Former pitcher Moe Drabowsky, a fun-loving prankster who became an

Orioles World Series hero, died yesterday at the University of Arkansas
Medical Center in Little Rock of complications from multiple myeloma, a
cancer of the bone marrow.

Drabowsky, 70, had been living in Sarasota, Fla., and until a few weeks
ago continued to work with the Orioles' young pitchers in Florida.

Over a 17-year career, Drabowsky - whose real name was Myron - pitched
for eight teams, including the Orioles twice, from 1966 to 1968, and
again in 1970.

His career highlight came in the the 1966 World Series opener against
the Dodgers when he relieved Dave McNally and one-hit Los Angeles for 6
2/3 innings, striking out 11, a Series record for a relief pitcher,
including six in a row.

Drabowsky's performance in the 5-2 victory set the tone for the Series
as the Orioles' pitchers silenced the heavily favored Dodgers lineup
and Baltimore won the series in a stunning sweep.

The World Series heroics capped a 6-0 season in 1966 for Drabowsky,
whose career record was a less-gaudy 88-105. But that he was able to
pitch for 17 seasons despite suffering serious arm difficulties that
had him back in the minors after first breaking in with the Chicago
Cubs in 1956 was representative of a determination that he carried
through a recent six-year battle with cancer that included several stem
cell transplants.

"It's been up and down for him, but he's been such a fighter," his
daughter, Myra Beth Morris, said yesterday.

As a player, Drabowsky also was known for his practical jokes,
especially the old standard - the hot foot.

He once told a reporter that his most memorable victim was
then-baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn.

For that one, Drabowsky used a trail of lighter fluid as a fuse from
the trainer's room to the clubhouse. "You never saw a shoe come off so
fast in your life," Drabowsky said later.

Drabowsky's pranks were a fact of clubhouse life wherever he played.
Whether it was frightening Orioles teammates Paul Blair and Luis
Aparicio with live snakes, setting off fireworks in the bathroom or
making phony phone calls to the opposing bullpen with fake orders to
get pitchers warmed up.

With a faculty for imitating voices, Drabowsky once called the Kansas
City bullpen and impersonated manager Alvin Dark to get pitcher Lew
Krausse ready, even though the A's starter was doing fine.

"Their dugout never looked down there. Our bullpen was just howling,"
former Oriole Dick Hall once said, recalling the incident. "Moe got
worried, [Krausse] may be needed … and called [to get him] to sit
down."

When the Orioles bought Moe Drabowsky for $25,000 in 1965, they got more than a bullpen savant. They got a master of comic relief.

Who put the garter snake in shortstop Luis Aparicio’s pocket? Gotta be Drabowsky. Who gave that hot foot to a howling Boog Powell? Just say Moe. The Prince of Pranks, they dubbed him.

In 1966, Drabowsky went 6-0 and emerged from the bullpen to win a World Series game. But it was his practical jokes, as much as his prowess, that drove the Orioles down the stretch.

"We had a pretty loose team, because Moe took the pressure off in the clubhouse," pitcher Eddie Fisher said.

He placed live mice in teammates’ shoes and lit firecrackers when the spirit moved.

"Rolling a cherry bomb under the door, while you’re in the bathroom, is real bad," said Powell, whose ears rang for days afterward.

Most stoppers are expected to put out fires. Drabowsky was a good bet to start them. He torched newspapers while players were reading them. A whiz at giving a hot foot, he delighted in igniting a match -- or a book of them -- that he had attached to someone’s shoe.

"It became his obsession," said Powell, the first baseman. "If there were 20 guys sitting on the bench, Moe would crawl on his belly under 19 of them to give the last guy a hot foot."

Everyone was fair game. Coaches. Reporters. baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Once, in Cleveland, Drabowsky lit the instep of an Indians fan.

He burned The Baltimore Sun’s Jim Elliott so often, the scribe took to staring at his shoes during interviews. Bemused, the pitcher struck a match to the notebook in Elliott’s hand.

Other Drabowsky shenanigans: He put goldfish in the visitors’ water coolers and sprayed their quarters with sneezing powder. In Kansas City, he telephoned the A’s bullpen, pretending to be the manager ordering a reliever to warm up.

Snakes were a regular prop. During a sports luncheon in Baltimore, Drabowsky snuck a small python into the bread basket at the head table. When Brooks Robinson reached for a roll, he nearly fell off the dais.

When he was with the Kansas City Royals and the Orioles made it to the
World Series in 1969, Drabowsky hired an airplane to fly over Memorial
Stadium with a banner that read, "Beware of Moe."

Drabowsky was born in Ozanna, Poland, and escaped the Nazis with his
family coming to the United States when he was 3 years old.

He was scouted at Trinity College in Connecticut by the Cubs and was
part of a young pitching staff in Chicago that failed to live up to
expectations. After stops in Milwaukee, Cincinnati and with the Kansas
City A's, he arrived in Baltimore for a three-year stay compiling a
17-9 record and 26 saves.

He was selected by the Royals in the 1968 expansion draft, reacquired
by the Orioles in 1970 when he was 4-2, and then went to St. Louis
before finishing his career with the Chicago White Sox in 1972.

Most recently, he was in his 13th season with the Orioles as a coach at
the club's spring and rehabilitation camps in Sarasota.

In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his wife, Rita; mother,
Frances; another daughter, Laura Anne Nevell; two stepsons, Bob and
David DeJonge; a stepdaughter, Lisa Kelley; sister, Marion Freidhoff;
former wife Elizabeth; a niece and step-grandchildren.

Myron Drabowsky