Douglas Vernon DeCinces (born August 29, 1950) is a former third baseman from 1973 to 1987 for the Baltimore Orioles, California Angels and St. Louis Cardinals. He also played for one season in the Nippon Professional Baseball league for the Yakult Swallows in 1988.

DeCinces was, essentially, the bridge between two Hall of Fame Orioles (Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken) and was given a hard time by fans at first (though he later became a fan favorite) and his Manager, the notorious Earl Weaver. Despite this challenge, in 1982, DeCinces won the Silver Slugger Award, which is awarded annually to the best offensive player at each position and was a member of the 1983 American League All-Star team. He also finished twice in the top 25 voting for the American League Most Valuable Player. In 2006, he was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame.

On June 22, 1979, DeCinces hit a game-winning home run at Memorial Stadium off Detroit Tigers reliever Dave Tobik. The Orioles were trailing the Tigers 5-3 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. With one out, Ken Singleton hit a solo home run off Tobik to bring the Orioles within one. Eddie Murray reached base on a single, and, with two outs, DeCinces hit a two-run home run to give the Orioles a 6-5 victory.

The win has been called "the night Oriole Magic was born." Doug said years later that the game and his home run "triggered something" and that "the emotion just multiplied from there," adding that the ensuing atmosphere of excitement was in no small part due to the excited call of the home run by announcers Bill O'Donnell and Charley Eckman on the Orioles' radio network. The Orioles went on to win the American League pennant in 1979.

In his Letters from Home Plate response, Doug lists Don Drysdale as his favorite player growing up,Dan Quisenberry as the toughest pitcher he ever faced, and Yankee Stadium, Detroit and Anaheim as his favorite parks to play in. His favorite teammates were Bob Boone and Eddie Murray.

In November 2012, DeCinces received a criminal indictment on insider trading and was charged with securities fraud and money laundering. On May 12, 2017, after a nearly two-month trial, a federal court jury in Santa Ana, California, found him guilty on 13 felony counts and he was sentenced to eight months of home detention and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. Hall-of-Fame former ballplayer Rod Carew extolled the charitable contributions of DeCinces at the sentencing, telling the court, "I am here because he has done so much more for other people."

(excerpted from Wikipedia, BR Bullpen, and SABR)