Paul Blair (baseball)
Paul L. D. Blair (February 1, 1944 – December 26, 2013) was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from 1964 through 1980, most notably as the center fielder for the Baltimore Orioles dynasty that won four American League pennants and two World Series championships between 1966 and 1971. He also played for the New York Yankees and the Cincinnati Reds.[1]
Paul Blair
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A two-time All-Star player, Blair excelled as a defensive player, winning the Gold Glove Award eight times, including seven consecutive years from 1969 to 1975.[2] One of the best defensive outfielders of his era, he had excellent range and was brilliant at tracking fly balls.[3][4] He challenged hitters by playing shallow, then running down balls hit over his head.[5] In 1984, Blair was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame.[6]
Early life[edit]
Blair was born 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 while a student.[7] Blair was originally signed by the New York Mets as an amateur free agent in 1961. After spending the 1962 season in their farm system, he was selected by the Orioles in the 1962 first-year draft on November 26, 1962.[8]
Major league career[edit]
Baltimore Orioles[edit]
He broke into the Orioles' lineup in 1965 and, despite hitting only .234 with five home runs and 25 runs batted in, impressed many with his defensive skills. In 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, Blair played a major role in 1–0 shutouts by Wally Bunker and Dave McNally respectively, hitting a 430-foot home run off Claude Osteen in Game 3, and robbing 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.
Coaching career[edit]
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 with the team finishing with a 14–19 record. 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 and worked 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.
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.[21]
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).