On This Date in Sports May 15, 1991: The Queen and the Orioles
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
It was quite a regal night at Baltimore’s old Memorial Stadium as Queen Elizabeth II attends a baseball game for the first time with President George HW Bush. The monarch and the president were seated alongside of the third base dugout with each of their spouses. They would witness the hometown Baltimore Orioles go down in defeat 6-3 to the Oakland Athletics.
Players on both teams were told to act naturally, as they met the dignitaries lining up to shake hands before the game. A few years prior to the Queen attending a baseball game was lampooned in the film, “The Naked Gun”. In that fictional mascot, the Queen’s life became endangered when a programmed Reggie Jackson under hypnosis attempted to kill the Queen. This time Frank Drebin did not need as extra precautions were put in place as bulletproof glass was extended over the seating areas.
The Royal Couple and the President were able to attend the game without incident as only a small group of demonstrators were on hand, protesting England’s involvement in Northern Ireland. Also seated with the Bushes, the Queen and Prince Phillip were William Donald Schafer, the Governor of Maryland, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, Orioles Owner Eli Jacobs and Commission Fay Vincent along with 32,596 fans.
The dignitaries only stayed for two innings as a tight schedule would not allow them the time to stay for all nine innings. The Queen did receive a parting gift to take back to Windsor Castle as the Orioles had special bats made for all her grandchildren with their names engraved on the barrel of the bat.
The Oakland Athletics fresh off three straight trips to the World Series was off to a strong start again at 18-13 in 1991 under Manager Tony LaRussa. The Baltimore Orioles meanwhile in their final season at Memorial Stadium were scuffling at 11-18 under Frank Robinson. The A’s got an early run when Harold Baines singled home Dave Henderson in the first inning. Henderson reached base on a walk by Jeff Ballard. Oakland added a second run in the third inning when Rickey Henderson scored on an errant pickoff attempt. Baltimore got on the board in the fourth as Randy Milligan led off the inning with a home run against Bob Welch. The Athletics added two more runs in the sixth to make it 4-1 as Lance Blankenship singled home Mark McGwire and scored on a double by Vance Law. In the bottom of the sixth Milligan homered again, with Craig Worthington also going deep to cut the deficit to 4-3. However, Oakland added runs in the seventh and eighth to make it 6-3 as Dennis Eckersley recorded the save.
If the Queen wants to attend another game in 2019, she will not have to go far as the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees will play a pair of games at the end of June. It will be the first MLB Games to be played in Europe.