By Brian Kopycinski
The Chicago Cubs of the 1960s and 1970s featured a number of all-time greats, such as Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, and Bruce Sutter. Despite this abundance of talent, the North Siders failed to claim a pennant in this time and well into the 21st century, before the 2016 squad broke the franchise’s 108 year championship drought. The closest these teams came to an NL crown was in 1969, when the Cubs finished second in the East Division, eight games behind the Amazin’ Mets, with a record of 92-70.
This close but no cigar trend continued, with more second and third place finishes for Chicago in the new decade. Banks retired in 1971 but remained with the team for a few years as a coach. Santo and Williams were dealt following the disappointing ‘73 and ‘74 seasons, with Santo heading crosstown to the White Sox first and Williams off to Oakland less than a year later. In the time since, the Cubs lacked true successors at each legendary players’ respective position. To be fair, these would be mighty tough shoes to fill. At third base, plenty of notables occupied the hot corner since Santo’s departure. These include Bill Madlock, Ron Cey, Ryne Sandberg for a season, and Steve Buechele.
When the Cubs drafted Pittsburgh native Kevin Orie, one of nine siblings, in the first round of the 1993 MLB Draft, they felt they’d found their third baseman of the future. Orie, a product of Upper St. Clair, took his talents to Indiana following high school, where he shined on the diamond for the Hoosiers baseball team. His 1994 Topps rookie card makes a bold comparison, to none other than Cal Ripken Jr. It reads “One look at Orie and the words “Cal Ripken Jr.” come to mind.
Like Rip, Kevin is a jumbo-sized shortstop (he wears a size 15 shoe!) yet has such infallible skills and instincts that he can handle the position with ease.” In three seasons at Indiana, from ‘91 to ’93, Orie hit .358 for his collegiate career with 34 home runs. He was an All-Big Ten selection in 1992. That year, Álex Rodríguez was selected first overall by the Seattle Mariners. Another noteworthy third baseman was taken soon after Orie’s name was called, Jasper, Indiana’s Scott Rolen, whom the Philadelphia Phillies took in the 2nd round, 46th overall.
While Rolen would eventually make it to Cooperstown after an outstanding career, Orie’s diverged after a strong rookie campaign in 1997. Orie always hit well in the minors but missed most of 1994 with a wrist injury. Heading into the ‘97 season, he was ranked the #42 prospect in Baseball America’s Top 100. Before his major league debut, he was hitting a blistering .378 between Double-A Orlando and Triple-A Iowa, albeit in a small 12 game sample size. With the big club, Orie got into 114 games primarily at third, with a few games spent at short.
The Cubs’ decline in the ‘90s was no exception that year, Sandberg’s swan song, though Orie ranked third on the team in WAR by both Baseball-Reference (2.4) and FanGraphs (2.3) metrics. He was just behind Sammy Sosa, a year before Sosa’s historic home run chase with Mark McGwire. For the year, Orie hit .275 in 418 plate appearances, with 8 homers and 44 runs batted in. For his efforts, he received down ballot NL Rookie of the Year votes, finishing 11th.
Rolen ran away with the award after a strong full season showing, after appearing in just 37 games for the Phils in ‘96. Boston’s Nomar Garciaparra claimed the honor for the American League. A lot would change in 1998 for the Chicago Cubs. It was a major turnaround for a franchise on hard times. 22 more wins than the previous season, Sosa’s power surge. The emergence of a rookie phenom in Kerry Wood, who struck out a record 20 batters on May 6 versus the Astros at Wrigley Field.
Unfortunately for Kevin Orie, he was involved in the play that resulted in the only hit the Astros notched that game. Houston shortstop Ricky Gutiérrez hit a grounder to Orie’s left, deflecting off his glove, and rolled into left field. Wood had no walks, so if not for this play that was ruled a hit, he would have had a perfect game with his 20 strikeouts.
Orie’s 1998 with the Cubs didn’t go as well. His hitting suffered, batting just .181 in 64 games, and he was dealt to the Florida Marlins at the deadline. A change of scenery seemed to have helped, as he improved on all fronts, hitting .263 in 48 games for the Fish, a year removed from their World Series title run in which they finished an abysmal 54-108 in ‘98. Orie continued to play well in 1999, though he only got into 77 games for the Marlins that year, good for 1.4 bWAR.
At Triple-A Calgary, he hit .319 in 23 games. Manager Jim Leyland resigned after another bad year, and Orie’s fortunes turned in the new millennium. Over the next few years, he bounced around the league via the minors, first being traded to the Dodgers, released, signed by the Royals, then the Yankees, and finally the Phillies before he made his way back to Chicago.
In those years spent in Triple-A, Orie never gave up hope of returning to the big leagues someday. His play reflected this mindset. For the 2001 season with Philadelphia’s top farm club, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, Orie hit .293 with 13 home runs and 45 RBIs. He signed with the team that first took a chance on him, the Cubs, in November. Orie appeared in 13 games for the North Siders in 2002, as a backup to third baseman Bill Mueller, where he hit .283 in 36 at-bats.
He saw more action with the Iowa Cubs that year, hitting a career high of 20 long balls in 86 games. After the Cubs released him the next spring, he moved around the minors again in the same way between several franchises that included the Indians, the Astros, the Brewers, and the newly founded Washington Nationals. He retired after one game with the Round Rock Express (Houston) in 2006.
While Orie never lived up to the high billing in Chicago, that’s not to take away from what he accomplished in the game. Even after he was released by the Cubs, he was still a great hitter at Triple-A, which most rank above Japan’s NPB for its level of competition. He was also a standout in Division I college baseball on winning teams. Not bad for a kid from the South Hills. In the years since Orie’s playing days, he’s still been involved in the game he loves, as a radio commentator for Pittsburgh’s 93.7 The Fan and color analyst for the West Virginia Mountaineers. Orie currently serves as the COO of MSW Supply based in Oakmont.