RIP Steve Dalkowski

[HobokenJon]

RIP.....The photo brought back a personal memory, as well, having grown up in South Florida. You can tell from the background the photo was taken at the old Miami Stadium, where the Orioles held spring training for 30+ years, and before them the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. A grand ballpark it was, in its heyday, with amazing political history. "Built by former Cuban Minister of Education José Aleman, with money funneled from the Cuban Treasury, the stadium was a half-million-dollar monument to Miami’s big-league dreams," as the Miami Herald once put it. Read more at the link below, which has photos, too, including shots from the inside of the stadium showing the cantilevered roof over the grandstand that's in the photo above.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/loc...233583532.html

[lumberjack]

Perhaps Ryne Duren is the one guy from that period who comes closets to Dalkowski. Duran, who also started in the Baltimore farm system, managed to get a grip on his control (I remember how he would come into a game and throw his first warm up pitch five feet over the catcher's head just to freak everyone out), but he always had a drinking problem that only accelerated once his ability to pitch was problematic (he once got into a fist fight with Ralph Houk, how dumb was that).

Maybe drinking led to his decline, maybe he just lost his swift.
lumberjack

[skil55voy]

There is a great HBO documentary called Fastball which actually spends a little bit of time talking about him. Great movie. May he rest in peace.

[BaltOrioles]

Here's a few Steve Dalkowski items from my collection that you don't see that often. RIP Steve.

1961 and 1963 Baltimore News-Post Scrapbook Cards

1961 Baltimore News-Post Scrapbook (Dalkowski, Steve).jpg 1963 Baltimore News-Post Scrapbook (Dalkowski, Steve).jpg


1963 Orioles Team Issued 8x10 Photo and Postcard

Dalkowski, Steve 1.jpg 1963 Postcard.JPG

[bocca001]

"A ripe Strawberry through a locomotive." Nice.

Those Orioles issues show that he sure had some serious chest hair.

I know that one of the stories about him is that he took off part of somebody's ear with a pitch. I always thought that it would be interesting for someone to go around and interview batters who faced him. I'm sure that would be an interesting read.

[JimC]

[QUOTE=BaltOrioles;1974750]Here's a few Steve Dalkowski items from my collection that you don't see that often. RIP Steve.

Awesome stuff.

[talkinbaseball]

If you do a little more research Steve Dalkowski also played in the mythical high school football championship game played in the orange bowl in 1955
. he was a rotating quarterback in that game. He was coached by John Toner who later went on to hire Jim Clahoun and Geno Auriemma for UCONN.

john

[obcbeatle]

Originally Posted by HobokenJon

RIP.....The photo brought back a personal memory, as well, having grown up in South Florida. You can tell from the background the photo was taken at the old Miami Stadium, where the Orioles held spring training for 30+ years, and before them the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. A grand ballpark it was, in its heyday, with amazing political history. "Built by former Cuban Minister of Education José Aleman, with money funneled from the Cuban Treasury, the stadium was a half-million-dollar monument to Miami’s big-league dreams," as the Miami Herald once put it. Read more at the link below, which has photos, too, including shots from the inside of the stadium showing the cantilevered roof over the grandstand that's in the photo above.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/loc...233583532.html

Thanks for sharing. I saw many Orioles Spring Training games at Miami Stadium in the 1970'S. And picked up a few autographs at those games. Also saw a Pink Floyd concert there :-) As for Dalkowski, I agree with someone else's comment here that interviewing batters that faced Dalkowski would make a great read!

[earlywynnfan]

Thought this video was good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQsDzE7jtek&t=292s