Boog Powell

By Allyson Turner

Powell began his major-league career in 1961 with the Baltimore Orioles. He played 14 seasons with the Orioles, two with the Cleveland Indians and finished his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977. He helped the Orioles to the World Series four times in six years from 1966-'71. In 1968 he hit a career-high .304 with 37 home runs and 121 RBI. In 1970 he was the American League's MVP. For his career, Powell batted .266 with 339 home runs and 1,187 RBI. Staying close to the game, Boog runs a concession stand at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Boog Powell's major-league career spanned 17 years, the majority in Baltimore. (Baltimore Orioles)

Your real name is John Wesley Powell. How did you get the nickname, Boog?
It was one of those things that my father hung on me when I was a kid. He used to say, 'Look at that little booger run.' Somehow it just got shortened and it wouldn't go away. I came to the big leagues and I was using the name John. Sooner or later my friends would come in and call me Boog again. Then Dizzy Dean came up one day and said, 'Son that's a terrible nickname.' Here's a guy named Dizzy and he's got a brother named Daffy, talking about my nickname. Anyway, one of the good things about it was you never knew if they were booing you or just saying your name. That was one pretty cool thing about it.

You played in the Little League World Series in 1954. What is your fondest memory of that Series?
I was the starting pitcher for the South in that game. This was in the years when there were no rules about how often you could pitch. I had pitched, I think it was eight games to get out of the state of Florida. Then we went to North Carolina and to the Regionals. I won two out of three games in three days. I played short on the days that I didn't pitch. Two days later we were in Williamsport, Pa., and I was the starting pitcher. I just didn't have it. My arm was shot. I got beat 16-0. My fondest memory was a kid from Schenectady, N.Y., and his name was Bill Massucci. He hit one over the dike in the old Little League Park. He hit the longest home run in Little League history at that time. Of course, the Little League history started in '48 or '49 and I was there five years later. Anyway, it was still quite a thrill for a young kid from Lakeland, Fla., who had never been out of town, to get on a train and go to Williamsport and all of sudden be on one of the 16 best teams in the country.

You came into major-league baseball in 1961 the same year Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's record. Now, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are chasing Maris. Was there more hype then or now?
Well, I think there's more hype now or maybe it's because there are more (media) outlets now and different ways to see it. There was no CNN, ESPN, CBS Sports, Fox Sports. There are so many different ways to see things. Back then there were only three major TV networks and, of course, the daily newspapers. It was a big thing, there's no doubt about that. I can remember I got called up in New York that year and my first game was the game Maris hit No. 59. I had been at Rochester that year and I got called up at the end of the year. It was a pretty exciting time for me. There were more people in Yankee Stadium then there were in my hometown. It was a real exciting day to play your first game in Yankee Stadium.

Do you think any of these guys have a legitimate shot at breaking the record?
Well, sure they do. It's gonna get harder and harder as time goes on. They're already showing that nobody really wants to pitch to them and certainly why should you. It's gonna take an awful lot of patience on their part. It would seem like you would start swinging more and more but they're gonna have to really be patient because sometimes you can get in bad habits and you just don't get out of them right away. That's kind of what happened to Griffey, and McGwire was going through a little dry spell. Sosa, I think is the only one who hasn't gotten into a long dry spell. It's a hard thing. It's not an easy thing to do, this hitting the baseball business. It's not nearly as easy as these guys are making it seem.

You began your career as a left fielder before moving to first base in 1965. How did you make the transition?
I think the first thing you have to do is have soft hands and I always had soft hands. Even as an outfielder, what I got to I caught. I didn't have the greatest arm in the world. I think I tied for the league lead in assists. It was just a question of taking a lot of ground balls every day. Of course, we had one of the greatest infielders, in my mind, of all-time, in Brooks Robinson at third base and, of course, Luis Aparacio was at short and he wasn't a slouch either. We had two Hall of Famers on one side of the infield and to be around those guys every single day and to watch their work habits and their work ethic ... Brooksie caught 100 ground balls every single day. So I started doing it too and I said, 'If Brooksie can do it so can I.' And it certainly helped.

In 1970, you were AL MVP with 35 home runs and 114 RBI. Then, you hit two home runs in the World Series and your team won. Describe what it was like in Baltimore that year?
Seventy was a great year; '69 was a good year, too. It was probably a better offensive year than '70 was. I think (Harmon) Killebrew got the MVP that year and that was the year the Mets knocked us out of the World Series. We just had a wonderful team. It was a lot of fun playing back then. We had a great bunch of guys who got along good together and, of course, we showed that we had four 20-game winners and we had three 20-game winners in '70, which wasn't too bad. In '71 we got four 20-game winners and we all went to Japan together and we had a great time over there and we were really a very close-knit unit. I doubt very seriously if you'll see that kind of unity on a team anymore just because of the fact that there's free agency and guys will be going their own ways. Of course, we were here in Baltimore for the long run and we all loved it.

You talk about that great team and that pitching staff with Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson and Dave McNally all winning 20 games, but the Atlanta Braves have something very similar today with John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Denny Neagle and Tom Glavine. If you had to compare a pitching staff with your great teams, would the Atlanta Braves be the closest?
Yeah, I think so. Of course, the guy who's heading up that whole operation is a Baltimore guy too, in Johnny Schuerholz, who is from Baltimore. He was our assistant farm director here before he went down there. We showed him how to do it so he knows what it's all about.

In 1975, after 14 seasons, Baltimore traded you to Cleveland for Don Hood and Dave Duncan. Was that a crushing blow?
It wasn't much fun. I felt kind of betrayed because I had played for a couple of years with a shoulder that I couldn't raise and I couldn't even brush my teeth. That's the thanks you get. They sort of just saw me out the door. Earl Weaver said it wasn't his doing and Harry Dalton said it wasn't his doing, but somebody did it. Anyway, I went over to Cleveland and I had a pretty good year. I got my shoulder straightened out a little bit and had a good year and unfortunately the next year I busted my ankle up and that was pretty much it.

You run a concession stand at Oriole Park. What are you cooking?
We do pit beef, pork tenderloin and turkey sandwiches. I started trying to get involved with the ballpark idea when the Orioles were still at Memorial Stadium. We just couldn't find a place to do it over there. Everyone loved the idea and I wrote a cookbook back in '86 on the art of mesquite cookery. It's always been a hobby of mine so I kept beating on the door and with this new ballpark going in and everything else, we finally hit on something and it works really well.

How much fun did you have filming the Miller Lite commercials with Rodney Dangerfield, Bob Uecker, Bubba Smith, L.C. Greenwood and Bert Jones?
That was another whole career. It really was. I did my first Lite beer commercial in '78, a year after I got out of baseball. I was in the marina business. I was living down in Key West, Fla., and one thing led to another. I ended up doing like 17 Lite beer commercials over the next 13 years. It was a lot of fun. I did a lot of work for Miller distributors over the country and we sold a lot of beer during that time.

When kids come up to you now for an autograph, do you have the same feeling as you did 25 years ago when you were a player?
It's more a case now of the parents coming up with the kids saying, 'Hey, trust me this guy was OK. It's OK to get his autograph.' You know, it's cool. Kids come up to me every now and then and they'll look it up and they'll say, 'Hey, you were pretty good.' That does make you feel good. It really does. I enjoy doing it. I'm very active at the ballpark. I sign anywhere from 500-700 autographs a night and it's fun and I enjoy doing it.