Oriole #971- Steve Lombardozzi

A day after skipping him, I give you Oriole #971, Steve Lombardozzi. I passed him by yesterday because I had just acquired these autographs and hadn't found the time to get them scanned yet. I had some time last night so we go. 

As I mentioned over my last few posts, Steve debuted in the same game as Ubaldo and Lough, but since Lombo started the game at second base (position 4) he is slotted between the other two guys to officially become the 971st player to appear in a game for the Orioles. 

Steve went 1-3 in his Orioles debut, and has started almost every day since, mainly due to injuries to Manny Machado and J.J. Hardy. Through Monday's game, he has five hits (all singles) over nineteen at-bats, has scored two runs and struck out four times. He has also made a few nice defensive plays in the field, and I like what I see so far.

Steve is actually a local guy, and graduated from Atholton High School in nearby Howard County, MD. The Nationals drafted him in the 19th round of the 2008 draft and he steadily rose through their farm system before playing for Washington from 2011-13. They traded him to the Tigers this past off-season as part of the deal to acquire Doug Fister, but he returned to the Mid-Atlantic area at the end of Spring Training when the O's acquired him for Alex Gonzalez.

When I wrote my post about Alex getting traded, I offered up a Gonzalez autograph in return for a Lombo signature. Shockingly, a reader took me up on that offer which netted me the autograph up at the top of the post. I was excited that my offer worked, but then I was able to trade another Orioles signature for the lower autograph as well. So I went from needing a Lombo autograph to having two!

Before I wrap this up, I feel like I should mention two other things that are noteworthy.
1) Steve's dad, Steve Sr., also played in the Majors for the Twins and Astros between 1985-90
2) I know he has a really long last name, but compare his autograph to the pre-printed version on that Bowman card. Not much resemblance, am-I-right?