John Wesley "Boog" Powell (born August 17, 1941) is a former major
league first baseman who played for the Baltimore Orioles (1961-74), Cleveland
Indians (1975-76) and Los Angeles Dodgers (1977). He was with the Orioles's
World Series Champion teams in 1966 and 1970, the American League Champion teams
in 1966, 1969, 1970 and 1971, and the American League East Division Champion
teams in 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973 and 1974. The 4-time All-Star won the American
League's Most Valuable Player award in 1970 and in 1964 posted a .606 slugging
percentage to lead the American League. He batted left-handed and threw
right-handed, playing first base, outfield, and designated hitter.
Baltimore's glory
years
In 1966, Powell, along with
Frank Robinson and
Brooks Robinson, led the
Orioles to the
1966 World Series,
where they surprised the baseball world by sweeping the mighty Los Angeles
Dodgers in four games to become baseball's world champions.
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. In
1969 he hit a
career-high .304 with 37 home runs and 121 runs batted in, and in
1970 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. In the
1970 World Series,
Powell homered in the first two games as the Orioles defeated the
Cincinnati Reds in 5
games. Prior to the
1971 season, Powell
appeared on the cover of
Sports Illustrated
for the 1971
baseball preview issue. Powell
helped Baltimore to a third straight World Series that year, blasting a pair of
home runs in game two of the
1971
American League Championship Series against the up-and-coming
Oakland Athletics, but
he hit only .111 in the
1971 World Series as
Baltimore lost to the
Pittsburgh Pirates in
seven games.
Retirement
Powell had been
an
American League all-star for
four straight years (1968?1971). 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. The aging slugger was
traded to Cleveland with
Don Hood for
Dave Duncan
and a minor leaguer before the
1975 season.
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. However, he hit only nine home runs in
1976. 1977 was his
final season, as a
pinch-hitter for the
Dodgers. He hit .244 with no home runs and 5 RBI's. He was released on August
31, 1977.
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!"
[2][3]Powell
currently owns Boog's Barbecue, which sells
barbecue sandwiches and ribs in
two locations: on
Eutaw Street at
Oriole Park at
Camden Yards, and the Boardwalk in
Ocean City,
Maryland. Boog Powell is an avid angler, kicking off the Maryland Fishing
season with the governor.
W1, PS-CS6, SPM, IrfanView.
Cheers,
Brian
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