Boog Powell

Early life

Powell was born in Lakeland, Florida on August 17, 1941. He played for that city's team in the 1954 Little League World Series. After his family moved to Key West when he was 15, Powell played at Key West High School and graduated in 1959. He led Key West to a state championship. Powell received the nickname "Boog" from his father. As Powell explained, "In the South they call little kids who are often getting into mischief buggers (pronounced 'boogers'), and my dad shortened it to Boog."

Career

Baltimore Orioles

Powell signed with the Baltimore Orioles as an amateur free agent in 1959. Jim Russo (the scout who signed him) was also the scout who would sign Jim Palmer and Dave McNally. Powell joined the Orioles after leading the International League in home runs at Rochester in . He had a .321 batting average, with 32 home runs, 92 runs batted in (RBI) 86 runs scored, and a .981 OPS (on-base plus slugging). In addition to leading the IL in home runs, he was fifth in batting, first in OPS, first in slugging percentage (.593), second in RBIs, and sixth in runs.

Powell spent his first three seasons in Baltimore as a slow-footed left fielder before switching to first base in . At the plate he was an immediate success, hitting 25 home runs in ; in he led the American League in slugging percentage (.606) while blasting a career-high 39 home runs, despite missing several weeks because of an injured wrist. Powell slumped to .248 with 17 home runs in 1965, then won the American League Comeback player of the Year honors in (.287, 34 home runs, 109 RBIs) while being hampered by a broken finger.

In 1966, Powell, along with Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson, led the Orioles to the World Series, where they surprised the baseball world by sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in four games to become baseball's world champions. Powell had the highest batting average (.357) of any player in the series. Powell and the Dodgers Jim Barbieri (who was in the Little League World Series in 1953 and 1954 for Schenectady) became the first players to have played in both the Little League World Series and MLB World Series, though Powell was the Orioles full time first baseman and Barbieri had one pinch hit appearance in the 1966 World Series, which would be his last at bat as a major leaguer.

Powell had an off year in 1967, hitting only .234 with 13 home runs. He started only 109 games, as manager Hank Bauer used Curt Blefary at first base for much of the season's second half. Before the 1968 season, Powell lamented, "once, just once, I'd like to go through a whole season without an injury", and he did just that, playing over 150 games each of the next three seasons. His average only improved to .249 in 1968, but he hit 22 home runs with 85 RBIs in the year of the pitcher.

In 1969 he hit a career-high .304 with 37 home runs and 121 RBIs. He was second in the American League in RBIs, fifth in batting average, and sixth in home runs. He was the starting first baseman and cleanup hitter for the American League in the All-star game, playing the entire game and going one for four. The Orioles won the first ever American League Championship Series (ALCS) 3–0 over the Minnesota Twins (Powell hitting .385 with one home run), but lost to the New York Mets in the 1969 World Series 1–4 (Powell hitting .263).

In , he was the American League Most Valuable Player, hitting 35 home runs with 114 runs batted in and narrowly missed a .300 average during the last week of the season. He was again the starting first baseman and cleanup hitter in the All-star game. The Orioles again defeated the Twins 3–0 in the 1970 ALCS. Powell hit .429 with a home run and six RBIs. In the 1970 World Series, Powell homered in the first two games as the Orioles defeated the Cincinnati Reds in five games, with Powell hitting .294 with five RBIs and a 1.160 on-base plus slugging (OPS) over five games.

Prior to the 1971 season, Powell appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the 1971 baseball preview issue. He hit .256, with 22 home runs and 92 RBIs. Powell helped Baltimore reach a third straight World Series that year, after defeating the Oakland Athletics 3–0 in the 1971 ALCS. He hit .300 in the ALCS and had pair of home runs in game two against future hall of fame pitcher Catfish Hunter, but he hit only .111 in the Series as Baltimore lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games.

During his time with the Orioles from 1961 to 1974, the team had only two seasons where they lost more games than they won.

Later career

Powell had been an American League all-star for four straight years (1968–1971). Before the 1972 season, the Orioles traded Frank Robinson and did not win the Eastern Division for the first time since it had been created. Powell hit .252, with 21 home runs and 81 RBIs. In 1973, Powell hit .265, but played in only 114 games, with 11 home runs 54 RBIs, after his playing time was reduced by a sore shoulder. The Orioles won the Eastern division, but lost the ALCS to the A's, 3–2, with Powell only playing in one game.

However, Oriole manager Earl Weaver believed in making liberal use of the platoon system; in 1973 and 1974, Powell fell victim to it, limiting his at-bats. In 1974, Powell's playing time was down again (94 starts at first base), when manager Weaver replaced him for a stretch of games with a hot-hitting Enos Cabell during parts of August and September, starting in 14 games at first base. Weaver also used right-handed hitting Earl Williams at first base, starting 43 games.

The Orioles' offer to sell Powell's contract to the Chicago Cubs at the Winter Meetings in early-December 1974 was rejected by Philip K. Wrigley who refused to take on his $85,000 salary. He was eventually traded along with Don Hood to the Cleveland Indians for Dave Duncan and minor league outfielder Alvin McGrew on February 25 1975. Frank Robinson was Cleveland's manager at the time, and was very happy to obtain Powell. Powell, again a regular with the Indians, batted .297 (with 129 hits) and 27 home runs (his best season since 1970), and a .997 fielding percentage, which led all major league first basemen. However, he hit only nine home runs in 95 games, with a .215 batting average, in . He was waived by the Indians during spring training on March 30, 1977. His final season was 1977, as a pinch-hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He hit .244 with no home runs and 5 RBIs. He was released on August 31, 1977.

For his career, Powell hit .266, with 339 home runs and 1,187 RBIs in 2,042 games. He played 1,479 games at first base, with a career fielding percentage of .991. In 33 post-season games, he hit .262, with six home runs, 18 RBIs, 17 runs, and 12 bases on balls. He was named an All-Star by The Sporting News four times (1966, 1968-70) and by the Associated Press twice (1966, 1970).

In 1979, Powell was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame.

In popular culture

In the 1970s and 1980s Powell appeared in more than ten different television commercials for Miller Lite beer, including a memorable one with umpire Jim Honochick. Playing on the theme of mocking umpires who make bad calls, the ad featured Honochick trying unsuccessfully to read the label on a beer bottle as Powell did the voice-over. Borrowing Powell's glasses to bring the label into focus, and suddenly able to see who is standing next to him at the bar and providing the narration, Honochick exclaims, "Hey, you're Boog Powell!"

Powell is mentioned in an episode of Cheers entitled "Sam at Eleven". The fictional star of Cheers, ex-Red Sox reliever Sam Malone, relates his greatest moment in the Major Leagues: retiring Boog Powell in both games of a doubleheader.

Powell is also mentioned in an episode of Bill Burr's Netflix original show F Is for Family. While searching for his wife after having an argument, Frank Murphy drives past a batting cage and hears the crack of the bat hitting a pitch. He then quips to his daughter Maureen, "That's either your mother or Boog Powell."

Powell was very often referenced in episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Example: when a giant hand bursts through a window, Servo exclaims, "Hey, it's Boog Powell!"

In Generation of Swine, Hunter S. Thompson worries his boat will be sold by Boog Powell to pay for overdue dock fees.

Current MLB announcer Jon Sciambi is nicknamed after him.

Post-career

Powell opened Boog's Barbecue at Camden Yards in April 1992. It was a pioneering and successful food vendor operating during Oriole games, which is still ongoing as of 2024.

In 1997, Powell was diagnosed with colon cancer, and had surgery rapidly after the diagnosis. Powell's surgery was performed by the same doctor, Keith Lillimoe, who had treated then Orioles outfielder Eric Davis for colon cancer, followed by six months of chemotherapy treatments. Powell became an advocate for early colonoscopy screening and did a series of public service announcements with Davis, who lent support to Powell after his diagnosis.

References

References

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