Don't Call Him Chicken, Call Him "Motormouth"

02/01/2012

Don't Call Him Chicken, Call Him "Motormouth"

There is funky, and then there is FON-KAY. And this grease-stained lid from a bucket of English's Fried Chicken — emblazoned with the grinning visage of Baltimore Orioles centerfielder Paul Blair — is truly the FON-KAY-est piece of baseball memorabilia I've ever laid eyes on. Wonder how much it would fetch from a collector... of baseball OR fried chicken memorabilia? (Thanks mucho to the blog Bob Lemke's Stuff for utterly blowing my mind with it.)

Blair, who turns 68 today, was a friendly, hard-hustling, eight-time Gold Glover with the Orioles. He hit .474 in the 1970 World Series, and made appearances in five other Fall Classics — '66, '69 and '71 with the Orioles, and '77 and '78 with the New York Yankees. You might also know "Motormouth" as the guy who Billy Martin sent out to replace Reggie Jackson in right field in the middle of the 6th inning on June 18, 1977 at Fenway Park, sparking Martin and Jackson's infamous dugout brawl.

Sweet medallion he's wearing in the photo below. Wonder if that was a zodiac pendant? Paul's an Aquarius, baby...

Posted at 05:37 PM in Freaky Shit, Personalities, Promotions, Uniforms | Permalink

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Dan Epstein

About Me
Dan Epstein is the author of Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s and Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of '76, both published by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press. He writes about baseball, music and other cultural obsessions for a variety of outlets and publications. He lives in Greensboro, NC, and is available for speaking engagements.

Big Hair and Plastic Grass

02/01/2012