1985 Orioles Debuts, #397-408

Compared to the few following seasons that I recently profiled, the Orioles debuts during the 1985 season  saw a few bigger names and/or players that actually stuck around Baltimore for at least a few seasons.  The highlights were probably Fred Lynn, and Alan Wiggins, but a few of these other guys had some decent success in Baltimore as well. 

Here's my older posts in the series...
(2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987, 1986)

Fred Lynn #397, 4/8/85 (1985-88)

Don Aase #398, 4/8/85 (1985-88)

Fritz Connally #399, 4/10/85 (1985)

Lee Lacy #400, 5/13/85 (1985-87)

Al Pardo #401, 7/3/85 MLB Debut (1985-86)

Alan Wiggins #402, 7/5/85 (1985-87)

Phil Huffman #403, 7/13/85 (1985)

Brad Havens #404, 9/8/85 (1985-86)

Brad pitched eight seasons in the Majors between 1981-89 for five different teams and never was able to find much prolonged success at the MLB level. He was the Opening Day starter for the 1983 Twins and he was once involved in a trade for Rod Carew.

He also has a long-standing tradition of not signing TTM requests, dating back at least a decade, so I'm very happy to have his autograph in my collection.

Tom O'Malley #405, 9/8/85 (1985-86)

Tom's career was similar to that of Brad's in a few ways. He played nine seasons in the big leagues for six different teams, also including two with the O's, but never was able to get in a groove and spent much of his MLB in a back-up role. Their paths split when Tom went on to play six seasons in the Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league following his time in the Majors. He found consistent success in Japan and was one of the league's better players during much of his time there, even winning the Central League MVP award in 1995. He hit over .300 over every season that he played in Japan.

Kelly Paris #406, 9/18/85 (1985-86)

Eric Bell #407, 9/24/85 MLB Debut (1985-87)

John Habyan #408, 9/29/85 MLB Debut (1985-88)

TTM Success- Al Pardo

Al Pardo 1985-86

On June 17 of last year, I sent out this TTM request to Al. A few months later, I pretty much figured that I was not going to see it again, but I was wrong. Last Friday, January 15th, a TTM envelope was in my mailbox and I got excited as I always do when I get a return. But I was very surprised to see Al's card, I had figured that it was a goner. But 212 days after I sent it out, I had a personalized Al Pardo autograph, his only confirmed success on SportsCollectors.Net and my longest wait for a successful TTM request to date. Sweet.

For whatever reason, I seemed to think that Al had a longer and/or more successful career than he did. He played in only 53 games for the Orioles(50) & Phillies(3) over four seasons in the Bigs. He was a backup catcher for the Birds over the latter part of the '85 season and middle of the '86 season and received 126 of his career 129 at-bats over that time.

Interestingly, Al is one of only three players in MLB history to have been born in Spain. He is the only batter from Spain to play in the Majors and fittingly enough leads all Spanish born players with 1 HR, 129 ABs, 6 R, 4 RBI, 2 doubles, 17 hits, etc. He is actually the only Spaniard to even have an AB, so he leads all of the offensive categories. I now have an autograph from the most successful player from Espana in MLB history and that's cool with me.

2 Days Until FanFest!
41 Days Until the First O's Spring Training Game!!