Paul Blair (baseball)

Blair was born on February 1, 1944, in Cushing, Oklahoma but grew up in Los Angeles where he attended Manual Arts High School. An accomplished athlete, he played basketball, baseball and ran track and was a high jumper while a student.AP News Services (December 27, 2013) [https://archive.today/20131228192233/http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/former-orioles-star-paul-blair-dies/2013/12/26/5217a9e0-6ea9-11e3-a5d0-6f31cd74f760_story.html?tid=auto_complete "Former Orioles star Paul Blair dies"] The Washington Post, retrieved December 28, 2013 Blair was originally signed by the New York Mets as an amateur free agent in {{Baseball year|1961}} as a shortstop, but moved himself to the outfield. After spending the {{Baseball year|1962}} season in their farm system, he was selected by the Orioles in the 1962 first-year draft on November 26, 1962. He played in Baltimore's minor league system in 1963 and 1964, and came up to the Orioles for the first time on September 9, 1964, at only 20 years old.Folkemer, Paul. [http://www.pressboxonline.com/2014/12/11/the-best-rule-5-draft-picks-in-orioles-history "The Best Rule 5 Draft Picks in Baltimore Orioles History"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704034946/https://www.pressboxonline.com/2014/12/11/the-best-rule-5-draft-picks-in-orioles-history |date=2018-07-04 }}, PressBox Baltimore, December 2014{{Cite web |title=MLB Stats for Paul Blair, Baseball Almanac |url=https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=blairpa01 |website=baseball-almanac.com}}

He broke into the Orioles' lineup in {{Baseball year|1965}} and started in center field on opening day. Despite hitting only .234 with five home runs and 25 runs batted in, Blair impressed many with his defensive skills. In {{Baseball year|1966}}, he batted .277 on an Orioles team that won the World Series. In Games 3 and 4 of that series, which the Frank Robinson-led Orioles swept from the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in four games,{{Cite web |title=1966 World Series recap |url=https://www.mlb.com/news/1966-world-series-recap#:~:text=Orioles%20defeat%20Dodgers,%204%20games%20to%200&text=The%20star%20of%20Game%201,tie%20the%20World%20Series%20record). |access-date=2024-11-12 |website=MLB.com |language=en}} Blair played a major role in 1–0 shutouts by Wally Bunker and Dave McNally respectively. He hit a 430-foot home run off Claude Osteen in Game 3, and robbed Jim Lefebvre of an eighth-inning home run that would have tied Game 4. Blair also caught Lou Johnson's fly ball for the final out of the Series.{{Cite web |date=2013-12-27 |title=Ex-Orioles CF Blair dies; won 8 Gold Gloves |url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/10198794/paul-blair-former-baltimore-orioles-great-dies-age-69 |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=ESPN.com |language=en}}

File:Paul Blair 1966.jpg

In {{Baseball year|1967}}, Blair established a career high .293 batting average with 11 home runs and 64 RBIs, along with an American League-leading 12 triples. He also won the first of his eight Gold Glove Awards.{{Cite web |title=Gold Glove Award Winners {{!}} History |url=https://www.mlb.com/awards/gold-glove?msockid=3ff9fc27d3db61d91d60e913d2b46061 |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=MLB.com |language=en}} After slumping to .211 in {{Baseball year|1968}}, Blair had perhaps his best season in {{Baseball year|1969}}. Batting second behind Don Buford in the Orioles' lineup, he hit .285 with career highs in home runs (26), runs batted in (76) and runs (102).{{Cite news |last=Connolly |first=Dan |date=2020 |title=Who would you rather have: Adam Jones or Paul Blair |url=https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1927211/2020/07/14/who-would-you-rather-have-adam-jones-or-paul-blair/ |work=The Athletic}} His 26 homers along with 20 stolen bases made him the first Orioles player to achieve at least 20 in each category in the same season.[https://www.mlb.com/news/jonathan-villar-joins-20-20-club-orioles-beat-rays Trezza, Joe. "Villar joins 20-20 club as O's rout Rays," MLB.com, Sunday, August 25, 2019.] Retrieved August 25, 2019 He also made the All-Star team for the first time; he would repeat this feat in {{Baseball year|1973}}.{{Cite web |title=1969 All-Star Game Box Score, July 23 |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/allstar/1969-allstar-game.shtml |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=Baseball-Reference.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=1973 MLB All-Star Game Roster - Major League Baseball - ESPN |url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/allstargame/history/results/_/year/1973 |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=ESPN.com}}

The 1969 Orioles won the pennant, with Blair becoming the first player to have 5 hits in a post-season game. He had five hits in six at-bats against the Minnesota Twins on October 6.{{cite web|title=Congratulations to Two Postseason Record Setters: Carl Crawford of the Tampa Bay Rays and Matt Stairs of the Philadelphia Phillies|url=http://www.baseballlibrary.com/columns/column.php?id=236|work=BaseballLibrary.com|access-date=13 December 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121118181935/http://www.baseballlibrary.com/columns/column.php?id=236|archive-date=18 November 2012}} The Orioles lost to the Miracle Mets in the World Series. Blair went 2-for-20 in that Series, including being the victim of one of Tommie Agee's two spectacular catches in Game 3 (Agee had also robbed Elrod Hendricks earlier in the game). On that Agee catch, Blair was the first batter Nolan Ryan faced in a World Series—the only World Series game the Hall of Fame pitcher would participate in. One of Blair's two hits came in the seventh inning of Game 2; it broke up Jerry Koosman's bid for a no-hitter.

Blair was beaned by Ken Tatum in the eighth inning of a 6–1 loss to the California Angels at Anaheim Stadium on May 31, 1970.[https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/01/archives/angels-triumph-over-orioles-61-blair-is-injured.html "Angels Triumph Over Orioles, 6‐1; Blair Is Injured," United Press International (UPI), Sunday, May 31, 1970.] Retrieved October 15, 2020 He sustained a broken nose, orbital floor fractures below his left eye and a broken cheekbone.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1873&dat=19700604&id=1YYeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oMsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=766,718616 "Tatum Apologizes For Blair Beaning," The Associated Press (AP), Thursday, June 4, 1970.] Retrieved October 15, 2020 Jim Palmer wrote that "ever since he got hit by a pitch, he isn't the hitter he was."Palmer and Dale, p. 73 The beaning was unintentional, as Tatum had grazed the jersey front of the previous batter Boog Powell.

Blair returned to the starting lineup three weeks later,[https://www.masnsports.com/orioles-buzz/2013/12/in-os-glory-years-blair-made-the-impossible-grabs-seem-routine.html Kerzel, Pete. "In O’s glory years, Blair made the impossible grabs seem routine," Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), Thursday, December 26, 2013.] Retrieved October 15, 2020 finishing the season batting .267. After going 1 for 13 in the American League Championship Series,[https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1970_ALCS.shtml 1970 American League Championship Series: Baltimore Orioles over Minnesota Twins (3–0) – Baseball-Reference.com.] Retrieved October 15, 2020 he had the World Series' highest batting average and on-base percentage with .474 and .524 respectively. He shared with Series MVP Brooks Robinson the five-game World Series record with nine hits apiece.[https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1970_WS.shtml 1970 World Series: Baltimore Orioles over Cincinnati Reds (4–1) – Baseball-Reference.com.] Retrieved October 15, 2020

In {{Baseball year|1971}} Blair took up switch-hitting but stopped after batting only .193 (11-for-57). He finished the season hitting .262. His Orioles won another pennant, but lost the World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games.

During the 1971 World Series, Blair earned a place in baseball history in Game 4 by being the first man to bat in a World Series night game. Leading off the top of the first inning, Blair singled off Pittsburgh's Luke Walker.{{Cite web |title=A classic under the lights {{!}} Baseball Hall of Fame |url=https://baseballhall.org/discover/a-classic-under-the-lights |access-date=2024-11-12 |website=baseballhall.org}}

Blair's speed going back in the outfield enabled him to play shallow, and make catches à la Willie Mays. In each of the Orioles' three straight World Series seasons, Blair won a Gold Glove. He also won a Gold Glove over each of the next four seasons, his last Gold Glove in {{Baseball year|1975}} coinciding with teammate Brooks Robinson winning his 16th consecutive — and last — Gold Glove at third base.{{Cite web |title=MLB Awards - Gold Glove - Major League Baseball - ESPN |url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/history/awards/_/id/58 |access-date=2024-11-12 |website=ESPN.com}}

Blair was traded by the Orioles to the New York Yankees for Elliott Maddox and Rick Bladt on January 20, 1977. The transaction was driven by general manager Gabe Paul's desire to exile Maddox from the Yankees.{{Cite news |date=January 21, 1977 |title=Yanks Get Blair for Maddox |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/21/archives/yanks-get-blair-for-maddox-yankees-trade-maddox-settle-munson.html |work=New York Times}} Blair was primarily a defensive outfielder replacement in the late innings.[https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/21/archives/yanks-get-blair-for-maddox-yankees-trade-maddox-settle-munson.html Chass, Murray. "Yanks Get Blair for Maddox," The New York Times, Friday, January 21, 1977.] Retrieved October 16, 2020 On June 18 of that year in a nationally televised game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, he was tangentially involved in one of the most bizarre scenes in baseball history. Yankee manager Billy Martin took right fielder Reggie Jackson out of the game and replaced him with Blair after Jackson had misplayed Jim Rice's fly ball for a double. As the cameras watched, Jackson and Martin nearly came to blows. Blair's walk-off RBI single to left off Rick Rhoden won Game 1 of the 1977 World Series for the Yankees.[https://www.mlb.com/video/yanks-win-game-1-on-blairs-hit/c-25630959 ABC's telecast of Paul Blair's walkoff RBI single to left off Rick Rhoden in the New York Yankees' Game 1 victory over Los Angeles Dodgers at Yankee Stadium in the 1977 World Series – MLB.com.] Retrieved August 25, 2019

Actor Seth Gilliam played Blair in one episode of the ESPN mini-series The Bronx Is Burning. The mini-series chronicled the 1977 Yankees season.{{Cite web |title=The Bronx Is Burning |url=https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/the-bronx-is-burning/cast/1030453309/ |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=TVGuide.com |language=en}}

After winning World Series titles with the Yankees in 1977 and {{Baseball year|1978}}, Blair was released early in the {{Baseball year|1979}} season. The Cincinnati Reds signed him as a free agent less than a month later, and Blair returned to the Yankees in May of {{Baseball year|1980}}. He retired after the Yankees released him a second time, on July 1 of that year.

In his 17-year career, Blair, whose nickname, "Motormouth", came from his talkative nature, batted .250 with 134 home runs and 620 RBI, 1513 hits and 171 stolen bases in 1947 games played. Three times he had more than 17 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a season. He was also one of the top bunters in the game, recording at least 10 sacrifice hits four times in his career (1969, 1974-1976), including 17 during the 1975 season. In the very first playoff game in American League history, between the Orioles and Minnesota Twins on October 4, 1969, Blair's 11th inning bunt single off Ron Perranoski won the game for the Orioles.{{Cite web |last= |date=2019-09-30 |title=Playoff Playbacks part one: Revisiting the Twins’ 1965, 1969, and 1970 playoff races |url=https://www.twinkietown.com/2019/9/30/20890606/minnesota-twins-playoffs-history-1965-1969-1970-harmon-killebrew-tony-oliva-rod-carew-jim-kaat |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=Twinkie Town |language=en}} Twins manager Billy Martin said after the game, "'There’s no way to beat a perfect bunt.'”{{Cite web |last=van Hyning |first=Thomas |date=2020 |title=Dick Hall's Baltimore Legacy |url=https://sabr.org/journal/article/dick-halls-baltimore-legacy/#:~:text=Hall%E2%80%99s%20WHIP%20was%200.9293%20%E2%80%94%20fanned%2030%20walked,can%E2%80%99t%20wait%20around%20for%20him%20to%20walk%20you. |website=sabr.org}} He had a .288 batting average, .347 on base percentage, and .379 slugging percentage over 28 World Series games.

Blair led the American League in putouts twice, and threw out 104 runners from center field over his career. His career "range factor" is superior to that of hall of fame center fielders Willie Mays and Ken Griffey, Jr.

Palmer loved having Blair in the outfield because of his fielding ability. In his 1996 book Palmer and Weaver: Together We Were Eleven Foot Nine, he reminisced about the time the Orioles Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver gave him three batting lineups to choose from for a game. "I'm looking basically for one thing," Palmer wrote. "Center field. We've got Paul Blair, who I personally think can field anything." According to Palmer, Blair caught 12 fly balls that night.Palmer and Dale, pp. 73-74 Palmer also thought Blair "was worth two runs, defensively, every game."Palmer and Dale, p. 58 Weaver said that Blair never had to make great catches because he was always standing under the ball when it came down.

At the end of his playing career, Blair was hired as an outfield instructor for the Yankees in 1981. In August 1982, he was named the head coach at Fordham University. Blair coached only one season at Fordham (1983) with the team finishing with a 14–19 record.{{Cite web |title=1983 Baseball Schedule |url=https://fordhamsports.com/sports/baseball/schedule/1983 |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=Fordham University Athletics |language=en}} He then went back to work as an outfield instructor with the Houston Astros and as a third base coach for the Orioles Triple A team in Rochester, working in that capacity until 1985.

In 1989, he played for the Gold Coast Suns in the newly formed Senior Professional Baseball Association, though the league folded after the season. Blair got his next shot at coaching in 1995 when he was named the manager of the Yonkers Hoot Owls in the newly formed Northeast League, an independent league of professional baseball. The team lasted just one season and finished a dismal 12–52.{{Cite web |title=1995 Yonkers Hoot Owls Roster |url=https://www.statscrew.com/minorbaseball/roster/t-yo15490/y-1995 |website=Statscrew.com}}

Blair got his next, and last, shot at coaching in 1998, when he was named as the head coach for the Coppin State College baseball team. Blair coached the team from 1998–2002. Unfortunately, his overall record at Coppin State was a disappointing 30–185.{{cite web|url=http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&bid=2493&pid=1140|title=Paul Blair|work=Society for American Baseball Research}}

In the mid-1990s, Blair was named the assistant general manager of the yet-to-be named New Orleans franchise in the United Baseball League (UBL) (which was a planned third major league).

While residing in Woodstock, Maryland, over the years Blair would work as a spring training instructor for the Orioles.

File:Blair, Paul (2007).jpg

After his retirement from coaching, Blair lived in Woodstock, Maryland with his wife, Gloria. In his retirement, Blair often appeared in celebrity golf and bowling tournaments. At the time of his death, he was known for working out at Triangle Fitness in Eldersburg, Maryland and bowling at Kings Point Lanes in Reisterstown, Maryland. His son Paul Blair III played eight years in the minors for the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago Cubs.

On December 26, 2013, Blair suffered a heart attack and lost consciousness while playing in a celebrity bowling tournament in Pikesville, Maryland. He was taken by ambulance to Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, where he was pronounced dead.{{cite web|url=http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/four-time-world-series-champion-blair-dies-at-age-69-122613|title=Four-time World Series champion Blair dies at age 69|work=FOX Sports|date=26 December 2013}}

• List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders
• List of Major League Baseball annual triples leaders

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|last1=Palmer|first1=Jim|last2=Dale|first2=Jim|title=Palmer and Weaver: Together We Were Eleven Foot Nine|year=1996|publisher=Andrews and McMeel|location=Kansas City|isbn=0-8362-0781-5|pages=73–74}}

{{Commons category|Paul Blair (baseball)}}

{{Baseballstats|mlb=111058|br=b/blairpa01|brm=blair-003pau}}, or [http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B/Pblaip101.htm Retrosheet], or [http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/f7f74810 SABR Biography Project]

• {{IMDb name|2916404}}

{{1966 Baltimore Orioles}}

{{1970 Baltimore Orioles}}

{{1977 New York Yankees}}

{{1978 New York Yankees}}

{{AL OF Gold Glove Award}}

{{Fordham Rams baseball coach navbox}}

{{Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blair, Paul}}

Category:1944 births

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Category:African-American baseball players

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Category:Baseball players from Oklahoma

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