2000 Orioles Debuts, Orioles # 656-681

To continue the new posting method that I started last week, I'm going to cover all of the Orioles players who debuted during the 2000 season in this post.

2000 was a big year for player debuts in Baltimore, and 26 different players made their debut in black and orange during the season. This year might also be one of the best examples of why I've opted to start posting so many autographs in a single post. I have very little to say about this group, at least not much that I've not already written about in the past. Let's just say that the 2000 Orioles were a largely forgettable team.

Mike Trombley #656, 4/3/2000 (2000-01)

Mike's only "Orioles" card doesn't picture him in an Orioles uniform so I took the half-step upgrade to this Orioles signed 8x10.

Buddy Groom #657, 4/3/2000 (2000-04)

Buddy pitched out of the bullpen in Baltimore for five seasons and was pretty decent for the most part. One of the most interesting numbers I came across in his Orioles stats was the number of games he appeared in was always divisible by 10 (70, 70, 70, 60, 60). Weird right?

He also holds the major league record of appearances (786) without a single plate appearance.


Chuck McElroy #658, 4/5/2000 (2000-01)

Pat Rapp #659, 4/6/2000 (2000)

Calvin Maduro #660, 4/7/2000 (2000-02)

Tim Worrell #661, 4/7/2000 (2000)

Jose Mercedes #662, 4/9/2000 (2000-01)

It took me quite some time to track down a signed Orioles card of Jose, but I finally did last year. He was still pitching in the Mexican Leagues through last season but I wasn't able to find any stats for him this season, so maybe he has finally hung up his spikes after a 20 year career.

Willie Morales #663, 4/9/2000 (2000)

Greg Myers #664, 4/22/2000 (2000-01)

Mark Lewis #665, 4/27/2000 (2000)

Luis Matos #666, 6/19/2000 (2000-06)

It's pretty sad that Matos is probably the second most "notable" Oriole on this list, as his career was largely disappointing. He always seemed to have the potential to take his game to the next level, but just never was able to do so, mainly due to his propensity to get injured and miss games.

He is still actively playing ball, and has been a member of various Mexican League teams over the past five years.

Darren Holmes #667, 6/29/2000 (2000)

Darren pitched in 557 games for eight different teams over his 13 season MLB career, but only five of those games were with the O's during the 2000 season. His Orioles ERA was 25.07, so suffice it to say, things didn't go well for him in Baltimore.

Ivanon Coffie #668, 7/15/2000 (2000)

John Parrish #669, 7/24/2000 (2000-05, 2007)

Parrish pitched in 153 games for the Orioles, mainly out of the bullpen, over parts of 6 seasons, and wrapped up his Orioles career with a 12-12 and 4.52 ERA. Sadly, what I remember most about him is that he grew up in Lancaster, PA which is near my hometown of Carlisle.

Melvin Mora #670, 7/29/2000 (2000-09)

I've featured a few cards, and a bobblehead, of Melmo over my years of writing this blog, but it appears as though I've never written an in-depth post about him. Now isn't the time, nor place, but it's something that I will have to correct in the near future. He was one of Kalina and my favorite players on the Orioles during the mid to late 2000's.

Ryan Kohlmeier #671, 7/29/2000 (2000-01)

Ryan Kohlmeier led the 2000 Orioles team with 13 saves. A stat like that doesn't give me a good feeling about the makeup of the bullpen.

Brook Fordyce #672, 7/30/2000, (2000-03)

Brook was chiefly a back-up catcher during his 10 year MLB career that he spent with five different teams, Just over half (312) of his 623 appearances came during the three and a half seasons he spent in Baltimore, during which time he occasionally was the starter.

Chris Richard #673, 7/31/2000 (2000-02)

Carlos Casimiro #674, 7/31/2000 (2000)

Trenidad Hubbard #675, 8/2/2000 (2000)

Trenidad played for nine different MLB teams over his ten season big league career, so is a true definition of the word, journeyman. He rarely found regular playing time in the Majors, but was obviously a good enough player for so many different teams to take a chance on him.

He appeared in 31 games for the 2000 O's before moving on, and I actually only discovered that he was pictured as an Oriole on this MLB Showdown card earlier this year. Luckily, a fellow collector alerted me to the card's existence right before someone on SCN was holding a signing with Trenidad, so I quickly bought the card, and got it signed and personalized in a span of only a few weeks. That's an open and shut case in my Orioles autograph world.

Leslie Brea #676, 8/13/2000 (2000-01)

Jay Spurgeon #677, 8/15/2000 (2000)

Apparently, I've never scanned my autograph of Jay, and that has me questioning if I even have one, although I'm fairly certain that I do. To be continued on this one...

UPDATE: I found my, and took a picture of, my Spurgeon autograph. We can all rest well now.

Mike Kinkade #678, 8/23/2000 (2000-01)

The highlight of Mike's baseball career was likely being a member of the Gold Medal winning baseball team during the 2000 Olympics. He played parts of six seasons in the Majors from 1998-2003, but rarely received regular playing time.

He was a super utility player and appeared at six different positions, including catcher, during the 2001 season for the O's.

Fernando Lunar #679, 8/29/2000 (2000-02)

Karim Garcia #680, 9/6/2000 (2000, 2004)

Luis Rivera #681, 9/20/2000 (2000)

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.