1990 Orioles Debuts, #481-496

So, I decided to venture back to my yearly debut method of posting. It should take me through the off-season fairly well, and if nothing else, presents a fairly straightforward way for me to share my unposted autographs. As a refresher, here are the old posts in this series (2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991).

There weren't any major debuts during the 1990 season, with the two notable new Orioles being David Segui, and Leo Gomez, as well as possibly Sam Horn also being worthy of a shout-out.

From looking at this list, I have to feel that 1990 had to have one of the highest percentage of debuts of players who lasted just a one season or less in Baltimore with 11/16 (69%) of these guys playing appearing in just the single season for the O's.

Sam Horn #481, 4/9/90 (1990-92)

He was a powerful hitter, but was very much in the all or nothing vein, and had issues with strikeouts throughout his eight seasons in the Majors. Mike Flanagan is credited with coining the term "horn" in reference to striking out six times in a game, something only Sam has ever done in the Majors. Here's Flanny's quote: "Well, three strikeouts is a hat trick. Four is a sombrero. Five is a golden sombrero and, from now on, six will be known as 'A Horn.'"

Sam hit 23 homers for the O's during the 1991 season, the only time he eclipsed 20 in a single season in the big leagues. 

Joe Price #482, 4/9/90 (1990)

Jay Aldrich #483, 4/9/90 (1990)

John Mitchell #484, 4/13/90 (1990)

John's professional baseball career was nearly over before it got off the ground as a deep sea fishing expedition went horribly wrong following his rookie season in the minors in 1983. The boat he was on capsized and he survived over 20 hours in the open water by clinging to a bucket. The boat's owner and a fellow player, Anthony Latham, died, while John and another prospect survived the ordeal. John honored Anthony's memory by giving his son the middle name Latham to honor his fallen friend.

Although he appeared in games over four seasons with the Mets before being traded to Baltimore, nearly half of his career appearances came with the Orioles. He only spent the majority of two seasons ('87 with the Mets, and '90 with the O's) in the Majors, so 24 of his 51 appearances were for the O's during his single season in Baltimore.

Marty Brown #485, 4/13/90 (1990)

Brad Komminsk #486, 5/4/90 (1990)

David Segui #487, 5/8/90 MLB Debut (1990-93, 2001-04)

David bookended his 15 season MLB career with four seasons spent in Baltimore at the beginning and end of his time in the Majors. These days, he is mostly remembered for his admitted steroid and HGH abuse.

Greg Walker #488, 6/4/90 (1990)

Donell Nixon #489, 6/20/90 (1990)

Ron Kittle #490, 7/30/90 (1990)

Dave Gallagher #491, 8/2/90 (1990)

Dave played for seven different franchises over his nine years in the Major Leagues. He hit .216 over 23 games for the Orioles in the final months of the 1990 season; the O's had selected him off of waivers from the White Sox and traded him to the Angels after the season ended.

Jeff McKnight #492, 8/8/90 (1990-91)

Anthony Telford #493, 8/19/90 MLB Debut (1990-91, 93)

Anthony began his nine season MLB career with the O's, and appeared in 20 games for the Birds during the parts of three seasons that he spent in Baltimore. He left town with a 3-3 record and a 5.12 ERA, and was out of the Majors for three full seasons before reemerging with the Montreal Expos in 1997.

Dorn Taylor #494, 9/10/90 (1990)

Dan Boone #495, 9/16/90 (1990)

Leo Gomez #496, 9/17/90 MLB Debut (1990-95)

Trade with GCRL

I've been on the receiving end of a few really great trades over the past few days and am excited to show off the newest additions to my collection!

The first trade that came my way is from Jim who writes an awesome Dodger blog called Garvey Cey Russell Lopes which highlights the Dodger's infield of his youth. But who am I kidding, if you are reading my blog, chances are that you've already come across GCRL. But if you haven't, click the link! Jim is truly dedicated to cards and even writes another blog called oh my o-pee-chee which covers, well obviously, o-pee-chee cards and how they are similar to or different from the Topps versions.

Jim sent me a bunch of Orioles cards, some of my set needs from 2009 Heritage and a few amazing custom cards that we he and I had discussed. I'm most excited about the customs, but am going to wait until the end to show them off.

 

Here's a small sampling of the Orioles that he sent my way, including some awesome vintage cards, an oddball Cal card, a few guys who you might have forgotten/never known wore the black and orange, a very skinny pre-roids David Segui, and a few cards from a very cool All-Time Classic set that I've never seen before. I'm pretty sure that's my first George Sisler card. 

  

I wasn't able to narrow my new stack-O-O's down to only nine cards to show off, so here's a few more. There's a really young B-Rob, a '93 Topps Flanny that I've somehow never seen, supercool sidewinder Todd Frohwirth in action, and a few newer B-Rob and Markakis cards that I didn't have in the collection.

And now, here's the highlight of our trade, in my opinion at least:

Jamie Walker's 2007, '08, & '09 Topps cards!

Why is this so exciting? Well, as some of you probably know, Jamie wasn't included in any of those Topps sets and has very few cards considering he pitched 10 seasons in the Majors. It's probably because he was a "replacement" player during Spring Training in 1994, so he isn't in the MLBPA, but so was Kevin Millar and he appeared on many more cards, so it's more likely because the card companies don't like to produce cards of relief pitchers. Jamie pitched in 162 games for the O's from 2007-09, including a league high 81 in '07, so I felt like he deserved an Orioles card. 

A little ways back, Jim asked if anyone was interested in custom cards being made for them, and I quickly submitted Jamie's name to him. Not only was Jamie a key member of the bullpen during my re-immersion in Orioles baseball, but he's also a great TTM signer, so I would like to upgrade my signed Orioles team card to a card of his own. Jim came through in a big way and sent these three customs to me, and let me say, I'm totally blow away! Outside of being on photo paper instead of card stock and lacking the pre-printed signatures, which only get in the way of autographs anyway, you can't even tell that these cards weren't in the set. Jim did an amazing job and I can't wait to send one of these to Jamie, I just don't know which one to send! 

Thank you so much Jim! I really appreciate the cards, and especially your customs. I will hopefully be sending your cards out by the weekend, but I'm afraid I can't match the wow-factor of what you sent my way.