnation as a Phillies affiliate. What's cool about this one is that it was issued and scored for an exhibition game against the Brooklyn Dodgers. The game was played on April 11 as noted in the exhibition schedule that's included on the third page. That was a week before the Orioles' Opening Game on April 18th versus the Montreal IL club. 

The program consists of the four pages shown here. It's a simple foldout format but packs a bunch of info. I can follow the game as scored even though the pencil writing is faded and the scorers system is much different than mine. The Dodgers won the game 11-7 despite being outhit 10-9. None of that really matters because what caught my eye was the Dodgers' lineup for the game. I'm assuming the game was scheduled as one of those train stop games that big league clubs would play after breaking camp and heading north for the season. They still play those some, don't they?

This ad was the whole back cover of the program. I would have bet that Baltimore staple National Boh would have been their sponsor. The ad mentions the Orioles' manager Nick Cullop. He was a long time minor league player and manager who had played for several clubs over the course of five seasons in the late 20s through 1931. He had one of the best nicknames ever... 'Tomato Face'. 1951 was the second of two seasons for Cullop at the helm of the Orioles. He managed them in 1950 to an IL Championship as a Browns affiliate. In '51 the Orioles finished sixth in the league with a 69-82 record. Collup was managing in independent Northern League in 1952 and returned to the higher minors in 1954.

Back to the line-up. It was populated by almost all of the Bums' starters, some really big names in baseball lore.

If you check out the blown up scan below you can make out the starting line-up:

Don Thompson CF

Carl Furillo LF

Duke Snyder RF

Jackie Robinson 2B

Gil Hodges 1B

Roy Campanella C (the scorer listed him as 'Campy', I love that)

Pee Wee Reese 3B

Rocky Bridges SS

Preacher Roe P

Regular third baseman Billy Cox made a late game appearance as well. I like how the scorer listed the players' uniform numbers. Not as many of the Orioles were big names. OK, none of them were big names but the club had many former and future major leaguers. 

Here is a blown up shot of Ol' Tomato Face.