1993 Orioles Debuts, #524-539

Moving right along with my debut years theme, up today are the new 1993 Orioles players. Here are the past debut years I've featured (2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1995, 1994).

1993 was a mixed bag of Birdland debuts; there were a few veteran players who only spent a season or two in Baltimore as well as eight players who would make their MLB debut appearances for the O's. Harold Baines and Jeffrey Hammonds were the only two players who had a major impact for the team during their time in Baltimore. 

Harold Reynolds #524, 4/5/93 (1993)

Harold Baines #525, 4/5/93 (1993-95, 97-99, 2000)

Fernando Valenzuela #526, 4/9/93 (1993)

Sherman Obando #527, 4/10/93 (1993, 95)

Besides having one of the cooler names in Orioles history, Sherman didn't contribute much to the team in 47 games he played for them over parts of two seasons. But it turns out that he actually had quite a successful career playing in Japan and consistently had good numbers over the six seasons he played there. In fact, for a few seasons he was the second best player in the league behind only Ichiro. 

He continued to play baseball at least part time through the 2008 season, having been a member of Panama's 2006 World Baseball Classic team, 2007 Baseball World Cup squad, and their 2008 Olympic team. Most recently, he served as the first base coach for the Charleston RiverDogs for at least the 2009 season. 

Brad Pennington #528, 4/17/93 (1993-95)

Brad was a very wild pitcher who averaged well over a walk an inning during the parts of five seasons that he spent in the Majors. He also averaged more than a strikeout per inning, which is probably what kept him the big leagues as long as it did, and he wrapped up his career with a 7.02 ERA over 79 games. 

I am a big fan of his autograph however, it's got so much flair to it that it's hard not to like. 

Damon Buford #529, 5/4/93 (1993-95)

Mark Leonard #530, 5/6/93 (1993)

Jamie Moyer #531, 5/20/93 (1993-95)

What can I say about Jamie Moyer that you likely don't already know? Not much, I'm sure. But when the Orioles signed Moyer to a minor league deal earlier this season, I got excited to think that a player could re-play for the Orioles after an almost 20 year break. That would have been amazing, but sadly the O's released Jamie after a three start minor league trial. I hope that he can catch on somewhere because it's not often that you get to see a 49 year old play at baseball's top level.

I'm also a bit surprised that I had never featured Moyer before today. 

Paul Carey #532, 5/25/93 (1993)

Jeffrey Hammonds #533, 6/25/93 (1993-98)

John O'Donoghue (2) #534, 6/27/93 (1993)

This John O'Donoghue (2) is the son of John O'Donoghue(1) who also pitched for the Orioles, and I've conveniently labeled them 1 & 2 for your reading ease.

2 pitched in 11 games for the '93 Orioles. He kindly signed this card for me during his time with the team and as you can see, I was still learning about how Sharpies interacted with glossy cards. Thanks a million Pinnacle!

Mike Oquist #535, 8/14/93 (1993-95)

I know that I have an autograph of Oquist and I have no idea how it's not scanned. I will get on this ASAP.

Mike Pagliarulo #536, 8/16/93 (1993)

Kevin McGehee #537, 8/23/93 (1993)

Lonnie Smith #538, 9/12/93 (1993-94)

Mike Cook #539, 9/29/93 (1993)

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!

Harold Baines O's HOF induction pictures

I apologize for the crappy quality of these pictures but all I had with me was my cell phone so they're better than nothing. And no, this isn't where I sat for the game. I just snuck down there for the ceremony and autographs.



While we knew Harold was going to be around, we were quite surprised to see who he brought along with him.

Cal made an appearance for at least the second time this season.

Kalina was excited to see Chris Hoiles in Birdland

And there is the hero of the day, Mr. Harold Baines in the green dress shirt.
A lot of the former players were excited to talk to Harold & Cal

Watching his montage of highlights and waiting to make his speech

Greeting the crowd and walking toward his podium

Jim Hunter congratulating Harold as Roland Hemond stands by. Harold seemed to really admire and look up to Hemond, even calling him "my second father" or something very close to that.
Nice green jacket Harold, welcome to the OHOF!

Beginning of the B's

Harold Baines (93-95, 97-99, 00)
So with the good news yesterday that he was elected to the O's HOF, it seems fitting that I start posting my "B" autographs today and that HB was leading off (even though he was always more of a middle of the order type hitter). Harold was on the O's during the some of the years that the team was still good, or at least competitive, so I associate him with some good memories. He seemed to always be hitting home runs or hitting in the clutch. I've hoped for years that the O's could find a base-coaching job for him but no luck so far.

Paul Bako (07)
The backup catcher for the 07 season, he was good defensively but not too hot with the stick.
And I don't know how obvious it is to see here, but this is one of those tiny Old Judge cards. I was never a fan of them since they tended to hide amongst my other cards. But I shouldn't hold that against Mr. Bako, he seemed like a good guy.


James Baldwin (05)
Wow, this is an ugly card. There is so much going on that it takes the focus away from the autograph. I think that the creator of Zubaz must have been working for Fleer in the late 90s, but hey, at least all of his information is listed on the front and we're reminded of his name and team twice. Great job Fleer!
Now that I got that out of the way, I do remember getting this signed by James when the White Sox were at Camden Yards sometime in the late 90s. He seemed cool enough, but I think that he was probably disappointed in me for choosing such a nauseating card for him to sign!


Kevin Bass (95)
So I know that I got this card signed at an O's game but I don't remember anything about the experience. Interestingly enough, the Orioles were the last team Baldwin & Bass played for in their careers. And that is quite a mustache in the picture, well done on that Kevin!


Tony Batista (01-03)
What exactly is signed on this card? I think that I have seen a few of his autographs and they all looked like this. Does he have a really long name? Is it an inscription? I have no idea.

Harold Baines elected to O's HOF!

I just heard that Harold Baines was elected to the O's Hall of Fame! Big news since Harold always seemed to be soo clutch during his stints(all 3 of em) in the orange and black. I can't wait to see him back at the Yard this summer. I might try to snag an autograph while I'm at it since the only one I have of him is on a White Sox card. HB!