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)

Orange Uni Autographs

It's a dreary Monday in Birdland as the O's are heading to Tampa riding a four game losing streak and the first series sweep since Buck took over the team.   As the rain continues to fall here in Baltimore, I'm trying to remain optimistic.  My motivation level is pretty low today too, so here's a post I've been sitting on for some time now: a bunch of Orange Uni autographs.

This is a part of my main collection as well as my orange uni autographs.  I got it signed through a private signing sometime earlier this year.

Fellow O's autograph collector Aaron hooked me up with this Aase-some card at an O's game earlier this season.

Up until recently, it had been years since I added a Leo autograph to my collection.  This season he has both been an Orioles Alumni signer on Eutaw Street and has taken over a coaching position with the nearby Aberdeen Ironbirds.

Scott McGregor, what haven't you done in the Orioles organization?  He's as easy an autograph as anyone in Birdland. 

I recently got this card signed through a trade on Sportscollectors.net.  I might have posted about the trade but I can't remember and I'm just lazy enough today to not want to look it up, so here it is, possibly again.

The Beginning (updated with pictures!)

So here I go...

Don Aase (85-88)
What a great last name, how is it supposed to be pronounced? I just always say ass, or ace, one of the two must be correct.


Mike Adamson (67-69)


Manny Alexander (92-96)
For some reason, I always think that Manny was better than he actually was. I think it has something to do with the fact that he was the big prospect during the early 90s, when I was really getting into the O's. He turned out to be a .231 career hitter who managed to smack 15 HRs with 6 teams over 11 MLB seasons. Upon further review, it looks like Manny was out of the bigs for three years from 01-03 and then made an improbable end of career return to the majors to get 73 more at bats over 3 seasons and continue to not hit. At least he stuck with it I guess.


Roberto Alomar (96-98) Auto on Padres card
As good as he was, I will always remember him spitting in the umpire's face. You don't mess with the Roberto!


Brady Anderson (88-01)
Always awesome in centerfield and I think he holds the O's single season HR record with 50. But there's no way he was juicing. None. He was still in great shape at his O's HOF induction a year or two ago and I think he still wants to play. But he mainly seems to "play" at clubs in LA and show up on TMZ.com from time to time.
He was also just a little cocky about his looks, a fact that I'm reminded of by my girlfriend's personalized autographed poster. Brady is only wearing his compression shorts in this poster, and she was a teenager when he gave this to her as a gift assisting his business manager. She keeps the poster in the back of her closet. It's something she likes to have but not to see.


Danny Ardoin (06) Royal Rookies auto
I had no idea who he was when the O's signed him. I found out that his name is pronounced "Ard-wah" And that is pretty much all I know about him. This is what wikipedia says about his time with the O's "He appeared in only five games with Baltimore and recorded one hit in 13 at bats before being released in September." Maybe that's why I don't remember him very well.