"Gus shattered his Oriole record for homers last season. As a catcher, he again proved to be one of the best in the business. But during the last month of the 1958 season, Gus played third base and did a good job.
He was in the Yankee organization for six years. He came to Baltimore in a mammoth 17-man trade."
-1959 Topps No. 330
"Gus's 30 homers in 1958 set an all-time Oriole record."
-1959 Topps No. 568, Topps All-Star
TRIANDOS HAS A WORD FOR IT: DESKOLO!
"Big Gus Triandos, the Orioles' Greek catcher, has a word for it: 'Deskolo.'
That's Greek for 'rough' and his way of describing what it's like to handle Hoyt Wilhelm's knuckleball.
Triandos has always insisted that catching is one of the easiest jobs in baseball. Since Wilhelm joined the Baltimore club last August, however, the easy-going, wavy-haired receiver has spent almost as many sleepless nights as a conscience-stricken embezzler on the lam.
'You would, too,' Gus said, following Wilhelm's ninth straight victory this spring, 'if you had to worry about catching the kind of stuff he throws. It's tough enough trying to catch the guy. But now it's getting so where everyone is trying to run on him.
'I have to watch to watch 'em like a hawk. If I'm not careful, some of the guys in this league will steal everything but my shindguards.'
Gus heaved a deep sigh as he picked out one of several catcher's mitts he keeps in his stall.
'I see runners going down to second base in my sleep,' he said, pounding his fist into the pocket of the mitt. 'Passed balls ... stolen bases ... wild pitches. It gets awfully depressing at times.'
Triandos then removed the mitt from his hand and demonstrated its flexibility. 'See this glove,' he said. 'It's a special one I used when a knuckleball pitcher is working. It's much looser than my regular mitts and I don't use a sponge with it.'
Gus pointed out that the glove helped immeasurably in holding on to the knuckler. At the same time, however, he hastened to add: 'Catching the ball is only half the battle. The other half is trying to grab the ball out of my glove fast enough to get a firm grip on it when a runner breaks for second. Fortunately for me, Wilhelm doesn't let too many guys get on.'
Triandos admits he worries more about committing costly passed balls than anything else. He was charged with 11 during the first two months of the season and all came while catching Wilhelm.
'I just hate to think that I'll louse up a good game with one bad inning,' Gus explained. 'I feel bad enough when I butcher things up ... as I did in one game against the Yankees when I was charged with four passed balls.
'Then, to make things worse, I got home that night and even my wife wants to know, 'What happened to you today?'
Skinny Brown is another Baltimore pitcher who throws a knuckler, but he doesn't give Triandos half the trouble Wilhelm does. That's because Brown's knuckleball usually breaks downward.
'At least I have a fighting chance to catch the ball when Skinny is working,' Gus said, 'because I have some idea where it's going. In Wilhelm's case, your guess is as good as mine.'
As Triandos got up to go, he concluded the interview by saying: 'Everyone's been giving me too much credit for catching Wilhelm. But don't believe it. I'm no genius. Wes Westrum did it for a long time and Joe (Ginsburg) showed he could handle him, too.
'I couldn't hit Hoyt when he pitched against us with Cleveland last year. So I figure I'm pretty lucky just being able to catch him.' "
-Arthur Richman, New York Mirror (Baseball Digest, August 1959)
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