Don Buford at 87

In what surely will give lifelong Baltimore Orioles fans one of those geez-time-flies moments, Don Buford – the dynamic leadoff batter for Baltimore's World Series teams from 1969-71 – celebrates his 87th birthday today.

Buford, grabbing the cover here of an early season edition of The Sporting News in 1969, hits four homers in those three World Series appearances.

Buford scores 99 runs in each of the three seasons in which the Orioles reach the World Series from 1969-71.

“Don Buford is the spark plug,” Orioles teammate and future Hall of Famer Frank Robinson once tells Sport magazine, “… the guy who always gets on base, who doesn’t scream or yell, but when you see him out there on a sack, you just have just got to bring him home.”