Current Collection - 1965

In 1965, the year I was born, the Orioles finished a very respectable 94-68 that season, 3rd in the American League. Brooks Robinson led the team with a .297 average, while rookie Curt Befary belted the most home runs with 22. As baseball was in the midst of the "decade of the pitcher," Russ Snyder was the only other Oriole to hit better than .260 (Snyder hit .270), and nobody else than Belfary was at or above 20 home runs. Luis Aparico swiped 26 bases.

The Orioles made up for it with superb pitching - a theme that would continue over the next six seasons, as they appeared in four World Series, winning two of them. In '65 - with three (Pappas, Barber, and McNally) of the four primary starting pitchers finishing with ERAs below three, the fourth (Bunker) pulling in at 3.38, and the two (Roberts and the rookie Miller) who shared the fifth spot coming in at 3.38 and 3.18, respectively. The Orioles scored 641 runs, while allowing 578.

My collection for the year stands at one, Russ Snyder, but I just added four more that will be en route shortly: Jerry Adair, Steve Barber, Charlie Lau and Jackie Brandt. Total cost, allowing a little extra per card for shipping/packaging: about $5.00.

Here are my initial targets to fill the nine spots in sheet No. 1 for that year:

LF - Boog Powell - #560 (Didn't know he was once a left-fielder)
CF - Paul Blair - #473 (rookie card, shared with Davey Johnson)
RF - Curt Blefary (rookie card, shared with John Miller)
SS - Luis Aparicio - #410
SP - Milt Pappas - #270
2B - Jerry Adair - #231 (en route)
3B - Brooks Robinson - #150
C - Dick Brown (no card?)
1B - Norm Siebern - #455

For the second sheet, I would add the following eight (to go with outfielder Snyder):

SP - Steve Barber - #113 (en route)
SP - Dave McNally - #249
SP - Wally Bunker - #290
IF - Bob Johnson - #363
Mgr - Hank Bauer - #323
RP - Stu Miller - #499
OF - Jackie Brandt - #33 (en route)
C - John Orsino - #303
OF - Sam Bowens - #188

Though the following could also slot in there:

C- Charley Lau - #94 (en route)
SP - Robin Roberts - #15
RP - Don Larsen
RP - Harvey Haddix - #67
Team Card - # 572
RP - Dick Hall (No card?)
RP - Jim Palmer (no card?)
RP - Herm Starrette - #539
RP - Ken Rowe - #518
RP - Darrel Knowles - #577 (rookie card, share with players from other teams)
RP - Frank Bertaina - #396

And some other considerations:

RBI Leaders - #5 (featuring Brooks Robinson)