Paul Blair obit

Four-time World Series champion Blair dies at age 69

He was not on the list.

Paul Blair, the eight-time Gold Glove center fielder who helped the Baltimore Orioles win World Series

titles in 1966 and 1970, has died. He was 69.

Blair died Thursday night at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Blair was with the Orioles from 1964-76. He then played for the New York Yankees — winning World Series in 1977 and 1978 — and the Cincinnati Reds.

In 17 seasons in the majors, he hit .250 with 134 home runs, 620 RBI and 171 stolen bases. Blair appeared in six World Series, two All-Star games and won Gold Gloves in 1967 and 1969-75.

In the 1966 World Series, Blair homered for the only run in Baltimore’s Game 3 victory over Los Angeles. The Orioles swept the Dodgers for their first championship.

Blair led the Orioles in the 1970 World Series with a .474 average in Baltimore’s five-game victory over Cincinnati. That season, he hit three home runs and had six RBI in a game against the Chicago White Sox.

Inducted into the Orioles Hall of Fame in 1984, Blair coached Fordham in 1983 and at Coppin State from 1998-2002. He had a heart attack in December 2010.

Blair played baseball and basketball and ran track at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles.

In 1989, he would play for the Gold Coast Suns in the newly formed Senior Professional Baseball Association, though the league would fold after the season. Blair would get 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 would last just one season and would finish a dismal 12–52.

 

Blair would get 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 would coach the team from 1998–2002. Unfortunately, his overall record at Coppin State would be a disappointing 30–185.[11]

 

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).