1994 Orioles Debuts, #540-549

Today, I'm going to continue with my method of posting my remaining O's autographs by the year of player's debuts with the club. If you want to see any of the previous posts, here they are (2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1995)

As many of you know, 1994 was a horrible year for the sport of baseball, as the players went on strike and the postseason was skipped. It was certainly the worst year that I have ever experienced in regards to my favorite sport and I hope to never have to go through something like that ever again. It felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me, and 'poof' one day there was just no more baseball. It was horrible and awful and unfortunate. While Cal's Streak and McGwire and Sosa's HR battles reinvigorated a number of fans following the strike, I think that a number of former fans just never came back to follow the game.

Anyway, here are the players that debuted for the Orioles during that abbreviated season. You'll notice there aren't many, at least in part due to the strike taking away the end of the season. Most of these guys were veterans by the time they arrived in Baltimore, with Armando Benitez being the only real rookie debut of note.

Rafael Palmeiro #540, 4/4/94 (1994-98, 2004-05)

Chris Sabo #541, 4/4/94 (1994)

Lee Smith #542, 4/4/94 (1994)

Mark Eichorn #543, 4/6/94 (1994)

Sid Fernandez #544, 4/17/94 (1994-95)

"El Sid" pitched for fifteen seasons in the major leagues and is certainly best remembered for the ten seasons he spent with the Mets early in his career. He was a two-time all-star for them and was also a big part of their 1986 World Series championship team.

The Orioles were his first post-Mets team and he pitched reasonably well in 1994 but struggled in 1995 and was released at the All-Star break. Overall, Sid had a 6-10 record and a 5.59 ERA with the Orioles over 27 appearances.

Tom Bolton #545, 5/8/94 (1994)

Mark Smith #546, 5/14/94 (1994-96)

Mark was the Orioles 1st round selection (#9 overall) in the 1991 draft, so expectations were fairly high for him. I recall that he was featured on quite a few cards as an Oriole, so I was surprised when I looked up his stats and discovered that he appeared in just 67 games over his three seasons in Baltimore. I was even more surprised to discover that he had played off and on in the Majors through 2003, when he appeared in 33 games with the Brewers. Overall, Mark played in 414 games over parts of eight seasons with five different franchises.

In non-baseball news, the Baseball Assistance Team gave Mark an award for heroism for rescuing a man from a burning car crash in 2000. That takes some serious guts, congratulations Mark! Great work!

Scott Klingenbeck #547, 6/2/94 (1994-95)

Dwight Smith #548, 6/15/94 (1994)

Armando Benitez #549, 7/28/94 (1994-98)

Request Week- Charles Johnson

Request week continues to roll along as blog reader Sharon requested a post about Charles Johnson, who she says that he is her favorite player. She didn't mention why that is, but I hope to touch on it during this post. Let me know how I did Sharon!

Charles was a catcher in the Majors for twelve seasons from 1994-2005 and played for six teams over his career. He is best remembered as a Marlin, and rightly so as he spent seven seasons representing the teal and black. He was known for being a great defensive catcher and appropriately caught three no-hitters, all with the Marlins; Al Leiter in 1996, Kevin Brown in 1997, and AJ Burnett in 2001. There are very few other catchers who can say there were behind the plate for that many no-no's and only Jason Varitek(4) has caught more.

During his time with the Marlins, Charles also won four consecutive Gold Glove awards from 1995-98, made two All-Star squads ('97 & '01) and was a member of their 1997 World Series Championship team. I would certainly think that he deserves a spot in the Marlins Hall of Fame, if they have something like that: considering the team has only been around since 1993, I doubt that many players have done more for the franchise.

On December 1, 1998, Charles was traded by the Dodgers to the Mets, who flipped him that same day to the Orioles for Armando Benitez. He spent the next season and a half as the O's everyday catcher and he was enjoying the best offensive season of his career in 2000 when the Orioles traded him and Harold Baines to the White Sox for Brook Fordyce and three minor leaguers (who never made it to the big leagues). Sure seems like a clunker from where I sit.

I purchased this Orioles signed card online. I previously had an in-person autograph from Charles in my collection, but it was on a Marlins card and I needed an upgrade. Charles signed for me in 1994 or 1995 when the Marlins were playing the Pirates and his signature looked more like the pre-printed one on the card than the abbreviated version that it devolved into, but that's a pretty standard occurrence.

Congratulations to the Orioles on Their Four Game Road Sweep

The Orioles swept the Rangers in a four game series at Arlington in the days leading up to the All Star Break. Now for many of you baseball fans who like better teams than the O's, a simple 4 game sweep on the road probably doesn't seem like a big deal. But to the Orioles franchise, this kind of thing doesn't happen. In fact, this is the first four game road sweep since the Orioles did it against the White Sox on July 6-9, 1995! Now I realize that teams only play a limited number of 4 games road series every season (the Orioles have 3 this season), but for it to have been 15 years since it last happened is ridiculous. That means that the Orioles went 14 full seasons, or approximately 42 series, without such a sweep in another teams' hometown. It's a small victory in a largely lost season, but could it be a signal that the Birds are about to turn things around?

For nostalgia's sake, here are a few of the players on the 1995 Orioles team who were part of that last four game road sweep.





Now that was a pretty decent team. Let's hope that the 2010 Orioles can play well through the end of the season and end up with an improved record, at least over the first half of the season. Good luck guys!

Lots of B's and a clarification on card pictures

So I wanted to clarify something before I start this post: from here on out, I am only going to include pictures of cards that have the player wearing an Orioles uniform. I will probably also include pictures of guys in O's minor league affiliate uni's but none from other teams. I know this is unfair to the multitude of players that don't have an Orioles card, but that is how things are going to go down from here on out. I never realized that scanning and cropping cards took so friggin' long!



Eric Bell (85-87)
He pitched one full season for the O's in 1987 and finished in the top 10 in the AL in losses, wild pitches and HR allowed. He started 34 games in his career, 29 of which were in '87 and didn't have much success overall. However, for an '87 Topps, this card is in great shape and the autograph really pops!


Juan Bell (89-91)
Juan is best known for being part of the trade from the Dodgers that sent Eddie Murray to LA. I think that he was to have been the 2nd baseman of the future but that never really panned out, since he batted only .172 in 100 games during the '91 season.


Rob Bell (07) Auto on Reds card
Rob was a relief pitcher who appears to have wrapped up his career with the O's. I remember that he was in the '07 team picture.



Armando Benitez (94-98)
Now he had a "lively' arm. I think his fastball could easily reach the triple digits, but where it was heading was more of the issue. My favorite Armando memory is of him drilling a Yankee in the back after giving up a home run and then challenging their entire team to a fight. He didn't win; but this is one of the more memorable Orioles team brawls. He has had a pretty long MLB career and compiled 289 saves. Also I wanted to mention that this Leaf Signature Series card was clearly designed to be signed across the bottom, above the Baltimore Orioles, but Armando was having none of that. He signed this card where he wanted to sign it.


Geronimo Berroa (97)
GERONIMO! He only played half of a season for the O's so I'm pretty surprised that he has an Orioles card, much less an auto card! Good for my purposes. And that's all I have to say about that.


Randor Bierd (08)
Randor the Burninator! Trogdor! Ring a bell to anyone?
Well I was able to get Randor to sign a few cards for me last season, one in Bowie and one in Tampa. Pretty much all it took was me knowing his name and asking him for his autograph. He seemed like a pretty decent guy. I know that the O's picked him up in the 07 Rule V draft from the Tigers and traded him to the Red Sox this past offseason for David Pauley.