May 26, 1963 - Eighth and ninth-inning rallies netted four Baltimore rallies, and the Orioles defeated the Indians, 6-4, in Cleveland yesterday. The Birds’ sixth straight triumph — featuring key hits by John Orisno, Jackie Brandt, Luis Aparicio, Jim Gentile, and Brooks Robinson; run-scoring flies by Aparicio and Orisno; a pair of doubles by Jerry Adair, and three Cleveland errors — may have been all in vain, however. A claim by Cleveland skipper Birdie Tebbetts (pictured) that the O’s starter, Milt Pappas, was visited once too often by Oriole manager Billy Hitchcock precipitated an official protest of the game in the fifth inning by Tebbetts. Whether or not Baltimore’s 11th victory in the last 12 starts will remain in the books now must await a decision by Joe Cronin, the president of the American League. An A.L. regulation stipulates that a manager, coach, or any other non-playing personnel may confer with a given pitcher once on the field. A second visit requires that pitcher’s removal from the game. Hitchcock this afternoon was permitted two trips — one to check on a possible injury — and Pappas remained in the contest. “There are no exceptions to the rule,” said Tebbetts after the game. “It’s not a matter of the umpire’s judgment. If it is, they can throw away the damn rule book.” In the first inning, after Pappas struck out Fred Whitfield for the second out, Hitchcock went out to talk to plate umpire Frank Umont. Umont and Hitchcock then went to the mound, and Hitchcock conversed a moment with Pappas. After Hitchcock returned to the dugout, Tebbetts strode rapidly from the Cleveland side to talk to Umont. “I told Tebbetts any time a pitcher appears to have hurt himself and his manager comes out and I take him to the mound to check on his pitcher, that does not count as the one trip under the regulations,” Umont explained. “Pappas slipped on the rubber on his last pitch to Whitfield. Suppose he hurt his arm, and I don’t allow Hitchcock to visit him, and he keeps pitching with the arm and is out six weeks as a result?” Hitchcock again visited Pappas in the fifth. When the Baltimore skipper did not escort Pappas back to the dugout in this instance, Tebbetts lodged his protest. Umont and fellow umpire John Stevens gave Tebbetts’s objection little chance of being sustained.
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