Rich Dauer, who played his entire 10-season major league career with the Orioles and was the second baseman on the 1983 World Series champions, has died, the team announced on Monday. He was 72.
He was elected to the Orioles Hall of Fame in 2012.
Dauer, who was the Orioles’ first-round draft pick in 1974 from USC, made his debut in 1976 with 11 games, and began playing regularly the following season.
His best season came in 1980 when he hit .284 and drove in 63 runs despite hitting only two home runs. Though he never hit more than nine home runs in a season, Dauer drove in more than 50 runs in 1979, 1980 and 1982.
Dauer was the regular second baseman in1979 when the Orioles defeated the California Angels in four games to win the American League Championship Series before losing the World Series in seven games to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
He homered and hit .294, playing in six of the seven games.
In 1983, Dauer played in the four-game win over the Chicago White Sox in the ALCS and all five games of the World Series win against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Besides playing second base, Dauer had 135 starts at third base.
He concluded his major league career in 1985 and later managed in the minor leagues for Seattle and was a coach for Cleveland, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Colorado and Houston.
Dauer, who was a coach for the Astros on their World Series winning team in 2017, suffered a subdural hemotoma as a result of a head injury at the World Series parade. The condition required emergency brain surgery.
In 2003, Dauer was one of many candidates who interviewed for the Orioles managing job following the dismissal of Mike Hargrove. Like all candidates, Dauer was interviewed by the press after the formal interview with Orioles management. The team hired Lee Mazzilli.
Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com.