For my book about Orioles history, published a quarter-century ago, I journeyed all over the country, from Florida to Arizona, interviewing former players, managers and executives. But to sit down with Paul Blair, the Orioles’ signature centerfielder from their glory days in the 1960s and 1970s, all I had to do was take the North Avenue exit off the Jones Falls Expressway. Blair was Coppin State’s head baseball coach.
Fifty-five years old at the time, Blair was enjoying being a college coach even though his team had gone 1-44 in his first season. Talk about a rebuild.
Still, he made it clear he’d really wanted to become a professional coach, manager or scout in his post-playing years — and also made it clear why, in his opinion, that hadn’t happened.
“When you’re Black, you don’t have the same opportunities,” Blair said.
His pointed comment was typical of our long conversation in Coppin’s baseball office. In recounting the story of his life in baseball, which began when he signed with the New York Mets after his graduation from a California high school in 1961, Blair pulled no punches.
No one, not even Orioles manager Earl Weaver or pitcher Jim Palmer, told him how to play center field, Blair thundered.
Trading Frank Robinson after the 1971 season? It was a colossal blunder by the club that resonated for years, Blair said.
Reggie Jackson? In his one season in Baltimore, the Hall of Fame slugger didn’t fit in, Blair told me.
He became the Orioles’ starting centerfielder at age 21 in 1965. Jackie Brandt had held the job for six years and was a solid performer, a career .262 hitter who won a Gold Glove and made an All-Star Game appearance. But Blair represented a step up in terms of speed and potential.
Once he became the starter, he held the job for more than a decade, ultimately playing in 1,700 games as an Oriole while earning eight Gold Glove awards for defensive excellence. It wasn’t a coincidence that the Orioles consistently made the playoffs with Blair in center, Brooks Robinson at third base and Luis Aparicio followed by Mark Belanger at shortstop forming the backbone of a defense that gave away virtually nothing.
Blair discussed it all during our conversation. Full disclosure, it’s among my favorite interviews in the Bird Tapes archive. Hearing Blair, who died in 2013, is a rare opportunity, and he gets to the heart of what this Substack project is all about — a dive into Orioles history that goes “beyond the statues” into the crevices of the franchise’s glorious past.
(Note from John Eisenberg: Although presenting this interview as a podcast means you can now download it to a device or listen on apps such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you can still just hit the play button at the top of this post and listen via Substack if that suits you. In the coming months, I’ll continue to present more vintage interviews in the Bird Tapes archive as podcasts, giving paid subscribers more listening options. To upgrade from free to paid, just click on the “subscribe now” button below.)
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