Bird Tapes Photo Album: Three Birds At A Ballgame

A Bird Tapes subscriber recalls when his classmate, Curt Blefary, and two of Blefary’s Oriole teammates came to a college baseball game.

After reading my Bird Tapes post about Orioles shortstop Mark Belanger, subscriber Mark Schlenoff was moved to send me a photo.

In the mid-to-late ’60s, Schlenoff was a physical education major at Towson State (as it was known then) and also on the baseball team. He became friendly with Orioles outfielder Curt Blefary, the 1965 American League Rookie of the Year, when Blefary took classes at the college during the offseason.

“We became classmates. Curt was a standard bearer at Sweeney’s Bar on Greenmount Avenue, and when I went there with him, we NEVER paid for drinks,” Schlenoff wrote in an email.

The major league season was underway in the spring of 1967 when Blefary brought two of his Oriole teammates, Belanger and pitcher Eddie Watt, to a Towson State game.

Schlenoff recalled the game. “I caught Jimmy Garland that day,” he wrote, referencing a pitcher enshrined in Towson’s Hall of Fame.

His photo of the three Orioles is a classic conveyance of ’60s cool.

“In a side note, Blefary gave me one of his ‘gamer’ bats with lots of sweet spots on the barrel,” Schlenoff wrote. “Our second baseman cracked it in batting practice!”

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Jon Miller
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