Product Code Database
Jorge Orta Núñez (born November 26, 1950) is a Mexican former professional baseball second baseman and outfielder. He played fifteen seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1972 to 1987 for the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays, and Kansas City Royals. He is best remembered for being at the center of one of the most controversial plays in World Series history.
Orta was shifted to second base for the season after batting over .500 in spring training. Playing through injuries for much of the year, he batted .266 and tied for second in the American League (AL) with eighteen errors among second basemen.
Orta began the season batting at the bottom of the White Sox line-up, but was moved up to the number two spot in manager Chuck Tanner's batting order, and batted .411 with 23 runs scored in the month of June. More specifically, he batted .516 with four home runs from June 17 to June 23 to earn AL Player of the Week honors. For the season, his .316 batting average was second only to Rod Carew in the AL.
For the season, Orta batted .296 with four home runs and 46 RBIs in the first half to be named to the AL All-Star team, but did not appear in the game due to a pulled hamstring in his right leg. He returned healthy on July 17, and batted .314 with seven home runs and 37 RBIs in the second half.
Prior to the start of the season, the White Sox acquired Jack Brohamer from the Cleveland Indians. New Chicago manager Paul Richards opted to use Brohamer at second and Orta at third. Orta proved himself a poor third baseman, and was eventually moved into the outfield while rookie Kevin Bell took over at third. The Sox narrowly avoided a hundred losses in 1976. For his part, Orta batted .274, while hitting a career-high fourteen home runs and scoring a career high 74 runs.
Orta returned to second base when Bob Lemon replaced Richards as manager in . The White Sox won ninety games to finish third in the American League West. Orta, now batting third in the line-up, finished second on the team (to Richie Zisk) with a career high 84 RBIs. He remained at second in , but new player-manager Don Kessinger deployed Orta as the designated hitter in , and Orta struggled in the role, accruing a .212 batting average, three home runs and 21 RBIs through June 27. Meanwhile, second base had become something of a revolving door, with Kessinger, Alan Bannister, Joe Gates, Jim Morrison and Greg Pryor all manning the position at one point or another. Orta returned to second base in the middle of July, and batted .313 with seven home runs and 22 RBIs the rest of the way.
On June 15, , he tied an A.L. record for the most hits in one game with six. The feat raised his season average to .339, and likely played a part in his being named Cleveland's sole representative at the 1980 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. He did not, however, appear in the game.
With prospect Von Hayes ready to assume an everyday major league job in right field, Orta became trade-bait at the Winter meetings. On December 9, he and two minor leaguers (Jack Fimple and Larry White) were sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Jack Perconte and former Rookie of the Year winning pitcher Rick Sutcliffe.
Orta's first trip to the post-season did not go as well as he may have hoped. The Royals were swept by the Detroit Tigers in the 1984 American League Championship Series. Orta went one-for-ten with a triple and an RBI.
The Royals stuck with the platoon of McRae and Orta at DH in . Though the DH position's batting average dropped to .256, they hit nineteen home runs while driving in 114 runs. The 1985 season once again came down to the wire between the Royals and Angels. The Royals went on an eight-game winning streak at the start of September to jump into first place in the A.L. West for the first time on September 6. They took first place for good when they took three of four games with the Angels in Kansas City toward the end of the season to head to the post-season for the second year in a row.
Game six was a pitchers' duel between the Royals' Charlie Leibrandt and St. Louis' Danny Cox. Each held the opposing team scoreless through seven innings before the Cards finally broke through for a run in the eighth. Orta was called upon to pinch hit for Pat Sheridan leading off the ninth inning with the Royals down 1–0. He hit a slow roller Cardinal first baseman Jack Clark fielded, and flipped to pitcher Todd Worrell covering first. First base umpire Don Denkinger called Orta safe, but television replays showed that Worrell beat him to the bag.
The following batter, Steve Balboni, hit a pop foul that ended up falling between Clark and catcher Darrell Porter. Given new life, Balboni hit a single to left on the very next pitch, moving Orta to second base. With Onix Concepción pinch running for Balboni, Jim Sundberg followed with an unsuccessful sacrifice bunt in which Orta was thrown out at third. The next batter was Hal McRae, pinch hitting for Buddy Biancalana. After Porter allowed a passed ball that allowed both runners to move up a base, McRae was intentionally walked to load the bases. Dane Iorg, pinch hitting for Dan Quisenberry, singled to right field driving in two runs, and giving Kansas City a 2–1 win. The only out recorded by the Cardinals in the inning was Orta at third.
The win shifted momentum of the Series to the Royals, who won the Series the next night on Bret Saberhagen's 11–0 shutout. Years of debate between Cardinals' and Royals' fans have followed over what might have happened if Orta had been put out at first instead of third.
|
|
