The eight-time Gold Glove winner, who helped
lead the Orioles to World Series titles in 1966 and 1970, died last
night after collapsing at a Pikesville bowling alley. He was 69 years
old.

“When you talk about the greatest defensive center
fielders, he was right in the mix,” former O’s leftfielder Don Buford
told the Associated Press.
“With me in left and Frank Robinson in right, we played toward the
lines and gave him a lot of room. He could really go get it.”

Gloria Blair, his wife of 42 years, told the Baltimore Sun
that her husband had played golf Thursday morning with friends and
headed over to the AMF Pikesville Lanes afterwards to participate in a
celebrity bowling tournament.

“Paul was honestly too tired, but he never says no,” Gloria Blair told the Sun.
“During a practice round, he threw two or three balls, then sat down
and told a friend, ‘I feel funny’ and kind of collapsed. He lost
consciousness and they called 911 and the ambulance took him to [Sinai
Hospital], but the doctors there told me they never got a pulse. I was
told he died around 6:45 p.m.”

In the
1966 World Series, Blair homered for the the only run in the O’s win
over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 3. He hit .474 in the O’s 1970
World Series victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

In manager Earl Weaver’s rollicking Orioles’ clubhouse back in the day, Blair was nicknamed “Motormouth.”

“He’d
be talking about something, and maybe you’d get two words in, and then
he’d be off starting another conversation,” recalled Buford.

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