Ben McDonald hasn’t been shy about admitting that Cal Ripken Jr. handled the pitch-calling when McDonald was on the mound and Chris Hoiles was catching for the Orioles in 1992.
McDonald fessed up in a Society of American Baseball Research profile, and with minimal prodding, also fessed up to me on the Bird Tapes Podcast in 2025.
As he explained, he and Hoiles were both young and relative newcomers to the major leagues that year, and when they were going over hitters before an outing one day, Ripken popped his head in the door and gently asked, “You boys don’t know what you’re doing, do you?” McDonald and Hoiles admitted they needed help. Ripken took over calling pitches for them. Standing at shortstop, he’d signal the pitch type with the way he held his glove and then signal the desired location by tapping an imaginary strike zone on his jersey. It was up to Hoiles to relay the signs to McDonald.
“I’d be looking at Chris, trying to get the sign. I could see his eyes.” McDonald recalled. “Chris is looking over my right shoulder. Then the fingers would go down. Cal called every pitch I threw that year.”
After games, McDonald and Hoiles would drink a beer with Ripken in the clubhouse and review the calls, hopefully learning some lessons. It was, in effect, their version of baseball graduate school and on-the-job training.
By 1993, they’d graduated to handling the calls themselves.
When I brought this up during my recent conversation with Hoiles, explaining that McDonald had confessed, I expected Hoiles to laugh about it. Instead, there was silence on the other end on the line.
Hoiles, I realized, had no idea McDonald had confessed. He thought his long-held secret was still lost in history’s mists.
As you can hear in this latest episode of the Bird Tapes Podcast, which contains Part 2 of the Hoiles interview and is now available to paid subscribers with this post, Hoiles finally chuckles and says, “Well … if Ben let the cat out of the bag …”
It hit me that the story reflected well on Ripken but poorly on Hoiles because it was HIS job to call the pitches and he’d admitted he needed help — an uncomfortable admission for a player so proud.
But eventually, he warmed to telling his version of the story.
“I’m not going to lie. I relied on the veteran. I relied on the experience (that Ripken had),” Hoiles told me.
Although he was mildly embarrassed about it, the story illustrates several qualities that helped Hoiles make it in the majors. He was humble. Listened to his baseball elders. Put their advice to use. And most importantly, he was all about winning. If he had to hit ninth in the order or let someone else do his job to give the Orioles a better shot at winning a game, he was all for it.
As he said in Part 1 of his interview, posted last week, his first reaction to being traded to the Orioles in 1988 wasn’t positive because they were at the bottom of the American League. But he soon saw it as “an opportunity to help turn the organization around … and I think we did that.”
Indeed, although they didn’t reach the World Series, the Orioles generally fielded strong teams in their first years at Camden Yards, putting the despair of the late ‘80s behind them. And with his strong bat and steady defense, Hoiles was an integral piece of that turnaround.
(Note from John Eisenberg: My conversation with Hoiles is the latest new interview of 2026 that I’ve added to the Bird Tapes Podcast stream, following Roy Firestone, Buck Showalter, Dr. Charles Steinberg, Mike Bordick. Andy MacPhail, Ed Wheatley, Rick Dempsey and Rick Vaughn. You need a paid subscription to hear Hoiles and most of the 64 interviews in the archive. I’ll continue to post new interviews with major figures in Oriole history throughout 2026. A paid subscription gives you 24/7 access to the entire archive of interviews. Click on the “subscribe now” button to survey your subscription options.)
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.