In 1983 and 1984 righty starting pitcher Mike Boddicker was not only the ace of the Baltimore Orioles but he was one of the best pitchers in the major leagues period. In those two years Boddicker pitched in 61 games (60 starts) and he was 36-19 with a 2.78 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP. He never really matched that success in the rest of him time in Baltimore. He pitched 9 years for the Orioles appearing in 190 games (180 starts) in which he was 79-73 with a 3.73 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP.

Back in 1979 manager Earl Weaver was looking for a way to maximize production. He needed some pop out of left field and he was looking at righty swinging Gary Roenicke and lefty swinging John Lowenstein. He knew that neither player would be a star on his own but he decided to have them share LF with Roenicke starting against lefty pitchers and Lowenstein against righties. The result was that they combined to go 148 for 573 (.258) with 93 runs scored, 36 homers, 98 RBIs and 17 stolen bases. With that the platoon was born and it maxed out the abilities of both Roenicke and Lowenstein in their time with the Orioles. Roenicke played in 850 games in 8 years with the Orioles and he was 555 for 2,217 (.250 avg, .803 OPS) with 311 runs scored, 106 homers, 352 RBIs and 15 stolen bases. Lowenstein played in 645 games in 7 years with the Orioles and he was 414 of 1,510 (.274 avg, .824 OPS) with 245 runs scored, 68 homers, 237 RBIs and 40 stolen bases. So if you ever get sick of watch platoons you can blame Earl Weaver for it but it was a stroke of genius in 1979.