Bird Tapes Podcast: A Conversation with Tippy Martinez

On the evening of August 24, 1983, before a crowd of 25,882 at Memorial Stadium, Orioles reliever Tippy Martinez produced the signature moment of his career and one of the most-recalled events in club history. With the Orioles down by a run in the top of the tenth inning, three straight Toronto Blue Jays reached first base. Martinez picked them all off.

The fans roared, knowing they’d witnessed an extraordinary event. When the Orioles rallied to win in the bottom of the tenth, Martinez’s feat was launched into legend as a giddy example of the Earl Weaver-era Orioles’ enduring ability to gin up ways to win games that other teams probably would lose. (Yes, Weaver had retired the year before, but his immense shadow still hovered over the club.)

Martinez was 33 that night, at the peak of his long tenure in the Orioles’ bullpen. Forty-two years later, he is remembered almost strictly as the guy who picked off three runners in an inning.

In my recent interview with him, available in this post to paid Bird Tapes subscribers, he told me he has “a love-hate relationship” with his signature moment.

Don’t misunderstand. At age 74, Martinez is grateful to be remembered for anything, let alone for producing such a transcendent baseball moment. A genial and lighthearted longtime Baltimore resident, he laughs about having his long career boiled down to one inning in the minds of many fans.

But it’s just that he did so much more worth remembering during that career.

He pitched brilliantly, and earned the win, in the game that decided the 1983 American League Championship Series. He saved two of the Orioles’ four wins in the World Series that year. He was on the mound three times in the 1979 World Series, and for years, he chided Weaver that the Orioles might have won the series if Weaver hadn’t pulled him from Game 2 after he’d thrown a scoreless inning with the score tied late.

Over the course of 11 seasons with the Orioles, he was a closer, long reliever and middle reliever at different times, but always useful. “Absolutely invaluable,” Weaver said of him in 1980. Thirty-nine years after he threw his last pitch for the club, he still holds the Orioles’ franchise records for most appearances by a reliever and most games finished. He ranks fourth all-time in saves, second among left-handers.

The only pitcher to appear in more games for the Orioles is some guy named Palmer.

Yes, Martinez did a lot more than just pick off three guys in an inning. It’s even more impressive when you consider a) he was physically unprepossessing at 5-10 and 180 pounds, b) his high school gym teacher in La Junta, Colorado, told him to concentrate on playing football (he was a quarterback) because he wasn’t good enough to make it in baseball, and c) he went undrafted out of Colorado State in 1972 before he signed with the Yankees.

Martinez recounted his underdog baseball origin story in our interview and dug deep into the details of his unique career. He played for both Billy Martin and Weaver. He came to the Orioles in a 10-player trade with the Yankees — imagine that happening today. He figured out, with help from Rick Dempsey, that the more you got into shouting matches with Weaver, the more he played you.

Of course — of course — he also recounted for me the night when he picked off three Blue Jays in the top of the tenth. How could he not? He’s the only pitcher in major league history to record three pickoffs in an inning, and needless to say, no one will break that record. Here’s a video if you haven’t seen it:

But speaking about it to me, Martinez mostly just wanted to set the record straight. Contrary to what is widely believed, all three runners didn’t get hits off him.

What did happen? He explains in the interview.

(Note from John Eisenberg: My interview with Martinez is being delivered as a podcast, which means you can download it to a device and/or listen on apps such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You need a paid subscription to access the archive of Bird Tapes interviews, which now consists of 40 conversations with former Oriole players, front office executives, managers, broadcasters and scouts. There’s more coming soon, including new interviews with Scott McGregor, Bobby Grich, Janet Marie Smith and a new series with legendary newspaper beat writers who covered the Orioles. If you want to support the mission of the Bird Tapes and access the archive, you can upgrade to a paid subscription by clicking the “subscribe now” button. A paid subscription helps me with the cost of putting out high-quality interviews, but support of any kind is appreciated.)