John Wesley "Boog" Powell (born August 17, 1941) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a first baseman and left fielder from through , most prominently as a member of the Baltimore Orioles dynasty that won four American League pennants and two World Series championships between 1966 and 1971. The four-time All-Star led the American League in 1964 with a .606 slugging percentage and won the American League Most Valuable Player Award in 1970. He also played for the Cleveland Indians and the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 1979, Powell was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame.
In a 17-season career, Powell posted a .266 batting average with 339 home runs, 1,187 runs batted in, a .462 slugging percentage and a .361 on-base percentage in 2,042 games. Powell hit three home runs in a game three times, and stands third only behind Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken Jr. on the all-time home run list of the Orioles.
In 1983, Powell received five votes for the Hall of Fame (1.3% of all Baseball Writers' Association of America voters) in his only appearance on the ballot.
Early life Powell was born in Lakeland, Florida on August 17, 1941. As a 13-year old he played for that city's team in the 1954 Little League World Series, as a pitcher. Powell won eight games in tournament play, but his team lost to a team from Schenectady, New York. After his family moved to Key West when he was 15, Powell played at Key West High School and graduated in 1959. He led Key West to a state championship. Powell received the nickname "Boog" from his father. As Powell explained, "In the South they call little kids who are often getting into mischief buggers (pronounced 'boogers'), and my dad shortened it to Boog".Baseball Digest, February 1987, p. 86
Career Baltimore Orioles (signing and minor leauge career)
Powell signed with the Baltimore Orioles as an amateur free agent in 1959. He was originally scouted for the Orioles by Fred Hofman, who had been a teammate of Babe Ruth; and thought he was seeing another Babe Ruth when he watched Powell playing high school baseball in Florida. Jim Russo, the scout who signed Powell with the Orioles, was also the scout who would sign Jim Palmer and Dave McNally with the Orioles, among others.
Powell's signing occurred at a time before the Major League Baseball draft. Both the Orioles and St. Louis Cardinals were pursuing the 18-year old Powell as a free agent. Jim McLauglin, the head of the Orioles' minor league system and scouting staff contacted Walter Shannon, the head of the Cardinals' minor league system. McLaughlin suggested that they flip a coin to determine who would approach Powell with a contract offer, rather than have a bidding war over Powell as a true free agent in a competitive market. McLauglin, Shannon, Russo and Cardinals' scout Whitey Reis met for the coin flip, with Russo successfully calling tails. Russo signed Powell for a $25,000 bonus, tens of thousands of dollars less than the Orioles or Cardinals would have paid Powell if they bid against each other.
In 1959, Powell played 56 games for the Bluefield Orioles of the Appalachian League, batting .351, with 14 home runs in 191 at bats. Defensively, he played in the outfield. The following season, he batted .312 with 13 home runs for the Fox Cities Foxes of the Class B Three-I League, playing in Appleton, Wisconsin. Among his Foxes' teammates were Powell's future Orioles manager Earl Weaver, Cal Ripken, Sr., future Orioles general manager Pat Gillick, and future Cy Young Award winner Dean Chance. The Orioles had him playing first base that season.
In , the Orioles promoted Powell to the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings of the International League (IL). Powell joined the Orioles late in 1961, after leading the International League in home runs. At Rochester, he had a .321 batting average, with 32 home runs, 92 runs batted in (RBI), 86 runs scored, and a .981 OPS (on-base plus slugging). In addition to leading the IL in home runs, Powell was fifth in batting average, first in OPS, first in slugging percentage (.593), second in RBIs, and sixth in runs.
Defensively, Powell played 112 games at first base and 44 in the outfield. Powell himself observed that he had signed as an outfielder and the Orioles had tried to convert him to a first baseman in 1960 and 1961, but "'Jim Gentile came along and it was pretty evident that I couldn't play first base for a couple of years. So they put me back in the outfield'". In 1961, Gentile was an All-Star first baseman for the Orioles, and hit .302, with 46 home runs and 141 RBIs; ranking third in American League Most Valuable Player voting.
Baltimore Orioles (MLB) Powell started 112 games in left field as a rookie in 1962, 121 games in left field and 14 at first base in 1963, and 114 in left field in 1964. As a batter, he hit .243 in 400 at bats as a rookie, with 15 home runs and 53 RBIs. In , Powell hit .265, with 25 home runs, 82 RBIs, 67 runs, and a .470 slugging percentage.
Powell's breakout season as a batter came in . He hit .290, led the American League in slugging percentage (.606), and had a career-high 39 home runs; despite missing several weeks because of a fractured wrist. He was second in the American League to Harmon Killebrew in home runs. His 99 RBIs were eighth in the American League. Powell slumped to .248 with 17 home runs in 1965, splitting time between the outfield (70 starts) and first base (58 starts) defensively.
The 6 ft 3 in (1.93 m) 240 lb (108.9 kg) Powell spent his first three seasons in Baltimore as a left fielder before playing a significant number of games at first base in . The Orioles had All-Star first baseman Jim Gentile in 1962 and 1963, and Norm Siebern at first base in 1964 who was third in the AL in fielding percentage among first baseman. In 1962, Orioles manager Billy Hitchcock had said Powell would start in left field during his rookie season and was good defensively; running well for a person his size, with a fine throwing arm. In 1964, while playing left field in Boston's Fenway Park, Powell crashed into the outfield wall and broke his wrist; missing 15 games. Powell had been running so hard to catch a ball that he could not stop himself before hitting the wall.
Powell suffered from shin splints during prior Oriole spring training camps, but they were particularly bad before the start of the 1965 season, and the Orioles considered using him at first base. Orioles' business manager Herb Armstrong stated that Powell's shin difficulties while playing in the outfield where he would have to run, could manifest in different ways if he was moved to first base. He believed Powell was better off in the outfield; where he had improved and was now comparable to other left fielders defensively. However, with the development of rookie Paul Blair, Orioles' manager Hank Bauer used a platoon system with Powell in 1965; Powell playing left field against right-handed pitchers with Norm Siebern at first base, and playing first base against left-handed pitchers with Blair starting in center field and Curt Blefary in left field.
Powell won the American League Comeback Player of the Year award in (.287, 34 home runs, 109 RBIs) while being hampered by a broken finger.
In 1966, Powell, along with Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson, led the Orioles to the World Series, where they surprised the baseball world by sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in four games to become baseball's world champions. Powell had the highest batting average (.357) of any player in the series. Powell and the Dodgers Jim Barbieri (who was in the Little League World Series in 1953 and 1954 for Schenectady) became the first players to have played in both the Little League World Series and MLB World Series, though Powell was the Orioles full time first baseman and Barbieri had one pinch hit appearance in the 1966 World Series, which would be his last at bat as a major leaguer.
Powell had an off year in 1967, hitting only .234 with 13 home runs. He started only 109 games, as manager Hank Bauer used Curt Blefary at first base for much of the season's second half. Before the 1968 season, Powell lamented, "once, just once, I'd like to go through a whole season without an injury", and he did just that, playing over 150 games each of the next three seasons. His average only improved to .249 in 1968, but he hit 22 home runs with 85 RBIs in the year of the pitcher.
In 1969 he hit a career-high .304 with 37 home runs and 121 RBIs. He was second in the American League in RBIs, fifth in batting average, and sixth in home runs. He was the starting first baseman and cleanup hitter for the American League in the All-star game, playing the entire game and going one for four. The Orioles won the first ever American League Championship Series (ALCS) 3–0 over the Minnesota Twins (Powell hitting .385 with one home run), but lost to the New York Mets in the 1969 World Series 1–4 (Powell hitting .263). Powell was second in the American League Most Valuable Player voting in 1969, behind Harmon Killebrew.
In , he was the American League Most Valuable Player, hitting 35 home runs with 114 runs batted in and narrowly missed a .300 average during the last week of the season. He was again the starting first baseman and cleanup hitter in the All-Star Game. The Orioles again defeated the Twins 3–0 in the 1970 ALCS. Powell hit .429 with a home run and six RBIs. In the 1970 World Series, Powell homered in the first two games as the Orioles defeated the Cincinnati Reds in five games, with Powell hitting .294 with five RBIs and a 1.160 on-base plus slugging (OPS) over five games.
Prior to the 1971 season, Powell appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the 1971 baseball preview issue. He hit .256, with 22 home runs and 92 RBIs that season. He was third among all MLB third basemen with a .995 fielding percentage. Powell helped Baltimore reach a third straight World Series that year, after defeating the Oakland Athletics 3–0 in the 1971 ALCS. He hit .300 in the ALCS and had a pair of home runs in Game 2 against future Hall of Fame pitcher Catfish Hunter, but he hit only .111 in the 1971 World Series as Baltimore lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games.
Powell had been an American League All-Star for four straight years (1968 through 1971). Before the 1972 season, the Orioles traded Frank Robinson and did not win the Eastern Division for the first time since it had been created. Powell started 128 games at first base that season, hitting .252, with 21 home runs and 81 RBIs.
In 1973, Powell hit .265, but played in only 114 games, with 11 home runs and 54 RBIs, after his playing time was reduced by a sore shoulder. Powell injured his shoulder in mid-June while sliding, and aggravated the injury a number of times throughout the season; hampering his ability to play and his offensive production. The Orioles won the American League's Eastern Division, but lost the ALCS to the A's, 3–2, with Powell only playing in one game. Orioles' manager Earl Weaver used a platoon system in 1973; and in the playoffs he did not play the left-handed hitting Powell against the A's left-handed pitchers Vida Blue and Ken Holtzman; but Weaver also did not play Powell in the decisive Game 5 against right-hander Jim "Catfish" Hunter, stating it was because of Powell's shoulder.