Danny Boone follow-up

So Rod who runs Padrographs told me to check out his blog for the whole story on the comically named Daniel Boone. You can check it out here.

To summarize, it seems as though Danny made his MLB debut in the early 80s with the Padres; later playing briefly for the Astros before disappearing from professional baseball for almost ten years. Apparently in the late 80s/early 90s, Mr. Boone had added a knuckleball to his repertoire while pitching for the Bradenton Explorers of the Senior Professional Baseball Association; an organization that I've never heard of until today. The O's signed him, sensing his vast potential. He made it into just 4 games in 1990, including his only ML start, and then faded away again. This has to be one of the most interesting career arcs that I have ever heard of!

Killer B's

Larry Bigbie (01-05)
I always liked Larry when he was an Oriole, he even tossed one of my friends a ball in the front row of the OF stands after making a nice catch to end an inning. He just never really lived up to lofty expectations (he was a first round pick) and is now possibly the biggest pariah to play for the O's. He threw B-Rob under the steroids bus during the messy Mitchell Report investigation and I'm pretty sure has been black-listed by MLB since. The last I heard he was playing in Japan.


Kurt Birkins (06-07)
Kurt was a middle reliever for the O's, and I remember we lost him on waivers to the Rays. I do love these Topps 52 cards though.


Paul Blair (64-76)
Paul is probably the greatest Oriole CF of all time and was known for his tremendous speed. He was on 2 World Series champion clubs, won 8 Gold Gloves and played in 2 All-Star games during his tenure with the Orange and Black. Not too shabby! He is to be at the O's Fan Fest this Saturday so I'm hoping to get a personalized autograph from him.

Bobby Bonilla (95-96) (Auto on Pirates card)
As a Pirates fan growing up, I was psyched when I heard that Bobby Bo was going to be an O! He and Barry Bonds* were part of the Killer B's, hence the name of the post. And since Bonds was so easy to dislike, it made Bobby even more likable to me as a kid. He only played for the O's for a brief time and seemed to be pretty "confident" of his abilities by that point but still, it's hard to hold much against a player that I liked most of my life. Also to get him from the Mets, the Orioles only had to give up Damon Buford and Alex Ochoa.


Dan/Danny Boone (90)
Outside of having probably the funniest/coolest/Coonskin-cap wearingest name of any Orioles player, I know that he only pitched in 4 games for the O's so I feel lucky that he has a card wearing an O's uni and that I have that card signed. He also seems a little old to be a "Rookie Prospect", as he was 36 in 1990.


Rich Bordi (86)
He was a pretty decent reliever for the O's in '86. Another guy I don't remember much about and I'm not sure what to say about. Kind of a funny name in my opinion.