“The big day has come and gone, but it will live long in memory for most of the 5,130 fans who jammed their way into the Aberdeen Ball Park to watch the Baltimore Orioles play the Pheasants in a historic contest.” That was how Aberdeen American News sports editor Larry Desautels opened an article after perhaps the biggest baseball game in Aberdeen history—maybe South Dakota history—even if the game didn’t count.
On Monday, June 8, 1964, Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles came to Aberdeen to play an exhibition game against their Class A minor league farm team Aberdeen Pheasants. As Philbert the Pheasant, the home team’s unofficial cartoon mascot (drawn by Aberdeen artist Gordon Haug), said from his regular roost on the News’ front page to an oriole perched on his wing, “Boy, This Game Is for the Birds!”
From their respective cities, Oriole president Lee MacPhail and Pheasant president Les Keller simultaneously announced the game in December 1963. The local club had urged the Orioles to come to Aberdeen for years, and Keller made it a priority when he became president in late 1963. Desautels ended his report, “Unless rain prevents playing of the game, it will be a top event for this part of the Dakotas.” Talk about tempting the baseball gods!
Indeed, former Smitty Jim Cramer of Atlanta, namesake of the Cramer Center for Design & Innovation at Northern State University, remembered, “lots of anticipation about the game and wondering if it would really happen. We were warned that schedule changes could derail it.”
By June, the game looked interesting. The Orioles were challenging for the American League pennant, and the Pheasants were starting to run away with the Northern League—the minor league in which they played. Not surprisingly, early predictions anticipated attendance of 5,000, thanks to temporary bleachers expanding the capacity of Aberdeen Municipal Ball Park (where Northern State University’s Barnett Center currently stands).
The game got off to a rough start for the local birds, due both to the Orioles’ offense and Pheasant defensive miscues. The Os scored six runs in the first four innings. Only half were earned, however, as the Pheasants spotted the big birds four errors. Meanwhile, the Orioles’ Milt Pappas pitched two hitless innings, striking out four. He faced Northern League-leading pitcher Eddie Watt who would give up an uncharacteristic eight hits and six runs in six innings, including one in the opening frame. (Sadly, pitcher Jim Palmer, the Pheasants’ only future MLB Hall of Famer, sat out with an injury.)
In the midst of a 17-day road trip, the Orioles’ last stop was in Minneapolis, where they dropped two out of three games to the Twins. Likewise, the Pheasants lost two to the St. Cloud Rox. Each team lost the night before the big game. After the Birds’ Sunday defeat, farm club director Harry Dalton drove from Minneapolis to St Cloud to watch that Pheasants’ game, taking MacPhail and manager Hank Bauer. MacPhail would later be the Yankees’ general manager, American League president and MLB Hall of Famer (his son Andy was the Twins general manager and Orioles president). Unfortunately, that Sunday night game had been moved to Aberdeen, and the St. Cloud ballpark was empty. When the story got out the next day, Dalton took a ribbing, joking to a Baltimore Sun reporter, “Do you have an opening for a copy boy?”
As Aberdeen eagerly anticipated the game, the Sun recalled a 1955 Orioles trip to play the York, Pennsylvania, farm team. Brooks Robinson, an Oriole by 1964 but on the 1955 York team, hit a three-run homer in the first inning. The rout was on, and York prevailed 13-1. Robinson remembered, “When I was there that year, we were really gung-ho for that game against the big team, and the Orioles would’ve rather had the night off. I know how those boys at Aberdeen will be feeling tomorrow night.”
Indeed, the Sun had quoted Pheasant manager Cal Ripken, Sr., observing, “Our people in Aberdeen are quite excited over this game, and they’ll be mighty put out if we don’t go all out to win.” The American News added an unattributed quote from confident Pheasants players: “We’re gonna beat ’em and climb on that big plane. They can stay here and finish the Northern League schedule.”
The 1964 Baltimore Orioles.
Unlike the 1955 team, the 1964 Os didn’t resent playing the exhibition game. Gene Woodling, an Orioles coach, told Desautels, “We all came up through towns like Aberdeen. In fact, few of us ever played in a minor league city where the fans and facilities are nearly as nice.” Recognizing the struggle of maintaining minor league teams, he added, “That’s why there was no grumbling over giving up a night off to come to Aberdeen.” 
The second inning was more challenging. After giving up a single to Oriole outfielder Willie Kirkland, Watt walked the next two batters. Then he mishandled a grounder, allowing Kirkland to score and loading the bases again. On third base was Orioles’ bullpen coach Sherman Lollar, who played catcher to protect the backup while the starter was injured. Watt’s wild pitch prompted Lollar to attempt to score, but the 39-year-old pulled up lame and was tagged out at home. Pheasant backup catcher Bill Morton caught for the Os the rest of the way. A walk to Louis Aparicio loaded the bases again, and a two-run double followed for a three-run inning and a 4-0 score.
On game day, the Orioles were scheduled to arrive in Aberdeen at 1:15 p.m., but it was a sign of things to come when their chartered plane arrived late in Minneapolis. As workers loaded a ladder on the plane, an airline executive explained it was needed because “They don’t have portable stairs” in Aberdeen. Farm director Dalton joked that given the Aberdeen airport’s 950-foot runway, “They’ve sold 4,000 tickets for the game tonight and 6.000 to watch us land.”
Upon arriving in Aberdeen, the Orioles’ traveling secretary used the ladder to deplane, hearing it creak under his 170-pound frame. With 240-pound Boog Powell still on board, another option was needed. Aberdeen attorney and then-teenager Lon Gellhaus would agree, “What I remember most was how big Boog Powell was! We didn’t see ballplayers that size.” A two-level baggage cart materialized, requiring passengers to take a few leaps to reach the ground, but it worked. Longtime Aberdeen attorney and future Pheasants president Dennis Maloney, then 34 years old, chuckled, “We heard some complaining about that airplane situation.”
Wes Stock, Steve Barber, Lee McPhail, Harry Dalton, Mayor Cliff Hurlbert, and Club President Les Keller.
With the Birds finally on the ground, Mayor Cliff Hurlbert, the Pheasants’ board of directors, and some 500 fans greeted them. The mayor presented MacPhail with a proclamation of “Baltimore Orioles Day” in Aberdeen. Leaving the airport, the Os got a lights-flashing, siren-blowing police escort.
The game slowed down a bit. In each of the third and fourth innings, the Orioles added an unearned run thanks to Pheasant errors, building their lead to 6-0. Aberdeen, however, managed a couple singles against former Pheasant Steve Barber who relieved Pappas.
Besides the Orioles’ travel problems, it was beginning to appear that Desautels’ mention of rain six months earlier might have jinxed the game. Aberdeen got nearly an inch of rain during the day, and the sky threatened during the Birds’ batting practice. Storm warnings began cropping up.
On game day, the Orioles’ plane was delayed in Minneapolis, but they managed to make it to Aberdeen just in time. This is the bus that brought the Orioles to the game.
Despite the weather, 5,130 fans were seated long before the game started. That attendance was about six times 1964’s per game average and three times the average in 1947, the Pheasants’ best attendance year ever. The Sun noted the official attendance equaled one-fifth of Aberdeen’s population. Random comparison: in 2022, the Sioux Falls Canaries drew 59,425 fans in a full season, which equaled about one-fifth of the metro population. (As fun as it is to ding Sioux Falls, it’s really a mark of the explosion of other things for people to do.) The Sun added, “Uncounted scores of additional Bird watchers observed from trees, automobile tops and other perches behind the outfield fences.” The News put that number above 1,000.
Cramer took his grandfather from Conde to the game and sat in the first base bleachers. “The players were larger than life,” he recalled. “I can still see their uniforms, crisp, clean. The stitching was perfect. It made me want to be a baseball player.” Dave McCreery, now in Ontario, noted pro pitchers liked to use catchers like him to warm up. He’s not sure if it was an Oriole or Pheasant he caught, but “Everything was going well until he threw a curveball that that went completely around my glove. Now if I had been wearing a facemask the story would have had a different outcome.” Instead, he needed five stitches.
By the fifth and sixth innings, the Pheasants stopped committing errors and started to see pitches. In the bottom of the sixth, Orioles’ relief pitcher Chuck Estrada allowed a single and a walk. Next up was Pheasant slugger Johnny Scruggs, who had previously struck out twice on “some of the best pitches I’ve ever seen.” According to the Sun, Scruggs “smote” a three-run home run 390 feet over left center, cutting the margin to 6-3 and putting the home team back into the game.
As gametime approached, the stadium’s PA system played the recent hit song “Don’t Let the Rain Come Down.” Nevertheless, said Mike Haar, now living in Kansas, one of the uniformed Smittys players who served as ushers, “The big moment was when it started to rain” at 6:00 p.m., and along with Pheasant directors, “we helped pull the tarp over the infield.” After the rain, the Sun reported the field was in good shape thanks to the cover held down by car tires, deadpanning, “One of the club directors is a tire salesman.” Afterwards, the only remnant of the weather was a foreboding wind coming from centerfield.
Pregame ceremonies recognized the homecoming for former Pheasants Barber (1958 team) and fellow pitcher Wes Stock (1956), who were named honorary Aberdeen citizens. There might also have been a reunion for the visiting Rox with two of their alumni on the Os: outfielder Willie Kirkland from the 1954 Rox and 1958’s catcher John Orsino.
In the seventh, the Pheasants brought in, said the Sun, “flame-throwing” 18-year-old pitcher Mike Davison, who struck out six Orioles in two innings while walking two. Pheasant Dave Pickle finished the game striking out two of the last three Oriole batters. Steve Cosgrove, whom the Orioles brought up from their Elmira, New York, farm team, gave up two singles, struck out two, and walked three. Two of those walks came in the bottom of the sixth and preceded Scruggs’ last at bat. With two on base, he unloaded on a pitch and excited the crowd. Unfortunately, the potentially game-tying homer hung up in that wind from centerfield and stayed in play. Kirkland settled under it to end the Pheasants’ last threat. The game ended a few innings later, Orioles 6, Pheasants 3.
After the game, MacPhail was amazed at the turnout and gratified by how the Os were received. Nonetheless the team’s travel woes continued. Warnings of inclement weather between Aberdeen and Chicago, where the Birds were due to play the League-leading White Sox the next day, prompted Bauer to decide to stay the night in Aberdeen. The Sun noted, “There wasn’t one dissenting voice.”
The next day, the Sun reported, “The Orioles were drooping when they hit the park, having arrived in Chicago in late afternoon after a delayed flight.” The White Sox won 9-5. Conversely, the Pheasants won their game that night over St. Cloud 5-2.
For the Orioles, 1964 was a good year, but better was to come, especially when some of the Pheasants on the field graduated to the bigs. After holding first place for three months, they finished third in the American League with a 97-65-1* record, just behind the White Sox and the pennant-winning New York Yankees. Their farm cousin Pheasants had a spectacular year, winning the Northern League championship with a 12-game margin and an 80-37 record (that .684 winning percentage was better than the Yankees’).
From all perspectives, the Orioles-Pheasants game was a success. Pheasant president Les Keller called it “the most eventful—the greatest day of my life.” At the end of the year when he stepped down as president, he passed on a fiscal surplus to his successor, thanks in no small part to the Orioles’ game. An American News editorial praised all involved in the great event and ended unsubtly: “It is hoped sometime again such an exhibition can be arranged.”
It was a game for the birds and for the ages. In another American News article, Desautels noted, “Baseball has flourished in Aberdeen for some 75 years, but nothing quite like this has ever happened before.” And, we might add, never since and nowhere else in South Dakota either. //
Photos courtesy of South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Dacotah Prairie Museum, and Bill Keller.
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