DeCinces played PONY League Baseball and Colt League Baseball in Northridge, California, with fellow major leaguer Dwight Evans. He attended and played for Los Angeles Pierce College, and is in their Athletic Hall of Fame.\n', '

He began his major league career with the Baltimore Orioles late in the 1973 season, and he played for the Orioles in the ensuing eight full seasons. On June 22, 1979, in one of the most famous games in Orioles history, he 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." DeCinces 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.\n', '

In 1982 the Orioles traded DeCinces to the California Angels for Dan Ford in order to make room for Cal Ripken, Jr. (DeCinces had begun his career in Baltimore as the successor to Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson.) DeCinces was a member of the American League All Star Team in 1983. Released by the Angels on September 23, 1987, he concluded his major league career by playing in four games for the St. Louis Cardinals late in the 1987 season. In total, DeCinces played for fifteen seasons (1973–1987) in the major leagues for three different teams, including nine years with the Orioles and six years with the Angels.\n', '

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