1984 Orioles Debuts, #386-396

Oh boy, 1984 was not a banner year for new Orioles players. There was pretty much Larry Sheets, and I guess one could mention Nate Snell and Ken Dixon, who both stuck around in Baltimore for a few years, but beyond that, there are quite a few "who's that?" type of players.

I might need to consider starting to cover multiple years in these posts, both to add some meat to them and to bump up the number of pictures. But that's not going to happen today.

Here's the older posts in the series...
(2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987, 1986, 1985)


Wayne Gross #386, 4/2/84 (1984-85)

Tom Underwood #387, 4/7/84 (1984)

Orlando Sanchez #388, 5/20/84 (1984)

Mark Brown #389, 8/9/84 MLB Debut (1984)

John Pacella #390, 9/1/84 (1984)

Vic Rodriguez #391, 9/5/84 MLB Debut (1984)

Ron Jackson #392, 9/7/84 (1984)

Larry Sheets #393, 9/18/84 MLB Debut (1984-89)

Nate Snell #394, 9/20/84 MLB Debut (1984-86)

Jim Traber #395, 9/21/84 MLB Debut (1984, 86, 88-89)

"The Whammer" played in parts of four seasons with the Orioles before moving on the play in Japan and Mexico. He played in 264 games during his time with the O's, and played mostly first base.

Probably the most notable thing that occurred during Jim's playing career is an incident in Japan in which Jim charged the mound and the pitcher retreated all the way to the outfield.

He is currently an Oklahoma City Sports Radio host, and seems to be a bit of a blowhard from some comments I've heard from other collectors.

Ken Dixon #396, 9/22/84 MLB Debut (1984-87)

Can the Orioles Win A Series?

I'm likely a certified idiot for continuing to follow the Orioles "action" so closely in yet another losing season, but I can't be any other way. The O's are an awful team, but they're MY awful team. And with a win against the Twins tonight or tomorrow, they have a chance to win their first series since they took two games from the Reds at Camden Yards way back in late June. That's right everyone, the Birds haven't won a series in two months. You see how I suffer? At the end of that Reds series, the O's were 35-40, only five games under .500, which is my realistic goal for the team every year. They are now 49-77, 28 games below .500 and virtually guaranteed another losing campaign.

To (possibly) send the team some good Mojo to get that series win monkey off their backs, here are some pictures of former O's who have played for the Twins. How can this possibly help the team win? I have no idea, but I'm doing it anyway.

Ray Miller managed the Twins and later the Orioles, but is best remembered for the 20+ seasons he spent at the pitching coach for the O's and Pirates.

I know that this is an Orioles Crown card, but it clearly pictures John wearing a "TC" Twins hat. In fairness, John only appeared in 6 games with the Orioles during the 1984, and I guess that no one with the team brought a camera to any of those games.

 

However, Mark Brown pitched in 9 games for the O's during the '84 season, but was featured in the Crown set wearing at least an Orioles hat. So I guess Mark showed up for picture day but John was absent that day, or something like that. 

Mark isn't a good TTM signer so I'm still trying to track down a copy of his signed Crown card. It actually took me a long time to get any autograph of Mark, so I'm happy to at least have this signed card.

 

To wrap things up, here is Hector Carrasco. He never was featured on an Orioles card either, and he pitched in 40 games for the team in 2003, poor guy. This Twins autographed card replaced this signed Reds card, mainly because the autograph stands out much better on this card. 

Alright O's, let's get the W tonight to get that series win! And then we might be able to dream about a sweep, but I think I'm getting too far ahead of myself.